FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Team Associated RC10 displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

0 Aug. 24, 2017, 12:57 p.m.

Main Photo: FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Team Associated RC10 displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American Hist

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Everybody knows that Friday is meant for reminiscing old times. Each week we take you back in time as we flashback to some of R/C racing's greatest moments, products, drivers, and more!

Flashback: 2015

Team Associated RC10 displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

The original Team Associated RC10 is perhaps the most iconic RC car of all time. Not only did it usher in a new generation of race-inspired electric off-road vehicles (scoring the first-ever ROAR national and IFMAR world championships, as well as a record number of both titles along the way), and get used as a prop in the 1988 Clint Eastwood film The Dead Pool, but two years ago today Team Associated announced that it had been added to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.

The Draper Spark!Lab at the NMAH is a hands-on invention exhibit to encourage children to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.

The Spark!Lab contains different activities for kids to explore, where they’re given the opportunity to create, collaborate and problem-solve.

Tim Pula, the Interpretive Exhibits Coordinator, contacted Team Associated about including the vehicle. According to the press release published by Team Associated, Pula said "I grew up owning RC cars in the late 80s and early 90s. The things I learned while tinkering with those cars has certainly influenced the work I do today. The RC10 will most definitely rouse memories in some of our guests as well." In addition to a boxed example, a fully-assembled RC10 kit was also put up in the museum.

RC enthusiasts best remember Curtis for the RC10 and other vehicles produced by Team Associated during his tenure, his inventive creativity started long before that. He was an engineer for McDonnell-Douglas in the 1960s, where he developed a light-gas gun that could fire a projectile at 20,000 mph; NASA intended to use it to confirm the surface of the moon was suitable for landing.

Curtis met Pula at the unveiling of the RC10 exhibit to celebrate the occasion. Just last week, Pula wrote a blog for the museum's website where he credited his hobby of tinkering with radio-controlled cars for opening up the gateway to his career. You can read it here: invention.si.edu/radio-controlled-cars-were-my-robots