Associated Electrics
|
Native name
|
Associated Electrics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1964 in Lynwood, California, United States |
| Founders | Roger Curtis Lee Yurada |
| Headquarters | Lake Forest, California, United States |
|
Key people
|
Gene Husting Cliff Lett Mike Reedy |
| Brands | Reedy |
| Parent | Thunder Tiger |
| Website | teamassociated |
The acronym TC5 redirects here. For the American rock band, see The Click Five.
Associated Electrics, Incorporated of Lake Forest, California is one of the world's leading manufacturers of radio controlled cars, trucks and accessories. Associated Electrics is now owned by Thunder Tiger Corporation from Taiwan. The company is usually referred to as Team Associated.
The company was founded in 1964 by Roger Curtis and Lee Yurada, technicians at the Douglas Aerophysics Laboratory in nearby El Segundo, California. Slot cars were at the height of their popularity in Southern California at the time, so Curtis and Yurada decided to open a slot car track as a side business. Their experience in fabricating aircraft parts soon led them into producing slot car parts and accessories. So successful was the venture that it turned into a full-time business which they named Associated Electrics. The new company specialized in the manufacturing of a full line of slot car parts, chassis and accessories.
The business had grown by 1969 and was located in a small building in Paramount. Personal issues arose between Curtis and Yurada, leading Curtis to approach early RC racer Gene Husting in hopes that Husting would buy Yurada's share of Associated. The popularity of slot cars was on the wane, but Husting was certain that radio control would flourish as the technology grew. Almost as if in anticipation of the fact, Associated had just introduced a 1:8-scale gas-powered racer, the RC1. Designed by Mike Morrisey, it soon became the most successful car on the circuit. Husting agreed to the buyout in 1970. Still a small business, Associated had only six employees: Husting, Curtis, Husting's wife Midge, and three others.
In 1971, Associated moved to Santa Ana, California where they began production of the Husting-designed Associated RC1. In 1977, the first IFMAR race at Pomona's Thorp Raceway (later to become the Ranch Pit Stop, temporary home of Team Losi) saw the first five places swept by the RC100.
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