One of the earliest Radio Controlled Model cars was a 250LM?

I will take mine down to the Post Office tomorrow and get an approximate cost, that will give us a rough idea. A message to the seller could change his mind re. posting to the USA.

 

Hello again David, further to my last ....Tracked & Signed will be £21 GBP which translates to around $26/$27 (at the moment)

 

Thanks very much, Ron, I appreciate your efforts on my behalf. The shipping price is good and the bidding is still reasonable so far but I am going to pass on this one. The car continues to intrigue me however I am at the age that I am divesting hobby items plus my history search is complete since I have verified the existence of this car and the release date. Auction fever is a strong addiction but my rational side says no.
Thanks again for your generous offer.
Regards,
David

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PS: It was imported in the USA according to this January, 1967 issue of Car Model magazine. Note that we got the 'big block' 275LM version.

 

You are welcome David..It would be interesting to know where in the world it will end up...it’s a limited market with it being that age and that scale I would have thought.

 

El. GI. elgi Ellegi 1/12 Ferrari 250 lm berlinetta remotely controlled Pocher size

Winning bid:
EUR 53.62
Approximately US $58.76

A last second sniper got it very cheap, hope it found a good home!

 

I have one do these have any value I am 64 mow had this when I was 10?
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Ebay in recent months shows selling prices from US$275 boxed in excellent condition to US$58 for one missing parts and transmitter.

 

Score! On Italian eBay, I found the magazine mentioned previously and it is wending its way to The Central Hoosier Flatlands! I tested my plan to scan Italian with my Optical Character Reader, copy and paste into Google translate - Italian to English. It resulted in about 85% readable English so I think I can interpret it from there. Now the long wait for the magazine.

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I have one, does anyone want a photo of the instruction manual?
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Excellent, I did copy the manual, thank you! Does the car run? It appears to be in very good condition.

If you are interested in a summary of all the research that I have done on this car, many details are on this page: https://palmeter.com/rcmodels-history-2/

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I have never tried it because the rear wheels won't turn by hand and I can't figure out the batteries. The manual stipluates 2 9V and 6 '#6' cells?

I'm also looking for more info on a Marcraft Ferrari 308. Supposedly these were sold through Radio Shack in the 70s? I found out they were also available as command prompt toys with buttons on the roof but that's all I know. It does not work.
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By the way I enjoyed reading your web site, you have done a lot of great research.

 

Finally, I scored a running example of the ElGi Ferrari 250LM on eBay tonight! Included with the eBay pictures of the car was this sales receipt. Since the heart of my research has been to determine when the LM was first available, the date on this receipt is of particular interest. The year is clearly 1966 but the day and month are difficult to decipher. Can anyone tell me what the day and month are? Lots more pictures when the car arrives in a week or so, it is coming from New York state to me in the Central Hoosier Flatlands, USA.

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14th October 1966

 

It's here! My very rare, very expensive eBay find arrived in good knick today. It is complete and low miles, I am anxious to get into soon. And thanks to all for your advice and counsel! David


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Now that I have a car, I can answer your question about the batteries - Two 9V, one in the transmitter and one in the car as shown, six "C" cells in the car:

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I would be very interested in knowing if you get it running.

Sorry, I am not familiar with the Marcraft Ferrari 308.

Regards,
David

 

Bump on this one. Has anyone seen any for sale lately?

 

The one I bought in March this year on eBay is missing the windshield wiper and has a broken grille. I have a watch for one on eBay but haven't seen any since March. I am just looking for a junker for parts.
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For those still interested in this search, I have documented RC cars back to 1954, none others are Ferraris, however. Photo shows a rather unusual, but award winning, 1954 home-built car. I don't think battery life was very long when the headlight was on. Details on my continuing search HERE.

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Hello everyone, I have one of these but not in such pristine condition. I had mine at the age of 10 around 1966 and the radio controlled system never worked well!
I would be amazed if any of them worked without fault, although it may have just been mine?
I am an engineer and the motor that drives the steering runs on a worm drive to a quadrant with no home position or end sensors which makes it very random and with added issue of very intermittent radio reaction made it quite poor. It was a first attempt and if anyone has had an Italian car or motor cycle the electrics can be hit or miss. Mine has sat in a box for years and I suspect all the capacitors have leaked and contacts have rusted etc, so would need to invest a lot of time and effort to get it running, probably more than its value.
I would however love for it to be restored and placed in a museum for others as I think it is one of the first?

 

Museum of Speed in Lincoln Neb USA may be interested.

I think it would be better served at a car museum in Italy.

 

Because the history of radio controlled model cars has been so poorly documented, for several years I have researched old magazines, brochures and books and documented what I have found HERE. I have also made major updates to this page Radio-controlled car - Wikipedia.

Because several of the early RC car creators were also well-known in the RC airplane hobby, my research has been greatly helped by the folks at the Academy of Model Aeronautics National Model Aviation Museum. They have an amazing reference library with many general modeler magazines that include early RC car articles and pictures. I hope to convince them to do a display showing the connection between the RC plane and RC car hobbies.

Also, I am a life member of National Auto and Truck Museum in Auburn, Indiana because of my work there, including creating the initial Model & Toy display. If you are interested in your car being put on display in either of these museums, I will be very glad to help and to assure that you receive credit as donor of your 'One Owner' car and that the importance of your car is properly documented.

 

I would be happy for you to buy mine.