Associated Electrics

Associated Electrics, Incorporated of Lake Forest, California, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of radio controlled cars, trucks and accessories.

The company was founded in 1964 by Roger Curtis and Lee Yurada, technicians at the Douglas Aerophysics Laboratory in nearby El Segundo, California.

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.

[1] The RC100 went on to win the ROAR Nationals in 1976 and the first IFMAR World Championships in 1977, driven by Associated drivers Butch Kroells 1st, Bill Jianis 2nd and Gene Husting took 3rd place.

Roger Curtis's 1984 design of a serious 1:10-scale electric offroad car not only led to explosive growth within the company, but within the world of R/C racing as well.

The success of the RC10 coupled with other cars of the time, namely the RC12LW, the RC10L, RC10LSS and the RC10T kept production going for five years and prompted the necessity of extending their building in Costa Mesa.

Five years after his retirement, the company introduced an entirely new line of offroad racers with the introduction the 1:18 scale electric RC18T and RC18MT miniature trucks.

R&D manager and world-class driver Cliff Lett broke the RC land speed record of more than 111 mph (179 km/h) with a heavily modified Associated RC10L3 touring car at Irwindale Speedway on January 13, 2001.

A modified RC10 with an off-the-shelf Parma International 1963 Chevrolet Corvette body was used in the famous chase scene in the 1988 motion picture, The Dead Pool.

In it, Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry is being pursued through the streets of San Francisco, California by a highly explosive bomb disguised as an RC car.

[2] Thunder Tiger expressed hope that the buyout of Associated would make it the fourth largest RC model merchant in the world, following the three leaders at that time (in order) Tamiya, Kyosho, and Futaba/O.S.