The history of RC car racing, from the published record.

This section is a history of radio-controlled model car racing: the first cars, the first organised races, the governing bodies that grew around them, the world championships and their classes, and the radios, batteries and motors the sport has used. It is history only. Nothing here teaches how to drive, build or set up a car, and how the sport and its rules work today is in Learn.

How these pages are written

• Disagreements are shown, not settled. The research behind these pages recorded 14 separate points on which sources disagree, from the first commercially sold RC car to the year of the first ROAR Nationals and which race was the first world championship. Each is given both ways, or every way, with who says what. Three points are the exceptions: the venue of the 1985 off-road Worlds, the date of the first ISTC touring car Worlds and the release month of Tamiya's first RC car. For each, the other version was seen only in a search summary and no page giving it was read, so it is left out; the venue is said to rest on Wikipedia alone, and the ISTC date and Tamiya's month on LiveRC's account.
• No first RC car is claimed. No source found for this site settles which radio-controlled car came first. The El-Gi, Mardave, RE-EL and Testors versions are given as accounts, and none is confirmed by a primary document.
• Claims are labelled. Makers' and founders' statements that they were first, such as the first off-road car, the first four-wheel-drive buggy or the first 2.4 GHz system, are given as their claims.
• The source is named in the text. Facts that rest on Wikipedia alone are attributed to Wikipedia. Facts seen only in a search summary of a page that could not be opened are called unconfirmed, with what they rest on.
• Bodies are kept apart. IFMAR's, EFRA's and ROAR's rules and dates are each given as that body's own, and racing rules are never presented as law. Radio law is given by jurisdiction.
• Drivers are named only as results name them. Champions appear as the published record names them, with the source of each result, and drivers with matching names in different results are not assumed to be the same person.
• No money, and no recommendations. No price, fee or prize figure appears, and nothing here recommends a club, track, maker or shop.

The pages in this section

Beginnings

1. The first RC cars: hobbyist builds of the 1960s, the four competing claims to the first commercial RC car (1966 and after), and Tamiya's Porsche 934 of 1976.
2. Early racing and ROAR: ROAR from 1967 and its first Nationals (1968 or 1969), the Associated RC1, 1/12 electric from 1977, Britain's first meeting and the BRCA in 1971, and JMRCA in Japan (1971 or 1974).

The governing bodies

3. IFMAR history: inaugurated in 1979 under Ted Longshaw, its seat in Australia from 1995, no legal entity from 2006 and Belgian non-profit status from 15 October 2018.
4. EFRA and Europe: founded in 1973 or leading racing "since 1976" by its own pages, five or six founding members, its presidents, and its rule changes from 2009 to 2026.

Championships and classes

5. The world championships: Pomona 1977 or Indianapolis 1981 as the first, the first edition in each class, and the 2026 editions.
6. Off-road arrives: the first off-road cars and four-wheel-drive buggies (each a disputed first), the 1985 and 1986 Worlds, the 2WD and 4WD split and electric 1/8 buggies.
7. Touring cars and new classes: Tamiya's 1991 touring car, the first ISTC Worlds (1998, per LiveRC), nitro touring, large scale, GT and drift.

Equipment and a timeline

8. Radio history: 27 MHz channels, the US 75 MHz surface band, the European 40 MHz decision of 2001 and 2.4 GHz from about late 2005.
9. Motors and batteries history: dry cells and NiCd packs, ROAR's LiPo and first brushless approvals in 2008, EFRA lithium-only from 2009, 05 brushless from 2016 and 3.8 V cells from 2017.
10. Timeline: every main date in four tables, from 1954 to the 2026 world championships, each row labelled by area with its source.

What the record does not hold

Some gaps run through the whole section. No primary document was read for any version of the first RC car. No ROAR history page beyond its About page's founding year, no BRCA-published history and no IFMAR results archive listing every first world championship by class was found. The date and place of the first EFRA European Championship, the founding date of FAMAR, and the first years IFMAR allowed LiPo batteries or brushless motors at a world championship were not found. Each page says where its own gaps are.

Related reading

The bodies as they work today are on IFMAR and the blocs, EFRA and ROAR. Current seasons and champions are in Events, today's equipment and its rules are in Equipment, and terms are explained in the glossary.