# Tyco S identifying and replacement tires...



## bambino (Oct 8, 2011)

Hi all,

May you please help me identify these cars?

Is blue one a Corvette? What about red one?

Also, do you know a olace where I can buy replacement tires for them? 

Tires are in very good condition, no broken, but they have no grip at all!! 

I can only find tires for thunderjets but these tyco s have bigger rims

Thanks!!


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

The blue one is a Mako Shark(Custom 'Vette). And the Red Car is a Cheetah, I have a red one just like it, well....yours looks Fabulous compared to mine-LOL ! And you're in luck with the Big Wheel Tyco "S" models, as those rim sizes are the exact same size as the Aurora Hot Rod, Indy car and Truck tires. So you have loads of aftermarket silicone tires to choose from, including Low Profile types, from Places like BallsOutRacing and Weird Jacks.
Now if you starting asking about Pick-up shoes.... ahhhh... stand in line


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

Here's some links to tires that will fit those wheels....

Indy tires from BallsOut

Low Profile Indytires- from BallsOut

Many Silicone tires From JAG Hobbies, scroll down to find Aurora- Hot Rod/Buggy sizes


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

BTW, I was just looking at the 2nd pic of the Cheetah, and noticed your Blue -Mako Shark has one (right rear) Aurora Hot Rod/Indy style wheel, which you'll note is the same size, although it looks quite a bit different.








PS- I love Tyco S cars


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

Here's a nice page on all the different Tyco S cars...
 Tyco S Reference Page


----------



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Thanks to Ralph for the great Tyco S reference page, but his description of the Mako as a"custom Vette" doesn't quite do historical justice to the Makos. 

The Mako Shark and Mako Shark II were official Chevrolet concept cars which inspired the design of the production Corvette Stingray and later model Corvettes. Here is a *page of info* on the cars.

The Cheetah was a Chevrolet-powered racer created by tuner Bill Thomas in the 1960s to compete with Carrol Shelby's Ford-powered Cobra.

-- D


----------



## vaBcHRog (Feb 19, 2003)

Weird Jack makes a nice replica silicone of the TYCO S tires


----------



## bobwoodly (Aug 25, 2008)

vaBcHRog said:


> Weird Jack makes a nice replica silicone of the TYCO S tires


I second that!


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*Oh !*



vaBcHRog said:


> Weird Jack makes a nice replica silicone of the TYCO S tires


 Hmmm... I didn't know that. Thanks for the Heads-up.:thumbsup:
And sorry about Down-playing the Mako Shark history


----------



## bambino (Oct 8, 2011)

Hi all
thanks for your answers
Here Im uploading some more pictures, doing a bit of zoom to tires and rims...
Notice that for the Mako, front and rear rims are different but same diameter. They only differ on looks...

mmh there is some problem with uploading files... will try later...

(more photos uploaded)


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

As Ralph pointed out, the rear rims on your Mako are not Tyco. They are vintage Aurora dimple wheels. Fit hot rods, dune buggies, indy racers, and slim line versions.

The correct rims can be tricky to find in equally good a shape as your nice examples.


----------



## bambino (Oct 8, 2011)

Ok, I appreciate all of you taking your time to answer me. I have read all of the posts and Im impressed how much you know about these cars.

Thanks for the links, Im happy to know there are options for me to keep running these cars.

Im a bit tired after a long office day so need time to go through all of this info.

Kind regards!


----------



## Dslot (Sep 2, 2007)

Bambino,

If you're interested in learning about the actual Cheetahs, there are links to three videos in my post (#18) in *this Hobbytalk thread*. The first video is the best; it has beautiful photography and info on the history of the car.

-- David


----------



## bambino (Oct 8, 2011)

Dslot said:


> Bambino,
> 
> If you're interested in learning about the actual Cheetahs, there are links to three videos in my post (#18) in *this Hobbytalk thread*. The first video is the best; it has beautiful photography and info on the history of the car.
> 
> -- David


Hello

I watched those videos.

Very interesting! I didn't know any about Cheetahs. Why is it they are not as famous as Shelbys? Cheetahs are so gorgeous!!


----------



## ggnagy (Aug 16, 2010)

bambino said:


> Hello
> 
> I watched those videos.
> 
> Very interesting! I didn't know any about Cheetahs. Why is it they are not as famous as Shelbys? Cheetahs are so gorgeous!!



Only about 16 were built. Homoglation rules at the time were that 100, and later 1000 examples had to be built in order for the car to be a "production" car. This meant that instead of being raced against the Cobra, Corvette, Mustang, Jaguar, and street Ferraris, it was running against Coopers, Lolas, Genies, Chapparals, and early McLarens. Technically, they had temperature venting issues, rear suspension issues compounded by the lack of a driveshaft, and poor stopping due to GM only having drum brakes. 

During that period, GM really did not know how to deal with and support sports car racing and was very much paranoid schizophrenic about the auto manufacturers racing ban exactly during the time of Fords "Total Performance" program. The Cheetah program, like the internal Corvette GS, got relatively very little support. The success of the SBC was a happy coincidence fueled by aftermarket development and support. Even then, GM support was very much low key and under the table.


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*My Cheetah*

On/Off Topic.... Well I was tuning and Racing my Tyco S Cheetah- Hard the other day, and she was running GREAT ! And I was really bouncing her off the rev limiter(so to speak- lol). Anyway, I rode her hard and put her away wet. And yesterday I took her out again to run some laps, and after I put her on the track and applied some power, POOF ! She let the smoke out  DAMN ! She stalled and just smoked when power was applied, grrrr.
Anyway, I opened her up and yanked the can motor, took out the brushes which looked fine although oily, cleaned the brushes and the comm, inspected the arm and found no apparent damage, then put her back together. Applied power while holding the bare chassis, and man the can metal got hot, a few sputters of rpm and then more Smoke came out.... Dang ! Oh well.... Back to my Pancake cars, my Tyco S Cheetah is now a shelf Queen.:dude:


----------

