Boys never grow up; their toys just get more expensive. We’ve all heard the phrase. As worn out as it maybe, in many cases it is absolutely true (I know it is for me!). Remote Control (R/C) cars have been steadily increasing in their technologies and in some cases have gotten to be “toys” that can be too advanced for some children.
One sliver of the R/C craze is scale modelling. Modifying or custom building scale vehicle bodies and adding tons of miniature treatments to make them so very close to the real thing, just a bunch smaller. Enter Tom Nesper and his 1/4 scale 1934 Ford Coupe. This isn’t any typical electric R/C car though, or even a typical gas R/C car. This little street rod has a 100% functional mini V8 bolted to the chassis. Nearly completely custom built, Tom has “been building for years [and] basically [had] to make every part.”
The tiny water-cooled V8 runs on Nitro-methane fuel and is completely drivable via the remote and built in electronics. Featuring working headlights, turn signals, brake lights, a quick change rear differential and hydraulic disc brakes, this little car is a spot on representation of a full size hot rod. Tom can even start and stop the engine as well as control all of the other features in the vehicle via the remote.
We found Tom’s rad little creation on Facebook initially. His post currently shows it has been shared more than 49,000 times. Not that hard to imagine considering just how wicked cool it is! We later found the video here on YouTube so we could share it. This one off big-boy-toy is an amazing project.

The quarter scale ’34 Ford is set up on some rear tire rollers so Tom can run the engine through a few paces.