History
The Europa Cup race track
The beginning of the Europa Cup race track is linked to a South Bohemia town Trhové Sviny, to a small factory built in 1905 where mechanical toys have been produced among other things since 1938. Here the production of cars with bowden control mechanism started in 1953, under the leadership of the national enterprise IGLA. In 1966, when the factory had already been producing 51 types of toys, preparations for the production of the race track started. Production itself was launched in 1968. The first Czech race track had 74 mm pitch, the track itself was of a grey colour being changed to black later on. The factory was producing all spare parts itself, including the car motors and power supplies. The cars were relatively simple, adjusted to the ring shield of the engine. And yet - or rather therefore - they had certain charm and that is why it is still a joy to listen to the sound of the robust metal gearbox. The racing track was called Champion at that time.
Formula from track called Champion and Ford GT 40.
After several years of production the track was upgraded by manufacturing of completely new injection forms. In particular the pitch enlarged from 74 mm to 90 mm and the width of the track has increased to the current 180 mm. Because of that, the entire product was described as 'Autodráha 90' later on.
Truck and Porsche 911 - that was the "Traffic track" (Dopravní autodráha).
ITES-Gonio Cars
Several types of racing cars were produced between 1970 and 1989, all had a flat 9V motor and once again they were of IGLA/ITES own production, Gonio respectively. It must be acknowledged that the requirements for a simple production, arising from the need to produce hundreds of thousands of series for the entire Eastern Europe, had mostly took the priority and so the product ranked itself in rather a toy than a model category. In addition to the mentioned formula, with large wheels and metal transmission in a plastic chassis, Ford GT 40 was among the first cars on the Czech track, which was launched on the market in the early 1970s. The car had a tin chassis that allowed the adjustment of the wheelbase and guidance on a separate swivelling component, reminding the principle of a floating guidelines. The description 'Ford GT' was taken for a number of service parts - tyres, braids and gears.
Many of ITES/Gonio cars were rather toys than models.
In the following period the manufacturer turned their attention to Formula 1. In 1981 the production of Tyrrell 006 began. In the case of this vehicle it can be considered as a model as the car has the correct proportions despite its simplification. The correct proportion quality of the model is a sufficient basis for the reconstruction; therefore its production will be restored after certain adjustments to the forms are made. In addition to the mentioned models there have been several other cars on the market such as Porsche 911 Turbo and Porsche 917 K, Shadow DN2-1A, Mirage M3, McLaren M8F, Renault RE-20 Turbo, Ligier JS11, Toleman TG 183. Models used two types of chassis and recent series are equipped with Igarashi motors and ferrite magnets.
Autodráha 90
The manufacturer (Gonio company) decided to adapt all forms of the track around 1993. In this period the production and sales of the track were stopped. The central band of the track was removed and the appearance of the track improved greatly. Appearance improved but the correction did not include the adjustment of the edges of separate track parts, where after connecting the parts together visible slants appeared between the two parts (this shortage was eliminated later on in 2003-2004 by MODEL company). Although the manufacturer did not start a production of new cars (and thus clearly intensified the lagging behind the competition) they decided to make a major innovation of the controls. The original button controllers were replaced by hand controllers (in Czech called 'pistol controllers') with flat resistors and the so-called electrical brake function. The new controller provides perfect adjustments to speed and has a robust and ergonomic design ensuring necessary durability and good manageability. It is regrettable that this innovation remained the only one. There was no team that would develop new cars and new accessories, the track was supplied in unappealing packaging and sale was not supported at all. Quite logically a decision to cease production completely was instructed in 2000 in the plant Gonio. At this time the company MODEL entered the scene.
FARO race track
The MODEL company based in Pisen has been interested in the Czech track since its very beginning -and thanks to its founders even much longer. Later on MODEL even represented the Czech Track at some occasions and took on some of the manufacturer's activities (marketing, customer support and development). In 1995 they launched the production of a new car for the Czech track - Favorit Škoda on a scale 1:28. It was the first ever mass-produced model of a Czech car for the Czech racing track. Favorit, under the brand name FARO SRC, saw several modifications and thanks to its reasonable price it was possible to manufacture and sell over 50000 Favorit cars.
Over 50 000 pcs of Favorit car in many modifications were sold.
When the company owners learnt about the intentions of the manufacturer to completely cease the production in 2000, they initiated negotiations on taking up the production. A long-term project called Idea FARO: Czech racing cars on the Czech racing track was presented in 2003. More information about this project will be shown in the section Idea FARO. Realization of this project brought up many difficulties, caused particularly by the lack of financial resources and the necessity to produce several new forms. The production was definitely transferred to a new adapted production area in Pilsen in 2005. The new FARO SRC cars are on a scale 1:32 and their design was set for all the essential requirements: customers expecting a favourable price, a solid driving characteristics and in particular a long service-life and resistance of the chassis and bodywork.
FARO cars have high model and handling qualities.
An additional step is defining the modular system of BASIC SET + BOX that allows the acquisition and construction of any racing track with any car. At the same time with the described changes the split in range in the series occurred and the new catalogue numbers and the correct 'terminology' in the names of the parts and accessories of the track were introduced.
The main objective for the future of the Model-FARO producers is the gradual realization of SRC models of Czech racing cars on a scale 1:32. In the various phases of realization, there are 20 basic types of racing cars from Škoda, Tatra, MTX or private teams specialists.
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