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My dad had one that was made for auto use.He had it in an old truck.I use to wonder why he didnt just carry a giant Victrola and a bunch of 78's around instead.
Jimmy
 
That is not the 4-track recorder you are thinking of but the Elcassette. Basically a pair of 7" reels encased in a case so rather than threading the tape, you just popped in the cartridge. Performance can equal any regulaf 7" r2r but, they did not go over as alost at the same time the cassette as we think of it came out from Philips and over whelmed the tape market killing r2r, 8-track and the Elcassette formats as units for the general public. It happened so fast RCA, the developer saw it die before the ink was dry on their licensing agreements with other manufacturers. This was in fact the last hooray for RCA as a major in the stereo market.

I mourned its death at the time as it was a no compromise system potentially. Load a cartridge faster than putting on a record and not have to worry about destroying a stylus, kids could use it without having 1800' of tape roll across the floor and though bulky, the prototype auto unit with its auto reverse eliminated the 4 and 8-track limitations as well as the fidelity restrictions of the Philips cassette.

I think there are a few here who have these machines and use them in system.
 
That is neither a 4 track cartridge - as we think of it - nor an Elcaset.

This is the RCA cartridge system, essentially like a big cassette, from the late '50s. 1/4" tape, just like R2R, only in a case, IIRC only 3-3/4. Disappeared rather quickly.

The Elcaset was similar, but from much later. Several manufacturers tried this format in the early '70s, with nothing but a big yawn in response. Panasonic, Sony and TEAC were behind it. I have a friend who has a couple of these.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_tape_cartridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcaset

Happy trails,
Larry B.
 
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As far as I know, Dodge was the only car maker that had the 4 track as an option. Did not know the other formats were available in a car stereo version.
 
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A few summers ago I bought one of these units - The size of the "cassette tape" was comical

I tried to get it working but couldn't - Amp was salvaged and had pretty hefty transfaamas
 
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