On Christmas morning I woke to two
reving and snarling dirt throwing rally cars locked in a do or die battle to
find out which driver had the bigger and more metal based set of
testicles.
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A pretty large pair. |
Yep, my lovely wife bought me a slot
car set and I instantly reverted back to when I was five without a single care
in the world. God that felt good!
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Like this one but 200 years newer.. |
The god of Rallying only knows why
I've suddenly deveoped a fascination over slot cars in the last five years - I
never owned a set as a kid and the ones I did get to play had more contact
problems than a third uncle twice removed on the run. But since the age of
around 28 I suddenly decided that I needed a track to call my own, complete
with a couple of cars to fling around all corners and loops. Of course the wiser
side of my brain figured a mortgage would be a better investment and my own
fuel chugging turbo monsters would have to replace the track versions so I
never got round to buying a full set.
I did discover a big box of slot car
odds and ends at the local recycling yard but even when I excited handed over a
fiver for the lot, without a power supply nor any cars, I wouldn't get very far
very quickly. So I sold that to someone with the same hopes and dreams as I and
waited.
Til yesterday that was when I happily
tore into the big box my lovely wife had lovingly wrapped and unleashed my
child like rev head (which is pretty much the same as my current adult
version.) Before you could say 'Wait there's still other presents to open..' I
had the track all set up and ready to race.
Bam - I flew through the loop and
straight off the track and into the hallway. Whoops - my wife hit the other
loop and spun the rally car right under the couch. "Who designed this
f#$%ing track?' I uttered time and time again until I finally learnt to ease
off the throttle mid loop to ensure the turn proceeding the loop exit wouldn't
end in vehicular carnage. Once I figured that out I was happily churning
through the laps, occasionally grunting 'Power!'. That was until my son (two
and half years and loves pushing buttons) took over from my better half and
proceeded to giggle uncontronably as his car went in every direction other than
on the track itself. While I admire his rev headed attitude, having a slot car
set is no fun if all you do is constantly have to return the cars to the
tarmac.
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Dorifto! |
Of course we couldn't sit around all
Christmas day yelling 'Dorifto!' every time we successfully navigated the big
loop and turn combo, we had people to see. Thankfully to my suprise, the
brother in law had also recieved a slot car set for xmas and so with Mario and
Luigi in place of my two Cosworths (I'm guessing that's what they are) and the
addition of a turbo button on the race controllers (the plumber twins are just
too heavy to get around the loop without one) I was in five year old hog heaven
again that day.
A day later and already I'm working
out how to extend the track and really open the set up. Yes I'd love to have
the slot car equivilent of the famed Nurburgring but I doubt neither the wife
nor our Border Collie would be amused having to continually step over my race
world just to get to the couch. One that runs the length of our hallway however
is more than acheivable however and we'd just need the slot car equivilent of a
Lexus SC300 and a Mitsubishi Lancer RX to really make it feel like home.
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Gah! Who cares if it's a SC430, still WANT! |
Why oh why did I wait this long to
get into this hobby?!?
Seasons greetings all!
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