My 75 Mph Hobby
I found a new hobby a few weeks ago; I wasn’t looking for one I just stumbled into it or more accurately tripped over it. My sons Nitro racing car.
My new hobby is racing Nitro cars, what’s a nitro car? It’s a remote controlled car with a tiny engine that runs on a mix of Nitro fuel, just like those drag cars that go down the quarter mile at ridiculous speed till a parachute pops out the back.
My nitro car isn’t quite so quick but it feels like it, when you have a model car doing 75MPH it looks unbelievably fast and takes a lot of skill to corner and even driving in a straight line can be tricky. My son’s car took a few tumbles and was nearly squashed by a post office van, the perils of driving on the public highway.
I realized I would probably destroy my son’s car so I bought my own. This wasn’t cheap, these models can cost up to £1100 but I spent a respectable £280 and received a tiny piece of racing magic! A quality piece of kit with incredible detail and the sound of the engine and smell of the burning nitro were fantastic. It took a while to set up and read through the manual but eventually I was ready.
After a few days up and down the road trying to get the hang of the controls I ventured to my nearest race track, not a child in sight, the youngest racer was in his early twenties and it seemed the average age was mid-thirties, so I felt at home.
We swapped stories and checked each other’s cars out and had great fun blasting round the track, I crashed a dozen times at least but luckily the car was built for abuse. Just like any car racing we discussed horsepower and tuning, brakes and exhaust, tires and suspension and which is best for which occasion.
And then I found out that nitro car racing is worldwide and on TV!
Straight away I started daydreaming of Gran Prix wins and huge trophy’s with champagne magnums and beautiful girls, on the podium at the number one spot and cheers from all.
And then reality hit, no way would my wife let me fly to Japan to race a toy car. End of story.
So for now I will just continue tweaking and tuning my engine and hone my driving skills, watch out world!
There are lots of Nitro clubs and forums in the UK and worldwide and online shops as well where you can buy part upgrades and even fuel. Once you start you might find like me that this is an addictive hobby but great if you are a bit of a ‘petrol head’ it might sound expensive at first but compare it to most hobbies and you will find it’s not that bad at all.
You can also spend a lot of money on stamp collecting or any ‘collecting’ hobby and I have a £600 mountain bike that has never seen a mountain.
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