Is that the OP?
Is that the OP?
Those are called R/C cars, or remote controlled cars. I grew up at the track every weekend around those, both racing and hanging out in the pits. There's currently still a track open in Killeen, but I don't know if any of the others are still going.In all seriousness, there was a track I went to ( I think in San Antonio, but it could have possibly been Ft. Worth,) where people would bring their cars and race them. Not bullshit flat plastic stick together crap, but a huge banked curved track, and.....( I want to say 1:24, but like much of this memory, fuzzy, scale cars.) Anyway , I could jog my memory by looking at model car kits because most were just that.
People would buy a plastic model car kit, throw everything away but the bodies, and put them on custom chassis. It just kinda faded away.
Or....did it? Fast forward many years to where my buddy took me to an indoor RC track. Same concept, really ....except the slots went away, and the cars got much bigger. Here it was all about tweaking your car and driving it strategically . Big dirt track. Spotters strategically located to upright flipped cars around the track.
So, this was pretty serious racing. Cars had transponders to keep track of laps, and I'm sure there were certain rules concerning the cars that I wasn't aware of, but just watching Charlie work between races, and watching cars on the track, I got an idea of what was going on.
Much like football cleats, you had to match your tires to track condition. Next, watching lead cars die a quarter track from finishing while out front, it was also a matter of gearing and driving for battery management. Ideally, you wanted to finish with very little left in the tank to be a contender.