Memories, Tamiya

I don't know about most of you, but I still remember the days when I was madly addicted to my Tamiya car. For those who aren't familiar with this car (I assume most of them are girls), during my much younger days it was the 'in' thing for guys! its a car where we can modify to race with other.




I remember those days where I would save up every little cent I have to buy the latest kit for my car to let it go faster, hug curves better, look better and all the works. I tell you every guy was so crazy about it, we even have our very own tool box! Yah! just like the construction workers! And we are darn proud of it!

Tamiya car 'unmodiffied'

And i tell you, those days, those modification parts are so expensive! It ranges from around RM10-RM30 for some ridiculously small parts which barely cost 50 cents to fabricate! Talk about cheating kids like me! But I still buy them.

Hyper dash 2. During my time, Hyper Dash 1 was the in thing. Without it, your car isn't worthy to compete. Mine has it! I recall paying RM24 for it, surprisingly

Those days, my partner whom I race with was Justin. We were always competing (even up to now la). Normally we would go race our cars on Sunday evenings because every Sunday afternoon, his dad would bring us go swimming. And the only race track in town was in Plaza Ampang City! Yup at the ground floor.

Race track in Ampang City

Notice that on the track, there is this bridge where it links the inner and the outer lane? Well, this is the tricky part. Cars normally fly off here. If your car is too fast without the proper rollers, it'll definitely fly off here and also at the corners.

Modified tamiya cars

There was this one time where I was sitting at the corner of the track. I saw this kid putting his car in, as it turns, it flips and its wheel came off. For 'experienced' tamiya-ers, we know that we have to put bearings before we fit the wheels. Anyway, his bearing flew off (I spotted it was an expensive one) and it landed in front of me. He came searching for it.

Being a naughty kid, I pretended to look for it and then I said I didnt know where was it. He continued searching and finally gave up. Lol so when he wasn't looking, I secretly took it and used it on my car (terrible I tell you).

Check out some of the modified cars








Another basic modification is to replace the original rubber wheels to sponge wheels. Why do change it? Well, the rubber wheels are heavy and have lots of friction whereas the sponge one is very much lighter. I dont remember how I thought of it, but I wanted to cut the sponge wheel into half the width to further improve the performance. Which means, even lighter!

Justin offered to do it for me in the car on the way to the swimming pool. Using a blade, he cut it. But, somehow he accidentally cut his finger. It was quite deep. Blood was oozing out. Remember that we were very young at that time. I dont remember how old exactly. Oliver, if you roughly remember when u started playing, it should be the same as mine also. When ah? Things we do as kids are just so.. weird

I remember my car's model. It was Dyna Storm or something. It was dark blue. Sadly, I must have thrown it away.. I cant seem to find it anywhere. Well, those days are now gone, now im still doing modifications.. on my real car. But things are now in terms of hundreds.. Kids will just be kids