No, not Jock’s genitals. This:
As you will no doubt know, it’s the Mazda 787B which won Le Mans in 1991. Not the real thing obviously, but quite a detailed model.
Underneath the body is a chassis that can be tuned with different springs, suspension components, differentials, gear ratios, wheel sizes and tyre compounds.
The controls for the electric motor can be adjusted via a computer.Top speed is equivalent to 700 km/h. The car includes a chip which uniquely identifies it and will trigger lap times for display on a monitor.
All rather impressive; especially once you realise just how tiny this car is:
Problem is, if you want to whizz about at scale speeds at up to 700 km/h, you need somewhere to do it. A track would be nice, preferably with equipment for capturing and displaying lap and lap time information. Plus a shop selling cars and spares. Something like this:
Would be good to have an area to work on the cars, something like this:
Include a restaurant and bar, and you have a fully equipped indoor radio controlled car racing club. These are quite popular in Japan, but there is only one other such club in the rest of the world and it is in Thailand. In Pattaya. On Thepprasit Road. How could I not visit and take the photos above? The club is called NanoTrax, it is run by a genial American by the name of Q’On and he has rental cars so you can have a go at running your own Le Petit Mans.
In a previous life I played with full size racing cars for a while. When I ran out of money I raced 1/8th scale cars which were almost as expensive to run as the real thing. When I lived in Bangkok I had a small electric car which I used to race in my condo with Tic. We used beer cans to mark the track and the track became ever more complicated, and the driving more erratic, as the evening wore on. Not surprisingly, we broke them regularly (the cars, not the beer cans). But I have never tried driving something as small as this and I had to have a go.
This is how it should be done, something around 9 seconds for a lap:
I struggled to break 14 seconds and most laps were spent assaulting the, thankfully soft, track walls. God knows what mayhem I would cause if I elected to join one of the Sunday evenings races when there are ten or more cars on the track.
Do I need another hobby? The windsurfing, photography, gaming and general dicking around with computers should be enough; plus of course spending quality time with she who must be obeyed. But I am sorely tempted to try and get my lap times below 14 seconds.
Comments 🔗
2009-12-12| Billy saysIf I had known you were so desperate I could have introduced you to my small but perfectly formed Scottish friend.
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2009-12-12| Billy says
2009-12-13| Spike saysThank you for comment number 2 and indeed I have now made the video public.