If your car could talk, what would it say?

[TurnipJF 9192]

My wife and I are helping with our young nephew's home-schooling during the Coronapocalypse, and we have found his enthusiasm for Tamiya RC cars to be a good way to keep his attention. Last week as a maths exercise we made a set of Tamiya Top Trumps cards which involved measuring, weighing and calculating different properties of the cars. This morning we have been working on a creative writing exercise wherein we have been asking him to anthropomorphise our cars and conduct imaginary interviews with them, with a view to making a home video featuring a couple of them further down the line. Some of the interviews have been quite fun, so we thought we might post some on here for your entertainment. And should anybody fancy doing something similar, either as home-schooling or just for fun, please post the outcome - it would be interesting to see what other people's cars are thinking. 

These are the questions we have been asking them:

1. Could you please introduce yourself to our panel?
2. Where do you like to drive?
3. Do you enjoy competitions? If so, what kind?
4. If you could meet a famous car from history, who would it be?
5. What is your biggest fear?
6. What sort of things do you find funny?
7. If you could park anywhere in the world for 24 hours, where would it be?
8. Do you have any rivals? If so, who?
9. If you could give one tip to a rookie, what would it be?
10. Why do you want to be in this video?

 

 

Answers – Hotshot

 

1.

Hello. I am a Hotshot – a vintage Tamiya 4WD buggy. Back when those of my ilk were first made, there were no others like us, at least not in mass production. Before we came along, if you wanted a 4WD buggy, you had to make your own, or do without. We changed all that, putting 4WD in the hands of the masses, or at least the wealthier masses. Even rich kids had to spend many months saving their pocket money in order to buy one of us, and then many months more to buy the radio gear, batteries and charger needed to drive us. Poorer kids had to make do with staring longingly at us through shop windows, or looking at our pictures in magazines as there was no Internet back then.

 

2.

I am not too fussy about where I drive. See these big knobbly tyres? I can send my power to all 4 of them at the same time, which helps me to climb over things that would stop a 2WD buggy. And if you look at me side-on, you can see that I hold my belly quite high off the ground. This means I can cross rough ground without hurting myself. I also have a big, wide bumper that sits at an angle, which can help me get up and over things, or push them out of the way.

 

That said, I do like wide, open spaces where I can stretch my legs, figuratively speaking. I may be old, but I still have lots of energy and I can still run quite fast.

 

3.

Back in my youth I used to love competitions. Races used to take place on rough tracks that were usually shared by BMX bicycles, so they often had hard concrete jumps and deeply rutted areas of earth. They were nothing like the tracks that these young buggies race on today, with their fancy Astro Turf surfaces, contoured jumps and indoor venues with heating and cafeterias. Back in my day, racing was only for the tough.

 

However nowadays I prefer more gentle pursuits. A concours competition followed by some gentle non-competitive driving around a marked course is more my style. Such events let me meet up with my friends and rivals from the old days, without the rigours and risks of all-out racing. My motor might still be fit as a fiddle, but my chassis isn’t as tough as it used to be.

 

4.

Why would I want to meet a famous car from history? I am a famous car from history! It is the youngsters who want to meet me, not the other way around!

 

5.

My biggest fear? Back in my day, we had no fear! There was no track too rough, no competitor too fast, no beginner driver too unskilled for us to contend with! But that was back when we were in regular production, and if we damaged anything, it was easy to find replacement parts. If we crashed and broke something, maybe we missed the rest of that day’s racing, but we’d be back in a week’s time, fixed and ready to go again.

 

But nowadays it isn’t so easy to find Hotshot spares. I think my biggest fear is that I’ll break something that is too rare or expensive to replace easily, and I’ll either need to sit on a shelf for ages, injured and sore,  while may owner searches the world for the right spare part, or I’ll have to try one of those newfangled 3D-printed parts. I have friends who have used them, and they say they are fine, but I don’t trust them. They feel different somehow, and I don’t think I would really be “me” anymore if I had a 3D-printed part transplant. 

 

6.

I sometimes think it is funny that ideas come in cycles, yet youngsters often think their latest fad is new and has never been tried before. Take differentials for example. I have a geared differential, but my successors changed over to ball differentials, and for quite a while this was considered the norm for competition buggies. Not long ago, people started using geared differentials in competition again, with them being hailed as the next newest thing. I was using a geared diff back before these young buggies were anything more than ideas in their designers’ minds! Ha!

 

7.

I would probably choose to park in a nice vat of re-plasticising agent – a whitish liquid that looks a bit like milk, that is often used to clean dashboards. My friends tell me that it helps old plastics feel more supple and younger, but you need a good soak for it to work.

 

8.

These days? No, not really. Unless you count the Super Hotshot. Back in the day we were rivals on the track, with me being the original model and him being the rookie a couple of years younger. But now that we are both old designs, the couple of years between our release dates don’t seem to matter anymore in the grand scheme of things. We still sometimes compete in concours events, but it is a friendly sort of competition, nowhere near as intense as off-road racing was back when we were younger.

 

9.

Respect your elders! A lot of the things you youngsters consider new are actually re-hashes of old ideas, possibly with minor updates and improvements, but essentially the same as what us old-timers used to use back when we were young. This means that you can learn from us, and our help and advice are still useful and valid. Sure, you can learn from your own mistakes, but wouldn’t it be better to learn from ours? Then you won’t need to make the same ones all over again!

 

10.

I have never been in a video before, at least not one like this, shot on a phone. Back in my day, phones were big, heavy things with rotary dials that had to be plugged into the wall if you wanted to use them. They weren’t portable, and they certainly didn’t have cameras on them! Back then, many people still shot their home movies on 8mm film and watched them on a projector. If you wanted to record something electronically to be watched on a TV set, you needed a huge and very expensive video camera. This was often so heavy that you couldn’t hold it in one hand, so you had to rest it on your shoulder or use a tripod. And if you wanted to share your movie with a friend, you had to lend them the film or tape. There was no YouTube back then either!

 

 

Answers – Gonzo

 

1.

I’m Gonzo, and I’m a Rising Fighter, and I’m a Tamiya, and I’m a buggy, and I’m blue, and I’m fast, and I can do tricks, and I have spiky tyres, and I like cheese and jellybeans!

 

2.

I like to drive on the grass, and on the sand, and on the gravel, and on the concrete, and on the tarmac, and on the snow, and on the water, except I can’t drive on the water because it is wet, and in the air, and on the moon, or at least I think I’d like to drive on the moon because it is made of cheese and I like cheese, but I haven’t tried it yet because it is very far away up in space and I haven’t worked out how to drive in space yet.

 

3.

I don’t like competitions because they have lots of silly rules like “Don’t drive backwards” and “Don’t do J-turns on the main straight” and “Don’t jump over other cars” and “Don’t try to drive on two wheels” and “Don’t fill your bodyshell with jellybeans” and “The cheese is not for cars” and stuff. I would rather go to the park and do my own thing without shouty people with rulebooks telling me what I can’t do.

 

4.

I didn’t study history, so I don’t know any. But I have heard of a motorbike ridden by a guy called Evil Knievel, except he wasn’t really evil, and neither was his motorbike, but they did lots of stunts, and people told them that they couldn’t do them, but they did them anyway!

 

5.

I’m brave and strong and tough and I’m not scared! Not even of mice, even though they scare elephants!

 

6.

Lots of things! Like driving backwards, and doing J-turns on the main straight, and jumping over other cars, and driving on two wheels, and filling my bodyshell with jellybeans, and eating cheese, and stuff!

 

7.

I wouldn’t want to park in the world, because that would be underground and dirty and dark and I wouldn’t be able to see or drive or do anything fun. I would rather be on the world, so I can see and do stuff!

 

8.

There is nobody else like me, so no, I don’t. Just imagine if there were two of me! That would be very confusing!

 

9.

I have lots of tips – the tips of my rear wing, the tips of my front bumper, the tip of my nose, and each of the screws that hold me together has a tip too, but I am using them all, so I don’t really want to give any away to rookies right now. I’ll let you know if I come across any spare tips anywhere.

 

10.

Video? What video? I thought this was an audition for a Broadway musical about jellybean juggling!

 

[Problemchild 2149]

Most of mine are sad because they don’t get driven but they have all their friends around them to talk to so have a good time when the lights go out in my shed

 

JJ

 

[Mrowka 493]

My car would say "Just find me a normal owner, please!"

[nowinaminute 2815]

Mine would groan "finish meeeeee" and then about 20 other cars would join in and start saying the same thing.

[Badcrumble 4201]

3 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

Mine would groan "finish meeeeee" and then about 20 other cars would join in and start saying the same thing.

I hear that every time I go in the garage. If I go up in the loft there is an eerie chorus of “don’t forget about me....“

[Saito2 6686]

Great fun topic! I'll give it a shot...

Answers - Lunch Box

1. Hi! I'm the Lunch Box. My owner is a nice girl named Vanessa. You can see a pretty nice likeness of her painted on my sides. I come from the the initial 80's monster truck boom. Everybody was getting into monster trucks back then and my manufacturer, Tamiya, was coming out with more than anybody. I was pretty unique back then (still am IMHO) because not only was I a van instead of a typical pickup, but I was also one of the smallest monsters to come out. But it was ok. Trucks like the Clod Buster literally looked down on me from above, but they never "looked down on me" as a truck. That's because they knew even if I was small in size, I was big on FUN. All-in-all, we had a lot of fun back in those care free days. It helped that I was tough. Not much kept me down.

2. Where do I like to drive? Ha! Anywhere! All the time! Yeah, I'm not picky at all. Dirt, mud, pavement, grass, makes no difference to me, I just want to be out soaking up the sun and having a good time with everybody.

3. About the only competition I could conceivably see myself in is a wheelie competition. Honestly, competition in general is too stressful for a care-free fellow like me. Rules and precise handling is a fine pursuit for some, but its just not my thing.

4. Hmmm. I'd probably like to meet my full size "daddy" so to speak, The Rolling Thunder monster van. He's literally my inspiration.

5. I'm not afraid of much. Like I said earlier, I'm tough. Honestly, my axle springs are the first to break, but I really never miss 'em. They're kinda like tonsils anyway, they don't do much and you don't really need 'em. Roll overs don't scare me, goodness knows I do plenty of them but I'm big enough to admit they don't do any favors to my body mounts. Other than that, bring it on! Life's too short to live in fear.

6. I guess I find it funny when more uptight folks get behind my transmitter and try to reel me in and keep me under complete control. I mean, go ahead and try, but honestly, its not in my nature. Sometimes I like to go where I feel and that could be forwards, backwards or sideways (or upside down, lol)

7. The beach. In my earlier days as a lunch delivery van, that was my favorite place to deliver to. The sound of the waves and all the fun sand to play in made for a great day. Sunsets there are beautiful and relaxing after a long day of work and play.

8. Rivals, not really. I mean Wild Willy and Mitsubishi Pajero were getting on in years, so they were happy to pass the wheelie vehicle torch to me and my brother, the Midnight Pumpkin. They taught us a lot and mentored us a bit and I always appreciated that. Great guys. The Blackfoot was always a bit of a tough guy at first. He made some cracks about my smaller size but grew to respect my tough, scrappy attitude. He's really a great guy under that tough exterior. We all stuck together, though we did have a friendly rivalry with those boys from Kyosho. I do remember the Clod Buster always getting challenged by the likes of the Double Dare and the USA-1 though. He won that war.

9. Don't take life too seriously. There's a time to be serious, but in general, try to have fun in life. I've never seen a camber gauge or sailed over a triple on a modern track, and my life isn't any less richer for it. Just go out and have fun and try not to hurt anybody.

10. Video? I don't want to be in any video. I mean, I'm not against it and being a van I was in some interesting movies back in the day, but I'm no movie star. I'll perform my wheelies and stunt's anywhere, anytime, not just on film. 

 

 

 

[TurnipJF 9192]

Excellent!! 

[Killajb 1546]

1. Could you please introduce yourself to our panel?

The name's Billy..  Billy the Blitzer Beetle

1. Where do you like to drive?

Drive?  Pssshhh  please, I prefer the shelf.  I'mean, do you know how many rocks and curbs are out there?  I won't even mention these infamous sign posts I keep hearing about.  I suppose an occasional jaunt in that grassy park under the bridge would be fine..  Y'know, the one down by the river.

1. Do you enjoy competitions? If so, what kind?

I've won the only competition that matters: "My owner's favorite"  (edit: all my cars are spoiled and think they are my favs, don't tell Billy)

1. If you could meet a famous car from history, who would it be?

I'd like the meet a proper Sand Scorcher.  It's like my great-grandfather.

1. What is your biggest fear?

3s on asphalt, bumrash city!

1. What sort of things do you find funny?

I find it funny that other cars in my owner's collection have transmission problems with too much power.

1. If you could park anywhere in the world for 24 hours, where would it be?

Behind that yellow lunchbox three cars down..    

1. Do you have any rivals? If so, who?

Monster Beetle..  but really, only because we share a shell and he's considered more of a "cult-classic" I outperform that guy in every other category.  Why is he next to Vanessa????????

1. If you could give one tip to a rookie, what would it be?

Go for tire foams and get some aftermarket dampers.

1. Why do you want to be in this video?

Let's both be honest here.. you KNOW you want me in a video.

[TurnipJF 9192]

Answers – TT-02 Type S

 

1.

Who, me? I’m nobody – for now. But that will change as soon as I go racing! Then everyone will know my name – once I have thought of one that is. At the moment, I am just known by my manufacturer and chassis designation - Tamiya TT-02 Type S – and sometimes by my bodyshell – Mercedes Benz AMG GT3. When I am famous, I’ll make a name for myself!

 

2.

I am built for flat track driving, so I think I’ll enjoy that, but with racing on hold due to the Coronapocalypse, I don’t really know for sure. I had a little run on the living room carpet, and that was nice, so I think I’ll probably enjoy indoor carpet tracks. We’ll have to wait and see!

 

3.

Hard to say since I haven’t entered one yet. However I know that this is how cars like me make names for themselves, so I hope I enjoy it. It would really suck if I ended up being famous for something that I don’t enjoy doing!

 

4.

The CLK GTR for sure, multiple LeMans winner and probably the best-known Mercedes GT class racer of our age. Yet strangely, although they was dead famous, they never chose a name, preferring to go by that of their sponsors, D2. In a way they remains a car of mystery despite their fame. So much so that I don’t even know if they identifies as a “he” or a “she”, or if they even has a gender at all!

 

5.

My biggest fear is being forgotten. I hear of TT chassis cars being run a few times, before their owners realise that they are right basic, and move onto faster machinery, leaving their TTs forgotten in attics or at the backs of cupboards, never to feel a track beneath their tyres again. That is why I am starting out with all of these carbon fibre and blue alloy bits, see? Each one is a carefully-chosen upgrade that should help me perform really well, and be remembered. No attics or cupboards for me!

 

6.

To be honest, I haven’t really been out very much yet, so most of the funny things I get to hear about are from other more experienced cars. Mind you, when I went for a run on the living room carpet, I saw a cat and it saw me and looked surprised. That was quite funny!

 

7.

Well, if I could go anywhere in the world, it would be to a track, but I wouldn’t want to park, oh no, I’d want to race!

 

8.

Well, given my build, my closest rivals would be Arty, or Arta Garaiya to give him his full name, and my senior team-mate Pete, or Petronas Mercedes SLS GT3 as he is more properly known. Both are experienced GT-class racers, so would compete in the same class as I would, if only there were any events to compete at…

 

9.

Well, seeing as I am a rookie myself, I don’t think I am really in a position to be passing on any tips, at least not yet.

 

10.

In the absence of any racing, maybe I can make a name for myself in showbusiness?

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

"Eh, what's that sonny?  What did you say?  Why are my joints so stiff and my headlights so dim?  Let me tell you about the time I almost made it to the IFMAR off-road world championship back in 1985...  *staring distantly from his shelf*  *presses button*  Nurse, I need my diff changed!"

[TurnipJF 9192]

Answers – Daisytruck (who in our minds sounds much like Daisy Duke from "Dukes of Hazzard")

 

1.

Hi there y’all! I am a Tamiya WT-01 monster truck, but you can call me Daisytruck. I am what you get if you cross a Blackfoot Extreme with a Stadium Raider. As you can surely see, when it comes to my chassis I take after my Pa, when talkin’ about my bodyshell I take after my Mama. I am tall and powerful like him, but tough and flexible like her. Folks tell me that I combine their best attributes!

 

2.

Oh, anywhere really. I have my Pa’s love of the outdoors along with my Mama’s liking for speed, so outdoor open spaces are my favourites. But I also like climbing hills, especially if they have different things on them like rocks and muddy bits. They are lots of fun! And driving inside too, yeah, that is also fun, especially when I pull a cat toy behind me and the kitties chase it. They are so darn cute! And I like some tracks too! The other week I went to a meeting where there was a track, and lots of other cars and trucks were there too, and we drove around as fast as we could, and there were jumps and everything, and some of them crashed, but not hard – they didn’t get hurt or nothin’ – but I didn’t crash, and I made a whole load of new friends!

 

3. 

It depends on the competition really. Sometimes they are fun, like when we see who can jump the furthest, or who can climb a hill the fastest without getting hung up, but others are too serious, like the ones where you have to wear a transponder and go around and around the same track without any jumps or anything. The cars and their drivers take it all very seriously, the cars go very fast, sometimes they crash and get hurt real bad, and at the end they finish back exactly where they started! Some of my friends say it is honourable, and important, and educational and the like, but I don’t see it myself.

 

4.

I would like to meet the orignal Vanessa’s Lunch Box. No, I don’t mean the Tupperware box that Vanessa put her sandwiches in! I mean the monster truck that acted as an entry point to the hobby for a whole load of folks, and went on to be a huge success for Tamiya while also showing the world that girls can drive monster trucks too!

 

5.

Fear? What’s that? I ain’t scared of nothin’! Well, except maybe boxes. But only if they are cramped and small, or full of other stuff. When I came to this here country, I travelled in a box, and it was dark and cold and smelly and I was squashed and jiggled about, and nobody told me where I was going or how long it would take to get there. I don’t want to do that again!

 

6.

Lots of things! Like when a grumpy old car comes along to a meeting, and after driving for a bit it forgets to be grumpy, and forgets that it is old, and just starts to have fun! I like that! And when I pull a toy for the kitties to chase, and they get all excited and try to stalk the toy and pounce on it! They are funny to watch. And sometimes the pranks that I see the two TT Mercedes playing on each other are funny, because they are actually real good friends, so they are careful not to hurt each other’s feelings, so they are funny without being mean.

 

7.

I don’t think I would want to be parked in any one place for a whole 24 hours! Except maybe my shelf spot. I get a nice view from up there, sometimes the cats come to visit me, and I have plenty of friends to talk to. Plus it is a nice comfy place to sleep in between runs. But when I am out, I like to be exploring and driving around, not parked in one spot for very long.

 

8. 

I wouldn’t say I have any rivals, no. I mean there are cars that like the same kinds of things like I do, like my cousin Aqro who likes jumping and going real fast, and my other cousin Big Green who likes climbing things, but we all support each other and are pleased when any one of us succeeds. 

 

9.

Have fun! Race if you want to, or find some other sort of competition that you like, or don’t compete at all – that is fine too. This is a hobby after all – nobody is paying us to do this – so if the way you are doing it isn’t fun, maybe you should be doing it some other way? There are loads of choices, so why not give them all a try and see which is the most fun?

 

10:

Well, it is something different, ain’t it? And I heard that it has got pulling things in it. I’m gooood at pulling things! Yeehah!

[Pablo68 1049]

I think my cars would uniformly say,

SSSHHH! It's that Pablo guy, maybe if we're quiet he won't notice us..... **** he's coming over, Me? No, nononononon! Please don't drive me nooooooooo!!!

Or something like that.

I can't imagine what they think when I'm stripping one of them down.

[Krustybus 214]

I think my Grasshopper would just shout 'arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!' constantly 

[TurnipJF 9192]

Answers – F103

 

1.

Hello. My name is El Cheapo, and I am a Tamiya F103 Formula 1 model racing car. I wear yellow paint with blue decals and I like to run on LiPo batteries. I started my career as a practice car because my parts are cheap and easy to find, but I soon proved myself on the track and earned a promotion to full-time racer. Some people say that I am too basic to race competitively – I like to prove them wrong!

 

2.

My favourite place to drive is a smooth indoor carpet track. I am very low-slung you see, and my belly is very close to the ground. I risk hurting myself if I try to run on anything rough. I also like to show off how well I can hold onto the track surface, and this is best done on carpet where my foam tyres can get maximum grip. It has to be a carpet track mind – my tyres tend to leave marks on the track surface due to the sticky tyre dressing that my driver puts on them, so I would probably get into trouble if I drove on the living room carpet!

 

3.

I love competitions! I like the short sprint races where you try to complete as many laps as you can in a given time, but my absolute favourites are the longer races which are like miniature versions of full-size Formula 1 events, complete with pit-stops, tyre changes, and so on.

 

4.

Ooh, that is a hard one! There are so many famous racing cars that I would like to meet. If I had to pick only one, it would probably be the Brabham BT46B “Fan Car”, which used a large fan cleverly positioned at the back to suck air out from under the chassis, massively increasing downforce. This car was a rebel, and like most rebels in Formula 1, it was banned from racing early in its career. Nonetheless, it was a very clever design, and I would like to meet it one day.

 

5.

My biggest fear would have to be jumps. I really don’t like them. I am designed to stay as close to the track as I can, to grip it tightly and to always be in control. I can’t stand the idea of willingly throwing myself into the air with all four tyres off the ground, not knowing where or how I will land.

 

Some people say “But you have wings! Surely you must like to fly?” But if you look closely, you’ll see my wings are mounted the opposite way up compared to those you would find on an aeroplane, in order to provide me with downforce. My wings are there to keep me on the ground, not to make me fly!

 

6.

Sometimes I find it funny to see cars coming to the track with very fancy and expensive parts which they haven’t practised using, entering a race expecting to win, and then ending up being beaten by cheaper, more basic cars like me. These flashy things with their “carbon fibre this” and “titanium that” don’t realise that practice is the most effective hop-up of all, and that if you don’t practice, no amount of shiny bling will win you a race.

 

7.

I would love to spend 24 hours parked in Monaco during a Formula 1 race meeting with a clear view of the pit area, so that I could watch the entire process that goes into a successful race, from the pre-race setup, through the race itself, to the aftermath.

 

8.

As a racer I have many rivals. For example there is El Minted, a well-resourced F104 V2 Pro Black Edition who lives on the shelf next door to me. There is El Not-so-cheapo who lives next door on the other side, a F103 like me, but he likes to collect hop-ups. There is Precious, a green F104 belonging to a friend of my owner who I often race against. And there is El Wierdo, a Tyrrell with six wheels who lives further down the shelf. Yes, I’m not kidding. Six wheels! Hard to believe, I know. He’s alright though, just a bit odd. I think it is because he is painted blue. Have you noticed how blue paint sometimes sends cars a bit crazy? Take that blue buggy, Gonzo. Out of his tree, that one!

 

“But what about El Queenie?” you may ask? Well, she is a F103 15th Anniversary Special Edition, and although she has every fancy blue alloy and carbon fibre part that an F103 can wear, and would probably be very very fast, she is too rare and special for our owner to risk her on a track, so she stays on the shelf in a managerial capacity - she isn’t a racer, and thus not a rival.

 

9.

If I were to give one tip to a rookie, it would be to get a good set of tyres and practice driving on them. There are loads of shiny things that shops would have you believe are essential for winning, and while some of them are useful, many just look pretty without giving any real-world benefit. A good set of tyres on the other hand, while not pretty or glamorous, can make a huge difference to your performance, easily cancelling out the smaller benefits of alloy and carbon fibre shinies. My favourite tyres are hand-made Italian Ennetti foams, soft at the back, medium at the front.

 

Case in point: I remember once racing against a very expensive Xray F1 with all the latest bits and bobs. His motor alone cost more than my whole chassis. Yet I beat him easily because of my tyres. The ones he chose were totally unsuited to the track, and he spent more time spinning into track barriers than he did actually racing!

 

10.

I would like to be in this video to help show other more basic cars that a lack of bling need not be a barrier to going out and having fun on a track. “But there is no track in the video” you say? Oh dear, I didn’t know that. Maybe I’ll sit this one out then. Let me know if you want someone to appear in a video about carpet track driving!

[Super ally 412]

My car would say why does your other half hate me so much 😂

[Saito2 6686]

The Traxxas Stampede:

1. Hey everybody. I'm the Traxxas Stampede. There sure are a lot of Tamiya guys in here (looks around at the other runners in my collection). Hey,  there's some Kyosho and Associated guys other there...aaannd they aren't going to talk to me either. Well, anyway, I'm actually a pretty long-lived, old design. Been around since the mid-90's. I looked a bit different back then, more like a real truck I suppose. To be 100% honest, I'm a bit insecure. I wound up getting a face lift with a new body and some bling-bling wheels and tires from the factory. Gotta attract the attention of the younger folks! Right? Well, I do feel a bit silly in all this get-up, tribal graphics and all. My owner is gradually taking me in a more tasteful direction. Under all this flash, I'm actually very durable and dependable. Its something younger or more destructive owners like to exploit. Fortunately my current owner (I was adopted, my last owner was a kid who said I wasn't brushless nor big enough to break legs at 50 mph, so he lost interest quick) treats with with some respect, not that I'm afraid of a good, hard run.

2. I drive absolutely everywhere in any weather. No complaints. I'm always ready to go.

3. I don't really compete. I find track barriers too confining. Other Stampedes are kinda into durability competitions it seems. Some of their owners can often be heard exclaiming "hold my beer and watch THIS". "THIS" usually refers to slamming into trees, doing flips, jumping houses and anything else that generally looks painful.

4. The Eleanor Mustang from the first '74 Gone in 60 Seconds. That was a car that could take a lickin' and keep on tickin'!

5. I'm afraid I be left, unused on a shelf. So many folks buy us Stampedes, thrash us to death, and then lose interest. I wish I was still available as a kit...sigh.

6. I like to watch things blow up. I laugh like crazy at stuff like that. I'm still a Stampede after all. High brow comedy is not really my thing.

7. Park? As in sit still? I don't know what that means.

8. A few have tried over the years. The HPI Jumpshot looked like a serious contender at first but a number of thing kept him out of the limelight. Sometimes my 4x4 brother can rival me, but I'm cheap too, so I hold my own. I've been at this for awhile.

9. Squeeze that trigger and never let up? Sorry, that's the Traxxas inside me coming out.

10. I may be old in design but I'm still a bit of a show off. Do these tires make my diff look big?

 

 

[Pablo68 1049]

Actually, thinking a bit further on this, my Hornet would definitely be having an identity crisis of sorts, it's made up of so many different cars n bits now.
Who am I? What am I?
Definite existential crisis territory.

[Blista 1519]

I think my CR01 would say "Spend money on me.  Take me out.  Get dirty with me.  Recharge my battery and then do it all again."