Loosing Grip – Getting Dressed
When I bought my first drift car, a MST RMX 2.0 kit, I spent a lot of time thinking about what body to dress it with. After all, the body is what you are going to rest your eyes on when you drive it. No matter how fancy and blinged up the guts of the car might be, the body is what you, and everyone else, will see, first and foremost.
With an abundance of bodies, from an abundance of brands, to choose from, I did what I guess most of us would do in this situation. Instead of browsing through hundreds of bodies, I asked myself the obvious question: what would I like to drive in real life? ’Cause isn’t that a big part of what the scale movement in RC is all about? Getting to drive in miniature the vehicles of our dreams.
Drifting is a big thing in Japan, and accordingly there are a more than plenty of Japanese brand bodies to choose from. Toyota 86, Subaru BRZ, Nissan Skyline, Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi Evo and so on. The list goes on and on and I guess it represents both what Japanese men dream of today and what Japanese kids dreamt of twenty and thirty years ago – since those kids will now be the ones who build RC drift kits. But I doubt you can find a single European (or American) male who’s dream car as a kid was a Mazda. Certainly not me. Or a Toyota Previa for that matter, seating seven? Drifting? Really? Well, mine is not to judge, but it sure ain’t my cup of tea.
But then, somewhere out there, there is probably a daddy driving a Previa jammed full with kids, bags and noise to school, sports and BBQ. And when he waits for the green light, I bet he dreams of flooring it, making the tires scream, racing down the straight, going sideways through the next curve and then drifting it to a stop in the car park by the play ground, in a cloud of smoke and burning rubber, to the amazement and stunned silence of a hundred kids. Can’t do it in real life? Well then, go get a RC drift chassis and that 190mm Toyota Previa body and loose yourself in suspended disbelief.
As a kid, I was big into supercars in general and Ferrari in particular. But drifting a Ferrari? Not quite what I had in mind. A Lamborghini Reventon, the one that came in colours that made it look more like a weapon than a sports car, would have been awesome, but a 190mm body is sadly not to be found.
Next to supercars, I love cars that have (somewhat) discreet looks but lots of power. Think Maserati. Or BMW M5. And then we have the cars that both look and behave like beasts. The no frills, no fancy, no excuse and blenty of bravado type of design. Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro would be the most obvious picks in this category. Classic American muscle cars that are impossible not to notice. Drifting one of those? In real life? Not going to happen. In RC? Yeah! Maybe a bit obvious and main stream, but still. Yeah!
So that’s where I ended up. With a 190mm Camaro from KillerbodyRC. I actually would have preferred a Mustang, but all the molded plastic details on the Killerbody shell was what tipped the scales for me. For a starter that is, more bodies will follow.
What makes your eyes get lost in the distance, and prompts you to do discreet engine noises when you think no one is listening? What car would you like to be in when the light turns green? Think of it, buy it in 190 or 200mm, drift it, and let your dream come (almost) true!
Welcome to Loosing Grip, a new weekly segment here on Big Squid RC. Let us know if it’s going in the right direction.
