Auto Hobbies From Infancy To Adulthood

By Randy Burnside

It has often been said that the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. Nowhere is this adage more true than when it comes to auto hobbies. A young boy starts out as a toddler with a plastic pedal car that he can ride on or toys he can push around. Later, he may graduate to putting together models or using remote control models with increasing sophistication. Once he reaches adulthood, the sky is the limit and he is limited only by the size of his bank account, from banger races to Formula One.

Toy cars are available in all sizes and made from different starting materials. Babies play with squidgy, terry-covered cars in the bath. Young boys move on to wooden cars or miniature metal models.

Scale model automobiles come in many different sizes ranging from 1:12 to 1:76. They come preassembled as die cast specimens or as kits in boxes for assembly and decoration by the owner. Relevant stickers and decals are often included in the boxed kit.

Moving up a level are remote- and radio-controlled cars. Remote-controlled cars include those that are attached to a power source by a wire. Radio-controlled cars are manipulated via a radio-frequency linkage.

Just before boys turn to men and hit the open road, they may tinker with go-karts. These are open-wheeled cars with seats that barely clear the ground. Karting kicked off in Southern California in the mid 1950s and has since spread to Europe, where it has become very popular.

At the fully grown-up level are everything from banger races to Formula One race cars and the futuristic-looking beasts of Le Mans. Bangers, or stock cars, are raced unchanged from the condition they were in when they rolled off the assembly line. Race cars, on the other hand, are modified for the purpose of competition at high speed.

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