What a week! After getting up to go the airport around 4 in the morning local time in Norway, I flew to Los Angeles with a transfer in London.
While my watch said it was 23.00, I thought it was still very light outside and I need to turn my clocks back 9 hours. I waited up for BZM Gareth who would arrive slightly later so we could go pick up our rental cars. At 16.30 we left Los Angeles to drive to TGN Distributing in Exeter, traffic through LA was a disaster, but after covering ten miles in an hour and a half we finally could test the epic capabilities of my 0.8 litre Nissan and Gareths Dodge. The Nissan kept up fairly well with the big Dodge, and after a visit at Wendy's, where I tried to get sizing up my bodyshape with Gareth we arrived at Mark Hulls crib around 22.30 at night. My biological clock told me it was 7.30 in the morning, so I needed to get some sleep.
Next day we drove to Exeter Hobbies/ TGN Distributing where we were welcomed by a very kind staff. Friendly, hardworking people, most of whom I'd already talked to on the phone at some point in my HemiStorm Products venture. Mark showed us around the freshly opened store, workshop and of course the tenth scale racetrack that opened only a few weeks before our arrival. The building just oozes industrial history, some objects of former industry kept as souvenirs scattered around the shop. Rusted doors and old brick walls make a funky contrast with the state of the art storeshelving, display booths and orderprocessing systems.
After about 3 hours and unpacking my suitcase on a workbench I had my HemiStorm Penta showcars prepped and ready for RCX. I managed to bring 3 Penta shells, the red one I painted for my own ride, a blue one for my buddy Ivo aka Dustmaster from Belgium and a clear one that I would put on display along with my rollcage, all bolted together. Gareth had earlier that morning parked his rental vehicle on the sidewalk, and as he was sweating to get all the BZM engines bolted in the showcars, I went out for a smoke, and then it hit me: Pranktime!
A towshop is located half a block away from Exeter Hobbies, and with the Californian sun warming my skin I strolled over to see if the guys that owned the towtrucks would be in for a joke. I went in and talked to a skinny truckdriver, as big as Gareths arm, and explained that I wanted him to be really rude to the Brit, pretending to be about to tow his truck on city orders etc. Ten bucks lighter and with a huge grin on my face I hurried back to the store and told Mark to join me at the workshop, not explaining much apart from pulling a prank. After about a minute the towtruck appeared in front of the opened door, backing up with the emergency lights on to pull away the shiny white rental Dodge. The driver came out and snarled a few nasty words at Gareth who appeared, hurrying to move his car, after finding there was no steering on the right side of this car he eventually managed to pull away, not hearing us laugh about what we would later explain to him as a prank. Good fun.
http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0218.mp4"]http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0218.mp4
The[/URL] afternoon was filled with driving gokarts, RC tenth scales indoors, a good Mexican lunch and some more indoor track driving. The track in Exeter is quite challenging, has a nice drivers stand and is even accessible for disabled people due to the ramp setup. The racers and hobbyists popping in the shop and testing their setups or refining their skills make for some nice traffic through the store and create a central meeting point for RC enthusiasts in the Exeter/ Visalia region.
http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0259.mp4"]http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0259.mp4
[IMG]http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/IMG_0807.jpg[/IMG[/URL]]
While my watch said it was 23.00, I thought it was still very light outside and I need to turn my clocks back 9 hours. I waited up for BZM Gareth who would arrive slightly later so we could go pick up our rental cars. At 16.30 we left Los Angeles to drive to TGN Distributing in Exeter, traffic through LA was a disaster, but after covering ten miles in an hour and a half we finally could test the epic capabilities of my 0.8 litre Nissan and Gareths Dodge. The Nissan kept up fairly well with the big Dodge, and after a visit at Wendy's, where I tried to get sizing up my bodyshape with Gareth we arrived at Mark Hulls crib around 22.30 at night. My biological clock told me it was 7.30 in the morning, so I needed to get some sleep.
Next day we drove to Exeter Hobbies/ TGN Distributing where we were welcomed by a very kind staff. Friendly, hardworking people, most of whom I'd already talked to on the phone at some point in my HemiStorm Products venture. Mark showed us around the freshly opened store, workshop and of course the tenth scale racetrack that opened only a few weeks before our arrival. The building just oozes industrial history, some objects of former industry kept as souvenirs scattered around the shop. Rusted doors and old brick walls make a funky contrast with the state of the art storeshelving, display booths and orderprocessing systems.
After about 3 hours and unpacking my suitcase on a workbench I had my HemiStorm Penta showcars prepped and ready for RCX. I managed to bring 3 Penta shells, the red one I painted for my own ride, a blue one for my buddy Ivo aka Dustmaster from Belgium and a clear one that I would put on display along with my rollcage, all bolted together. Gareth had earlier that morning parked his rental vehicle on the sidewalk, and as he was sweating to get all the BZM engines bolted in the showcars, I went out for a smoke, and then it hit me: Pranktime!
A towshop is located half a block away from Exeter Hobbies, and with the Californian sun warming my skin I strolled over to see if the guys that owned the towtrucks would be in for a joke. I went in and talked to a skinny truckdriver, as big as Gareths arm, and explained that I wanted him to be really rude to the Brit, pretending to be about to tow his truck on city orders etc. Ten bucks lighter and with a huge grin on my face I hurried back to the store and told Mark to join me at the workshop, not explaining much apart from pulling a prank. After about a minute the towtruck appeared in front of the opened door, backing up with the emergency lights on to pull away the shiny white rental Dodge. The driver came out and snarled a few nasty words at Gareth who appeared, hurrying to move his car, after finding there was no steering on the right side of this car he eventually managed to pull away, not hearing us laugh about what we would later explain to him as a prank. Good fun.
http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0218.mp4"]http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0218.mp4
The[/URL] afternoon was filled with driving gokarts, RC tenth scales indoors, a good Mexican lunch and some more indoor track driving. The track in Exeter is quite challenging, has a nice drivers stand and is even accessible for disabled people due to the ramp setup. The racers and hobbyists popping in the shop and testing their setups or refining their skills make for some nice traffic through the store and create a central meeting point for RC enthusiasts in the Exeter/ Visalia region.
http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0259.mp4"]http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/?action=view¤t=IMG_0259.mp4
[IMG]http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm275/chrisdegraaf/RCX%202012%20HemiStorm%20at%20TGN/IMG_0807.jpg[/IMG[/URL]]
Comment