street slam

wylie harris in for 2

This race is for unmodified custom cars?

Sounds like a scam lol

Seems totally legit. NOT.

Sorry, dude, hard pass.

All right, I thought about this for a couple of hours, and decided to give you some advice and criticism on your post, and why people are laughing at you. I’m not going to pull any punches  here just to save your feelings- you’re going to get it hard and straight and right in the teeth, and believe me, you’re not going to like it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you cussed me out for the next year or so. That’s okay, I don’t mind if you want to hate me - you wouldn’t be the first, and probably won’t be the last. But you need to know that the way you phrased your introductory post to the world of diecast racing, people aren’t going to take you seriously. I'm not going to be nice, but I AM going to be honest. Buckle up.

First of all, you’re a rookie. You’ve been here a month. You have no cred. You’re still wet behind the ears: no races entered, no cars built, no NOTHING, period. The closest you’ve come to racing is watching it on YouTube. Right now, what that means is you’re a FAN of racing, a spectator …. that’s all you got, and that’s okay. That’s how like 95% of us got our start. (I started mine during Covid, because there was nothing else to do.)

Now, let’s look at your post. I’m going to break it down into pieces here so we can discuss it more easily.

STREET SLAM

mail in 32 spots as of now no decided format yet

This is a red flag. You’re brand new to the sport, and already you want to host a mail-in race? You want 32 cars, but you don’t even know what kind of format you want to run. Is it going to be a drag race? Open track? Monster rally course? What? Are you going to run two cars together, four cars, eight cars, or just throw all 32 on the track at once and see which ones make it to the bottom? Do you even know what it takes to run a mail-in race, all the behind-the-scenes stuff, like receiving cars, processing, getting everything tagged so you know who sent what car…? My guess is no to all of the above. This is not good.

RESTRICTIONS 

no fte  

no lube 

no wheight adding

must be custom

street racer style only

It sounds like you have a general idea of what you want on the restrictions for the race, BUT again, this doesn’t sound quite right. No Faster Than Ever wheels? Okay. No lube? Possible, but people aren’t going to be happy about it. No added weights? Okay, you want cars at stock weight. Must be street racer style? Okay. Must be custom? What? Wait a minute. If I’m reading your list correctly, you basically want straight-from-the-package stock cars with no other modifications than a different paint job. So that’s literally ALL you want is a street racer car with different paint?

Please send return shipping if you want your car back, $2 entry fee

Okay, that’s reasonable, and most people do send return shipping. A few tracks require entry fees to race, which is also okay.

prizes will be 10 random hotwheels cars and any cars with no return shipping

All right, SO …. this isn’t really bad, but there are a number of people out there who do actually want their cars back. While this isn’t a real problem, this will put off some racers. Racers take pride in building their cars, and spend hours working on them to make sure it’s the best they got before sending it to a track. When you dump 5-6 hours into building a car, you kinda want it back. Most people are not going to willingly forfeit a car, unless it’s for something really special. Prizes are always nice, but for the most part, we just run for bragging rights. Only a few tracks are offering prizes.

also this race might not be recorded for youtube or anywhere else

MAJOR red flag. People send cars to race, but there’s no record of cars being raced. There’s no evidence of cars being raced. This could simply be, “I don’t even have to bother racing any of the cars since I’m not recording them. I’ll just pick out the coolest looking car, declare that one the winner, and then screw everyone because I have their cars and money.” You do NOT want to go down that path. Event organizers have been blacklisted for doing that exact thing and thrown off the site. Word will get around that you are untrustworthy, and to not send you any cars on the future. On top of that, you will be considered a thief and your reputation will be irreversibly ruined. This has happened. This is why I’m telling you this, so you DON’T do it.

Doing a mail-in race takes a LOT of effort that you don’t see onscreen. Most of the people doing the videos have a crew to help out: this person is in charge of the cars, that person is in charge of working the cameras, THAT person does the video editing, THAT person does the commentary….. And after the racing is done, then you have to do all the work of packaging up each individual car and making sure the person who sent it in gets it back. It’s not as easy as it looks.

All right, rant over. I hope all of this helped open your eyes a little into the world of diecast racing. I’m going to mention some other stuff, please take note of it - it will help you along with your newfound racing career.

1. Get some cars. Buy what you want, what catches your eye. Remember that some cars are going to have better wheels than others, and the good wheels may be on a car you don’t like.

2. If you’re going to modify cars, you’re going to need tools. Look in the archives here. There are a LOT of posts regarding what tools you are going to be using on a regular basis.

3. Watch videos on how to modify cars. Plenty of them on YouTube, and here in the archives.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. There is no such thing as a stupid question. The stupidest question is the one you didn’t ask.

5. Learn from your mistakes. You’re going to build a LOT of slow cars at first. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Change what you do with each new car, one thing at a time: new wheels, polished axles, different toes of lube. Use the things that work, discard the changes that don’t.

6. Build up some cred. Build some cars and enter some races. Don't worry if you don't win - you can't win every race, but you can't win if you don't even have a car IN the race. Show up. BE THERE. Show people you're serious about this sport, and that you want to be here.

7. Don't be a jerk. Accept your losses as well as your wins. If you win, great! Thank the people who helped you get to that point - it's an awesome feeling. If you lose, no big deal - there's always the next race. Learn from your losses, and how to make your cars better and faster.

8. Remember that this is a HOBBY, not a business. The people you see making videos are doing this on their own time with NO pay whatsoever except for donations. They are doing it because they love what they’re doing, not because they’re trying to rake in the cash.

Above all, HAVE FUN. Because ultimately, that’s what it’s all about.

So i have learned alot from this post and the comments thank everyone who had good insight and thank you poster because now i know what not to do and what i should do for my first day here im pretty happy to learn somethi in less than an hour of joining hope i can be a good racer when i learn how to swap wheels and paint without my paint job looking like a 5 year old did it.

lame

And he did it! He didn't care, he didn't cancel it, and also he declared himself the winner! What!!! If he either didn't learn ANYTHING from @SpyDude, or just straight up ignored it, I don't know! But I don't know if I can ever trust this guy!

Dude .... no. This ...... this isn't how you do mail-in racing. You don't.... you can't just ......

-sighs-

You know what? Never mind. I'm out. Good luck on your racing career.

And he sent himself two cars which means he would win anyways. Bro

can we get the podium corrected if this  race was not legit?