We need Hot Wheels tracks in public parks

redlinederby Friday, 1/31/2020
Site manager

I guess I missed this news last week but there's a new record for longest Hot Wheels track. The record was just set not long ago by NASCAR driver Joey Logano but an engineering team in Pennsylvania beat that by a few hundred feet. Bravo, but it gave me a simple idea...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAXsQmF4xTo

We need public race tracks

After watching this, I've decided that when I scratch off that winning lotto ticket and have money to burn, I'm going to buy some land and turn it into a public Hot Wheels race park.

It doesn't have to be fancy, just a nice hill with a permanent track baked right into it - like old Action Park. Make it 8 lanes...12 lanes...whatever, but it's always there ready for play. Just simple fun. And sure, have all the swingsets and stuff there too. Make it a run & jump park, and a race park.

Right now, when I say, "hey kiddo, lets go to the park and play," it means we go and run around throwing the frisbee, or swinging, or going down the slide or whatever. Typical park stuff - and that's fun - but now imagine if that same park had a long downhill track. Sure, we'd still swing and jump but we could also take a bucket full of cars and watch them go.

And in my wonderful world, kids would go there after school to race the cars they just got from Kroger the night before. Racing for pinks and Pokemon cards. And then clubs start to form...and then the adults start a night racing league under the lights. 

And all this just because there's a race track ready and waiting. No assembly or hassle. Just a hill and some fun.

Put them at schools too

And while I'm throwing my money around building public parks, I'll build some tracks at schools too. A permanent track right there on the playground. Kids could race at recess and they could use it for science lessons as well.

It's amazing what fun a slanted piece of construction could bring. Building them wouldn't be very expensive and you could probably even get them donated by a local construction business, "The Smith Bros Construction Race Track at Schiller Park."

So there you go...your idea for local community glory. If you're in with your town government or run a construction company, I challenge you to pitch the idea to your local council. Then go build a perma-track at a park. Some concrete and all-weather plastic is all you need. Keep it simple. Someone please make that happen. You'll be a diecast hero.


Discussion


  • Exactly...it doesn't take much to make it all-weather. — redlinederby
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ChiefWopahoo 1/31/20
2020 Rated Rookie

Let's do this!!!

Although as I look outside right now, it's snowing. 

- Bruno


  • You can race in the snow...just part of the challenge — redlinederby
  • And yeah man, you have the means. No reason there can't be the Autobody Specialists race track at McKinley Field or Wyman Woods. — redlinederby

Don't waste $$$ parks already have track. Ever heard of a slide?


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Mattman213 1/31/20

HA!  My Son LOVES going to the park...and running his cars down the slide.  Thats literally all he does.  He doesnt want to go down the slide, he wants to race his cars down them.  Often I go to the top and roll them down and he spectates and cheers.  We...I mean...HE especially likes the spiral slides and the ones with humps in it so the cars catch some air.

Ide love to see a concrete deal that you could race your cars down, would be super fun to do and could be done in a way that its really interesting to look at as well making it functional public art.

Matt


  • +1 for the public art call out, wasn't even thinking that far. Local school could even paint it or whatever. Doesn't have to be boring at all. — redlinederby
  • In Nashville there is a small park down the street from where I went to College that we all called "Dragon Park" because it had a GIANT concrete and ceramic tile Dragon that was super cool looking and also alot of fun to climb and sit on etc. Could be the same vibe but with functioning car tracks build in! — Mattman213
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redlinederby 1/31/20
Site manager

Slides are the classic, this true, but they're so short! Plus on a busy day the kids that actually want to slide just get in the way. A separate downhill could be much longer and out of the way. I mean, why stop with a 6' slide? Lets have a 25' long hill...or 50'...or all the above!

Some parks around my area have permanent concrete cornhole pitches...just concrete wedges with the hole that are ready to go. All you gotta do is bring your own bean bags. Pretty nifty, I thought. 

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SpyDude 5/17/23

So .... concrete stairs, to go from an upper level to a lower level on the playground? And maybe a wide railing on either side with some parallel grooves pressed into the surface? Is this too ridiculously simple?


  • No, man, you're thinking right...it is that simple. I wasn't even thinking stairs! LOL — redlinederby
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RLoRacing 5/18/23

Something I found on Reddit a month ago 


  • Why can’t we do a double railing like that for dragging? — SpyDude
  • That's wonderful! Nice that someone is thinking about it. — redlinederby
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