[alcyon]

I was born in 1976. My first foray into RC was in 1981 when I was 5, seeing one of my dads friends son bring a full function porsche 935 to the house, I really wanted that car. It was those dry cell type supermarket car, but I thought it was awesome.
I got one for my birthday but not long after my nitwit brother dropped a few drops of water in the battery compartment and it was a goner. Never forgive him for that.
1983, my dad was working in borneo, and I chanced upon a RC shop that sold Tamiya stuff, we saw for the first time large buggies, which I think were the rough rider and sand scorcher, my brother used to say these must be the good high end cars cause they were made of metal and had a "straw" antenna, unlike the cheapo ones with steel antenna.
In late 87, I got a birthday present, another toy store le mans car, man I trashed that thing for more than a year till I wore out the gears, I tried fixing it but being 12, my knowledge was very limited. My brother had a digitcon buggy with a 2 speed selector, and also a Toyota celica rally car with headlights, that thing was bitchin, but all AA cells cars.
By 88 my dad was working in Kenya, so we took a trip down there for 2 weeks in 89.
At the airport, my brother and I saw RC Car Action magazine for the 1st time. We pestered our dad to buy it, I think it was the October 89 issue. In it, we learnt about all the brands and models that was hot at the time, Tamiya, yokomo, kyosho. One ad really caught my eye, it was the kyosho optima mid/Turbo Optima Mid SE ad, which was painted half white half yellow. One day in 1990 while cycling by a big grassy field, again with my brother, we saw a tall big guy with curly hair, driving his RC car, it was defininitely hobby grade, it was quick, looked rugged, and it kicked lots of dirt. We talked to that guy, Bryan Param, and thus a friendship started.
I learnt a lot about rc from him. That's when he introduced a friend of his wanting to sell a used Tamiya boomerang for a really cheap price.I bought it in 1990, my first hobby grade RC car. It was a piece of junk as it had a damasged front gearbox and had no body.
Nevertheless I had fun with it.
My brother bought a used Hotshot. We bashed on them good and proper, and a year later we heard there were Optima Mids for sale, one a Custom and the other a SWB.
So i pooled some moeny with my best friend and we shared the custom. My brother bought the SWB. We rigged the tamiya MSC to work in our mids and off we went. It wasnt long later we got ourselves a Novak T4, and started racing the Mid Custom.
First unoofical race was with Boon Chin, a rich kid who used to challenge us with a Nikko Dictator II, but then prompltly bought a Lazer ZX after seeing us with hobby grade cars. You can see our race video which is on youtube. For that race i remember being really worried about losing to Boon Chin as his ZX was the latest car and the Mid was obsolete.
Well my fears were unfounded, as I won that race.
I also shared some money to buy a used good condition egress, but we decided to sell it off as spares were expensive and the Optima Mid was more ubiquitous.
In 1992, i raced my LWB mid in melaka, against the TOP force and Lazer ZXR. Didnt get a really good placing, becuase my batteries were dead lousy, but I had fun.
In late 92, my buddy and i decided to seperate our racing careers and he bought a Top Force. In 1993 we both raced at the Alpha Angle rooftop race, which is the first race to allow touring cars to run. While they looked nice, they seemed like a joke at the time cause they kept overturning compared to the buggies. Nevertheless, an obsolete car won that race, the top 2 places went to SWB mids. We surmised why those drivers chose the SWB mids..was becuase of the tight course.
It was proof that old cars could still compete. I beat my buddy's Top Force, and he wasnt too happy about it. Not long after he discovered Jesus and quit RC becuase he said it was taking his attention away from God.In 1993, Brian convinced me to buy a Lazer ZX since it was loaded with new tech. I bought one for avery cheap price since the ZXR was out now. It came with a few hop ups, like a finned GPM motor plate, ball diffs, and a cut chassis. Man i thought this thing was bitching. I didnt have to fuss with belt covers anymore and the rear belt seem to lastr forever, no problems with stripping gears on my mid because i did not have a proper belt cover.It was also easier to service. I raced it a few times, usually DNF becuase a shock popped off.
It was difficult to maintain my cars in top condition when you have no regular income except pocket money. One of the last race I entered my SWB Mid in was a 1995 mahkota parade Melaka race. It was an onroad buggy race, my futaba magnum Jr glitched a lot, suffice to say I did not get a good placing then.
It was the last buggy raced i entered in before moving on to touring cars in 1997 with a TA02.
In 2001, while still very active with Touring cars with a Kawada SV-10 Alcyon, I attempetd to revive My Lazer ZX one last time while it was in pieces. As i did not have all the proper parts, i put it back together rather shoddily ,and it ran terribly, with the diffs seperating. I then ditched all my Offroads to my store room. Fast forward 2011. I was still into touring cars, but seeing some guys bashing with their 1/10s made me think of buying a new buggy. Then one day i bumped into my Old RC friend Jason Yeo, I remembered this guy was a total nut, he used to keep his Optima Mid Custom Special in a airtight container.
This guy used to apply all kinds of go fast tricks, but he wasnt really a good driver, hence he burned out. I asked him about his Mid, and he said he has it in pieces, he wanted to sell it to me. He brought it ot the track the next week, in a red plastic bag. I rummaged through it and sure enough all the parts neccesary to build a LWB mid was there. When he told me how much he wanted for it, i did not even have to haggle. Between the parts i just bought and my own ammased parts, it is enough to keep my mids running for years to come.
SO this is my story thus far. Its 2014 and I am still pushing my LWB mid to new boundaries, and just started pushing My lazer ZX after a 13 year hiatus.