This is one in a series of special 91原创 Advance Times stories about what to expect at this year鈥檚 91原创 Good Times Cruise-In, happening this Saturday, Sept. 7, in Aldergrove. You can also check out this series in our special keepsake edition, which hit the streets on Wednesday and available in limited quantity at the car show.
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They're not quite as big as the other cars in the 91原创 Good Times Cruise-In.
But otherwise, some of them are hard to tell apart. Robin Lawrence, of the West Coast Scale Trail club, has a 1/10th scale vehicle that has real leather seats, for example.
The realistic details can be exacting 鈥� including doors that open and close, and windows that roll up and down. Many vehicles replicate real-world counterparts.
"Toyotas, Chevys, any truck you want, you can get 3D printed these days," he said. Many designs are licensed from the actual car companies.
West Coast Scale will be at this year's Cruise-In, giving kids and adults a chance to drive their smaller-scale trucks around a special course. It's the group's second year at the annual car show.
Lawrence and some fellow radio controlled vehicle enthusiasts started the club during COVID, creating a trail on Crown land in Coquitlam. They carted away trash and raised about $20,000 in donations to fix up the area over the past four years.
There are a lot of things you can do with RC vehicles, but Lawrence and the West Coast Scale group likes to use them as "crawlers." That means getting their small-scale vehicles over rocks, shaky bridges, through puddles and streams.
It's the same sort of thing groups like the Four Wheel Drive Association of B.C., which is partnered with the club, does with their larger vehicles.
"They're the one-to-one scale," Lawrence joked.
At Cruise-In, onlookers will be able to see a variety of RC cars put through their paces, with a setup of ramps and obstacles. West Coast Scale Trail and the RC Pitstop store have come out to a variety of local events, including last year's Cruise-In and to previous RibFest events in 91原创.
Lawrence said that the hobby can get expensive. His current project is in the $8,000 range, and he's now making a diorama for it as well.
A low-end basic vehicle body goes for about $400 to $600, while a hardbody vehicle made out of tougher plastic, with working doors and windows, starts at $800 to $1,500.
Aidan Tan, of Cloverdale's Eight8 RC, was also hoping to come out to the Cruise-In, if possible.
He has a number of RC vehicles, but his pride and joy, a tow truck called Slowpoke, will not be put out on the course during the Cruise-In.
"If it rolled over, I would cry for about a year," Tan said.
Tan has some crawlers, but also focuses on drift RC cars 鈥� sports car-style vehicles set up for speed and racing.
They say that the hobby has boomed since COVID, when people were looking for new hobbies that they could do outdoors or distanced.
In many ways, it's similar to the customizing jobs that are on display in other areas of the Cruise-In.
"It's like doing what the car show is about, at a one-tenth scale," said Lawrence.
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