lately, its really all about the various faces that walk through the door and almost none of them familiar. i’m not sure where all our members went but after Songkran, the shop got quiet and has stayed that way since. i’ve had to re-evaluate our presence in Pattaya and some have suggested a move to Bangkok. the tourist crowd here is here for… let’s say ‘something else’, the locals have limited discretionary income and ex-pats like myself are often distracted with many concerns that eclipse their desire to kick it at a boutique mini R/C shop. nonetheless, i still enjoy the shop and i’ll enjoy it while it lasts… life in Pattaya isn’t exactly normal and an usual place like Nanotrax should probably be in a more ‘normal’ place to attract necessary support but we have some time before a decision must be made about ‘the situation’.
we have visitors from Bangkok and some closer to home who visit occasionally to buy parts and marvel at the biggest tiny R/C shop in the world. they’ve graciously given permission to post their pics on my blog and i don’t want to disappoint them so i’ve posted them just below. Joom’s had much more time to do nails for the ladies who visit, you’ll note its her work – not mine – in those photos. the most notable recent visitor is Greg Degani, 2002 IFMAR Off-Road Buggy World Champion and winner of a recent race meet @ Pattaya RC Powerboat, the location of the 2010 Worlds. he did a few laps with my McLaren (by X-Power) dNano and recorded some nice times considering it was his first run in micro R/C. speaking of the McLaren, we received disappointing news that the current run is the last so if you haven’t ordered one yet, only Yellow remains available and it arrives on Tuesday. the good news is many other items including Mini Z Auto Scale Collection items and optional parts for Mini Z AWD are still available so stop by our online shop for the latest info.
originally, we planned to close the shop today since the last time we changed the layout, it took 8 hours. this was obviously because there were only 2 people (myself & Calvin) who worked to do it and we did it all at once. this time, we had F1R cleared to a bare floor before closing the shop, so the only thing left was to lay down the lining, rocks and clean the floor. Vincent came thru at our normal opening time to help out so we wrapped up everything by 3pm. we opened the shop with a new layout in place and invited members in for ‘practice & beer’ to celebrate. i’m proud of all the work we do here as its more than a ‘normal’ mini-r/c circuit; its a work of art and there’s nothing else like this in the world. i believe our members take pride in that as well and appreciate the opportunity to enjoy this hobby in such a unique place. in the midst of turmoil throughout the world, at least at nanotrax, they can find ‘joy’.
we all took our test runs on ‘Strata’ until closing time, discovering that we’ll have to prepare ourselves for high speed and chaotic collisions that will make our club races very interesting for the next 3 months. i figured it was time for an upgrade to the Mazda 787b, so i threw on some PN Racing ‘Double Star’ Aluminum Wheels and an X-Power ‘Hot’ Motor, just so i can be ready for Olaf in the next club race… he’s outta control! i’ll post pics of the new look soon on the nanotrax micro r/c forum, join us there for more ‘dNaNo discussion’ and more. see ya next time! ;)
i couldn’t wait any longer… this morning, i installed the new “Long Wind” layout on F1R. Erwin & Slim visited today and were both delighted with the fresh circuit. it uses all 32 tiles so its a huge track for dNaNo with lots of long straights and sweeping turns. i thought the column would obstruct vision but its not an issue now that this layout is a reality (as opposed to a drawing). Long Wind is not quite as technical as the previous layout so even beginners should enjoy a run on it. average laps will probably hover around 10-12 seconds with fastest lap coming close to 8. we got a new visitor from Romania on the forum and he says that what i’ve created will be the standard for anyone following in NanoTrax footsteps. feel good feedback… join us in the micro R/C revolution! ;-)
as promised, i’ve produced a video tour of the shop and dropped it on our YouTube Channel. feedback is always appreciated and to give feedback here on our blog, you’ll need to register. once you’ve registered, you can post comments here and participate on our forum (message board). some people have asked why we don’t have a way to buy online? our shop is located in Thailand and there are minimal online sales options for Thai businesses (there is no “Paypal Thailand”). 2nd, our dNaNo sales are currently restricted to Thailand. outside sales could interfere with agreements between Kyosho and other retail outlets. if you want to buy anything from NanoTrax, you have to come to the shop OR send me an email to work out a purchase. if there are items you are interested in, contact me now as i’m currently working out our next shipment from distributors. enjoy the tour, i’ll be back in a couple days with another update.
