My dad made me three of these kick-ass cool cars when I was in elementary school, as part of the YMCA Indian Princesses Mini Derby race. They’re carved out of a block of wood and then painted. The idea was to race them down a track, and prizes would be awarded for the winners, and for best design. Of course we always won the second, and usually the first prize, too, because my dad would insert lead weights into the wood block at the center of the car. Other kids had generic blocks of wood on wheels, while I had these awesome real-looking cars. I need to take photos of the other two; one of them is a cool hot wheels crazy car, and the other is an early Indy race car.
Boing Boing recently had a post about some folks who put a webcam on their mini derby car. I’m sure if we had such a thing back when I was a kid, my Dad would have done it. And I still think my cars are cooler, btw.