ogdoad
[og-doh-ad]
1. the number eight.
2. a group of eight.
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George examined his competition as he set his vehicle up at
the starting line. Seven other cars,
making it an eight man race. It was a
small time race. Peanuts, really. A mere gateway into a larger world. His opponents were nothing but stepping
stones on his way to the top.
The
problem was, it was like that for all the racers. They all knew this was a minor league affair,
and they all wanted to move on to bigger and better races. Each of the eight competitors viewed the
others as nothing but stepping stones.
Even with that attitude coursing through the racers’ minds, George was
supremely confident.
Just by
looking at the assembled cars, he knew he had an advantage. Only a few of them showed any signs of real
effort in their construction. A few of
them even looked store bought. George’s
car, on the other hand, was almost completely hand made.
He had
spent almost a year constructing the remote controlled car. He had spent hours meticulously building and
assembling every single part of it with his own hands and skills. In fact, the only parts he had not built
himself were the more delicate electronic components of the RC system. And even those were built by people he knew
to be highly skilled at such things. The
only part of the car that had come from a store were the batteries in both the
car and the remote.
And it
wasn’t just the fact that he had built it from the ground up that made him
confident. It was how he made it. The thing was a tiny, remote controlled
beast. It was designed for maximum
power, efficiency, and handling. George
had made sure there wasn’t a single bit of wasted space. Even the parts of it that were empty served a
purpose, making it lighter and giving room for air circulation to keep it from
overheating.
But the
real secret was with the engine. Or
rather, the eight engines. He had
created eight engines that were even smaller than what normally went into an RC
car. Each wheel was hooked up to two of
the micro motors, allowing each to operate in perfectly constructed pairs. Although each individual motor was weaker
than normal, when taken as a whole, it resulted in a machine more powerful than
any other out there. It even allowed for
maneuvers and moves that were beyond other cars.
The
only downside was the eight engine set up was tricky to control, since each
pair needed to be controlled separately for maximum efficiency. George had countered this by spending
countless hours practicing. He had
trained with his creation until his fingers and wrists ached, and then kept
going. Thanks to that amount of
training, and the quality of his car, he knew there was no chance of
losing. He would blow the others out of
the water no question.
When
the race started, George hit the throttle on his remote, and his car sped
forward. As he had predicted, most of
the cars were left in the dust. But, to
his surprise, there were two that were managing to keep pace with his. One was a large, lumbering thing that looked
like it should be in last place. He
guessed it must have had a true monster of a motor to be keeping up with his
own beast.
The
second was a smaller, lighter thing that swerved constantly. Judging by its movement and general shape,
George guessed it was made for the turns and corners, and was swerving to take
advantage of that fact.
The
large vehicle was doing a surprisingly good job of keeping itself in third
place, but the swerver was almost even with George’s car. It was a battle for first place that George
was not ready for. He figured he would
lose ground on the turns, since that was his main opponent’s strong point, but
his car should have gained ground on the far longer straightaways. And yet, in both cases the two remained neck
and neck the entire time.
George
couldn’t make up his mind if that was good or bad. It did mean his car was better at cornering
than anticipated, but it also meant it wasn’t as good at the straights than he
thought. It was either that or his
opponent was better and worse in the same departments than its controller
thought. He also knew it didn’t
matter. All he knew was he needed to
find a way to break the tie between them.
Colliding
with another car was illegal in an RC race, but it wouldn’t have mattered much,
since his car was so light that any impacts wouldn’t do much. But he
did need to do something. He saw his
chance at the final stretch of the course.
It was a long, winding section of the course that lead up to the finish
line.
George
couldn’t win with normal tactics against a cornering specialist, so he opted to
bring out the more unique abilities of his car.
He slowed down one of the front wheels at a time, producing a turn that
may have been much wider, but also was taken much faster. As he adjusted his turns with practiced
efficiency, he found his opponent’s slower but much tighter turns allowed him
to keep up with him, even with George’s special controls and skills.
There
was nothing he could do. The finish line
was too close now to let him put any additional distance between the two of
them. As the two of them crossed the
finish line at the exact same time, he swore under his breath. What he had thought would be a certain
victory had turned into a tie. He knew
he should have been happy, since his car had performed well enough to land him
a first place win, but the fact that it had to be shared left a bad taste in
his mouth. Had he gotten second, he
would have been disappointed, yes, but at least he would have known who the
better racer was. With a tie, such
clarity was missing. The two were
equally skilled, with equally good cars.
For George, that defeated the whole point of a competitive race. It was almost worse than getting second, or
even losing outright.
As he
went to retrieve his car, he vowed to not let that happen again. He would find ways to improve both his car
and his skills. In future races, he made
up his mind that he would never get into a tie ever again.
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Is professional RC car racing even a thing? I mean, I can see people putting this much work into building a tiny toy car for the purposes of racing other tiny toy cars. But they're still remote controlled cars that really aren't meant for such rigorous, high speed use. Maybe I should look it up?
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