The tiny world I drove as a child

 

Looking at it now, it looks like the most ridiculous thing in the world. A gigantic plastic turntable embossed with roads and green blobs, a thin plastic steering wheel that plugged into a garish orange faux dashboard emblazoned with fake controls. A tiny little magnet with a couple of lugs on it, and a plastic arm that the plastic world would sit on top of, like every conspiracy theorist's wet dream of a flat earth. 

This was the "Matchbox Steer 'n' go", advertised all over TV in the late 70s / early 80s, but to me representing something that didn't exist in any other form - the opportunity to take one of my beloved Matchbox (or Corgi, or Majorette or Hot Wheels) cars for a spin. 

I remember my stepdad buying me this for Christmas (he is an awesome stepdad) and I couldn't wait to bolt the thing together, scrounging batteries from my bike lights to go in the thing. 

I turned the ignition key (the "on" switch for this unit) after finding a likely car to take for that first spin - and the Steer 'n' Go erupted into life, making a noise like you'd imagine a large plastic disk being driven by a tiny inefficient electric motor driving plastic cogs would make. A roar, a primal roar completely unlike the engine noise I'd imagine my tiny little Pontiac Firebird would actually have. 

As you can see from the road layout in the header pic, the route could be challenging, trying to drive across the rough ground called for a surprising amount of finesse. Any deviation, and the tiny magnet underneath the unit would detach from the magnet attached to the steering mechanism, and your car would drift to a halt. Game over, for as long as it took you to stick the car back on its magnet at least. 

I was always a car nut, even as a kid - and I remember at the age of 17, taking to the wheel for the first time - and taking a car out solo for the first time after I passed my test (first time! Not so confident I'd be able to do that now!) 

Back then I'd look for any excuse to drive. I drove family to family events, I drove friends' cars, I would drive for fun, or drive to find a new vista on the horizon that I hadn't seen before. 

Nowadays I still drive but the experience is miserable. Everyone wants to be somewhere 5 seconds before they left, no one has any patience, and most drivers are extremely selfish (and often break the law) in the way they drive. I'm currently driving my daughter all over the country for University open days and when I hit a quiet stretch of road with little traffic on it, out there in the countryside somewhere, I suddenly remember what it was like to fall in love with driving as a little kid, tootling around that plastic landscape once more...