Work On Your Car
Here’s the suggestion that simultaneously ranks as the most likely and least likely thing a stir-crazy auto enthusiast might do. We love tinkering with our cars, yet somehow we never quite manage to make it into the garage. Chalk it up to all the car movies, or the games, or the internet, but with a bit more time at home, this could be the perfect opportunity to attack that leaking valve cover gasket. Or hey, finally finish the LS swap you’ve been bragging about for the last two years.
Take Virtual Tours Of Car Museums
Did you know there are numerous auto museums you can “tour” online? Thanks to Google Maps you can take a virtual reality trip to museums around the world, from the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart to Mazda’s museum in Japan, and the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky USA. We already have a list of 15 such museums you can visit right now in a post from March 18.
Clean Your Car
If working on your car sounds a bit too exhausting, you can at least give it a good clean. We aren’t talking about a wash and some silicone spray – get the clay bar and orbital polisher out of the cabinet and go to town. And since we’re dealing with a pandemic, don’t forget about cleaning up the interior, too. Just go easy on the soap, and for crying out loud, stay away from the power washer. You want a clean car, not a rolling ad for laundry detergent.
Build A Model Car
Once upon a time, building plastic car models was a rite-of-passage for car-crazy kids. A few of us at Motor1.com still embrace the hobby, and there’s never been a better time to build a detailed mini-version of your dream machine. Bust open those old kits sitting in the closet and bash away, or you could order something new and have it delivered. It probably won’t be as pristine as the diecast gems from Amalgam Collection, but it will be uniquely yours.
Here are a few of our plastic model favorites:
Get Your Game On With A Sim Racing Setup
There’s never been a better time to be a gamer. In fact, modern racing games are so good, it’s a disservice to call most of them games. For under $1,000 you can have a nice PC or game console with a force-feedback steering wheel, a six-speed shifter with a clutch, and a litany of racing titles to choose from. Play it casual or get involved in legitimate (and competitive) online action – sim racing doesn’t fully replace the sounds, smells, and experience of actually being on a track, but you’ll still be grinning when you shave a tenth of a second off your lap time.
Watch Esports Racing
So, you don’t have a game console or high-performance PC and you aren’t interested in playing games. Here’s the thing – many modern games aren’t games at all. With stunning graphics, real-world tracks recreated in extraordinary detail, complex algorithms generating lifelike physics, and input devices giving drivers accurate control, the racing world of Esports is extraordinarily exciting to simply watch. Motorsport Games has partnered with Jean Eric Vergne and Veloce Esports to broadcast a series of sim races dubbed #NotTheGP, and the action is quite engaging. You can catch the streaming action on Motorsport.tv.
Watch Car Movies
No doubt you’ve already considered this option to pass the time. But have you really considered just how many car movies are out there? You could get up-to-speed with recent flics like Ford V Ferrari, Baby Driver, or spend days simply binge-watching the Fast and Furious saga.
But what about classics like Smokey and the Bandit, The Cannonball Run, Mad Max, or American Graffiti? If you’ve already been there and done that, don’t overlook lesser-known (and perhaps campy) gems like The Wraith or Need for Speed. We have lists for the best and worst car movies, so if you think you’ve seen them all, we bet a million bucks there’s something you’re missing.
Read A Book
Sure, you could watch The Cannonball Run, or you could read about the five actual Cannonball Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash events in the 1970s that inspired the movie. Cannonball: World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race by legendary auto journalist Brock Yates is but one of many auto-based literary titles to choose from, outside of stellar Motor1.com content of course. Here are a few more suggestions:
Create Automotive Art
Automotive art takes many forms. Admittedly, your author absolutely adores his vintage early ‘80s Little Van Goes etching kit. Maybe try your hand at drawing cars, or painting auto scenes on canvas. Open up Photoshop and digitally enhance pictures you’ve taken at car shows. Or perhaps you pull all those used brake rotors out of the shed and weld them together to create some weird alien statue. Point being, art is abstract, so give your mind some creative liberty. You might be surprised by just how satisfying it is.
Build A Lego Car (Or Truck)
Just like plastic models, Lego is a creative exercise born in the adolescent mind that endures brightly through adulthood. So go ahead, click those bricks together. Don’t let that Technic kit sit in a dark closet, or better yet, get a bunch of kits, mix the bricks, and create something entirely new. Who knows, you might end up with a lifesize Chevy pickup when all is said and done.
Check out these Lego favorites from the Motor1.com team:
Configure Your Dream Car
Sad that you don’t have your dream car in the garage? Jump onto the internet, pull up your choice automaker, and see if there’s an online configurator you can tinker with. This is actually something of a pastime at Motor1.com when new models become available. Sometimes the options are few and far between, or you can end up with a snazzy Corvette costing way more than Chevy's advertised base price of less than $60,000. Hey, it's only not-real money, right?
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