It was late 1985. I’d been poring over Toyworld catalogues, ogling the Tamiya Frog, Hornet and Hotshot. As a 15-year-old motorsports fan, they seemed the nearest thing I could get to a race car at that age.

A couple of weeks later, on a family holiday, all my dreams came true. We stumbled upon a stack of Tamiya cars at the local Kmart, one of which was a Hotshot, on sale at a super-low cost. Pester power won, I convinced by rally-driver father that we must have this in our life, and we walked out with it tucked under my arm.

It was a bundle deal, and we scoped it out before the purchase, so we knew exactly what came in the package: the Hotshot itself, an Acoms Techniplus stick radio, a 1200mah Tamiya NiCD battery, and a trickle charger. Perfect. Everything we needed.

What I didn’t realise at the time, and in fact what I only came to understand many years later, is that there was a whole lot more that came with that Tamiya Hotshot. A whole lot more “in the box” so to speak that wasn’t marked on the package.

It came with a lifetime’s worth of memories. Of different races in different places. Of chasing championships. Of late nights wrenching. Of Saturdays practicing.

It came with the connections that would start as competitors but become firm, lifelong friends. I didn’t realise that my Hotshot kit contained friendships with Grant and Murray and Darren and Steve and Andrew and Chris and Greg and Tony and Matt and Scotty and many, many, many more.

It came with an invitation to get involved in organizing the sport. An invitation to join club committees, and help build racetracks and help organise National Championship events and help start new clubs in new cities. Experiences that have been rewarding beyond measure.

All of that was in the Tamiya package at Kmart that day. I had no idea.

Unknown to me, it came with the opportunity to turn something else I enjoyed, writing, into another part of the hobby. Who knew my Hotshot bundle contained the chance to write for magazines and later social media and turn to video and podcasting and commentating and travelling around Australia and beyond.

All in the box. All amazing. Packed right in there beside the radio and trickle charger and battery, and underneath the oval block tyres.

And best of all, and maybe I only realised again this week how important this was, my Hotshot came with 40 years of father-son-brother relationship right there in the package.

For 40 years, on and off, I’ve been racing with my dad and brother. Dad built that Hotshot, we thrashed it around the street and the park, then discovered organised racing and the rest is history. But that racing together turned out to be an extraordinary contribution to the strength of our relationship as father and son.

In the first instance our partnership was typical: mechanic and annoying kid wanting to drive more. But later we worked together on the car, then added another car so we could both race (and another and another for my brothers, then more for me…you know how it goes). We travelled together, celebrating an occasional win, lamenting the regular losses. He was father, mechanic, coach, counsellor, cheerleader, and even occasionally rival.

We worked together on club committees, dreaming up big races we could run. Then my father started a retail business, Heavy’s Hobbies, trading trackside and then later from a bricks and mortar store. Year’s later he did it again, Action R/C the second generation Guyatt hobby retailer. The shops were 95% dad, 5% me, but still it felt like we got to do this together.

I had no idea that the potential for all of that future was in that first Tamiya Hotshot bundle. Right there under the Tamiya blister pack presentation.

This year it’s 40 years since we started, but also an 80th birthday for my dad. And with huge thanks to the wonderful crew at Chargers RC, we put on an 80th birthday race, the HD80, styled on the 50th birthday race (you guessed it, the HD50) we ran back in 1996. Loads of racers and friends, old and new came out to race vintage cars, laugh together, and wish David a happy birthday and thank him for all he’s contributed to the club and the sport here in Australia. He’s already planted the seed for the HD100 in 2046, so put it in your calendar.

RC racing has given me so much, so many experiences, but best of all it’s given space for Dad and I to be father and son, at so many different ages and stages of life, sharing in something special together.

I know full well how fortunate I am. Not everybody has the good fortune to share in this kind of experience, or with this kind of man as a father. For me though, this week was a reminder of just how much came bundled with that Tamiya Hotshot, and how precious it has been. I wouldn’t change any of it.

Maybe take a closer look inside the first kit you bought and think about what else was in there alongside the shock absorbers and turnbuckles and suspension arms. What kinds of memories and possibilities and potential and relationships and careers were hidden in there between the instruction manual and the sticker sheet. It’s amazing what they pack in without telling any of us.