Classroom turned into car meet

Olivia Briggs, Editorial Board Member

Five Senior boys Aiden Medeiros, Justin Sikes, Anthony Lindsay, Christopher Baham, and Jaxon Love have been collecting Hotwheels-customisable miniature cars. They bring these collections to school for a mini car meet, an event where collectors show off their favorite cars.

You walk into your literature class, expecting an extensive lecture on varying characterization techniques-imagine your surprise to see a line of customized sports cars stealing the spotlight instead. This is every day in English teacher Julie Larson’s class.

Five senior boys–Aiden Medeiros, Justin Sikes, Anthony Lindsay, Christopher Baham, and Jaxon Love–have found a loophole in the expensive hobby of car collection: Hotwheels.

“You can collect cars without paying the price for an actual car. Imagine paying 30 grand for one car in a collection, and then having to do that multiple times, instead of $1 per car,” Sikes said.

“It’s also a way to visualize your goals; I wouldn’t drive this hot wheel in real life,” Medeiros said.

As hardcore car lovers and collectors, they’ve taken up this hobby very seriously.

“The longest trip I made [for hotwheels] was a three-hour trip to a place in Oregon. It was a hobby shop that had a bunch,” Medeiros said. “I’m not doing anything else, we’ll just go somewhere and get Hotwheels.”

When they find a cool collectible online, whether it be through the internet or a parking lot, Hotwheels makes it possible to obtain it.

“If you find a car you want, you can just get it in Hotwheels form,” Lindsay said. “Would you rather have one $30,000 car or 30,000 Hotwheels?”

With a normal car, you could drive it to a weekend car meet: a parking lot to show off your car and admire other attendees’ cars. This is why they started bringing them to school.

“Bringing them to school is like a mini car meet,” Mederios said.

The mini car collections have proved effective at satiating the senior’s needs for new cars, and a solution to the expensive hobby that is real cars. However, if Hotwheels collectors aren’t careful, they might defeat the purpose.

“I had to stop looking because I spent $100 in a day…” Medeiros said.