Ridemakerz at Broadway at the Beach
Posted On Friday, February 6, 2009
I have found one of the coolest places to visit. Ridemakerz at Broadway at the Beach, in Myrtle Beach, is a store that lets you build your own remote controlled car. I recently visited the shop with my girlfriend; Casey and her son; Noah. Noah and I built cars and Casey supervised. He plays with his car more than I do but I think I had more fun during the build. I learned about the store and then spent some time on their website; www.ridemakerz.com. It showed some great examples of how others have customized cars and also offered coupons.
We started out by choosing a body for our cars. They offer a large assortment of makes and models. For each body type you also have the option to choose from a few different colors. I went with a red Dodge Viper and Noah chose a black Ford Mustang. Once you’ve made your body selection, they provide a chassis. You can pick from a street or monster setup. Street consists of a race inspired, low profile stance and a monster application lifts the car body. We opted for street and decided to make our cars radio controlled, but there is also a freewheel option.
We were given a mesh bag to hold our two main components while we shopped for the rest of what we needed. The wheels are standard but you get to pick from a great selection of rims to add another personal touch. Noah grabbed a set of dragon rims and I went with a sporty race rim. You can even choose tires with colors in the treads. I felt that I had plenty of color so I stayed with black. But Noah picked red tires to accent his black ride. In the middle of the shop is a station where we assembled our components and got to see our design come to life. It makes you feel like you’re working in a real mechanic’s shop. They have drills that allowed us to bolt the body to the frame and then connect the rims and tires.
With stock vehicles we decided to customize. There is an entire wall of aftermarket items that really make your car stand out. We both grabbed handfuls of parts and brought them back to our bench. I think I tried every possible combination before I was happy with the final product. Noah’s looked good but mine was definitely cooler. My red Viper gained chrome exhaust tips, red underglo lights and a huge intake on the hood. Noah put rocket engines on the sides of his car, skull exhaust tips, a supercharger sticking out of the hood and an additional bumper. I was thankful he went with the bumper because his idea of racing is more like bumper cars.
Overall we all had a great time. The experience made me reminisce about times I spent working on cars at my friend’s shop. I really enjoy working with my hands and this was a nice way to do the same on a much smaller scale. Noah is very intelligent and he excelled when presented with this opportunity to be creative. This was a perfect activity for him; primarily because all boys like cars and he’s pretty good at putting things together. We spent close to two hours in the store. I would recommend spending that much time if you can.
Written By: James Marciano - Owner Representative, Sunset Properties