Oxford Power Wheels Racing

Kids don’t grow up, their toys just get bigger. That’s especially true of car enthusiasts, including our own Greg Carloss who’s always making us jealous when he goes “Over the Edge” with some seriously cool big boy toys. But this week he’s the one that’s green with envy after hanging out with a tiny toy racer.

GREG CARLOSS: You know, son. Back in my day, our screens were tiny. Our internet was slow and so were our Power Wheels. And you know what? We liked it!

TREVOR TETER: Nice story, grandpa.

GREG CARLOSS: Kids these days…

This young whippersnapper is Trevor Teter, a 6-year-old from Oxford, Pennsylvania, with a toy car collection most can only dream of. Though, it’s not just the cars themselves, but what they do when Trevor mashes that little plastic pedal.

ALEX TETER: So, this all started because I drag raced and we would all be at the track, you know. My son would be with us and he loved seeing all the cars there racing. And he would always ask us, you know, “dad when can I get involved? When can I race?” So, we built him a mini Power Wheel that kind of mimicked my car and that’s kind of what started it all.

GREG CARLOSS: Rippin’ donuts in the driveway is fun, but racing with friends is better. So, Trevor and his dad started Oxford Power Wheels Racing.

ALEX TETER: So, Oxford Power Wheels Racing is a group aimed for kids drag racing. So, we do 60-foot drag racing on a full timing system. So, we have some cars, you know, as slow as 3 mph, we have some cars as fast as almost 30 mph in just 60 feet.

GREG CARLOSS: If you’ve ever driven one of these things as a kid, you know they don’t go this fast out of the box. But an auto mechanic by trade, Alex is able to soup them up for his little speed demon.

ALEX TETER: First thing we do is switch everything over to a thicker gauge wiring. So, we switch it over to 10-gauge. We get the 30-amp breaker out of there and put a 100-amp breaker in there.

GREG CARLOSS: Once the car’s wiring is upgraded, it can run more powerful motors with bigger batteries.

TREVOR TETER: He even puts some drill batteries…two drill batteries or even LiPo.

GREG CARLOSS: What does it sound like?

TREVOR TETER: Loud!

GREG CARLOSS: Loud? Does it sound like a drill or does it sound like a race car?

TREVOR TETER: Race car!

GREG CARLOSS: This may look like play, but Trevor treats it more like a test and tune ahead of the group’s weekend races.

TREVOR TETER: Down’s a 3.31 and up’s a 3.30.

ALEX TETER: We do a lot of events at Cecil County Dragway, we’ve done some events at Maple Grove. So, we’ll usually do a little open testing before the event, and start with first round of the stock class, then we do first round of the modified class and then move on to our outlaw class.

There’re a few certain safety requirements, like a 100-AMP breaker. We recommend having long sleeves and pants, gloves, and then helmets are required for all of the classes.

GREG CARLOSS: Wanting to grow the Power Wheels racing community, the father-son duo took to the internet posting videos of Trevor driving their ever-expanding toy car collection, as well as tutorials for fellow speed seekers.

Word of the Trevor’s Fast Life YouTube channel took off faster than even Trevor himself, gaining almost 30,000 subscribers in one year. He even collaborated with YouTube star Steven Sharer on a video that’s tallied more than 2 million views.

STEPHEN SHARER: Check it out, Sharers. Today I’m here with Trevor and we’re going to be racing my Lamborghini versus the world’s fastest mini-Lamborghini.

GREG CARLOSS: Despite the glitz and the glamor of internet fame, Trevor is still just a boy who likes to go fast and hang out with his dad.

ALEX TETER: It’s a priceless feeling when we go to the track. It’s definitely brought us closer together and I believe it’s brought a lot of the kids closer.

TREVOR TETER: He’s the coolest dad ever.

GREG CARLOSS: Why? What makes him the coolest dad ever?

TREVOR TETER: Because he builds all my Power Wheels.