Launch Control

I got a chance to actually drive my car a week ago. I promptly received the flu, forestalling me writing about it or doing much of anything else. I've wanted to take Apollo out where I can drive with a bit of wild abandon without endangering myself or another, and autocross is a pretty easy way to start out without the risk of damaging my car or forestalling my burgeoning & profitable professional track career.

In an autocross race you navigate a course of traffic cones (somewhere around 40-75 seconds in length, depending on how fast you're traveling and the course design) for time, with cars going through the course staggered so that cones can be replaced if they're knocked over. Two seconds get added to your time if you knock a cone out of the 'box' or tip it over, so you can't just barrel through the course. I gotta wonder what hurdling would be like if it worked this way rather than on the 'good faith' principle...David Oliver would have a rough time of it.

It sounds pretty simple, I guess. I have to admit that I'm a person of habit and doing something new is not necessarily easy for me, even something I've wanted to do for as long as this. Plus, while it doesn't look particularly that fast, MAN. It is a whole different world inside the car. I get decently nervous before track races, and while this is a different sort of track - same rules applied. I was shaking before and after the first two or three runs...(though some of that could have been the cold).

In case you've never heard of or been to an autocross, here's two videos that will, combined, explain it a bit better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BzqQ8mE77U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF6ZRA6oFys

One for each part of what it feels like to drive a car really fast: on one hand, it is fucking scary. On the other hand, it is fucking awesome.

One of the guys at the event posted a huge crapton of pictures over on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nowin/sets/72157625145359178/ Good thing! There were a lot of really awesome and not-too-often seen cars at the meet. Can you call an autocross a meet? I don't know, but I'm doing it. We'll see how the authorities respond in kind.

Somewhere in all those pictures is a Lotus Europa, two Elises, a heap of Corvettes, a Triumph Spitfire, a small army of Miatas, and some very scary homebrewed non-street-legal cars. There was also a Volvo C30 that I'm fairly certain wasn't driven by Kevin, as it did have an orange front bumper and racing stripes. But whoever the owner was proceeded to beat me soundly, as one might do with a hefty rod of salami to an interloper in their domicile.

In other news, I have had a cover of James Taylor's "New Hymn" stuck in my head for the past twenty four hours and it made a somewhat maddening companion to today's workout. The cover I speak of is none other than one by the Whiffenpoofs, that most hallowed a capella group with the silliest of names. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWPBM3Lx20c

The fellow doing the solo on the version of the song I possess (not the one above) is a friend of Sarah's and has an insane voice.

I wish I could suss out exactly what James Taylor is talking about here, but I still like what he's saying - so I'll leave it for wiser head's consideration:

Even our own feeble hands
Ache to seize the crown you wear
And work our private havoc through
The known and unknown lands of space

Absolute in flame beyond us
Seed and source of Dark and Day
Maker whom we beg to be
Our mother father comrade mate