when neons were newish in scca racing i bought a bottle of his salad dressing artthe road atlanta shop. i eventually checked the date and it was about a year past its expiration..but it tasted just fine!
the very best part of this column is seeing the Mahindra hauling your trailer. I can only imagine the reaction of Blau Bird and others like him when they saw Mini-Me Jeep putter up to the paddock and disgorge a Radical.
To start, I’d just like to say thank you again for a great weekend. The amount I learned and how much progression I made exceeded my expectations. And I should have told you you were welcome to use my real first name when you asked about writing something up. You all can call me Erik.
I didn’t think about this until I was driving home Sunday evening so I wasn’t able to pass it along in person, but I really appreciated your approach. I’m sure you tailor this to each person’s experience level but the minimal amount of “chatter” in the car and use of clear hand signals made it so much easier to focus on driving, while saving the talking for the post-session debriefs allowed us more time to discuss things in depth without the distraction of being on track. This went such a long way in helping me improve session after session.
I feel so much more prepared to get out again and definitely will be re-upping my Trackday subscription to have additional coaching. I’m already searching out more events to do between now and then. I may have to reach out for advice on that.
It was also great seeing a bit of the fleet, from the Roxor to the Radical, to one of the bikes (I know almost nothing about motorcycles so I don’t know for sure which one it was!) to the orientation laps in the Milan. Yes, it’s really as nice and handles as well as Jack described. And Charlie couldn’t have been nicer when I met her while helping bleed the brakes.
Anyone giving the Trackday a thought, do it. You won’t regret it.
I *despise* the use of "communicators" in the car so you have THE INSTRUCTORS VOICE IN YOUR HEAD AT MAX VOLUME THAT HE CONTROLS while he MICRO MANAGES YOU THROUGH HIS PREFERRED RACING LINE. For that reason, I had to quit coaching with a few organizations where commo use is mandatory. You didn't need any of that bullshit and I was happy to not inflict it on you!
I *do* apologize for being a bit chatty/catty about some of the other drivers tho!
That was literally my single biggest complaint last time I was there. It was a relief when the coms didn't work. I could just drive.
The guy kept getting in my ear about the corner I just drove through as my brain was trying to process the next two. It was not a good system and I wish I would have just asked for a different instructor.
1st gen could definitely be had with the 1MZ V6 and a 5spd, in fact C&D(?) road tested a TRD-Supercharged and upgraded one back in the day when everyone was trying to wrap their mind around the nascent Fast&Furious stuff. I personally vastly prefer the aesthetics and finish of the 1st gen cars inside and out, but YMMV.
Very interesting. The closest I have ever been to a race track was the grandstands at the county fairgrounds. Oh, and I got to watch some bikes practicing at Suzuka the week before the 8 hour race a couple of decades ago. I had no idea there was all this stuff happening behind the scenes.
Based on your posts about your business wardrobe, you obviously understand the dress for success mantra. However, I believe you are deliberately flaunting the conventions at the track because you are someone who gets the job done. You don't need to dress like a racer because you actually are one.
For the casuals, this is their fantasy and wearing the costume is part of the experience. It's no different that a nerd who dresses like Conan and carries a broadsword at a sci-fi convention. The swords, like the cars, are real and could cut you to ribbons but at least the nerds aren't dangerously swinging them around inches away from your precious ass.
this made me laugh. every hobby has its hilarious, weirdo LARP corners that gives everyone else secondhand embarrassment. also see: folks with $10,000 worth of pro scuba gear before they pass their PADI course, folks with at least 3 different pieces of clothing with their boat name, silhouette, home port and LOA embroidered on them but couldnt drive it to save their lives, folks with $25,000 Italian shotguns who couldn't break a clay on a table with a hammer. never ceases to amaze
SCUBA is its own special case. Everything about how it is sold (both the activity and the equipment) is absurd. "It's safe! Anyone can do it!" "Buy this thing or you will DIE. DIR!" Most places I have dealt with really maximize the information asymmetry with beginners + fear to make sales.
I showed up to my first dive with the tags still on my reg hoses because they said "Do not remove"
As a beginner there is just no way to know where you are going to take the sport. The shop you take your instruction from knows that on average, they will never see you again, so they try to sell you everything. Then they almost pretend to not know you after your are done with AOW. Silly noob.
"Here, spend $3500 on the beginner package, it will be fine. But you really should upgrade to this better regulator, you wouldn't want your first stage to ice up and kill you. Oh yeah, you can use tables, but you should really get a computer. You could get this basic computer but you shouldn't, of course you are going to dive nitrox in the future why have to buy another one?"
In the last 25 years training has gone down the toilet. More accurately, they have restructured away from universally applicable skills that will introduce you the the concepts involved in different diving, to super segmented mini courses.
When I started, and I promise to stop shaking my cane soon, we still had to learn tables and J-valves (that was a just in case, they had been mostly phased out), and heard tales of disgruntled old timers wanting air fills without a C-Card.
Now I am with those old timers. I had a super low DAN #, I participated in a very early portable ultrasound micro bubble research project at Dutch Springs with them in the late 1990s. I thought it was pretty cool what they were doing and I was glad to be a part of it. A decade later I had let it lapse because I was diving commercially and just wanted to do a reef dive in my off time, the charter wouldn't let me sign up without a membership! Why? So my insurance company is off the hook? (in the US my regular health insurance would cover it, at worst it would be out of network.)
I have seen the industry get more and more coercive and it sucks. I get the instructors want to make money. The thing is that for most of them it isn't a profession, probably like instructors at a PCA event (on topic!). It is something that makes them feel cool, and there is an enormous pool of people who want to feel cool keeping the prices down. So now if you haven't dove for X months places require you to take a "refresher course" which is just padding for lack of demand for actual instruction.
You can always root out the weekend pilot tho, just ask them to try and use said Breitling and the patented circular slide rule. Most GA pilots I've met couldn't calculate sink rate/distance in the event of an engine failure, Breitling or not (and I'd argue you don't need a slide rule to calculate that). Thank goodness for Flightaware. Until the battery runs out.
I’ve always been a thumb-on-the-sectional kind of guy. I have to admit I’d be sadly puzzled if you handed me a whiz-wheel right this moment, but a half hour’s practice would have me going again. I gave one of my old ones to my son a few years ago and he was fascinated by it.
My old man is a recently retired corporate pilot that operated his own charter company for quite a few years. He has a Breitling Mariner that a client gave to him on a trip to the Galapagos quite a while ago. He's selling it in order to buy a trap gun to join me at my club. Another sport where you can incidentally spend five figures just to "compete".
Like most hobbies that involve precision equipment, the skill of the operator knowing his equipment is key, but good equipment can be the final incremental difference between a good and great performer. Though it's hard to justify a 10k increment.
Way back when I drove a car that had no business doing anything but traveling on the interstate and being bright red I used to autocross with a Taurus SHO club. Although definitely not up to the same, um, level of absurdity as the Porsche guys, there were still the usual suspects that would show up like they were the king shit. I did it for fun knowing full well my Grand Prix with the the too small turbo slapped on by ASC didn't belong anywhere near the track. There were the occasional Viper owner, Porsche owner or even the guy who clearly worked for Mercedes USA and would show up with a different top of the line SL V12 each time who took themselves too seriously.
The SHO guys were never happy that the tacky looking GM was actually quicker around the track with some kind behind the wheel either.
We certainly didn't understand at the time that those were the good old days. Both GM and Ford producing overpowered front Drive sports sedans at the same time, and at reasonable prices. Hey, even the Mopar folks got into the silly fun with the glorious/ridiculous Spirit R/T. Yes, the car magazines always reminded us that they weren't M5s, or any 5s for that matter, but who cared if they missed out on the refinement, because they were a hood to drive. A monthly payment the average Joe could swing, enough practicality to keep the family happy, with reasonable repair bills and a real warranty. I'm sure we all expected that the next version would be even better, 10 years after it would be even better than that, and by now they'd have BMW beat. Who'd have thunk that by now they'd be all gone, and the whole automotive universe would be made up of grey SUVs. This is not the future I was promised!
It's been a cascade of unintended consequences. The small FWD cars of the Eighties and Nineties were light on their feet and capable of being "enthusiastic" with a relatively small amount of additional power. Today's SUVs and CUVs are simply beyond any such modification. Even the Kona N is pretty tepid.
If you had a half-decent job in 1994, you had a murderer's row of great choices, each more desirable and interesting than the next.
That's so true. I still think back on what a wonderful car the first Neon was. Not from any way that Consumer Reports would celebrate, but rather a ridiculous amount of fun for a minute amount of money. You could tell from the first feet driven , that someone at Chrysler spent a lot of time pushing those cars much harder than the vast majority of econoboxes would ever be driven. They were dead stable at 100 mph+ speeds and a blast through the corners. The engineering team missed the memo that these were economy cars, and set their sights on the world of compact sports sedans instead. And they hit a low cost bullseye.
It seems like even "enthusiasts" have given up on real fun and moved to tech and "sophistication" (ie boring) instead. Character will only increase to dwindle as things move more towards EV's. I hope I'm wrong though.
Agreed that EVs are diminishing character across the board and the increasing disconnection between man and machine is certainly less characterful.
There's a blatant push across large publications, and even the front pages of some forums, for EV fleets and how we should embrace them. The promotion of such is not natural, from what I can discern, and it is surprising to me that there's a lack of pushback from the community. The pressing forward of government regulations insisting on converting to a less dense energy solution is mind boggling, and I don't think it has anything to do with practicality, saving the earth, etc (though certainly there are true believers).
We've already seen the loss of aesthetic character through pedestrian crash regulations and similar. We're already experiencing classes of vehicles having their motors and excitement strangled by emissions (think Euro 5 bikes whose engineers are bastard Herculean/Sisyphean archetypes).
I'm genuinely concerned that the press to EVs is going to continue unabated for a variety of reasons and in the face of evidence that it's not actually a wonderful idea.
Ah, the Spirit R/T. My father traded a red 91 in on the 94 SHO from my story. The Spirit was FUN and surprised a few 5.0 Mustangs. I spent an hour drag racing my cousin in his 87 Mustang GT 5 speed one night on the BLVD in Lowell before we noticed two police cars sitting in a parking lot with their lights off waiting us to go one more time. That ended the night.
The cars were pretty much dead even right up to 100mph when we had to give up because of a turn.
I hear ya! My father had an SHO at the same time and our neighbor was treasurer of the New England SHO club so I got to "race" for free. I'm not under any delusion that I was good at it or either car was better than they other. For the time they were both pretty cool in my opinion. I took the SHO a few times too and it was just as fun at the Grand Prix and might have been the better car to most people.
One of my favorite youtube passtimes is "spectator drag racing" at Rockford and Seekonk where a bunch of the random neat 90s stuff comes out of the woodwork (Bonneville SSEis, SHOs, rusty Maximas, 5.0 swapped Rangers, 2.4 swapped Neons, B5 Audis boosted to within an inch of their lives, etc) all racing each other.
I love the track day stories, they're a window into a world I would never know otherwise, since I have a 10-year-old slushbox CX-5 and the material wealth to afford no more than that.
Whenever I read one of these, the wheels start turning and I start trying to concoct a plan by which I finally get out on the track. I have a rusty/crusty '98 Neon RT sitting around collecting rain-water that was built to run at the local paved oval, just needs a roll cage put in it, all it's done so far is some practice laps (where we were notably off the pace of well-set up and well-driven local Hondas). That or a motorcycle track day but I'd need to invest in a set of leathers for that, and maybe slap together a ratty Ninja 500/ Suzuku GS500 that I won't feel bad in case I "had-ta lay-'er down!"
The photo of Blau Bird guy makes it look like he's quite literally trying to hold something up his ass(?)
My only "track experience" is at our local paved 1/5th oval, watching guys that look like overweight circa 2000 Eminem, sponsored by various local tow-yards, get into fistfights after wrecking their Civics and Integras with restamped-VIN Type-R motors
An idea for vinyl on the back of your Radical in time for the next PCA event: "If you're not the LEAD DOG, the View Never Changes!" (keep my capitalization)
Actually, forget the Radical, that custom vinyl slogan belongs on the back of a ratty 944 with a Chevy V8 swap. And not a clean LS swap, I'm talking "carb'd SBC 350 chrome air cleaner lid poking out from a Saw-zall'ed hood" swap.
My dad used to work with an old machinist who had a VW 356 convertible replica he'd take to Watkins Glen for the PCA track days every once in a while and according to him there were some real douchebags in the bunch.
I considered the Trackday Club, then remembered both of my upcoming corporate leases were SUVs (neither of which are worthy of track use) and that my project car won’t be track worthy for at least a year, likely more.
But one day sir. One day…
I appreciate the seriousness and professionalism you seem to bring to instruction. One thing that a mentor or instructor can always do for a newbie in any field or activity is to communicate the proper level of respect for risk and danger that the activity requires, and a casual approach in the cab that doesn’t admonish (if not downright punish or belittle) genuinely stupid behavior can and will lead to injury and death.
I remember distinctly being told calmly but firmly “don’t do that shit” when relearning how to drive stick (in a Viper ACR of all things, after having last driven stick years prior and never as a daily driver, and not anything this capable) and making some naive but potentially dire mistakes. And those errors would only cause mechanical issues in the vehicle or MAYBE find me in the wrong gear for the occasion. Certainly nothing of eternal consequence. But I learned to respect the machine and the skills it required.
I've never gone to a track day but I go to lots of car show, from urban parking lot events to top shelf judged concours and it's hard to tell who's going to be a snob. The guy with a VW Beetle based kit car may put on way more airs than a concours winner. To an average person, a Dino 308 GT4 is a Ferrari but a lot of Ferrari enthusiasts look down their noses at the four seater cars.
This is why I’m not interested in joining any Ferrari owners club. I just want to enjoy my Mondial for what it is, a really cool car, and not get into any other bullshit.
Although when I took it to Caffeine and Machine it got way more attention than the 360 I parked next to!
There was a story about 10 years ago of a Ferrari club in Japan that was out enjoying their cars one morning when they all messed up and created a massive(ly expensive) all-Italian pileup somewhere in the south, Kyushu, I think. An interview with the police earned a reporter a comment about how the officer had never come across a bigger group of narcissists in his life. If there's any truth to the story you might just be better off on your own outside of a group like that.
EDIT: said crash was in southern Honshu near Hiroshima, not Kyushu. Thanks Google.
Yeah, I was chatting to the mechanic at the specialist I took it to a while back, and he didn't have a particularly high opinion of them, and he's very plugged in having worked on and raced Ferrari's for years.
At the Detroit Concours while I was shooting the European sports class, Luigi Chinetti, who was Ferrari's longtime U.S. importer, was getting his photo taken with some friends, posing in front of a Maserati. There were two 308 GT4s nearby so I asked him why they get no respect from Ferrari fans. He made a face and said, "Don't get me started on those."
I've a soft spot for the 308. When Junior irks me I sometimes threaten to blow his 529 on one, even a basket case I could bleed over in my downtime. Fortunately for both of us, 'Mustache ride' won't fit on a vanity plate.
Funnily enough 308/328 has never done it for me, and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the familiarity or the fact that toy versions were everywhere when I was a kid (thanks to Magnum). I'd take a GT4 or a 348 (or a Mondial!) over one.
Oh god, the amateur track day fireproof suit guys... I always try to keep a very close eye ..and a very far distance on them. One particular car control scholar was using all his "race craft" skills to keep my daily driver stock Fiesta ST behind his fully prepped M3 lap after annoying lap. I was just about to pit for some clear track when he FINALLY pointed me by ... AS he went 4 off into the grass.
I have a cheesy vanity plate on my sports car, but in my defense it’s Italian-inspired and probably somewhere in IL there’s a pissed off Ferrari owner or two because the plate they want is on a 20y/o Honda that needs a bumper respray, so there is that.
my nephew-in-law has a bmw procar in perfect shape. a few years ago he ran the monterey historics--or at least the first practice session. i, as 'crew,' missed that session but showed up in time for checking the car for the next. he said he was gonna load up and go back to tulsa: he was in a group with camaros and gt350s etc. and he said either ahead or in his mirrors he'd see a couple of, as they say in nascar, 'contacts' just about every other lap. he wasn't about to risk his gem in that setup...he and marc surer won their class in an m1 in the late '70s in the daytona 24hr. and to top it off, a gentleman strolled up, presented his card, and asked him to bring his restored 502 'baroque angel' to pebble beach sunday morning! alf declined the invitation although karen and i offered to handle that chore...
That's a bit ironic in light of the history of the events. The concours started as an afterthought, a side event to the original run-what-you-brung race on the public roads on the peninsula (you can still pretty much drive the original course). The first show winner also competed in the race. My impression is that the concours didn't get to be a status thing until high end collectors like the Nethercutt's and Bill Harrah got involved.
The commentary on that PCA hierarchy is really interesting. I've attended a few BMWCCA events this year and at least in my region, it's almost the inverse. The novice group is chock-full of brand new 450hp missiles, driven by young men in BMW motorsports jackets, while the A and Instructor groups are populated with track rat e36/e46 cars.
I think that's because BMW culture tends to revere old cars, whether we are talking a round-light 2002 three decades ago or an E46 ZHP today, while the PCA explicitly pushes NEW AND BEST as part of their mission.
Took me 90% of my entire thus far lived life to learn this lesson... Me of admiring the humble appearance of the typical American, and chuckling internally when a European shows up for work in a suit and tie... There are subtle and numerous aspects to this that are increasingly obvious every passing day.
I do think there's value in dressing for work. It shows a willingness to participate in society on terms that are respectful to everyone. The Zuckerberg types who flex on their own people by dressing like a hobo are being deliberately and unnecessarily unpleasant, I think.
This is where I fail Having climbed into the middle class I never really understood the rules for professional dressing. I did my best and always thought I dressed up pretty well until someone looked at my sport coat, slacks and tie combo and asked me if it was casual Friday. Until then, I'd always thought full suits were for formal occasions.
Of course once I learned that people were sniggering at me behind my back, and probably had been for years, I figured they should fuck off. Since my attempt to be one of them fell short, I doubled down on NOT being one of them. I find it pretty funny to get off my 25 year old Honda and walk into my office, helmet under my arm, wearing an armored jacket and a pair of coveralls I bought at the Walmart in Moscow, Idaho circa 1996.
Of course, I still have slacks on under the coveralls and keep a couple of sport coats and some ties in my office so I can "dress up" for meetings. I'm not totally disengaged, but the cat is out of the bag because people see the real me when I arrive and when I leave. And the thing is, I feel like they respect me more because I am who and what I am. I know I certainly respect myself more and that is a nice thing to have as I get passed over again and again for promotion...
This is very much akin to my thinking, but I don't like the punch line very much thank you. But it does go a long way to proving the cosplay argument. All you've stated is appearances matter everywhere, all the time, in a way there being no private place where you can just be.
My thoughts are that image matters in lines of work where ideas and cooperation are of paramount importance. In the blue collar world, quality of work matters - a well built wall says volumes about the person who built it so a person's reputation is often based on what they do.
Ideas can be good or bad, of course, but they usually require socialization to be accepted. That means that social conventions apply and how you look, where you come from, or who you are often matters more than the quality of the idea itself.
The way a person dresses lends credibility and that carries over to almost anything - at least until the shit hits the fan. That's why guys who look good in a uniform and who say the right things go right to the top in the military until the lead starts flying and the guys who actually know how to fight wars suddenly find their once stifled careers back on the fast track.
Which leads me to what I think is one other important rule - do-ers don't have to follow the fashion rules. It's why Bill gates lost the tie, why Steve Jobs dressed like a beatnik, why Zuck gets to dress like a slob and why Jack is better in his Iron Maiden Tee shirt than a guy dressed up like a racer.
And within the confines of the office I run, I am a known quantity and clearly a do-er so I get to flaunt some of the rules. Outside my office, I'm still a nobody and have to play by the rules as best I can. After a couple more years though, it won;t matter much anyhow.
I come from a blue collar background having been raised (mostly) in what would at the time have been the 'third world' and its 'middle class'.
My engineering background lends me to be of the willing to get under a vehicle at any moment, instead of pointing to things and walking away, letting the 'lesser people' deal with the actual work. In that scenario a suit and tie or any such combo of unnecessary clothing is detrimental. Different jobs require different attires, but there is generally a broad range that is acceptable.
Honest question though for you though - a lot of what you say makes sense, but has a sense of nostalgia - as in 'this is how well and civilised things were, and we should strive to retain it.' Am I correct?
Hoodies are for hoodrats, and working on endurance cars in the cold.
Well put. I was trying to categorize Fetterman with the hoodies and goatee thing, and that's it exactly--you can only thumb your nose at the status quo so much if you aspire to be a part of it.
A few years back I got comped admission to the Chicago Auto Show charity preview, which was supposedly a black tie event, so I went to a thrift shop and bought a hardly worn second hand tuxedo (the shirt and accoutrements cost more than the tux). When I got to the event I was rather appalled at what some people consider a tuxedo these days.
Isn't carping about the boss pretty much part of every job, though?
I had 17 people and 40-plus freelancers working for me at Hagerty. I was consistently ranked higher than any other manager in the firm by my own people, never abused them, never knowingly subjected them to my ego or insecurities, and repeatedly fought to preserve their jobs. In the end I got shitcanned all the same, while the despised shitbirds kept their management positions. Oh well. Maybe I should have been more like BLAU BIRD
Sure, but there's a big difference between teasing from a place of respect and derisive snickering from a place of contempt.
While it wouldn't put money in the bank, I'd feel much better about myself in your position than if I knew the associates who worked for me thought I was a pompous fool.
The first thing I do after I get out of the car after a racing stint is take off my driving suit. I can't imagine standing around all day in the suit and shoes. I feel like those who do just want everyone to know they drive on the track.
Was the BLAU BRD wearing a white or black dial Rolex Daytona? Just a hunch.
I was thinking more of a Porsche Design Chronograph 911 GT3 Touring Package wristwatch, to complete his ensemble
I just stick with my '71 Omega Speedy whilst maneuvering my F350 through downtown of the local berg... Oops! Time to wind it again.
Check the Rennlist member to member classifieds for watch choices in Porscheworld.
The Newman/Haas team is selling off many of their race cars and related memorabilia at the end of October. At an estimated $20,000 - $30,000 (no reserve) this may be the cheapest way to own a genuinely Paul Newman related Daytona, even if he may have never worn it (the online listing doesn't say anything about its history). https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/hn22/the-house-that-newman-haas-racing-built/lots/n0037-rolex-reference-16520-zenith-daytona/1272640
Pretty sure I have a $2 bottle of salad dressing with his picture on it. That's probably as close as I need to get to the great man...
Believe it or not, that stuff tastes okay .
-Nate
Totally agree. No complaints about Newman's food products.
Well ;
To be honest they're more than $2 out here in La La Land so I've only had it by invitation .
-Nate
when neons were newish in scca racing i bought a bottle of his salad dressing artthe road atlanta shop. i eventually checked the date and it was about a year past its expiration..but it tasted just fine!
the very best part of this column is seeing the Mahindra hauling your trailer. I can only imagine the reaction of Blau Bird and others like him when they saw Mini-Me Jeep putter up to the paddock and disgorge a Radical.
There were some comments about it, not all of them kind.
Does the Roxor even have a farm implement plate?
Not yet.
Ain't America grand? Well, at least parts of it.
To start, I’d just like to say thank you again for a great weekend. The amount I learned and how much progression I made exceeded my expectations. And I should have told you you were welcome to use my real first name when you asked about writing something up. You all can call me Erik.
I didn’t think about this until I was driving home Sunday evening so I wasn’t able to pass it along in person, but I really appreciated your approach. I’m sure you tailor this to each person’s experience level but the minimal amount of “chatter” in the car and use of clear hand signals made it so much easier to focus on driving, while saving the talking for the post-session debriefs allowed us more time to discuss things in depth without the distraction of being on track. This went such a long way in helping me improve session after session.
I feel so much more prepared to get out again and definitely will be re-upping my Trackday subscription to have additional coaching. I’m already searching out more events to do between now and then. I may have to reach out for advice on that.
It was also great seeing a bit of the fleet, from the Roxor to the Radical, to one of the bikes (I know almost nothing about motorcycles so I don’t know for sure which one it was!) to the orientation laps in the Milan. Yes, it’s really as nice and handles as well as Jack described. And Charlie couldn’t have been nicer when I met her while helping bleed the brakes.
Anyone giving the Trackday a thought, do it. You won’t regret it.
I *despise* the use of "communicators" in the car so you have THE INSTRUCTORS VOICE IN YOUR HEAD AT MAX VOLUME THAT HE CONTROLS while he MICRO MANAGES YOU THROUGH HIS PREFERRED RACING LINE. For that reason, I had to quit coaching with a few organizations where commo use is mandatory. You didn't need any of that bullshit and I was happy to not inflict it on you!
I *do* apologize for being a bit chatty/catty about some of the other drivers tho!
That was literally my single biggest complaint last time I was there. It was a relief when the coms didn't work. I could just drive.
The guy kept getting in my ear about the corner I just drove through as my brain was trying to process the next two. It was not a good system and I wish I would have just asked for a different instructor.
No need to apologize, those comments were alway well timed and on point! They also added a nice bit of levity.
I’m STILL laughing about the lug nut spikes on the MR2 in the last picture.
Color me intrigued by "driver grade stick shift Solara"
yeah me too!
We're talking the wedge shaped first gen car right?
1st gen could definitely be had with the 1MZ V6 and a 5spd, in fact C&D(?) road tested a TRD-Supercharged and upgraded one back in the day when everyone was trying to wrap their mind around the nascent Fast&Furious stuff. I personally vastly prefer the aesthetics and finish of the 1st gen cars inside and out, but YMMV.
Very interesting. The closest I have ever been to a race track was the grandstands at the county fairgrounds. Oh, and I got to watch some bikes practicing at Suzuka the week before the 8 hour race a couple of decades ago. I had no idea there was all this stuff happening behind the scenes.
Based on your posts about your business wardrobe, you obviously understand the dress for success mantra. However, I believe you are deliberately flaunting the conventions at the track because you are someone who gets the job done. You don't need to dress like a racer because you actually are one.
For the casuals, this is their fantasy and wearing the costume is part of the experience. It's no different that a nerd who dresses like Conan and carries a broadsword at a sci-fi convention. The swords, like the cars, are real and could cut you to ribbons but at least the nerds aren't dangerously swinging them around inches away from your precious ass.
See also: Guys who dress like Chuck Yeager circa 1944 to fly their Cessna 172’s. More likely to be sporting a Breitling than a Rolex.
this made me laugh. every hobby has its hilarious, weirdo LARP corners that gives everyone else secondhand embarrassment. also see: folks with $10,000 worth of pro scuba gear before they pass their PADI course, folks with at least 3 different pieces of clothing with their boat name, silhouette, home port and LOA embroidered on them but couldnt drive it to save their lives, folks with $25,000 Italian shotguns who couldn't break a clay on a table with a hammer. never ceases to amaze
My career as a musician has been like this: playing local gigs with $5k of equipment.
SCUBA is its own special case. Everything about how it is sold (both the activity and the equipment) is absurd. "It's safe! Anyone can do it!" "Buy this thing or you will DIE. DIR!" Most places I have dealt with really maximize the information asymmetry with beginners + fear to make sales.
I showed up to my first dive with the tags still on my reg hoses because they said "Do not remove"
As a beginner there is just no way to know where you are going to take the sport. The shop you take your instruction from knows that on average, they will never see you again, so they try to sell you everything. Then they almost pretend to not know you after your are done with AOW. Silly noob.
"Here, spend $3500 on the beginner package, it will be fine. But you really should upgrade to this better regulator, you wouldn't want your first stage to ice up and kill you. Oh yeah, you can use tables, but you should really get a computer. You could get this basic computer but you shouldn't, of course you are going to dive nitrox in the future why have to buy another one?"
In the last 25 years training has gone down the toilet. More accurately, they have restructured away from universally applicable skills that will introduce you the the concepts involved in different diving, to super segmented mini courses.
When I started, and I promise to stop shaking my cane soon, we still had to learn tables and J-valves (that was a just in case, they had been mostly phased out), and heard tales of disgruntled old timers wanting air fills without a C-Card.
Now I am with those old timers. I had a super low DAN #, I participated in a very early portable ultrasound micro bubble research project at Dutch Springs with them in the late 1990s. I thought it was pretty cool what they were doing and I was glad to be a part of it. A decade later I had let it lapse because I was diving commercially and just wanted to do a reef dive in my off time, the charter wouldn't let me sign up without a membership! Why? So my insurance company is off the hook? (in the US my regular health insurance would cover it, at worst it would be out of network.)
I have seen the industry get more and more coercive and it sucks. I get the instructors want to make money. The thing is that for most of them it isn't a profession, probably like instructors at a PCA event (on topic!). It is something that makes them feel cool, and there is an enormous pool of people who want to feel cool keeping the prices down. So now if you haven't dove for X months places require you to take a "refresher course" which is just padding for lack of demand for actual instruction.
End rant.
I don't hate people like this. It's very common on the golf course, especially country clubs.
As long as they don't ask if I take Venmo when it's time to pay up.
You can always root out the weekend pilot tho, just ask them to try and use said Breitling and the patented circular slide rule. Most GA pilots I've met couldn't calculate sink rate/distance in the event of an engine failure, Breitling or not (and I'd argue you don't need a slide rule to calculate that). Thank goodness for Flightaware. Until the battery runs out.
I’ve always been a thumb-on-the-sectional kind of guy. I have to admit I’d be sadly puzzled if you handed me a whiz-wheel right this moment, but a half hour’s practice would have me going again. I gave one of my old ones to my son a few years ago and he was fascinated by it.
Cheers!
My old man is a recently retired corporate pilot that operated his own charter company for quite a few years. He has a Breitling Mariner that a client gave to him on a trip to the Galapagos quite a while ago. He's selling it in order to buy a trap gun to join me at my club. Another sport where you can incidentally spend five figures just to "compete".
I shoot a BT99. It's a 70s model with a wide forestock, made in Japan. Came with a nice case with 2 separate barrels.
Before that, I shot a $300 Baikal O/U with which I could regularly shoot 23 and sometimes 24, but the BT got me to 25 and 50.
I was on the line this weekend where myself and another member both shot a perfect round. Though he was shooting a $13k Kolar...
Shooting clays with my Vepr 12 was super entertaining. I never failed to make new friends at the range when I'd let them shoot my AK shotgun
Like most hobbies that involve precision equipment, the skill of the operator knowing his equipment is key, but good equipment can be the final incremental difference between a good and great performer. Though it's hard to justify a 10k increment.
Wait, what ? I have a Breitling wristwatch, is that some sort of thing now ? .
My Sweet bought it for me because I like the old fashioned rectangular look of it .
-Nate
I think Breitlings start at around 8k now. But I’m probably way off.
!!!!!
-Nate
Certainly my watch doesn't fit that bill ! .
I like it 'cause it's very conservative .
Once in a while when I wear it I get comments on it and don't know why ~ it's not Rolex (!oh my GHOD !) etc....
-Nate
This is classic!
Way back when I drove a car that had no business doing anything but traveling on the interstate and being bright red I used to autocross with a Taurus SHO club. Although definitely not up to the same, um, level of absurdity as the Porsche guys, there were still the usual suspects that would show up like they were the king shit. I did it for fun knowing full well my Grand Prix with the the too small turbo slapped on by ASC didn't belong anywhere near the track. There were the occasional Viper owner, Porsche owner or even the guy who clearly worked for Mercedes USA and would show up with a different top of the line SL V12 each time who took themselves too seriously.
The SHO guys were never happy that the tacky looking GM was actually quicker around the track with some kind behind the wheel either.
Fun times!
ASC Turbo Grand Prix. Hell. Yes.
We certainly didn't understand at the time that those were the good old days. Both GM and Ford producing overpowered front Drive sports sedans at the same time, and at reasonable prices. Hey, even the Mopar folks got into the silly fun with the glorious/ridiculous Spirit R/T. Yes, the car magazines always reminded us that they weren't M5s, or any 5s for that matter, but who cared if they missed out on the refinement, because they were a hood to drive. A monthly payment the average Joe could swing, enough practicality to keep the family happy, with reasonable repair bills and a real warranty. I'm sure we all expected that the next version would be even better, 10 years after it would be even better than that, and by now they'd have BMW beat. Who'd have thunk that by now they'd be all gone, and the whole automotive universe would be made up of grey SUVs. This is not the future I was promised!
It's been a cascade of unintended consequences. The small FWD cars of the Eighties and Nineties were light on their feet and capable of being "enthusiastic" with a relatively small amount of additional power. Today's SUVs and CUVs are simply beyond any such modification. Even the Kona N is pretty tepid.
If you had a half-decent job in 1994, you had a murderer's row of great choices, each more desirable and interesting than the next.
That's so true. I still think back on what a wonderful car the first Neon was. Not from any way that Consumer Reports would celebrate, but rather a ridiculous amount of fun for a minute amount of money. You could tell from the first feet driven , that someone at Chrysler spent a lot of time pushing those cars much harder than the vast majority of econoboxes would ever be driven. They were dead stable at 100 mph+ speeds and a blast through the corners. The engineering team missed the memo that these were economy cars, and set their sights on the world of compact sports sedans instead. And they hit a low cost bullseye.
It seems like even "enthusiasts" have given up on real fun and moved to tech and "sophistication" (ie boring) instead. Character will only increase to dwindle as things move more towards EV's. I hope I'm wrong though.
Agreed that EVs are diminishing character across the board and the increasing disconnection between man and machine is certainly less characterful.
There's a blatant push across large publications, and even the front pages of some forums, for EV fleets and how we should embrace them. The promotion of such is not natural, from what I can discern, and it is surprising to me that there's a lack of pushback from the community. The pressing forward of government regulations insisting on converting to a less dense energy solution is mind boggling, and I don't think it has anything to do with practicality, saving the earth, etc (though certainly there are true believers).
We've already seen the loss of aesthetic character through pedestrian crash regulations and similar. We're already experiencing classes of vehicles having their motors and excitement strangled by emissions (think Euro 5 bikes whose engineers are bastard Herculean/Sisyphean archetypes).
I'm genuinely concerned that the press to EVs is going to continue unabated for a variety of reasons and in the face of evidence that it's not actually a wonderful idea.
Ah, the Spirit R/T. My father traded a red 91 in on the 94 SHO from my story. The Spirit was FUN and surprised a few 5.0 Mustangs. I spent an hour drag racing my cousin in his 87 Mustang GT 5 speed one night on the BLVD in Lowell before we noticed two police cars sitting in a parking lot with their lights off waiting us to go one more time. That ended the night.
The cars were pretty much dead even right up to 100mph when we had to give up because of a turn.
I'm torn between my appreciation of the Grand Prix and my appreciation of the SHO. For me at any rate there is no antagonist in this story.
I hear ya! My father had an SHO at the same time and our neighbor was treasurer of the New England SHO club so I got to "race" for free. I'm not under any delusion that I was good at it or either car was better than they other. For the time they were both pretty cool in my opinion. I took the SHO a few times too and it was just as fun at the Grand Prix and might have been the better car to most people.
One of my favorite youtube passtimes is "spectator drag racing" at Rockford and Seekonk where a bunch of the random neat 90s stuff comes out of the woodwork (Bonneville SSEis, SHOs, rusty Maximas, 5.0 swapped Rangers, 2.4 swapped Neons, B5 Audis boosted to within an inch of their lives, etc) all racing each other.
Here!
Present!
I love the track day stories, they're a window into a world I would never know otherwise, since I have a 10-year-old slushbox CX-5 and the material wealth to afford no more than that.
Whenever I read one of these, the wheels start turning and I start trying to concoct a plan by which I finally get out on the track. I have a rusty/crusty '98 Neon RT sitting around collecting rain-water that was built to run at the local paved oval, just needs a roll cage put in it, all it's done so far is some practice laps (where we were notably off the pace of well-set up and well-driven local Hondas). That or a motorcycle track day but I'd need to invest in a set of leathers for that, and maybe slap together a ratty Ninja 500/ Suzuku GS500 that I won't feel bad in case I "had-ta lay-'er down!"
Meanwhile, a tingle went down Jack's spine at mention of a 1998 Neon RT...
I've sold two good race-ready Neons in the past four years... have just one left!
The photo of Blau Bird guy makes it look like he's quite literally trying to hold something up his ass(?)
My only "track experience" is at our local paved 1/5th oval, watching guys that look like overweight circa 2000 Eminem, sponsored by various local tow-yards, get into fistfights after wrecking their Civics and Integras with restamped-VIN Type-R motors
An idea for vinyl on the back of your Radical in time for the next PCA event: "If you're not the LEAD DOG, the View Never Changes!" (keep my capitalization)
Actually, forget the Radical, that custom vinyl slogan belongs on the back of a ratty 944 with a Chevy V8 swap. And not a clean LS swap, I'm talking "carb'd SBC 350 chrome air cleaner lid poking out from a Saw-zall'ed hood" swap.
My dad used to work with an old machinist who had a VW 356 convertible replica he'd take to Watkins Glen for the PCA track days every once in a while and according to him there were some real douchebags in the bunch.
I considered the Trackday Club, then remembered both of my upcoming corporate leases were SUVs (neither of which are worthy of track use) and that my project car won’t be track worthy for at least a year, likely more.
But one day sir. One day…
I appreciate the seriousness and professionalism you seem to bring to instruction. One thing that a mentor or instructor can always do for a newbie in any field or activity is to communicate the proper level of respect for risk and danger that the activity requires, and a casual approach in the cab that doesn’t admonish (if not downright punish or belittle) genuinely stupid behavior can and will lead to injury and death.
I remember distinctly being told calmly but firmly “don’t do that shit” when relearning how to drive stick (in a Viper ACR of all things, after having last driven stick years prior and never as a daily driver, and not anything this capable) and making some naive but potentially dire mistakes. And those errors would only cause mechanical issues in the vehicle or MAYBE find me in the wrong gear for the occasion. Certainly nothing of eternal consequence. But I learned to respect the machine and the skills it required.
I've never gone to a track day but I go to lots of car show, from urban parking lot events to top shelf judged concours and it's hard to tell who's going to be a snob. The guy with a VW Beetle based kit car may put on way more airs than a concours winner. To an average person, a Dino 308 GT4 is a Ferrari but a lot of Ferrari enthusiasts look down their noses at the four seater cars.
This is why I’m not interested in joining any Ferrari owners club. I just want to enjoy my Mondial for what it is, a really cool car, and not get into any other bullshit.
Although when I took it to Caffeine and Machine it got way more attention than the 360 I parked next to!
There was a story about 10 years ago of a Ferrari club in Japan that was out enjoying their cars one morning when they all messed up and created a massive(ly expensive) all-Italian pileup somewhere in the south, Kyushu, I think. An interview with the police earned a reporter a comment about how the officer had never come across a bigger group of narcissists in his life. If there's any truth to the story you might just be better off on your own outside of a group like that.
EDIT: said crash was in southern Honshu near Hiroshima, not Kyushu. Thanks Google.
Yeah, I was chatting to the mechanic at the specialist I took it to a while back, and he didn't have a particularly high opinion of them, and he's very plugged in having worked on and raced Ferrari's for years.
At the Detroit Concours while I was shooting the European sports class, Luigi Chinetti, who was Ferrari's longtime U.S. importer, was getting his photo taken with some friends, posing in front of a Maserati. There were two 308 GT4s nearby so I asked him why they get no respect from Ferrari fans. He made a face and said, "Don't get me started on those."
Mondial's like an anti-Ferrari, if I had one I'd pry the prancing horse off it and tell people it's a kit car.
I've a soft spot for the 308. When Junior irks me I sometimes threaten to blow his 529 on one, even a basket case I could bleed over in my downtime. Fortunately for both of us, 'Mustache ride' won't fit on a vanity plate.
Funnily enough 308/328 has never done it for me, and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the familiarity or the fact that toy versions were everywhere when I was a kid (thanks to Magnum). I'd take a GT4 or a 348 (or a Mondial!) over one.
You're the proverbial man of wealth and taste!
Isn't the goal of that endeavor to get your tongue in it, not around it?
Oh god, the amateur track day fireproof suit guys... I always try to keep a very close eye ..and a very far distance on them. One particular car control scholar was using all his "race craft" skills to keep my daily driver stock Fiesta ST behind his fully prepped M3 lap after annoying lap. I was just about to pit for some clear track when he FINALLY pointed me by ... AS he went 4 off into the grass.
I have a cheesy vanity plate on my sports car, but in my defense it’s Italian-inspired and probably somewhere in IL there’s a pissed off Ferrari owner or two because the plate they want is on a 20y/o Honda that needs a bumper respray, so there is that.
my nephew-in-law has a bmw procar in perfect shape. a few years ago he ran the monterey historics--or at least the first practice session. i, as 'crew,' missed that session but showed up in time for checking the car for the next. he said he was gonna load up and go back to tulsa: he was in a group with camaros and gt350s etc. and he said either ahead or in his mirrors he'd see a couple of, as they say in nascar, 'contacts' just about every other lap. he wasn't about to risk his gem in that setup...he and marc surer won their class in an m1 in the late '70s in the daytona 24hr. and to top it off, a gentleman strolled up, presented his card, and asked him to bring his restored 502 'baroque angel' to pebble beach sunday morning! alf declined the invitation although karen and i offered to handle that chore...
Ah yeah, the fake race at the fake concours!
that's doubly harsh! all the reviews have been glowing--but i know you have sources! please tell me more!
I'm literally prevented by contract from expressing my opinion about Hagerty-run events, so that's all I'm going to say.
my favorite current expression: jeepers!
Hope you received a decent payout, otherwise its just a waste.
It was sufficient to keep me out of trouble for a while, anyway.
That's a bit ironic in light of the history of the events. The concours started as an afterthought, a side event to the original run-what-you-brung race on the public roads on the peninsula (you can still pretty much drive the original course). The first show winner also competed in the race. My impression is that the concours didn't get to be a status thing until high end collectors like the Nethercutt's and Bill Harrah got involved.
The commentary on that PCA hierarchy is really interesting. I've attended a few BMWCCA events this year and at least in my region, it's almost the inverse. The novice group is chock-full of brand new 450hp missiles, driven by young men in BMW motorsports jackets, while the A and Instructor groups are populated with track rat e36/e46 cars.
I think that's because BMW culture tends to revere old cars, whether we are talking a round-light 2002 three decades ago or an E46 ZHP today, while the PCA explicitly pushes NEW AND BEST as part of their mission.
To the cosplay question: salud
Took me 90% of my entire thus far lived life to learn this lesson... Me of admiring the humble appearance of the typical American, and chuckling internally when a European shows up for work in a suit and tie... There are subtle and numerous aspects to this that are increasingly obvious every passing day.
I do think there's value in dressing for work. It shows a willingness to participate in society on terms that are respectful to everyone. The Zuckerberg types who flex on their own people by dressing like a hobo are being deliberately and unnecessarily unpleasant, I think.
This is where I fail Having climbed into the middle class I never really understood the rules for professional dressing. I did my best and always thought I dressed up pretty well until someone looked at my sport coat, slacks and tie combo and asked me if it was casual Friday. Until then, I'd always thought full suits were for formal occasions.
Of course once I learned that people were sniggering at me behind my back, and probably had been for years, I figured they should fuck off. Since my attempt to be one of them fell short, I doubled down on NOT being one of them. I find it pretty funny to get off my 25 year old Honda and walk into my office, helmet under my arm, wearing an armored jacket and a pair of coveralls I bought at the Walmart in Moscow, Idaho circa 1996.
Of course, I still have slacks on under the coveralls and keep a couple of sport coats and some ties in my office so I can "dress up" for meetings. I'm not totally disengaged, but the cat is out of the bag because people see the real me when I arrive and when I leave. And the thing is, I feel like they respect me more because I am who and what I am. I know I certainly respect myself more and that is a nice thing to have as I get passed over again and again for promotion...
This is very much akin to my thinking, but I don't like the punch line very much thank you. But it does go a long way to proving the cosplay argument. All you've stated is appearances matter everywhere, all the time, in a way there being no private place where you can just be.
My thoughts are that image matters in lines of work where ideas and cooperation are of paramount importance. In the blue collar world, quality of work matters - a well built wall says volumes about the person who built it so a person's reputation is often based on what they do.
Ideas can be good or bad, of course, but they usually require socialization to be accepted. That means that social conventions apply and how you look, where you come from, or who you are often matters more than the quality of the idea itself.
The way a person dresses lends credibility and that carries over to almost anything - at least until the shit hits the fan. That's why guys who look good in a uniform and who say the right things go right to the top in the military until the lead starts flying and the guys who actually know how to fight wars suddenly find their once stifled careers back on the fast track.
Which leads me to what I think is one other important rule - do-ers don't have to follow the fashion rules. It's why Bill gates lost the tie, why Steve Jobs dressed like a beatnik, why Zuck gets to dress like a slob and why Jack is better in his Iron Maiden Tee shirt than a guy dressed up like a racer.
And within the confines of the office I run, I am a known quantity and clearly a do-er so I get to flaunt some of the rules. Outside my office, I'm still a nobody and have to play by the rules as best I can. After a couple more years though, it won;t matter much anyhow.
I come from a blue collar background having been raised (mostly) in what would at the time have been the 'third world' and its 'middle class'.
My engineering background lends me to be of the willing to get under a vehicle at any moment, instead of pointing to things and walking away, letting the 'lesser people' deal with the actual work. In that scenario a suit and tie or any such combo of unnecessary clothing is detrimental. Different jobs require different attires, but there is generally a broad range that is acceptable.
Honest question though for you though - a lot of what you say makes sense, but has a sense of nostalgia - as in 'this is how well and civilised things were, and we should strive to retain it.' Am I correct?
Hoodies are for hoodrats, and working on endurance cars in the cold.
Well put. I was trying to categorize Fetterman with the hoodies and goatee thing, and that's it exactly--you can only thumb your nose at the status quo so much if you aspire to be a part of it.
A few years back I got comped admission to the Chicago Auto Show charity preview, which was supposedly a black tie event, so I went to a thrift shop and bought a hardly worn second hand tuxedo (the shirt and accoutrements cost more than the tux). When I got to the event I was rather appalled at what some people consider a tuxedo these days.
Harry and Lloyd from "Dumb and Dumber," I hope.
BLAU BRD may be accustomed to being in command, but I guarantee you the people he commands are snickering at his pomposity behind his back.
Isn't carping about the boss pretty much part of every job, though?
I had 17 people and 40-plus freelancers working for me at Hagerty. I was consistently ranked higher than any other manager in the firm by my own people, never abused them, never knowingly subjected them to my ego or insecurities, and repeatedly fought to preserve their jobs. In the end I got shitcanned all the same, while the despised shitbirds kept their management positions. Oh well. Maybe I should have been more like BLAU BIRD
Sure, but there's a big difference between teasing from a place of respect and derisive snickering from a place of contempt.
While it wouldn't put money in the bank, I'd feel much better about myself in your position than if I knew the associates who worked for me thought I was a pompous fool.
The first thing I do after I get out of the car after a racing stint is take off my driving suit. I can't imagine standing around all day in the suit and shoes. I feel like those who do just want everyone to know they drive on the track.
Yeah I don't "dress" until first call to the grid.