Originally posted by TJSwoboda:
Originally posted by todras:
Ha ha everyone keeps flamin' Mark. 
We want information... Information... Information...
Who are you? The new McLaren F1.
Who is the Ferrari F40?
You are the SVT Contour.
I am not a car, I am a free man!
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
And my posts just get more crack-addled...
--T.J.
The F40...
It was my last evening working at GingermMan and they were having their typical open track night. They were short of drivers experienced enough to ride along with less experienced drivers so I decided volunteer which I would do often when I didn't have other projects to work on. One of the guys mentioned it was his first time at a track and said he just bought a used Ferrari (I figured it was a 308 or similar based on his cander) so I talked with him a few in the meeting area and then we made way to where he was parked. There it was! Bright Red and in great condition. I was stunned, but down played it because I didn't want to make the guy nervous about me giving him direction while out on the track. There wasn't many cars there that night which was a good thing because the guy had his hands full and had a hard time keeping the car on the track (we went landscaping 3 or 4 times) and he was having a real hard time getting the car into gear. I talked him through 10 or 11 laps and he was getting progressively better after the 5th lap or so. This was a good thing after being black flagged twice in the first three laps for filling the wheels with sod, I thought he was going to give up. We brought the car in so the session for the race prepped cars could go out. I stuck with him and helped get the dirt out of the various openings of the body and weeds out of the suspension. We talked about the session and what he had learned and how to approach different situations while out on the track for about 15 minutes or so.
When the next session came around he asked how much time have I spent on the track and I simply told him I try to be out on the track every chance I get whether its in my own car or riding as an instructor. He handed me the keys and stated "keep it off it's lid!" With him in the passenger seat I ran 10 laps and have never been so tired ofter a short stint in my life. The car is a beast, very tail happy and very powerful. The car was noticably stwitchy under hard braking and always kept me on my toes. When I accelerated out of the corners the car lightly wheel hopped while struggling to get grip. It only got away from me once while trying to downshift going into turn one, I got hung up in the shift gate, over applied the brakes and around the back end went, this was on the beginning of lap ten so I called it good after that. After those ten laps my arms, legs, & neck felt like they were made out of play-doh! It took everything I had just to pull myself out of the car... I got a lot of respect for that car and the guys who can go out and run them to the limit!
-Mark
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