Driving

[Rev. Justin Timberlake]

I love driving.

Perhaps this conviction will be more effectively conveyed with the following recollection.

It's coming up. The start. Been waiting all day for this. Hope the road isn't congested with traffic.

I adjust myself in my seat. Hands, at quarter to three, move up slightly to ten to two. I'm prepared. The tyres pressures are good, with the rears slightly higher than the fronts. I select Armin van Buuren's A State of Trance and jump to the second track.

I take a deep breath.

And it begins.

I pitch the car into the positive-cambered left-hander, building speed. Ancalagon sits comfortably, nowhere near the limit. The bend straightens out and the sun's rays hit me hard for a few seconds before I reach the next left-hander, still accelerating. No braking yet--the tyres are still within the limits of adhesion. I reach the turn-in point and feed the steering input gradually. The car goes exactly where I'm telling it to go, clips the apex and flows out to the corner exit. Over the rise, centimeters away from the railing, I hit another left-hander, this time sacrificing my line in preparation for the big right-hand sweeper connected to it. I run wide, get off the gas and onto the brakes hard. Pass my turn-in point--****, I'm coming in too quick. Trail-braking into the corner, I can feel the weight transfer as the rear lightens up and comes around slightly, the front tyres loading up.

Hit the gas a meter or two before the apex and run straight. Building up a lot of speed here on this downhill stretch. This is the big one. Drift wide over the rise, and then simultaneously side-step the accelerator and throw the car into the banked right-hander. Huge lift-off oversteer from the compounded reduction of downforce sees me countersteering and back on the throttle, the 215s biting hard in order to get Ancalagon back in line.

Another straight. I build up some good speed here and carve through the s-bend kink at 165 as if I'm on rails.

Last corner. A big dip into a bumpy, banked right-turn, the dampers working overtime while I make the most of the camber-induced downforce, the lateral G's peaking with me pushed up against the side bolster of my seat.

And then it's all over.

I can breath again.

So who else enjoys driving?

[Farimir Captain of Gondor]

Wow Rev, i thought i was riding shotgun for that one.


I love driving too. Can't get enough of it. I like to roll all my windows down in the summer, turn off the AC, hit a back road, and just cruise for hrs.

I find it boring driving an automatic now that I've driven a standard for so long. I start to do other things that might cause me to wreck. Like changing cd's, messing with the air, staring at the scenery as it passes by.

[Spock]

This can be discussed in the Tea Cup Cafe.