dbg (11/15/82)
I enjoy driving fast, and I enjoy exploring the limits of my ability and my automobile. The mushy Detroit boats that I've always owned have kept my desires pretty low key. Owning a car with a good tight feel and mild understeer (just a celica -- nothing fancy) has awakened something. Once on a very familiar, nicely banked, and deserted off ramp I experienced a controlled 4 wheel drift as I reached the midpoint of a turn. I was moving very fast but felt like I was in complete control. It was heavenly. Well, that celica is gone and I've replaced it with a performance supra. Where does one drive such a car the way I'd like to drive? I'm not a reckless person (minor disagreement can be heard from college cronies), and I consider the high school ritual of residential racing to be repulsive. I've often heard the question, "Why would anyone in this country buy a car the likes of a Porsche turbo, etc, when it will be used to drive 55mph (well maybe 70) on a crowded straight highway?" So, what I want to know from all you sports car owners is: Where do you drive to discover the virtues of those machines you are bragging about? I live in the Chicago area and when I want to go for a weekend cruise in the country -- well, fighting traffic and potholes for an hour just so I can drive on a perfect square grid pattern of country roads with corn in all directions is just not fulfilling. Dave Green ihldt!dbg Bell Labs Naperville, IL
markm (11/15/82)
Where does one find open deserted roads upon which to fly?? Find your local rallye club. For those of you not familiar with TSD (time-speed-distance) rallyeing (sp?), it works basically as follows. You get a set of route instructions. You have to follow these instructions as close to the time speant on the course by the person who set the course. That's it. You are told average speeds, all landmarks HAVE to be clearly visable. Sounds easy right? - WRONG. Beleive me it takes years to get even close to good. A good club runs one even per month. If there are several clubs, then several events per month. Entry fee is generally under $5, so it's cheap in that respect. Of course there's gas costs, hitting trees and local pedestrians, and other minor costs. Speeds on a TSD are 'legal'. What this means is that as long as you don't get lost, you'll be going about 30-40 on roads that are rated at 30-40mph. Dull, huh. When you get lost though, you have to go about 60-70 on these same roads to make up time. This is far from dull, considereing that you will have never seen these roads before. I say roads, but anywhere from 5% to 80% of the surfaces in your basic rallye can be unpaved. I've been on one that was almost totally unpaved. Some have hillclimbs and other stuff like that. The course is ussually out in the sticks. If it's a night rallye, you'll think you're crossing the frontier 'cause there ain't no lights other than your own. Rallyes generally run on Saturday nites or Sunday afternoons. Best of all, you'll meet other maniacs like yourself who not only like to drive, but who also take it seriously. You'll need a co-driver/navigator by the way - someone with whom YOU GET ALONG WITH!!!!! Another great thing about TSD rallyeing, while any street car can handle it (well almost), it is a great excuse to buy things for the car. You gotta have Nitrogen shocks for the bumpy roads, you gotta have extra lights for night rallyes, you gotta have Pirreli (sp?) P7's for better handling, you gotta have $1500 Recaro seats for long events ... and so on. Rallyes can run anywhere from 40 miles for a minor Sunday outing (about 3 hrs) to the 'Regionals' which are basically dawn-to-dusk (or more) events of upwards of 250 miles!!!!! Rallyeing usually ends in November, but there are several die hard groups I heard of that run events all year long. Rallyinsts are die-hards. It takes a lot of weather before an event is cancelled. To give you an idea of what kind of time is a winning time in TSD - try being off from the rallye-masters time by 1/100th of a minute in a 50 mile event (this is RRRREEEEAAAALLLL GGGGOOOOOOOODDDD). You can buy rallye-computers if you get real serious, but don't even think about it until you've got at least a dozen events down. Rallye clubs are hard to find, nut once you get 'in', you'll be able to drive on roads, and at speeds, you would never have dared before. MSMiller GR Concord, MA
mickey (11/16/82)
Another suggestion (like rallyes) is to go to auto-slaloms. You might think that trying to get through a parking lot full of orange cones is easy, but you quickly find out how good your (shifting/tires/brakes/nerve/handling) ***SKILL*** is when you try this out. Most major car clubs sponser these things on Sunday afternoons, and again, the cost is minor (>$5). Some of the better ones even give you a dash-placque for you car for "placing". In open competition, all brands are acceptable, the only safety equipment required (around Boston) is seatbelts and an approved helmet. In Boston, they list the upcoming events in the Saturday Boston Globe (Sports Plus) under auto events. If you don't find any listings in Chicago, your local performance/sports auto store can probably point you in the right direction. Also, if I remember right, there are some good roads to drive around southern Wisconsin (below and around the Dells also). I can remember 'testing' a friends XKE at 130+ MPH around Lake Geneva once. Just make sure your smokey detector is working PERFECTLY (if you don't have one, check out the Nov. Car and Driver article). Have fun.....
lrd (11/17/82)
Watch out for illegal speeds in southern Wisconsin, EVEN IF YOU HAVE A RADAR DETECTOR! At least a dozen members of the Chicago Region BMW Motorcycle Owner's Association (to which I belong) have received expensive tickets this season in Wisconsin, and Electronic Counter Measures were useless. They were all picked off via aerial surveillance (planes & helicopters, timing their speed over a marked section of road), or plain old-fashined unmarked patrol cars pacing them and reading calibrated speed- ometers. The probability of avoiding a conviction, if caught and ticketed, is extremely low -- the courts seem to be very supportive of the police' enforcement actions. Your best chances for brisk driving in Wis. are the rural (local) roads in sparsely populated areas, but I have had sudden surges of adrenalin when rounding a curve and discovering a herd of cows crossing the road. The smart bikers join a local amateur racing club and do their high speed driving on a track. Do car drivers have similar opportunities?