Senna

I want PIE, dammit. BRING ME PIE!

Heel and Toe means, BTW, that you use your right foot to press both the gas pedal and the brake. If only I had that talent ….

@blogenfreude: It’s interesting how he feathers the throttle after the heel-and-toe downshifts. I like to have some positive engine power always on, even in slow turns. Obviously I can’t drive like this guy.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: KEY LIME!

Thanks, but I’ll stick with my [no shit] 23 month and 1 day old Nissan GT-R with the HKS exhaust system that gave me another 33Hp at the wheel before/after on the dyno at Cobb Tuning in Plano TX.

Of course I can’t get the max out of it, as I’ll be 70 before the end of the year; I’m slowing down a bit. But it’s a great car for an old fart who ain’t dead yet.

And for Tommmcat, it corners at about Pi/3 Gees.

Okay — that’s SO FUCKING COOL!

@blogenfreude: @Dodgerblue: I think it’s the loafers. I guess we just need to demand his damn shoes!

@RevZafod: 1.34 1.1415… Gs?

@blogenfreude: It’s the key to good downshifts. I’m not a car driver, so I can’t comment, but it’s a hell of a lot easier on a motorcycle.

Because loafers and white socks never goes out of style!

That said: heel ‘n toe isn’t that difficult, you can practice it around town, then when you feel confident about it, try it out at your next HPDE. For some reason I find it easier to do it the opposite way from how most do it (I do: heel on brake, toe on gas).

Speedy speed boy
Gasoline’s burnin’ in
Speedy speed boy
As fast as I can be
Speedy speed boy
Every night and day
Wind is on my face

@IanJ: I used to be able to downshift without using the clutch, but I sure can’t remember how…I think higher gears? My mind is fried.

@RevZafod: That’s precisely the car I’d buy if I could. You can use it to get groceries, then take it to the track. And kill yourself.

@blogenfreude: Man, we need a Stinque Up at a track! Like, one where we get to drive…

I’ve always had a thing for top fuel.

@JNOV: I know a good one in West Virginny that lets you do things like drive fast backwards, ram shit, and take up-armored Blazers out on the spin pad. Plus they’ll put “ambush” cars in your path and then pelt you with paintballs.

Or, you can just take your Beetle there on a Saturday and see it go fast..ish.

@Nabisco: Whoa. I cannot do smash-em-up derby! I get whip lash and achy and stuff cuz I’m kinda old. I think the backwards thing would screw with my dyslexia (self-diagnosed, natch), and I’d die. That’s also why I’m reluctant to ever drive in countries where the left side of the road is the right side of the road. Don’t want to pull a Matthew Broderick…

ADD: Plus my family escaped WV JUST IN TIME FOR THE 1889 JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. (They all survived.) We just kept moving east until we hit the Atlantic…

Pretty drive through WV, though — like from around Jim Thorpe through that corner of WV. ::wistful smile::

@JNOV: Jim Thorpe/Mauch Chunk is in NE ‘tucky, ain’t it?

The smash ’em up is just an option; they have open track Saturdays or Sundays, people just show up and drive as fast as they want in whatever they have. But there are also lessons from some really competent people in defensive driving, and I don’t mean how to avoid that shit-head at the corner of 4th and Main talking on his crackberry and eating a burrito. Deciding whether to back up at high speed then execute a tactical Y turn or just drive straight through the guys pointing shoulder fired paintball missiles is a whole lotta fun.

@Nabisco: [Lotsa edits] I remember seeing signs for it when I was on 70 going toward Wheeling, WV. That’s a beautiful drive. I think Jim Thorpe is closer to 476/80, so I don’t think I went through there after all, but I’m sure I saw signs to it. I might be thinking about the mountains, valleys, fields, old farms, blind hugging-the-side-of-mountain turns and tunnels around Somerset. That area triggered some HUGE fear-of-heights panic attacks, but it was nice to pull over and just see… The weird thing is that US 1 never made me squirrely. I’m not sure why. The drive to Emerald/Eagle Point camp ground on a cliff at Lake Tahoe had me shaking. I told Jr., “I think we’re just going to have to live here — I can’t drive down…”

ADD: Yeah — checked the map. Not Jim Thorpe.

ADDD: Oh, really? Hmmmmm…I need someone to loan me their fast car…

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: I am, as I type, sending you cherry pie molecules from my fingertips, through the intertubes, for you midday enjoyment.

@Walking Still:

Your slavish devotion to my supreme rulership has not gone unnoticed.

EVERYONE! WALKING STILL IS NOW BELOVED LEADER’S ADOPTED SON. GIVE HIM ALL YOUR WHEATIES!

That is all.

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: ::pout::

@Tommmcat Still Gets Carly Confused With Meg: I am deeply honored. Should more acts of fealty be revealed and they be within my humble powers, I will attend to them directly – unless I get a better offer.

@JNOV: Don’t worry, I sure I will find some way to fall from favor.

Who died and made ‘Catt Papa Roach?

@redmanlaw: Don’t worry. If he gets out of hand, I’ll just edit his comments.

@nojo: Please do this for our amusement so he respects the Hamster.

@flippin eck: Problem is, I’m not sure what would embarrass him. Anything I can think of, he’s probably already done.

@nojo: Dating Bristol Palin.

@redmanlaw: Dating Bristol Working as Sarah Palin’s fluffer.

-fixed-

@blogenfreude: That’s precisely the car I’d buy if I could. You can use it to get groceries, then take it to the track. And kill yourself.

Been to the track several times and ain’t dead yet. I was just out to have fun.

@Nabisco: She needs a fluffer? She’s as smart as a bag of hammers, but the woman is gorgeous.

ADD: And who do you think BP is a proxy for, anyway?