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I
made it back from a refreshing and exciting trip to Europe, but it looks
like I missed out an several exciting GGLC events while I was gone!
I really regret missing John Zender's Woodside Rallye, as I've done it
three or four times and always had a great time! I even won the event
one year, even though I still haven't finished fixing my car after I crashed
it driving home after the event! I wanted to try the drag racing
at Sears Point out also, as I've never done it before. And I really
missed out on the July track day, but my check is in the mail for the October
track day.
Europe was great.
The first stop was the European Grand Prix at the Nürnburgring in
Germany. It was the first time I had ever been to an F1 race and
it was quite an event. It is amazing how fast the cars corner and
accelerate. I was sitting next to one of the tightest turns on the
track, but I was a little
disappointed
with some of the high technology, like Kiyoshi wrote about in the last
Chapman Report, as you can see it does take a lot of the driving
skill out of the equation. For example, as every car came out of |
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that
tight turn where I was sitting, you could hear the sound of the engines
turn coarse and funny-sounding as their traction control took over.
So all they had to do was floor it at every apex and
not worry about
applying too much, or too little power. It would have been more fun
to watch them
control the
cars coming out of that turn, and watch some of them drift a little from
not getting it just right, but every one of them came out perfect because
the technology was controlling the acceleration. But it was thrilling
to see them come in so fast and brake so quickly. And you could tell
who was working the brakes harder, as some of the cars would have glowing
red rotors coming in to the turn.
And interestingly,
most of the people I saw there were drunk Brits! Everything was expensive
also,
unless you're
a smoker, because you could get free cigarettes from some half-dressed
girls running around promoting the sponsors' products. (so are
you a smoker now ? Ed. ;- )
I was surprised to see so many British
people, but I was told that |
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