Test Drive: Hyundai Ioniq 5 N

As I mentioned in my Tesla Model S Test Drive, I'm on a mission to see if an electric vehicle could be a realistic choice for my next car - something that serves my commuting and family hauling needs as a daily driver but can be tons of fun when I find some curvy back roads. Yesterday I took the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N out for a spin. The quest isn't over, but the Ioniq raises a completely different set of questions than the Tesla.

My first impression jumping inside the car was how performance-oriented the whole interior is. The steering wheel (at least compared to the Tesla) looks almost like an F1 wheel. There are buttons for driving mode, launch mode, paddles for "shifting," engine sound - all the things that affect the driving feel are right at your fingertips and don't require going through the screen. The dash display behind the steering wheel has several options that all look like a great mix of traditional driving with modern technology. They also nailed the mix of buttons and touch-screen interaction in the main center screen. While playing with the buttons and screens, I noticed there's a race mode with more adjustments you can make to how the car drives, as well as a lap timer! Clearly this car was built for serious enthusiasts.

Getting the car set up to drive, I was surprised to find that the seat and steering wheel position adjustments were entirely manual. I'm sure the manual seats come with the territory with the very race-inspired seats in the Ioniq 5 N. They were indeed great for tackling curvy roads but I wonder if they'd start feeling a bit cramped after a long commute.

Once I got going, I was immediately impressed with how the steering and suspension felt so connected with the road. The acceleration was also plenty fast. It certainly isn't the insane acceleration of the Tesla, but a few seconds of full throttle will still produce grin-inducing G forces that rival any normal sports car.

After finding some curvy back roads, I switched into "N Mode," which decreases the traction control and stability control, turns on the "N Active Sound+," and turns on "N e-Shift." Now I have to admit, when I tried the different simulated engine noises earlier in the drive, it felt a bit gimmicky. But when combined with the paddle shifting to simulate the experience of upshifting and downshifting through a (totally pretend) RPM range, it was nothing but pure driving fun. Braking into a corner, downshifting, carrying some speed through the corner, then accelerating out and jumping back up through the gears was an absolute joy. That audible feedback of power and the active participation in choosing a "gear" were a huge part of what was missing in the Tesla. The fantastic suspension and steering feel complete the package to create a genuinely great driving experience.

For as fun as this car is, the question I'm now left with is actually whether it can serve all those other needs as a daily driver. I could see those seats and that suspension all feeling a bit tiresome after 30 or 60 minutes in traffic every day. Is sacrificing everyday comfort worth it for what you get on those occasional weekend joy rides? I suppose in some sense, the very fact that that's the question I'm left with is already a credit to the Ioniq 5 N. As my daughter and I approached the dealership at the end of the test drive, I told her I had been wondering whether the lack of fun in the Tesla was a problem that would plague all electric vehicles. She summed it up perfectly - "apparently not."

Test Drive: Tesla Model S

I recently came across a Road & Track article about the best electric sports cars and it got me wondering whether my next car should be an EV. For a long time I've assumed electric vehicles were for people who just want to get from point A to point B, but maybe I've been too quick to dismiss them.  Only one solution - time to test drive some electric vehicles myself! Yesterday I drove a Tesla Model S - my first time driving an electric car of any kind. Some things went just as I expected, but there were some interesting surprises for me too.

The first surprise came before I even got in the car. I chose the Model S because, to me anyway, it has the sportiest looks of any Tesla. The thing I didn't realize until seeing it up close is just how big the car is though. Sure it has a sporty shape, but the size makes it look more like a Porsche Panamera. In fact the dimensions bear this out - 197.7" long for the Tesla compared to 198.8" for the Porsche, and both identical "width without mirrors" of 78.2".

Inside, everything feels high quality and comfortable, except for the visual weirdness of having that huge screen dominate the center of the car. Ergonomically, it was also weird having to use the touch screen for so many functions that would otherwise be one-touch buttons or knobs in a normal car. Even choosing between forward, reverse, and park was done via the touch screen! You don't realize how much all the little knobs and things are a part of the normal tactile sensation of driving until they're all gone and all you have is a screen.

Once on the road, the two immediate things I noticed were how quiet the cabin was and the odd feel of the regenerative braking. The silence without the engine noise was to be expected but it gave the weird sensation of having my my ears clogged and needing to pop at first. One surprising thing about the lack of engine noise, though, was that it made it hard to tell what my speed was at any given time. I had to constantly keep my eye on the speedometer and frequently found myself accidentally going 10+ MPH faster than I thought I was going.  As for the braking, the dealer told me the whole idea with EVs is letting the regenerative braking slow the car for you (while converting the kinetic energy to charge the battery) without you ever having to touch the brakes. This means that as soon as you come off the gas pedal, the car starts slowing down quite a bit. It was a little weird at first but I actually got used to it quicker than I expected.

One thing I really liked about the driving setup was how configurable it was. I could change the ride height, suspension stiffness, steering feel, and acceleration profile. Any car I'd be using as my daily driver serves as both my commuter car and my back roads fun ride so it would be great to be able to switch back and forth between comfort and sporty settings.

After getting used to the car a bit, I made my way to some curvy roads where I could get a better feel for the handling and acceleration of the car. This is where the biggest surprise of the whole day came in - the "insane" acceleration mode is freaking fast. The Tesla takes off like a rocket ship and just keeps pulling harder and harder until you reach the limits of your own bravery. I've been fortunate to drive some pretty fast cars - Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches - but this was a face-distorting mind-bending level of acceleration I had never experienced before. There was also plenty of cornering grip. I'm sure the amount of grip you need to launch that car 0-60 in less than 3.5s means getting it around a tight curve is a piece of cake.

However, for all this abundance of torque and grip, something was missing. Driving curvy back roads just wasn't that fun in the Model S. It's possible that one culprit is actually having too much power. Exiting a corner and getting on the gas was reduced to the briefest jolt of acceleration and then, once pegged at whatever max speed I was comfortable with on that road, waiting around for the next corner to eventually come. It also didn't help that the braking and turning were lacking of any real "feel" of connection with the road. It started making the Tesla seem a bit like a one trick pony. It was great at the jaw-dropping acceleration, but nothing else really inspired any joy of the driving experience.

As I headed back toward the dealership, I tried out Full Self Driving for the first time. I was ready to spring into action if anything went wrong, so I don't know that it really saved me any mental energy compared to just driving myself. There was also a moment where a rookie driver was in the shoulder doing who-knows-what and I would have changed lanes to steer clear of them. The Tesla instead just happily carried on passing directly by the rookie driver before changing lanes. It's a little thing, but it was interesting getting some first-hand experience of what it feels like to hand those decisions over to the car. The Full Self Driving did get me all the way to my destination without any intervention on my part, and I have to admit I arrived back at the dealership feeling like it was a pretty cool piece of tech.

In the end, the Tesla Model S felt like just that - a cool piece of technology. It felt like a car made for people who love cool tech, not a car for people who love driving. It was like driving an iPad - the fastest-accelerating iPad you can imagine, for sure, but still an iPad nonetheless. The big open question for me now is - are these just Tesla problems (or even just the Model S? Should I have tried the lighter-weight Model 3 instead?). Or, are they problems with sporty electric vehicles in general? Fortunately, there are now quite a few sporty electric vehicles on the market to help answer this question. I'm hoping to try out as many of them as I can get my hands on. Watch this space.

nakhon100, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Return to United Karting

This weekend I made my second visit to United Karting for a few sessions of arrive and drive with their rental karts. It was a gorgeous day and three really enjoyable track sessions.

One pleasant surprise compared to last trip was how well I knew the track layout. I found it slightly challenging to learn the track my first time there so it was nice to be able to jump in and know where I was going right away this time.

The biggest thing that stood out to me this trip was how different my karts were in each of the three sessions. The first kart was relatively neutral and it was fun inducing a little trail brake oversteer to get the kart rotated into each corner. The kart in the second session must have had more worn rear tires or something because it was much looser through the corners. As soon as I attempted a little trail brake oversteer, I got the kart so sideways that I spun out! The looser kart must have worked out for me though because I ended up shaving over half a second off of my personal best time. The third session, by comparison, felt like the slowest kart all day by far. I managed to get slightly better than my first session's time, but nowhere close to my best lap of the day during that second session.

If I was competing with others for fast lap or just trying hard to set a personal best time, I might have been bothered by the inconsistency in the karts. As it was though, I actually really enjoyed making the adjustments in things like braking point and turn-in to get the best out of each different kart.

I know I wrote this last time, but it stands out to me just how much UK maximizes track utilization. Almost as soon as one session is over, they have the next group on track so you're never sitting around waiting and wondering what's taking so long (which is my consistent gripe with Autobahn).

Finally (also much unlike Autobahn) I had no issue with traffic in any of the sessions. The wide track and the layout itself make it relatively easy to find a way around slower karts. Plus, with such a long track and only 5-8 karts on track at a time, everyone ended up pretty spread out and I had tons of open track the whole day.

Overall it was a great way to spend an afternoon and I'm hoping it won't be another year before I make it back there again.

For more pictures, check out the loveofdriving Instagram feed!

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Loveofdriving on Bluesky

Loveofdriving has joined the over 19 million Bluesky users!  Go join bluesky yourself and follow my feed at https://bsky.app/profile/loveofdriving.com.  Only downside - so far there isn't a great Blogger widget to embed the loveofdriving feed in the blog sidebar.  Hopefully that's coming soon.  In the meantime, here's my first Bluesky post:

Put in a few laps at United Karting today!

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— loveofdriving (@loveofdriving.com) November 16, 2024 at 4:14 PM

Forza MX Racing Simulator

I recently discovered the best possible reason to be early for your flight - the Forza MX Simulator! The return flight from our recent family vacation to Cancun, Mexico involved getting to the airport extra early because we were carpooling with another family on an earlier flight. I figured it wouldn't be hard to kill a couple hours in the airport, and it turned out the Cancun airport did in fact have some pretty good shopping and dining. The best part though, was this sim racing rig where you could get 12 minutes of racing for only $24!

The car choices ranged from sports cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 all the way up to a modern F1 racecar. There weren't a ton of tracks to chose from but I believe there was Watkins Glen, Road America, Circuit of the Americas, and Spa-Francorchamps. They also had several different sim setup options depending on your familiarity with racing sims.  I opted to turn off the brake assist and the racing line. The hard part was choosing a track and car. I wanted a track I knew fairly well but would also be fun to drive. I opted for Spa and, just because it was the fastest option, the modern F1 car.

The first thing I noticed with the sim was just how weird it was getting used to the viewing angles involved when you have three large screens wrapping around in front of you. I'm so used to video games at home where you need to fit everything you want to see onto a normal-sized TV that's at least five feet away. This means, at most, you have to look from one edge of the screen to another to see through the approaching turn. You barely need to move your eyes, let alone your head. That first set of turns at Spa on the Forza MX sim, however, looked like everything was on mega-zoom and it was very weird having to turn my head noticeably to the side to see through the corner.  This was something I got used to after a minute or two, but the three-screen setup never really felt like the awesome game-changer I expected it to. Of course, I was only doing solo hot laps and not racing other cars, so I'm guessing if I was trying to navigate around other cars on track the added visibility to each side may have felt like more of an advantage over my home setup.

Another interesting feature of the sim rig was the moving seat. I have to admit this felt a bit more like a gimmick than something that genuinely immersed me in the driving experience. Turning side to side rolled the whole rig in each direction, and hitting the brakes hard pitched the whole thing forward. It didn't really feel like a true replacement for the G forces you'd experience driving a car. More importantly, it didn't produce any sensation that actually mattered for car control. It would have been a totally different story if you could feel through the seat of your pants the rear end of the car stepping out with oversteer.

The best feature of the racing setup that really was a big upgrade over my home setup was the steering wheel, which was some version of the McLaren GT3 wheel from Fanatec mounted onto a Fanatec direct-drive podium base. I think this was my first time driving a direct drive wheel and the sheer power of the force feedback in the steering wheel was outstanding. The build quality of the wheel as a whole was also great, with the shift paddles having a very satisfying solid click to them when shifting. After finishing my laps, my hands were feeling tired from wrestling with the wheel around Spa similar to how they felt my last time out karting, which was pretty cool from a simulator.

As far as how the actual driving went, Spa is a long track and it took some time to get familiar with the turns and the rig and the car. The funniest part was just how quickly the F1 car decelerated. I would err on the side of caution for an upcoming corner, brake a little too early, and before I know it I'm barely creeping forward and still have 50 or 100 yards before the actual turn. By the end of my time, I was getting more aggressive in the corners, which did result in some satisfying fast turns but also resulted in a few off-track excursions that totally killed my lap times. Luckily the simulator was more forgiving of taking an F1 car through a sand trap than the real thing would be.

If I was doing it again, I think I would have chosen a slower car like the Porsche GT3. Although it was fun going blazing fast in an F1 car, there was so much grip and speed that you never really felt like you were balancing the car at the limit through the turn. It was brake-turn-accelerate all so quickly that you were out of the turn before you really had a chance to feel the edge of adhesion through the steering wheel. I think a slower car with less grip, relatively speaking anyway, would have given me a chance to see what the wheel's force feedback was capable of from a "feel" standpoint.

Overall it was a really fun experience. It must have looked fun to passers-by in the airport because the Forza MX stand was deserted when I started and by the time I finished there were a bunch of people waiting in line to try it for themselves. It's hard to say where I'd rank the "love of driving" aspect of it compared to other racing video games or real life track days, but as a way to kill a few minutes in an airport in definitely can't be beat.

60k Mile Giulia Check-in

I ticked over 60,000 miles in my Alfa Romeo Giulia this past week. It's been four years and 41,000 miles since I bought it and it seems like a good time provide a "long term test" update on what I think of the car.

A lot of what I liked about the car when I first bought it is still true now. It's fun to take the car out on some twisty back roads and play with the quick acceleration and nimble steering. The car sounds great when you're winding it up. The "manual mode" on the automatic transmission is even really responsive and fun to play with. Obviously it's not quite the same experience as a true stick shift, but the pros of having an automatic for a daily driver outweigh the cons of missing that three-pedal action, at least for me.

One of the fun things about the car which I'm surprised hasn't faded yet is how unique it is. Even though the Giulia has been on the market in the US for seven years, you don't see a ton of them on the road. I still have people come up to me at gas stations, coffee shops, etc. that complement the car and ask me how it is to drive. Some people have never even heard of Alfa Romeo at all and think my car is way more expensive than it is. Given all the BMWs and Audis I see around that, in M or RS trim, surely cost twice what my car did, it's funny that my car is the one turning heads. I guess if you look at the sales numbers, I think there have only been around 50k Giulias sold in the US so far, which is about how many BMW 3 series were sold in 2021 alone.

The biggest thing I was worried about when I bought my car was reliability, because most of the people I spoke to who had heard of Alfa Romeo knew their poor reputation in that area. It hasn't been totally perfect - I had the sunroof get stuck in the open position and the whole sunroof had to be replaced (covered under warranty). But, cars in this segment tend not to be stellar when it comes to reliability anyway, and so far the Alfa has been on par with my BMW 330 I had before this or the Mercedes C320 before that.

Another downside I've noticed having owned the car longer is that the back seats are quite small for a four-door car. The rear leg room on the passenger side is kind of tight, but the rear leg room on the driver's side is really a squeeze even for my 4'5" daughter. I pretty much never have to take multiple adults anywhere in my car so it hasn't been a big deal so far, but I could see it becoming more of an issue down the road as my daughter and her friends get taller.

The biggest downside of the Giulia to me is where it falls short of being a true performance car. The same kinds of issues I discovered on the autocross track also show up if you really start pushing the car hard on back roads. The brakes don't inspire confidence, especially as they get hotter and hotter. The suspension can react in strange ways to bumps, creating kind of a wiggle in the back end that makes the car feel unsettled. And the steering, although very responsive, doesn't transmit much feel for the road or the tires' level of grip.

In the end, although the Alfa Romeo Giulia isn't perfect, I'm still glad I bought it instead of any of the alternatives in my price range. It's neat having a car that you don't see very many of on the road. And as long as you aren't using it for motorsports or really going ten tenths on the back roads, it's a fun car to drive. Hopefully it'll keep treating me well until I can get my next dream car.

United Karting Arrive & Drive

A couple weeks ago I made it out to United Karting to try out their rental karts. It's an outdoor karting track sort of similar to what I did at SpeedVegas in April. I only did a couple of races but I was happy with the venue overall and I'm looking forward to going back.

My first race was a bit of a mixed bag. During the warm-up lap while I was getting a feel for the kart's handling, I noticed that the kart would dart to the right as soon as I applied the brakes. It also wouldn't turn right at all unless I was braking. I made it through the session, but it was annoying driving because I had to stab the brakes to rotate the kart any time I went through a right hand turn on the track.

Other than the kart problems, I also found the track a little hard to navigate. Most of the walls are the normal red and white interlocking barrier systems you find at most karting tracks, but some of the track boundaries only used tires that were fairly low to the ground. It made it hard at times to visually pick up where the next corner is supposed to be until you really got the track memorized.

Just to get the last of the negatives out of the way now, the seatbelts on the karts didn't really cinch all the way down so it felt very weird driving with loose seatbelts. The track was also kind of bumpy in spots but that wasn't a huge deal.

The second session, between having a much better kart and being a little more familiar with the track, went significantly better than the first. My main impression was just how fast the track and kart felt. Unlike SpeedVegas, there was no point where I was running into the top speed of the kart and just waiting patiently for the next corner. There were even a couple corners where you go flying past the barriers at such a speed that it felt like you'd have quite a shunt if you messed up the corner. Presumably with the interlocking safety barriers, the walls would have some give and you wouldn't actually hurt yourself, but it definitely added to the sensation of speed on the track. If anything my only quibble with the track layout is that there weren't enough typical brake-apex-accelerate-trackout corners that can feel so satisfying to get just right.

The balance of the kart in my second session was also pretty nice. Several of the corners were long enough that you could really play around with the throttle to affect the balance mid-corner, which was a lot of fun.

One thing worth mentioning is that I was able to show up and get in a couple races without having to wait around forever, which was nice. Part of this is just down to having gas karts, whereas I think at Autobahn Indoor Speedway they have to wait to let the electric karts charge up fully between races, resulting in a lot of down time.

Overall I was really happy with the experience. I was several seconds slower than the other drivers, but I'm looking forward to going back and learning the track and the karts better and improving my lap times. A lack of decent passing opportunities is a huge problem at Autobahn, so I'm curious to see how the track layout at United Karting works for wheel-to-wheel racing once I'm actually quick enough to be closer to the other drivers.

SpeedVegas, Part 2 - Karting

If my feelings were a bit lukewarm about my exotic car driving at SpeedVegas, the karting we did afterwards was an unqualified great time. The karts were fun to drive, the track was challenging, and I even got in some great wheel to wheel racing.

I've done a lot of indoor karting at places like Autobahn Indoor Speedway and, while it's fun, those experiences left me worried about a few things that might be likely problems at SpeedVegas. My biggest concern was traffic, since you can get held up a lot by slower drivers at Autobahn while you're waiting for a decent place to pass. Even with 15 cars on track at SpeedVegas though, the track was long enough to get some separation from other drivers and the straight sections were long and wide enough to get passes done.

Another thing I was worried about was how long we'd be sitting around waiting to get on track. We were signed up for three races, and at Autobahn it can take forever to get through three races because of long waits between each race. At SpeedVegas though, were were on track for our first race very quickly and then only had a few minutes of downtime between each race. Maybe it's because the karts are gas instead of electric and so don't take any time to charge up, but they were pretty much constantly running races.

One minor downside was that the karts were slightly underpowered and didn't have quite enough top speed. I've done gas karts before where you really had to roll onto the throttle smoothly while trying to avoid power oversteer, but that definitely wasn't the case with these karts. The longest two straights also felt like you reached the kart's top speed too early in the straight and then were just waiting until you reached the next turn.

Despite those downsides, the track and karts still combined for a really fun drive. The karts tended towards oversteer under braking, so getting the balance just right to scrub a little speed and then get through a corner smoothly without sliding was challenging - in a good way. There was a good mix of fast and slow corners too, with the first corner at the end of the main straight requiring just a little bit of brakes and then flying through at nearly top speed. Nailing the braking point, turn-in, and apex and carrying full speed to the outside wall was super satisfying.

The other people in my group really had a great time there also. Everyone had varying levels of experience and even the less experienced racers enjoyed improving their laps during each session. This kind of karting is such a great mix of wheel to wheel racing, accessibility for all skill levels, low cost, and just general fun factor. It seems crazy to say given the huge cost difference, but I think the karting races outshined the exotic car driving as the highlight of my day.

SpeedVegas, Part 1 - Exotics Racing

During my most recent trip to Vegas, some friends and I went to SpeedVegas for a morning of motorsports. We started the day driving exotic cars - one friend in a Lamborghini Gallardo, another in a McLaren 570 GT4, and myself in a Porsche 911 (992) GT3. It was their first time doing any kind of on-track performance car driving and my first time driving a 911.

After walking around the paddock for a bit, soaking in the view of all these amazing cars, we did a driver briefing in which they discussed the track layout, cones marking the braking zones and apexes, and rules for passing and getting passed on track. Even though the track is only 1.3 miles, we'd be on track at the same time as other drivers, with the instructors watching and assisting to make sure passes happen safely. I was a little worried about traffic being a problem, but there was only one time when I was in a corner with two other cars that it was much of an issue.

After the briefing, we headed on track for a couple ride-along "discovery laps" in a Porsche Cayenne. Having done instructor ride-alongs back in my Skip Barber Racing School days, I knew what I was in for. I tried to warn my friends that this would be the scariest part of their day, and it definitely lived up to it. After an initial slow lap to discuss the track layout, the second lap at full speed in an SUV with tires squealing the whole way around was not for the faint of heart.

As soon as the discovery laps were over, we threw on helmets and were in our respective cars almost immediately. Other than feeling like I was sitting very low to the ground, the Porsche felt much more like a normal car compared to the Lamborghinis and Ferraris I had driven in previous exotic car outings. I pulled up to the end of the pit lane and then jumped onto the gas to join the track. The car certainly felt fast right away, but with so few laps and with a track full of already-warmed-up drivers, it felt like I didn't really have much time to waste warming up myself.

My immediate impression of the track was just how many quick direction switches there were. There was hardly anywhere on the track where you get to brake into a turn, hit the apex, and roll onto the gas all the way to track out under full throttle. One of the longer turns on the track (turn 3?) tightens up more and more as you go through it, which ends up feeling like you're scrubbing speed the whole way around until finally getting to a super late apex. From there, the track is basically just a ton of back-to-back-to-back S-curves. Some of them felt like I was just keeping the car stable while getting through the apex and on to the next turn, not really able to get on the throttle much because the next direction change and compromise corner would be coming up right behind it.

The final S-curve is straight enough that you can essentially just straight-line and get on the gas, but almost as soon as you're on the gas, you're back on the brakes again leading into the final hairpin. I never really felt like I nailed this turn. They have green cones set up to show you where to hit turn-in points and apex points, but I kept finding myself so far to the outside so deep into the turn that once I got down to the apex I was going way too slow. Since that turn leads onto the main straight, that turn should have been the best spot for really getting on the gas and pushing all the way to track out under power, but I just couldn't get my line right through that turn the whole day.

After six or seven laps, we did a cooldown lap to give the brakes and car (and me) a chance to take it easy for a lap before getting back into it. I'm sure it's no coincidence that my fastest lap of the day, a 59.363 second lap, came immediately after the cool-down lap.  A couple laps later and I was back into the pits and the driving was done. My instructor seemed pretty pleased with my driving and the fact that I broke under a one minute lap. I was happy that the day went smoothly and that I didn't have any scary moments in a 500HP car I had never driven before.

Although certainly my first thoughts jumping out of the car were how fun it was, if I'm being totally honest it wasn't my favorite track day (that honor probably goes to my day with SCDA at NJMP in the Spec Miata). I never really got to the point that I felt like I was putting the corners together nicely, nailing the racing line, and pushing the limit for what the car could do. Maybe I was paying too much attention to their green cones instead of trusting my own instincts for finding the line and adjusting each lap to go faster. Maybe the track layout isn't conducive to feeling out the limits of a car's handling - in some ways it felt more driving autocross than driving on a racetrack. I suspect the track is specifically designed to avoid spins and off-track excursions when these cars are given to a bunch of novice drivers. In fact, other than noticing the immediate power you get from a naturally-aspirated 500HP engine, I didn't really have a ton of impression of what driving the Porsche really felt like. I sort of just didn't notice the car, which is kind of disappointing since those exotic cars is where all the expense is for this kind of event. Maybe though, it's as simple as not getting enough track time to get comfortable with the car or the track.

Even as expensive motorsports go, the dollars per minute on track here was pretty pricy. My NJMP track day was twice as much money, but I got almost 90 minutes on track for that money compared to only about ten at SpeedVegas. The draw, of course, is getting a chance to drive supercars at the limit on a racetrack. What I'm still not sure about is whether the track layout is just fundamentally underwhelming for such great cars, or if more seat time there would make the difference to where I'm enjoying feeling out the limit of performance in a Ferrari or McLaren or Porsche on that track. I guess there's only one way to find out - to go back and do some more laps next time I'm in Vegas!

3/20 PCA Autocross

Last week I did my first motorsports event in my Alfa Romeo Giulia, doing an autocross "test and tune" with the Chesapeake chapter of the Porsche Club of America. It was fun playing around with the handling limits of the car, but it reminded me why I haven't done autocross in a few years.

My first thought out of the gate on my first run was how quick my car felt under acceleration. The course layout was fast and I got all the way up to third gear in some of the straights. I'm sure that's all down to gear ratios, but it was a pleasant surprise. I was also surprised how easy it was to play with the car when it was sliding around. There's no way to turn off the traction and stability control in the Alfa, so I was able to throw the car around without really having to worry about spinning out or getting too out of shape. However, the actual amount of grip prior to losing adhesion was much less than it was on my BMW, and the lightness of the steering made it very hard to feel where that limit was. The end result was that it was hard to carry very much speed through tight corners or the slalom section. Maybe the weight of the car and the lack of overall grip are normally hidden by peppy acceleration and a light steering feel, but finally fully reveal themselves on an autocross track.

As far as the course layout, I did like the fast sections and fast turns, but there were two very long wide turns that felt more like going on a roundabout on public roads than going through a track corner with any kind of apex. The course reminded me more of doing a car control clinic on a skid pad. Even beyond the day's specific track layout, the feeling of navigating through all these cones reminded me why I prefer driving on a real race track. There's just a fundamental difference between a track's edges and turns all being defined by walls or curbs or grass vs. a few cones on a wide open expanse of pavement with nothing but your imagination to decide where you should put your car.

My last autocross event prior to this one was in August of 2016 in my BMW. Shortly after that I took the BMW for an actual track day at Summit Point. One factor behind the gap in autocross events was the wear and tear on my daily driver, which was significant at the track day but is still non-zero even in an autocross event. A bigger part of the blame though was that driving on a real track is just so much better. The PCA autocross this week, while certainly fun, reminded me that the track is really where my heart lies. Hopefully there are more track days (in other people's cars) in my future.

Cross-Country Trip (2002), Part 5 - Bonus Coverage

As I mentioned in the last post, one of my regrets from my 2002 cross-country trip with my brother was that we never got a good picture of the two of us in any of the cool places we were visiting along the way.  What we did instead was buy a small figurine of The Simpsons' Bumblebee Man before the trip and take pictures of him in all these cool places.  So now, for your viewing pleasure, the adventures of Bumblebee Man:

Fallingwater in PA

Cleveland, OH

 Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL

Sears Tower in Chicago, IL

Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO

Kansas City, MO

Denver, CO

Rocky Mountains in CO

Continental Divide in CO

Dinosaur National Monument in UT

Salt Lake City, UT

San Francisco, CA (Alcatraz in the background)

Grauman's (aka Mann's) Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, CA

Las Vegas, NV

Grand Canyon in AZ

Four Corners in UT/AZ/NM/CO

Houston, TX

New Orleans, LA

Myrtle Beach, SC

[ Part 4 - Dallas to Maryland ] <---

Cross-Country Trip (2002), Part 4 - Dallas to Maryland

The final leg of the cross country trip with my brother took us to New Orleans, Myrtle Beach, then finally home.  It was awesome to visit New Orleans, and it was cool seeing the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean having already seen the Pacific and the Great Lakes as part of the same trip.  For as great as the trip was though, we were definitely glad to be back home by the end.

Day 25 - Dallas

Slept in, skipped lunch, and drove into downtown Dallas at 1:30pm.  We went to the West End Market, but there wasn't much to do there so we walked around for a little while then left.

We then walked around for a few minutes before deciding to visit the 6th Floor Museum which talked about the Kennedy assassination and had the area restored where Lee Harvey Oswald sat to fire the shots.  They had the boxes set up the same way they were when Oswald fired the shots.  It was strange to be in the book depository that is talked about so much.  The 7th floor of the museum was an exhibit of the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs over the years.

We left the museum at 5:20pm to go to a double-header at The Ballpark in Arlington.  Because of traffic, we got to the park at 6:15pm and it was the 4th inning in the first game when we got in.  We had aisle seats in the club section.  The four guys behind us were also Orioles fans.  Texas won the first game 8-4.

It rained between games, but only for a short time.  There was no delay in the second game.  We went to our seats after walking around between games and there was a Rangers employee telling people not to sit in the open because of lightning.  We stood in the walkway for a few minutes with a bunch of other people from our section until a security guard told us we could sit down because it was a fire hazard to block the walkway.  The Rangers won game two 3-2.

The food at the park was nothing special, but we did order hot dogs right to our seats (in true club section style).  We got back to the hotel around 12:30am.

Day 26 - Dallas, TX to Houston, TX - 244 miles

Left the hotel in Dallas at 10:30am.  Arrived in Houston at 2:30pm.  The Ramada Limited is the worst hotel we have been in so far.

At 4:30pm we left the hotel to go to downtown Houston.  We parked near Minute Maid Park and got our tickets from will call then walked around downtown Houston.  Everything in Houston is under construction, it seems.  Buildings, sidewalks, parks - everything.  We went back to Minute Maid Park at about 6:00pm so that we could find our seats and get some food before the game started.  They played with the roof closed because it was raining just before game time.  The Astros won 7-3 over the Diamondbacks, making the home team 5-0 in the games we were at.  Got back to the hotel around 11:00pm.

Day 27 - Houston, TX to New Orleans, LA - 437 miles

Left Houston at 10:15am.

LOUISIANA

We did a scenic route from one of the scenic roads book called Bayou Byways in Louisiana.  We saw old plantation houses.

Arrived in New Orleans at 7:30pm.  The hotel is the Prince Conti Hotel on Conti Street, a half block from Bourbon St.  The hotel is very upscale.  The rooms have 15 foot ceilings and ceiling fans.

After watching some TV we went to Poppy's Diner just off Bourbon St at the suggestion of the woman at the front desk of the hotel.  After dinner we walked up and down Bourbon St before returning to the hotel.  It's mostly clubs that we can't get into because we aren't 21.  We got back to the hotel around 1:00am.

Day 28 - New Orleans

Slept in and then left the hotel to walk around downtown at 12:30pm.  Went to Cafe Du Monde at to have coffee and beignets.  Beignets are deep fried bread pieces covered in powdered sugar.  Twice while we were eating, groups of people came by asking us to take a picture of one of them pretending to eat a beignet.  They needed the pictures for a scavenger hunt.

After that, we walked up and down Canal St past the aquarium and got snowballs.  Then we went to a movie theater at the mall and saw Minority Report.

After the movie, it was raining so we went to the hotel before going to dinner.  At 8:00pm we went to the Cafe Pontalba to get some authentic New Orleans dinner.  The restaurant is located in the first apartment building in the U.S.  Anywhere in New Orleans where there are open walls in a restaurant, there will be pigeons in the restaurant, and they will be the rattiest looking pigeons you'll ever see.

After dinner, we walked up Bourbon St and back to the hotel.  We decided the next day we'd drive straight to Atlanta instead of stopping in Alabama.  At 11:15pm, we went back out to Bourbon St to get a picture of Bumblebee Man and to walk up and down Bourbon St one last time.  We got back to the hotel at midnight.

Day 29 - New Orleans, LA to Atlanta, GA - 506 miles

We left New Orleans at 8:20am.

MISSISSIPPI

ALABAMA

Had lunch at a gas station off I-65 in Alabama that had subs and pizza and tables to sit down and eat.  They had tee shirts in the gas station, one of which had a confederate flag on it and said "Til Death Do Us Part."

GEORGIA

Back in the Eastern Time Zone!  Arrived at the Fairfield Inn in Atlanta at 7:00pm.  Decided for our final route back we'd go to Myrtle Beach instead of along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Day 30 - Atlanta

Slept in, then went to Underground Atlanta, a large underground shopping mall downtown, at 12:30pm.  At lunch at the food court, then went to World of Coca-Cola near Underground Atlanta.  Admission was $6/ea.  We saw exhibits about the history of Coke, including that it was only a nickel for the first 70 years of its existence.  We were also able to sample Coke products from around the world.  There wasn't a whole lot do in downtown Atlanta, so we went back to the hotel and got delivery pizza for dinner.

The car is burning oil and the fan in the laptop isn't working, so we decided we'd go to Myrtle Beach the next day then all the way home the day after that.  That would get us home on July 1st, two days earlier than expected.

Day 31 - Atlanta, GA to Myrtle Beach, SC - 381 miles

Left Atlanta at 8:45am.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Arrived at the Econo Lodge at Myrtle Beach at 3:45pm.  Went to the beach and sat on the beach until 6:00pm.  In the evening we went to Broadway At The Beach, an outdoor mall similar to Pier 39 in San Francisco.  We walked around for about half an hour before getting dinner.  Walked around Broadway At The Beach for a little bit more after dinner, then got back to the hotel around 11:00pm.

Day 32 - Myrtle Beach, SC to Laurel, MD - 486 miles

Left Myrtle Beach at 11:00am.

NORTH CAROLINA

At lunch at McDonald's.  Got gas and continued towards HOME!

VIRGINIA

MARYLAND

Arrived at home: 8:08pm.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed going through my brother's logs of our cross country trip and looking through all the pictures we took.  The trip was a once in a lifetime opportunity to take a whole month off before getting wrapped up in work and life responsibilities and I'm really glad we did it.  Driving across the country is such a great way to see the U.S.  You get to experience the changes in landscape and scenery and the sheer space that you don't get just by jumping in a plane and finding yourself at your destination.

It's funny to think about how different the trip would be if I was doing it today.  Some of the challenges of the trip - directions from place to place, finding decent restaurants, booking hotels, finding fun stuff to do - are all so easy now with smartphones that you forget that those resources once weren't available.

There are a few things from the trip I wish we had done differently.  There are times when we spent huge stretches in the car only seeing the world through our car windows, which can begin to feel a bit disconnected from the world around you.  I wish we stopped a little more and got out and smelled the air and felt the ground under our feet and gotten a little more immersed in what we were seeing.

I also wish I had spent some time back then jotting down more of my thoughts on the trip (more along the lines of my West Virginia trip).  I certainly appreciate my brother being in charge of all the logging and photography while I was doing all the driving, but our 20-year-old selves didn't really have the forethought to capture a whole lot more than just times and places and where we ate every meal.

My biggest regret from the trip, speaking of our dumb 20-year-old selves, is that we never got a good picture of the my brother and I together.  Literally the only shots of my brother in the hundreds of pictures we have is when he just happened to be visible in the side mirror while taking photos out the side window.  But, I guess that's all hindsight and if we had waited until we were sensible adults with lots of forethought before doing this trip... well maybe we'd still be waiting.

All those issues aside, it was still the trip of a lifetime.  We visited a ton of cities we had never been to, saw amazing national parks with some of the most beautiful places in America, and drove on fantastic driving roads in every part of the country.  In the nearly twenty years since then, I still see pictures of various places across the U.S. and think "I've been there!" all because of that trip.

I'd love to pick one thing that stands out as the top highlight of the trip, but with a trip that long there are just so many.  Coming over the other side of the Rockies and seeing the drastic vegetation change, since it was our first time that far west, was certainly neat.  Driving on fun roads through California was awesome.  Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time was particularly special because it was this thing that, as people growing up on the East Coast, you see on TV and always just think "that's a long way away."

I especially enjoyed and appreciate all the time I got to spend with my brother - listening to the same CDs in the car over and over, figuring out how to get where we were going, joking around and passing the time on all the long driving days.  My favorite memory - maybe from the whole trip - is one my brother won't even remember: driving through Arizona towards the Grand Canyon, the sun setting on a long day of sightseeing and driving, the dark horizon against the beautiful last bits of light across the sky, and my brother in the passenger seat sleeping.

[ Part 3 - Los Angeles to Dallas ] <--- | ---> [ Part 5 - Bonus Coverage ]

Cross-Country Trip (2002), Part 3 - Los Angeles to Dallas

The next eight days of the cross country trip took my brother and I from California back east to Texas.  The Southwest US includes some awesome scenery and we got to see a ton of it.  I hope you enjoy my brother's logs of the trip and the pictures we took.

Day 17 - Los Angeles

We slept in and got a cab to Dodger Stadium to see the Dodgers play the Anaheim Angels.  At the game, Craig had two Dodger Dogs (the ballpark's famous food) and some peanuts.  Paul ate one Dodger Dog, a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, and peanuts.  The fans were very rowdy, especially after an Anaheim pitcher hit Shawn Green with a pitch and the benches cleared.  No punches were thrown but the Angels manager was ejected.  The Dodgers ended up winning 5-4.

After the game, we took a cab back to the hotel.  We ordered pizza from Pizza Hut for dinner.  We got sunburned at the game, so we went to a GNC in downtown LA to get some aloe vera lotion.  Later, Craig watched USA beat Mexico 2-0 in World Cup soccer.

Day 18 - Los Angeles

We woke up and watched the re-airing of the USA vs Mexico soccer game, so we didn't get out of the hotel until after noon.  We took a cab to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.  Once we got there we walked around a little while, then got lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.  After lunch we walked to a Ferrari dealership and then to a couple other exotic car dealerships.  One of them even had a Michael Schumacher F1 car.

We then went to a gas station in Beverly Hills to get directions to Hollywood.  We bought a map also.  After looking at the map, we decided it was way too far to walk so we took a cab to Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  We saw the hand and footprints and the stars in the sidewalk.

A man raising money for the homeless did a short comedic routine.  He was in the Cake music video for "Short Skirt Long Jacket."  We gave him $8.

While walking down the main road in Hollywood, we saw a big truck that hauls a car behind it so they can videotape a driving scene.  There was a man in the drivers seat of the car being recorded and a woman in the passenger seat.  The man was looking at the woman and talking/singing.  The car was old and light blue.  I think the man was the lead singer of Smash Mouth, which would mean they were shooting a music video.  Maybe we'll be in the background!

Hollywood seemed really dirty and trashy, with the exception of a couple of parts.  We took a cab back to the hotel.

Being in California, I (Craig) was insistent that we eat at an In-N-Out Burger.  We got a cab and the concierge at the hotel told the driver where one might be.  We went to USC, there wasn't one around.  After the cab driver got out and asked several people where one was, he couldn't get an answer for one nearby.  We went to the only one he knew of.  It was near LAX.  The cab fare for the trip to In-N-Out was about $55, and we gave the driver $70.  A handsome tip for his efforts.  The only things on the menu at In-N-Out are hamburger, cheeseburger, double-cheeseburger, and fries.  We ate at In-N-Out Burger and bought two tee shirts.  The total for the food and shirts came out to be $27 and change.  We finished eating (the food was good - way better than McDonald's), and called a cab to take us back to the hotel.  The cab ride was $37, and we gave the driver $40 because that's all we had in cash.  The total cost of the trip to In-N-Out: $137.

Day 19 - Los Angeles, CA to Las Vegas, NV - 282 miles

Left L.A. at 10:45am.  We had planned to do the Rim of the World Scenic Byway, but forest fires around Cajon Pass kept us from doing that.  After we got out of L.A. and were driving on I-15, we saw acres and acres of charred land.  We could even see some flames from the forest fires.

NEVADA

Arrived in Las Vegas at 4:00pm.  Our hotel was a Travelodge on the south end of the Strip.  Since there were two scenic byways nearby and it was over 100 degrees outside, we did the Red Rock Canyon Loop Drive.  We left the hotel at 5:30pm.  Just after entering the loop, we saw wild donkeys walking around near the road, so we pulled off to the side.  One walked right up behind the car.  It was so close that it could have stuck its tongue out and licked the spoiler.

We got back to the hotel around 8pm and got dressed up to walk up and down the Vegas Strip.  We started by going all the way to the south end, which wasn't very far from the hotel.  At the south end, we crossed the street and started north.

We went into New York New York and walked past all the slots and gaming tables to an area that was set up to look like a New York street with a bunch of New York style restaurants on each side.  There was even a brick walkway instead of carpet.  We decided to eat dinner at ESPN Zone in New York New York.  We got a table in the room with TVs at every table and two big screens at the front.  We ate dinner and watched TV, then went upstairs to the game room and played games until we ran out of points on our cards.  Paul won 8-7 in our 15 competitions (3-1 in air hockey, 1-0 in kart, 1-0 in CART Fury, 1-0 in Cruisin' Exotica, 1-2 in Virtua Striker 2, 1-2 in Super Shot, 0-1 in ESPN College Hoops, 0-1 in bowling).

We left ESPN Zone at 12:30am and continued north on the Strip.  We walked in a couple casinos and weren't stopped by anyone, but we never stopped and tried to gamble so there was no reason to kick us out.  There were a lot of kids younger than us running around.  We stopped at the Frontier near the north end of the strip to get a soda and sit down for a few minutes.  After that, we decided to take a cab back to the hotel.

We grabbed Bee Man and walked to a good place on the strip near the hotel to take a picture, then went back to the hotel [this will be explained in a future post].  We got in at about 3:00am.

Day 20 - Las Vegas, NV to Grand Canyon, AZ - 438 miles

We slept in after the late night and didn't leave Vegas until 11:15am.  We started by going north on I-15 so that we could do the Moapa Valley Drive.  The drive took us past Lake Mead (created by the Hoover Dam) and through the Valley of Fire (a group of red rock formations jutting up from the ground).

One point of interest was a group of Native American petroglyphs high on one of the rock formations.  There is a stairway up to the preserved petroglyphs so that visitors can get a good look at them.

After the scenic byway we got back on I-15 towards Las Vegas to get on the way to the Grand Canyon.  Four hours after leaving, we saw a sign saying that we were eight miles from Las Vegas.  We could see the Strip again from I-15.  We got to the Hoover Dam at 4:15pm, paid $5 to park and walked around.  The visitor center was closed and neither of us wanted to walk all the way across the dam , so we took some pictures, walked around a little, and left around 4:45pm.

ARIZONA

We arrived at the Rodeway Inn - Red Feather Lodge at 8:30pm MST.  We found out in the hotel that Arizona does not do daylight savings time.  The hotel is in a small town near the Grand Canyon called Tusayan.  We walked next door to the Tusayan Cafe for dinner, but it was taking too long to be seated, so we went next door to Wendy's instead.  After that, we walked across the street to McDonald's for ice cream.  We were back in the hotel before 9:45pm.

Day 21 - Grand Canyon, AZ to Farmington, NM - 368 miles

We woke up and left the hotel at 10:15am to go to the Grand Canyon.  Admission was $20.  We parked at the South Rim, walked maybe a half mile down the trail, took some pictures, and walked back.  At one point on the trail we saw a sign saying that "most people" who die at the Grand Canyon go beyond the fences or railings.  That did not inspire confidence.  Also on the trail, we saw a squirrel cooling itself on the shaded rock the same way our cat does on the tile floor.  People were walking right up to the squirrel, but it would just stare back at them and not move.  We left the Grand Canyon around 11:30am.

After the Grand Canyon, it was on to the scenic drive at Monument Valley.  We had lunch at the starting point of Monument Valley at a Blimpie.  The area where we ate lunch looked strange because the sky was almost tan with sand being blown everywhere.  Monument Valley is a bunch of bright orange rock formations in the middle of an otherwise completely flat area.  At one point, we were able to see where the picture was taken for the front of the Road Atlas, and we got a picture of our own.

UTAH

As we drove towards four corners, visibility became low (not dangerously low) from what seemed to be smoke.  It may have been smoke from a forest fire that was in Durango, CO which was northeast of us at the time.  We went to Four Corners on the way to Farmington, NM.  It is located in a Navajo Indian Reservation, and I'm assuming the money goes to them.  Admission was $4.  We took some pictures of the marker showing the division of the states, walked around it to be in all four states, and stood in the middle before we left.

UTAH / NEW MEXICO / COLORADO / ARIZONA / NEW MEXICO

We arrived in Farmington at the Days Inn at 8:00pm MDT.

Day 22 - Farmington, NM to Albuquerque, NM - 213 miles

We woke up at 6:00am to watch the USA vs Germany World Cup game.  Craig stayed up to watch it, but Paul did not.  USA lost 1-0.  We left Farmington at 10:45am.  Went to Aztec to see Native American ruins.  We used receipts from previous parks to get a National Parks Pass for free (normally $50, valid for one year).  The town is named Aztec because it was assumed that the Pueblo in the town could only have been built by the Aztecs.  It was later realized that the structures were built by the Anasazi.  It's strange to think that every brick had to be shaped by hand out of rocks, and that it was done 900 years ago.

Left Aztec before noon.  Arrived at the Howard Johnson Express in Albuquerque at 5:00pm.  Left the hotel and drove to Old Town Albuquerque.  We walked around old town but most of the stores were closed.  We ate dinner in Old Town at a place called Casa de Fiesta.  It was a small Mexican restaurant with a guitar player walking around.  The chili con queso was so hot Craig went through three Cokes before we even got dinner.  We left the restaurant around 7:30pm and drove down US-66 through Albuquerque to Nob Hill (near UNM) and then back to the hotel.  There was not much to do in Albuquerque.

Day 23 - Albuquerque, NM to Lubbock, TX - 340 miles

Left Albuquerque at 9:30am.  No scenic routes today.  Had lunch at A&W in Clovis, NM.  Across from the A&W, some high school girls in bikinis were having a car wash and were trying to get us to get our car washed.  As we drove away from them, one yelled in a whiny voice, "Come on!  We'll wash it ourselves!"  It was humorous.

TEXAS

Arrived at Hampton Inn in Lubbock at 5:00pm CT.  At dinner at IHOP near the hotel.  The waitress kept saying "y'all."

Day 24 - Lubbock, TX to Dallas, TX - 396 miles

Woke up and watched the F1 European Grand Prix.  Rubens Barrichello won.  Left the hotel in Lubbock at 10:30am.  Arrived at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Dallas at 6:15pm.

[ Part 2 - Denver to Los Angeles ] <--- | ---> [ Part 4 - Dallas to Maryland ]