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 ]