Rally Stage 1
We dont call them race tracks, we call them stages. =)
Today was my first day at the Rally School and its been quite an experience to say the least. Outside the temperature was somewhere around 100 and inside the car it was even hotter since there isn't much of a working A/C. My EZPass' velcro attachments actually metled and it fell on the floor. Tomorrow Im going to have to cover the front of the car with the moving canopy to hopefully keep some of the heat out because Im tired of reattaching the EZPass plus Im afriad one of these times it just wont stick back on.
In retrospect Rally is pretty much exactly how I imagined it but at first when I was in the car it felt unnatural. But only in the sense that I hadn't done it before in a truly Rally car. Kind of akin to the first time I went jet skiing with Annie and I was riding passenger. Because I had no input and I had no idea what to expect my basic logic which wasnt framed around the subject at all since I had no experience with it created situations where I felt uneasy. Of course all of these feelings quickly faded when I got behind the wheel and I didn't notice how hard the car leaned, and it does, because it sits higher than most of the cars Im used to (M3/M5).
We worked on the hand brake 180 turn and the pendulum and spent most of our day on a stage of their rally course. I think I'm getting the hang of it pretty quick. I know I'm no professional, but I should give credit where it's due and for my first day I think I was able to put a lot of things together rather quickly and definitely thanks in large part to alot of my driving up to this point. Including driving the M3 on summer tires in the winter, because the respect for the car and the healthy concern or fear translates into some good manners for driving Rally on gravel, such as increasing the pressure on the brakes instead of slamming them. And while that may seem obvious its one thing to say it and another to simply do it instinctively, which is pretty much how things go with Rally. You do it once or twice where it feels awkward and you kind of just trust the instructor and that first time that it swings around like it should and you are perfectly connected with the car is all it takes for you to really pick it up.
Well not you, I mean me, but you get the drift, lol, no pun intended.
Anyway, I dont really feel up to writing much tonight, maybe I'll rewrite it later, I spent all day telling everyone how it was anyway so I feel like I've said the same things a million times again.