Posts Tagged: Lotus
2012 List: Every car I drove this year
Continuing my douchey humblebrag list of cars I’ve driven in the past year, here is my list for 2012. Same disclaimer applies: some I drove for ten minutes, some for a week.
Up until just two-and-a-half years ago, the most powerful car I had ever driven had 315 horsepower (BMW M Coupe). Thanks to greater opportunities, and ever-soaring horsepower figures in this crazy age we live in, that number has been topped countless times in some unexpected ways. To put it in perspective, 9 out of the 11 Ford models in this list have 365hp of more. Continue reading…
Track Photos from a Texas World Speedway Weekend
I spent last Saturday hanging out at Texas World Speedway with my friends in The Drivers Edge. TWS is an interesting place – it’s a partially dilapidated oval-racing relic from 1969. The grandstands, seen above, are condemned. Despite this, the track hosts driving schools and private tests all the time.
I don’t think they use the full oval very much, but the driving clubs utilize the banked front straight and infield road course which actually extends outside of the oval. It’s a very fast, 15-corner circuit, and it’s quite intimidating. I last drove at TWS in December 2010, and though I went this time just to hang out, I still had a ton of fun just being around the atmosphere. While there, I managed to take some pictures as well. Continue reading…
A Self-Indulgent Look at My Best Images of the Year
I figure the less said by me the better – here’s a collection of the best photos I’ve taken in 2011. (I apologize if some of these are reposts.) It’s been a great experience and I feel good about the work I’ve produced. I’ve learned so much even just going back to the beginning of the year, it’s incredible. In the future, I’d like to share more about how a photo goes from setup and capture to the finished pictures you see here. Here’s to an even more ambitious 2012! Continue reading…
MSR Houston track weekend & Porsche GT3
Driving the Porsche 911 GT3 (996)
Thanks to a very generous owner, I got to drive a 996 Porsche 911 GT3 for a few non-hot laps. Everything about the car seems very special. The most noticeable thing for me that I liked was how the pedals feel so tactile and have so much resistance. It’s hard to explain but instead of the throttle pedal being just a spring, it feels like you have to press through a range of 20 very tiny ‘clicks.’ If that makes any sense. It doesn’t? Okay. There’s a lot of feedback and you can deliver tiny changes in throttle pressure very precisely.
The idle is loud and coarse, and you feel the engine vibration shaking the car at any RPM. The last 911 I drove was a 1986 Carrera, and the directness you feel to the motor in the newer 911 is remarkably undiluted from the ’86. But enough parking lot impressions. The steering feels excellent, and then less so when you’re under power. You can almost watch the steering sensitivity and control melt away as you give it power — it feels very light up front and the rear digs in. I was told the 997 GT3 doesn’t feel this way.
Overall: incredible. Very firm, and flat. It would take a lot of driving adjustment to get up to speed with the weight distribution.
This is an instructor’s car, unfortunately it only went out in 1 session
Harness bar/brace in a Cayman R. Is this factory?
Yes, this was the green group. Not pictured: Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2
It’s not everyday that you see an AMG CLK Black Series. Let alone two, at the track no less!
Ferrari 512TR. I rode in this car at Texas World Speedway in 2003
Late on Saturday, a member came with two Ferraris hoping to get some track time.
F40 on Track
A track member came after we were done on Saturday with two Ferraris, including an astonishing F40. I know he’s a brilliant driver because I rode with him 2003.
An Instagram account of a Cresson Track Weekend
This weekend I drove at MSR Cresson (3.1) with The Drivers Edge and had an unbelievable time as usual. Many of my friends know I’ve become fixated on the iPhone photo app Instagram, not because I think it’s a serious photo taking tool, but because it’s fun. And actually, in exactly the same spirit of analog lomography, cross processing and using aged rolls of film, you get unexpected results and some happy accidents. I plan to post other content from this event but these are images taken with my iPhone as I wandered around the paddock.