Spring 2015 Dragon Run: Making Passes (Post 2)

Life was complicated a bit (but only a bit) by the Volvo C 30 group and a DGMR parking lot full of Buell motorcycles and the pickup trucks and trailers that hauled them in.  I say "a bit" because the Volvo group was small-ish and the Buell riders were fast-ish.

More problematic was a fairly large Mazda 3 group that showed up unannounced and who liked to run hard, nose-to-tail.  Much loud "tuner pipes" hooning, and much loud talk of hooning.  Of course nobody says clubs have to announce their weekends, and some don't because they believe law enforcement would be less inclined to visit the Dragon.  (We saw law enforcement on both days we were there.  My own view is that LEO's are to be expected on weekends when the weather gets nice.)

A couple of years ago, Killboy asked of the C 30 "'Is it OK to like Volvos now?"  I guess it is, particularly if it's a
2.5-liter turbo with 220 horsepower.  The car looks better--way better-- in the flesh than in pictures.

Being an ancien, I go all the way back to the 122 model with Volvo.  It was rare to encounter a Volvo
owner with a sense of humor, especially a sense of humor about cars.  Another plus for C 30 owners.

Spring 2015 Dragon Run: Car Gawking (Post 1)

"No pictures!" The first thing Hotshoe and I saw as we rolled onto the Tail of the Dragon on Thursday afternoon was
Kamal, shooting for Killboy.com.  I am fond of Kamal, not only because he is a good photographer and a superb
engineer of Slayers, but also because he is an all-around good guy with a good sense of humor.  Kamal is
camera-shy for a person who uses one on other people daily.  Here, he prevents me from getting a
good shot of him at work by shooting back at me.

When Hotshoe and I arrived on the Dragon we were too tired after a day's driving to make any passes, although, as Hotshoe pointed out, we had to make a pass just to get to our motel.  Anyway, our plan was to make a quick stop at the southern end and move on to some dinner and much-needed rest.  Passes could wait for the next day.  We wound up soaking in the ambience of the parking lots for an hour.

Hotshoe's "general ambience" shot of the parking lot at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort on Thursday evening.  I haven't
bothered to learn anything about the Corsa Rally, but the variety of cars was spectacular, from the Ferrari 599 GTB in
front if the Nissan GT-R "down" to a Porsche Caymen.  They had been on the Dragon all day and left after one more
pass on Friday morning.

This picture of a 6-liter 4-cam V-12 is its own excuse.  But I will insist that the owner was just showing off.  You
sometimes see cars with their hoods up in the parking lots at the Dragon.  But those cars are cooling off their
turbochargers.  Aren't they?  The 599 is not turbocharged.  (I might show off too...)

Toyota Supra twin turbo participating in the Corsa Rally.  This model is almost famous and deserves to be famouser.  In
its day it was World Class--as good a sports car as anything the Germans were offering.  Hottshoe and I knew a guy
who cleaned up in high-speed autocross with one for several years.

The Supra in the picture above sparked a conversation about car styling between me and Hotshoe that lasted, off and on, for four days.  Generally, Hotshoe does not like "the jelly bean look," and I do. Generally, I do not like "the wedge look" (especially with Giugiaro creases), and he does.  It has taken ten years of an automotive-based friendship to learn this about each other.

Hotshoe insists that car styling is just a matter of personal preference.  Partly, I think, this is just to shut me up.  I insist it is a matter of taste.  Of course, one can argue that taste is just a matter of personal preference, and, in a democratically inclined culture, it is.  But then there would be no need of the phrase "good taste," would there?  ;-)

(Off Topic) Thankyou, Jon

Jon Stewart announced that his last Daily Show will be on August 6.  He says he's getting off the stage before the 2016 Presidential race heats up, to give his successor a shot at getting established and something to talk about in doing so.

I've noticed a change in tone in Jon's opening monologues lately.  Maybe it goes back to his taking a break to produce and direct a movie last summer, but it's been really apparent in the past couple of months.  He has given up his impressions (Senator Lindsey Graham as a Southern Belle with "the vapors" was hilarious) for simple, straight-up, exposure of veniality and hypocrisy.  Instead of a laugh line at the end, he delivers a coup de grace line and says "We'll be right back."  His friend and colleague from their stand-up comedy days, Dennis Leary, said "Eventually, Jon will just be a little old Jewish man, ranting angrily to himself in the corner."  Or something like that.

Stephen Colbert made me laugh more, and harder.  Colbert was a delight to anyone delighted by language and its uses.  But Jon has connected dots that needed to be connected, and provided more insights and a-ha moments.  He is the best political satirist of the modern era, and I say this as one who well-remembers Mort Sahl and Tom Lehrer from the early 1960's.  Or Bill Maher's political standup from the 1980's, before he became strident.  For that matter, I've read Ambrose Bierce and Mark Twain.  The only political satirist in Jon's league, in my opinion, is Twain.  Let's call it a tie for first place in the Hoisted-By-Their-Own-Petards category.

Where did this brilliance come from?  The writing and on-screen "reporter" teams that Stewart established at The Daily Show, for sure.  But let me suggest another.  It may be that, as a youth, Jon bought into the same civics textbook version of American representative democracy that I did.  He wouldn't give leaders, or political reporters, a pass.  He held them to the reality-based, common sense, standards we all should hold our leaders and media--and ourselves--to.  Like Pogo, he insisted that "We have met the enemy--and he is us."

Thankyou for a great run, Jon.

The Daily Show books: reprising and updating Mark Twain.

Love The Road...

Hotshoe and I are off to the Tail of the Dragon soon.  One road, two cars, two drivers, three cameras, several local friends, and a heap of fun.

TV Racing Find

The Brands Hatch round of the 2015 British Touring Car Championship was on CBS Sports Network, followed by the Monza round of the Blancpain GT series.  Each was edited down to an hour's length.  I tuned in, and was not disappointed.

CBSSN?  That's a channel I've not associated with motorsports.  Turns out it did a deal with Roger Werner, the founder of the (very good) Speedvision channel.  He later sold it.  He has a new venture, Torque.TV, which is producing tapes of European events, including historic racing.  Apparently the BTCC and the Blancpain series will be covered this summer and fall by CBSSN on a tape-delay basis. These first races were aired on a Thursday evening.  Don't look for them on weekends.  That doubtless remains stick-and-ball territory on CBSSN.

For me, a live event is always more fun than TV, even if it's just a local club race.  Luckily, there are several club circuits within a couple of hours' drive of my house.  And Road America is only three hours away if a pro event catches my fancy.  But the BTCC and the Blancpain series are fun to watch because the cars are about as close to production cars as modern pro racing cars can be. And they run on some legendary European circuits, with plenty of elevation change and interesting bends.

I love the shorter, "club" circuit at Brands Hatch.  And the new Honda Civic Type R won two of the three events at Brands,
making it even more fun for a Honda acolyte.

Monza is... Monza... Not much going for it but tradition.  But it was fun to see the GT's chew on each other, ALMS-style.
Blancpain gets much larger car counts, and more variety, than ALMS did: Audi R 8's, Bentleys, Lambos...

(Slightly) Off Topic: Vive La France!

My daughter, who is an NGO professional and fluent in French, sent me this link.  We both laughed, and we both love France.  (No, I have not tried to get anything accomplished in France in August.)

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/apr/13/secret-aid-worker-is-there-such-a-thing-as-being-too-french?CMP=share_btn_tw


Cultural stereotypes exist for a reason.  My own favorite is about the Frenchman who said "That's all very well in practice, but does it work in theory?"  Consider the two most iconic French cars, the Citroen 2CV and DS 19.  They began as clean-sheet design concepts, rooted in clear goals.  They were executed with rigorous logic and creative engineering.

Or consider cultural stereotypes going the other way.  Jeremy Clarkson observed on Top Gear, as he pounded down an Autoroute in Normandy, well above the speed limit in a Shelby Mustang, "There is nothing the French love so much as Englishman flouting their laws in a flashy American car."

Above and below: the Citroen 2CV and DS 19.  You're welcome, World.  It's hard to lead when followers can't think
straight.  Merde!  I wish the French had stuck to their principles.  What is a modern Peugeot?  A poorly done Toyota.
What is a modern Citroen?  A very poorly done Toyota.

...Ummm... No...

I'd be the last to begrudge a marque with a storied engineering and racing history a chance to go for the Halo Effect.  Marques and nameplates with a less-than-impressive history do it.  But what a Porsche Panamera has to do with a 917 is hard to imagine.