When I was in my early 20’s I benefited from some advice that was passed to me, as it had been passed to him, by a fellow that I thought had led a pretty interesting life given his relatively young age. It was “there are two leisure classes, one at the top of the socio-economic scale and one at the bottom. Be in one of them”. My friends name was “Minki” and this is my mission.
I moved to Hood River mostly so that I could live my daily life in the same way that many wealthy working people live their vacations. Understand, I very much admire the accomplishments of those that dream up and produce the things we often take for granted. I want their holidays to be as fabulous as possible – they’ve earned it. And, they should be fresh when they return to work so they can make more neat stuff for the rest of us . When possible, I enjoy my chance join in their fun.
I fell in love with great cars the day my uncle Don showed up at our house with one of the very first Porsche 911’s – I was 5 years old. He let me drive it during my visit to Southern California to see the 1978 US Grand Prix at Long Beach when I was 17. At that time it was one of the greatest days of my life. The current Porsche Turbo (supercar) is still based on the same basic configuration.
I saw my first Ferrari Daytona(s) scattered all around the parking areas that week at Long Beach – like Priuses at a Greenpeace rally. The Daytona was the last front engine Ferrari at the beginning of the modern “supercar” era – in my view, the Daytona was a supercar. Oh, for a chance to ride in a Ferrari Daytona…
Recently I did some dent work on a very nice 1999 Mazda Miata. When I was finished the owner asked if I would be interested in having a look at some dings on his Aston Martin V8 Vantage… I’ll always have a look, especially as the V8 is considered to be the grandfather of British supercars. This is, for all practical purposes, the same car that 007 drove in the 80’s Bond film “The Living Daylights”, and clearly a very close relative of 007’s car (a DBS) in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. I mean, Diana Rigg (the only Mrs. Bond AND Emma Peel) rode in that car – sweet…
Diana Rigg as Emma Peel
I could go on and on about Diana Rigg, as it could be argued that 60’s spy film actresses are the genesis of what we now refer to as a “supermodel” – alluring, self reliant, a little bit vulnerable, and with a sting in the tail (so to speak). Staying with the “super” theme – she set the standard.
Anyway, It was an interesting experience working on the Vantage because it is hand fabricated from “aluminium”, done in the old style of coach building (heat and english wheel). The thickness and strength of the panels
Aston Martin V8 Vantage
varies throughout the vehicle (even adjacent areas of the same part). We had some success (the owner helped with dismantling trim, etc.), and I got to spend some time learning (stumbling about ) an interesting piece of automotive history.
So now about Tuesday and the inspiration for this story. I was working at the Pro Drive racing school and one of my two students had brought his new Ferrari 430 Scuderia. Normally, I prefer students with more “regular” cars. The problem is that highly strung, big horsepower machines are difficult to drive well – and I, despite my time spent as a Pro-Rally co-driver, sometimes get car sick. But, I was feeling pretty good and I thought this would be a good tune-up in preparation for the upcoming race weekend – get me “in the game”, so to speak. And, how often do you see one the truly great modern supercars? I should probably ride around in it for a while…
The driver, Rich, was a serious student, which is a dream come true for an in-car instructor at a high performance driving school.
Scuderia in PIR Hot Pits
What I mean is that he came with the intent of leaving with something and had decided the way to do that was to listen and do (not as common as you would think). Listen and do is what a Rally driver does – pace notes are delivered and regardless of what the “common sense’ side of the brain tells him, he does what he is told. This is how to go fast.
And things happen pretty darn fast in the Scuderia (0-60 in 3.1 seconds, as a reference point) – it’s easy to not get it right. Now, everybody doesn’t teach the same way and I’ve been having a discussion about this with one of my co-driver / instructor friends. The short version is that I like to pick only two major things to concentrate on for each session. Some instructors want to make sure that every corner is negotiated “on-line” from the start, for example. I like simple, achievable, objective targets.
Positive input is the key to success – don’t tell me what not to do, tell me what to do. This is why the “listen and do” bit is so important – it’s simple. Invariably, if I feed information (as pace notes) to a student and they simply do what I ask, the car stays on line, the driver gains confidence, the throttle pedal goes down earlier, stays on longer and we go fast. Of course, faster cars require more precisely delivered information, which is why I usually prefer students in the Subaru’s and Toyota’s…
Tuesday was a great day because I had two willing students that each got into a rhythm and allowed me to help them learn to go fast. I love that. In particular, the sounds coming from that Ferrari were fabulous.
By the end of the day I was hearing the popping (a la F1) sound during the 60 millisecond downshifts and whooping from Rich as he pinned the throttle on the blind curved “back straight” for the first time!!! What a fun day.
In line with the advice I had received 25 years ago, I have once again successfully experienced that which is usually reserved for a privileged few. Minki was right – a poor boy can have the good things in life.