My Autocross Diary,
by Katie Kelly, Ace Reporter
July 10th, 2005
Dear Diary,
I knew I had to autocross today because I hadn't seen
my mom and dad in almost two years. I knew I was in
trouble when I finally called home and my mother
barely recognized my voice. Then when she remembered,
it was like nothing had changed. It was the same old
song and nag dance. "Why do you you have to ride that
bicycle so much," she said. "Why can't you do
something safe and sensible, like race cars. When are
you going to grow up?"
I sent out a plea for a ride on our local autocross
e-mail list, and there was no response! Somebody said,
"I'm sorry, but we only share our cars with people we
know."
I felt hurt, and so I said I would pay the owner $5
for every cone that I hit, and $10 for every spin.
Suddenly everybody remembered me! My mail box was
flooded with e-mails. It felt good to be so remembered
and loved. Navid Kahangi begged me to drive with him,
because the way I drive, he said, it would put his
business back into the black. It feels good to know
that my unique style has such a solid reputation after
all.
My co-driver, Helen Brendage, drives a car called a
Mazda RX-8. I had never heard of these before, but
apparently, it was built in 2004! That's a pretty new
car. It even had something that I like to call a "new
car smell", something I haven't smelled too often in
my limited career.
I was relieved to see that it had a clutch and stick
shift, like in the cars I grew up driving. What I was
surprised to see was that the back doors opened
"backwards". It's crazy, these new innovations they
have!
I was also surprised, frankly, that the helmet I
brought to tech did not pass. The technical inspector
nearly spit up his sandwich.
"This has a Snell rating of 1985!" he said. I wasn't
expecting such snobbery.
"At least it has a rating!" I said. I had to borrow a
helmet, from a child no less. I was frightened by the
loaner helmets they had in the trailer.
I must confess that before I took my first runs, I was
very nervous. I wonder if I still had it. Helen taught
me how all the gadgets work in her car. It's a very
complicated process. First, you have a key that goes
into the ignition. Check. Then, you have to press a
button down for a total of 8 seconds, no more or no
less, to activate its top secret handling controls. I
stared at her in disbelief as she explained to me the
inner-workings of her car. It's not like the old days,
when you just turned a nob on some shocks. You have to
enter an entire series of digits and codes into a
keyboard that comes out of the center console. It was
very confusing to me, and I must admit that I had to
leave the car for a second, just to get a grip. Then I
got yelled at by the grid marshall, because he said I
was holding up the line.
My first run was okay, a 56.2. A couple of bystanders
came by and asked if I had the traction control on.
"Helen?" She consulted the manual this time, and said
that yes, it was indeed turned off, that it was
probably driver error.
The reason why you want the traction control "off" is
beyond me. I barely understand what "traction control"
is. I think it is a space age development, where giant
suckers come from underneath the car to adhere the car
to the earth's surface, in case of some kind of
natural disaster. At any rate, it is unneeded for an
autocross application.
I dropped two seconds on my second run, and then
another second on my last run, which was actually
competitive with the guys in the BS R tire class. I
was happy to know that I still have my mojo, so I
don't need to come back for two years.
I also owed Helen only $5. It could have been so much
worse.
My driving impressions of this Mazda RX-8 are that it
turns left and right just like all those other cars
from my past. I was initially frightened of this car,
recalling my days of co-driving with Shauna Marinus in
her RX-7, and how she used to hit me if I didn't steer
properly. She didn't hit me hard, and I consider it
tough love. She made me the driver I am today.
As it turns out, this mechanism is actually built into
the Mazda RX-8, so you don't need a co-driver to do
that. I was thankful that Helen turned that function
OFF.
This car is naturally aspirated, and accelerates
smoothly. I was afraid of the throttle on my first
run. I frankly couldn't afford a spin out, not with my
budget. By my third run, I realized that you can
accelerate quite early in a turn, and nothing bad is
going to happen. Just unwind the wheel. Shauna taught
me that. Or accept the consequences. Nothing more than
a couple of bruises, though.
The mirrors made looking out the side windows a bit of
a challenge, so I took a gamble and prayed that there
weren't cones there. Most of the time, I was right.
The gas mileage on a car like this sucks. Something
like 19 for inner-city driving, and 24 for highway
driving. If you drive vigorously, it can plummet down
to 9 miles per gallon. I was amazed at how quickly
Helen and I used an entire tank of gas, in just three
runs each!
Helen told me she bought this car because her son
likes to take his Subaru WRX to the track days at
Sears Point. She found this inspiring, and traded in
her Honda for this Mazda. I was at first jealous,
thinking, "I wish my mom drove a Mazda RX-8", but then
I remembered my mom only has a Lotus 7 and Camaro
parked in her front yard. Shoot, I wasn't supposed to
say front yard. No one's supposed to know this. Well,
it's a diary anyway. It's not like anyone's going to
read this.
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