I am quite fascinated with the sport. In addition to the outstanding driving, the sport blends man and machine so vividly it is almost as though the driver and the car become one. The vehicles themselves are so exotic, so complicated, and require so much care to run, it is almost as though the car is literally alive. (That description was shamelessly stolen from 'Top Gear') The fast pace required to constantly engineer upgrades from race to race for these cars, strategy behind the scenes, espionage between the teams, and the raw speed of these cars is the best resemblance to mech warriors I can find.
That's right, the only thing that would top F1 racing, would be huge fighting robots. I actually liked Transformers..... when I put it on mute.
When I was 8, I actually went to see a Formula 1 race in person, and pay witness to all its glory. My dad and I had a decent seats right on a corner. You know what I concluded by the end of that race, this young child of 8 watching these cars slow down for a turn and race off? "Damn it, that was boring." I must say, TV is the only way to enjoy this sport.... or is it?
While I'm not even going to allow myself to dream of driving a formula 1 car, I am going to do my best to get as close as possible. Every formula one driver (more or less) to date started in the exact same place, and they all agree, that for flat out corning performance, acceleration, breaking power, and quick reaction times nothing beats a shifter-kart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kart_racing
So the search begins for getting myself into said kart. However, before I go throw a fat wad of cash into buying the world's least comfortable, yet most relaxing LazyBoy chair ever, I do seem to lack certain logistical requirements for utilizing the kart.
For one, my days of driving the glorious Ford Lightning are gone. So what? I dont have a truck anymore, at all. In fact, I'm in the opposite of a truck. I'm going to need to get a trailer large enough to pull a 55" wide kart, but small enough to be pulled by my Hyundai Accent.
So if I'm going to drag the kart to the track... or drag the car with the kart I'll need to enable this little guy to be able to pull a trailer. This is also the first vehicle I've ever owned that didn't have a trailer hitch. So time to approach this problem like a MAN, and do it myself! With my own two hands. One a side note: Please remember that you can still get sun tanned on a cloudy day. So my left arm was notably darker than my right. Damn all those days indoors now. I am not as resistant as I once was.
So after buying some hardware, finding a small box of tools left over from the Lightning, I began the gutting process of this car. I had to remove a couple of floor and wall panels to get access to the wiring I needed for the trailer's brake lights. That part, took quite a while, simply because I did not have instructions and some discovery was required.
Next I Install the hitch itself on the underside carriage. All went rather smoothly despite the ambiguity of the directions. If it says "remove -rubber mount- so that you can place the hitch behind -rubber mount- you'd think that the hitch would go behind the -rubber mount- and then you'd put the -rubber mount- back on.... it doesn't go behind the -rubber mount-. I understand that wasn't clear, but I enjoy the memory none-the-less.
The instructions say 30minutes. It took me 2 hours since I had no idea how to access the wires behind the body panels. But all done and mounted up.
Now to invade the world of Craig's List to find myself a very fast go-kart. As well as acquire a significant amount of basic tools I'll need for the kart. Because if there is one solid truth about racing, is that everything will break exactly when it wants to do so.
So until next time.
-S
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