Now wouldn't you think that a writer about cars would at least have some interest and background in cars. It's never said, but I can guarantee you this guy has never been in a car before. He might have ridden in his mama's car on the way to and from the grocery store, but he's never ridden in a real car.
And then he gets taken for a ride in a Caterham. Not a good idea. It's funny for us, but I'll bet he's still having nightmares..
How does someone become a writer about cars when they seem that berkeleyed up by a single ride in a caterham?
I bet he writes praises for hybrids and such.....
At 1:21 the driver looks over... JG's twin brother?
Also, it looked like they were basically just going straight most of the time. Thrilling? Yes. Scary? Ummmm...
I like the drooling and the quivering towards the end.
His mom's grocery getter is a hybrid.
yamaha wrote: How does someone become a writer about cars when they seem that berkeleyed up by a single ride in a caterham? I bet he writes praises for hybrids and such.....
When I did the press launch for the Evo 8 in California, there was one newspaper writer who wouldn't drive the car. At all.
Its not even a 500, WTF.
You know the driver saw him get in playing with is hair and figured . . . 
Wonder what he would do on a road with, you know, corners and stuff?
That was great.
Y'know (and maybe this belongs in the confessions thread instead 
), I like to think that I'm a pretty compassionate guy, full of love for humanity & yadayadayada..but having the opportunity to scare the E36 M3 out of a non-enthusiast just brings out my inner sadist. It's an almost tribal moment, like I'm screaming loud and clear, "THIS is who we are!! This is where we LIVE, bitch!!"
Yeah, maybe I'm not the best ambassador for our culture, but it's just so much damn fun, dammit..
In reply to friedgreencorrado:
Yeah, some people hate riding with me, mainly if highway interchanges or light/medium city traffic is involved. I think my mother once described my driving in the city as "A hummingbird on crack".
I would've thought he was used to the wind in his hair by now.
In reply to Kenny_McCormic:
Ha! Yeah, one of my favorite things to do at an autocross. I'll give a ride to anybody who asks, since I figure anybody faster than me can actually help me. And they're in the other run group anyway if they're just standing around the grid, right?
Every once in awhile, though..it's just somebody's friend from work or family member that they've convinced to come see "what it's all about". Priceless. I usually grind it in afterwards with a "..you should really ride with (faster driver than me), they're a lot quicker than I am..".
moparman76_69 wrote: I would've thought he was used to the wind in his hair by now.
BURN!
friedgreencorrado wrote: That was great. Y'know (and maybe this belongs in the confessions thread instead
THIS!
Ex girlfriend of mine likes to talk a big game. I was hanging out with her and some of her co-workers (correctional officers in a pretty backwoods county) so of course the gay/girly jokes were flowing about my miata. (it was the only car there, everyone was driving trucks) Told her if she thought it was so girly to let me take her for a ride, she declined of course, but she offered up her 10 year old son.....
Yeah, that was amusing as hell! Her road is this beautiful smooth freshly paved twisting thing of just pure fun, and all her neighbors(being a relative term, smallest lot on her road is 5 acres, most run 8-10) have split rail or chain link fencing so you can see up the road 99% of the time. Took it easy starting out, short shifted all the way to 4th at about 35mph. Almost immediately the kid starts parroting everyone about being a girly car. I politely tell him, yes it is tiny, yes you get a lot of looks and jokes driving it, but its really light, and you know what a really light car is good for? "Uh huh" THIS! drop it into second and hammer it about 150' before the first hard left, brake at the last second for the turn, and proceed to push it through the rest of em, drifting the last two. By the time we got back he wanted one, screw what everyone else says.
I thought my job was done well.
She called me the next day, "what the hell did you do to my kid? He's still talking about that ride! You were supposed to be taking it easy! My response? I was taking it easy...
Matt B wrote: At 1:21 the driver looks over... JG's twin brother?
Yeah, that's a little weird.
I'm convinced there's one village somewhere in an obscure eastern european nation full of stocky guys in cargo shorts and Old Navy tees.
I like to call it "Awesomeburg"
jg
Bet that would suck to have no glasses. I'd be crying too, just what happens with the wind for me.
friedgreencorrado wrote: That was great. Y'know (and maybe this belongs in the confessions thread instead
Did this. All my friends here are from up north and lived off public transit and have little interest in cars other than for transit. On a guys night had a little fun in the V, only one of the six got hooked. The other five no longer ride with me and consistently offer to drive their cars instead. Lol.
JG Pasterjak wrote:Matt B wrote: At 1:21 the driver looks over... JG's twin brother?Yeah, that's a little weird. I'm convinced there's one village somewhere in an obscure eastern european nation full of stocky guys in cargo shorts and Old Navy tees. I like to call it "Awesomeburg" jg
Or is that Egomaniac-ville?
friedgreencorrado wrote: In reply to Kenny_McCormic: Ha! Yeah, one of my favorite things to do at an autocross. I'll give a ride to anybody who asks, since I figure anybody faster than me can actually help me. And they're in the other run group anyway if they're just standing around the grid, right? Every once in awhile, though..it's just somebody's friend from work or family member that they've convinced to come see "what it's all about". Priceless. I usually grind it in afterwards with a "..you should really ride with (faster driver than me), they're a lot quicker than I am..".
JG Pasterjak wrote:Matt B wrote: At 1:21 the driver looks over... JG's twin brother?Yeah, that's a little weird. I'm convinced there's one village somewhere in an obscure eastern european nation full of stocky guys in cargo shorts and Old Navy tees. I like to call it "Awesomeburg" jg
Quoted for Winning!!!!! That's the best thing I've read here in quite some time. If I had been drinking you would have owed me a keyboard.
My favorite line about my my driving was from my wife on her first ride in the Mustang on the afternoon I bought it: "When do the oxygen masks drop from the ceiling?!!" She still says if I build an Exocet or a rail buggy I might as well only put in one seat because she's never getting in one with me driving.
Several years ago when we had just bought my wife's Purple Haze R53 I took my then-brother-in-law for a ride in the rural county around my dad's house. He was a deputy on one of the larger local forces, had been through driver training, etc. The Cooper was stock with good tires and I hooned the E36 M3 out of it. Blasted down a twisty road, through it around a U-turn with the tires squalling, and then pulled a handbrake turn into dad's driveway after a double-legal return trip. He was a little green, but mostly cool. The next time I saw my dad he laughed to tears telling me how bad I scared Nick, how he could barely walk for a couple hours from the adrenaline, and how he kept talking about how scary that car was for WEEKS afterward. He just held it in to look cool. Scared a cop? My work here is done....
Back when I was pretty decent at autocross, one time my wife brought along a rather hot girlfriend. Of course her friend ended up wanting a ride and afterwards said, "Again!" Oh dear: hot, fun, adventursome... what's a married guy to do... look at his shoes a lot... that's what.
More recently I completed the Midlana build (1600 lbs, 400 hp, mid-engine.) I'd mentioned it to a few people in the neighborhood, including the usual "dog people" I see when walking, and one owner looks frustratingly similar to a young Angelina Jolie. I was out doing a test drive and a car comes up behind me flashing its lights. Turns out that "Angelina" figured out it was me and decided that I needed to give her a ride. Getting her into the thing was fun, what with helping her with the 5-point belts ("they're squeezing my boobs".... yes they are...) Anyhow, took the car out and opened it up a few times, and boy was she a character, screaming, grabbing onto my arm, waving at people, she was great fun, A shame that the GoPro wasn't in the car... or maybe not.
I dropped her off and went home... no need to mention anything... but I feel like the two of us "shared a moment" and will remember it for a while :) That seems to be the curse of the universe, where hot fun women only started giving me attention after I got married, and got old... sigh.
Had something similar and amusing happen this last weekend when up in Cheese-Land (WI) visiting the GF's family.
Her mom has a brand-spanking-new, bright yellow Camaro that she calls 'The Rocket'. Claims it has 'the big block', but I'm pretty certain it's just the V6 model and not the SC'd V8. When she took the GF and I out to run errands in it (thankfully said GF is very short and fit comfortably in the back seat...), she drove it like a maniac- punching it and accelerating up to well over the speed limit on the state highways near their place and then braking hard before turns and stops. GF's sister who lives nearby confirmed that she ALWAYS drives it like that, and only really gets away with it because she knows all the cops- and they almost encourage her and have fun pretending to chase her in it (yeah, it's kind of a small town without much excitement...). Sister said that half the time she's scared of how she drives it; GF asked me if I was as scared for my life as she was and I answered no, but mainly because I trusted the engineers who designed the airbags and structure to keep me safe.
We had driven the GF's V6 Mercury Mariner up to WI since our 85lb dog had come along, and it was what I drove around while we were there. It's about as far from a performance car as you can get- but I love to drive in general, and will happily push pretty much any vehicle within both its limits and the law. The sister rode along several times when we went out to do things, and I regularly hit the corners pretty hard when we had clear road or we were turning into their driveway. Sister told us after the last time we were out that seeing how I drove the Mariner despite never breaking any traffic laws made her really want to take a ride with me in something that was more performance-oriented...
That was a great video! Yes, I'm stereotyping, but if I saw that guy on the street the last thing I would think is, "I bet he's a write for a car magazine/newspaper." I'm excited to take the wife for a ride in my Z when I get it done...it's stock 1975, so it won't be particularly fast, but it will still be pretty enjoyable!
I may have missed it somewhere, but I didn't see anything to indicate the person in the video was an automotive writer.
Description under the video:
"2011 Caterham R400 scares Car Dealer's staff writer Batch on a national speed limit Welsh road"
You'll need to log in to post.
