Re: [Karting][Kicked-ass dude!][U.S. lights suck]

[skerocdriver@juno.com (Shawn C Meze)]

On Sun, 18 Oct 1998 11:36:20 -0700 Brad Sheridan <brads@mindspring.com>
writes:
>
>Hey,
>For you big bunch of girlies(Ken, Mike, Kev, you know who you are:)) who
>couldn't make it down to Speedworld in San Diego, let me just say we had
a
>ball down there. Doug and Kathy(you know the one whose email account
Doug
>uses) showed up also. We met at Shawns place to catch the end of the
Padres
>game, grill up a burger, and just hang out before we went to the track.
It
>was a blast.


Ken had to work late so he had a legit excuse not to show. As far as the
other girlies? I dunno. 


>We started out on the oval,
>with the carts set at Competition Speed, which is the fastest that the
>general public can have access to. Shawn, Doug, Kathy, Shawns buddy who
>worked there, and myself. It was really fun. Shawns buddy was extremely
>quick, Shawn just a bit behind him. 

That would be Matt. Ever since I first raced him a few months ago and
spanked him heartily, he has gotten very fast. Then again, he works there
and get alot of track time so he should be fast! Also recall that I
started dead last on the 2nd and 3rd heat. The first run was to show you
guys the line on the oval to try and get you guys up to speed a bit so I
didn't pass you like 3 times in one race or something. 
(Brad, didn't I pass you 3 times in the last 2 races?)  LOL!



>Kathy didn't want to go that fast, so as everyone passed her,
>she tried to make room. Unfortunately, I think about every one of us
>managed to plow into her at least once while trying to pass( I did it
>twice). Oddly enough, she didn't seem interested in going out on the
track
>anymore after that...


Well, she was very tired to begin with and im sure her competitive spirit
just wasn't there that time of night. Im guilty of planting her once
going into turn one. I had set up to pass her on the outside and at the
last second, she moved to the outside. Well, with my momentum I had going
into 1, all I could do was brake, turn to the inside and try to make the
impact as soft as I could. Not her fault. SORRY KATHY!! :)
She was a good sport about it. 


> Doug and I were just learning how to get these things
>to handle, although he seemed to have a bit more luck in this regard.


He got difficult to pass very quickly. You on the other hand, were too
easy.
ZOOM! buh-bye! LOL!!


> After this we went to the road course, which was also a blast. I made
the
>mistake of getting the same kart i had before, which didn't seem to want
to
>slide out properly in the corners. No matter what I did, it just wanted
to
>understeer. This meant I really lost speed in the corners. As a result,
I
>just tried to leave room on the inside to pass me. I think trying this
out
>would definitely help out anyone thinking about racing, even though it
>handles completely different than a autox car. It gets you thinking
about
>lines into, through, and out of corners.


It really does. There is a very fine line there since the racing surface
is so slick. Getting the kart into the turns and coming out of them FAST
takes a few laps to figure out. The next time you guys come again to
race, you will be faster. (I fear Doug's return, Brad I welcome his
return, Its good to have a "Punt boy" out there!)


>  Our last race was at Pro speed(superfast, not generally available). It
>was a blast, and things started out reasonably well. But I got tangle up
>with someone and went into a wall. 



Hah-hah!! No you didn't! I was on the inside of you going into turn 1 and
the next thing -LOL- I know is, you were bouncing off the wall mid turn
1/2. Laughed my ass off as I went by. 



>After that, my cart just wouldn't go
>nearly as fast as everyone elses. Which was too bad, because this one
>stepped the back end out nicely in corners. So even though I could keep
up
>somewhat in corners, I would just get smoked down the straight. 


I had the same problem. The first 5 laps I had lots of power. After that
I was using less and less brakes in the corner. At first I thought hey,
this thing is starting to grip better in the corners. Then I got passed
easily by Matt. (Whom I had passed 4 laps earlier.) Then I just rode
around WOT everywhere. We rode the hell out of the karts so its no wonder
they died later on. Next time we make Matt use another kart and not let
him use the one HE chooses!


>Even so, it was a complete blast. 
>We should try to do this again, with more people. 


I had a fun time. Even tho the whole time Brad was trying to orchestrate
a plan to put me into the wall all the time. heh!! He was even trying to
bribe a guy we let run with us to stick me in the wall. it figures Brad
would need help there too... 
BRING IT ON DUDE! -LOL-!!


>And
>next time, I'll make sure I have a cart that's fast enough to keep up
with
>Shawn so that I can plant him in one of the corners, the little punk.
>
>Brad


SEE! 
SEE!
SEE!
He's just mad that I made like a cop with sirens as I caught and passed
him. (Made him nervous!)

Ah well, I had alot of fun. Its just too bad nobody else showed up. It
would been fun to see Brad get passed by EVERYBODY. :)

We did do a headlight comparison with Brads 16V with the H1/H4 lights and
my stock lights. His were much brighter. I just might have to upgrade. He
followed me to the Kart track and his lights did not seem that bright.
Its just like my Euro headlights I have on my GLi. In the driver seat,
they're bright (60W/100W H4's.) but when the car is behind you, the
lights look quite dim compared to other cars behind me. I dunno but I
think the european lighting systems are far superior to ALL of the US
lights. There's not a SUV that doesn't blind me and has half the wattage
as my GLi's lights. 
<rant mode -OFF->


Anyways, what does anybody think about trying this again in mid
November??


              Shawn Meze
86' Jetta GLi           82' Scirocco GTi
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and
best looking Scirocco in all of San Diego!
http://www.Geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1308/index.htm

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
- --
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to scirocco-L-request@scirocco.org,
with your request (subscribe, unsubscribe) in the BODY of the message.

------------------------------