[Shotimes] My birthday present to myself and V8 SHO ability

[John Stout]

Happy Belated Birthday, the only thing that might have made it better was it it was during the convention.  

Donald Mallinson <dmall@mwonline.net> wrote:ALL:

Last weekend was my birthday present to myself. Burning brakes, tranny 
fluid, baked tire rubber, hot engines, noise, heat, rain, danger, more 
car stories than I can remember, riding at high speeds with total 
strangers and being with great friends. Donuts for breakfast and sack 
lunches. What isn't to love about that! 

It was a two-day SVTOA event at Putnam Park with my '96. I am now an 
instructor for the SVTOA and had two students at the weekend event. 
Sure was fun giving them rides and helping the one especially, get up to 
speed. (other student was a friend of mine from Peoria and former SHO 
owner that did the Putnam event at the SHO Convention so he was good to 
go from the start, second student had 550 hp Kenny Brown car that he was 
real tentative with and was not smooth at all, in his first full year of 
doing track events.). By the end of the weekend, he was much smoother, 
on-line and much faster. Sure felt good to see the light bulbs go off 
when I got him to do certain complexes the right way, and he then knew 
why I had been harping to turn in and brake where I recommended.

In that crowd, my '96 was one of the slower cars, but nobody had more 
fun. The car four-wheel drifts so deliciously, that several people that 
took rides with me were amazed. Not realizing that the back end of a 
FWD car could rotate under so much control in both braking and 
acceleration. 

Although my '89 is a faster track car, the '96 is smooth, predictable, 
and loads of fun. With super sticky tires and a set of Eibachs, it 
might be faster, but I am not going to mess with it. I have a car I can 
drive 5000 miles (CA convention) and feel fresh, or take on the track 
and have fun with and still drive home in supreme comfort. 

The silly grin on my face from the weekend is still with me, and today I 
will treat the '96 to a wash and detail. Plus when other cars broke 
down, or were too dangerous to drive on slick roads Saturday night (big 
rainstorm came through right at the end of the day) I gave several 
people rides to the hotel and banquet in SHO comfort!

For a car I almost sold, was almost totaled with hail damage and just 
turned 114,000 miles, this car drives like new and scoots around a track 
with authority! (90% of the vehicles on track with me at any moment had 
at least 400 hp! No wonder my left arm got a workout pointing cars 
around!). :)

On the way home 6 of us from Peoria stopped at the Beef House 
restaurant at exit 4 in Indiana on I-74. Superb steak (or seafood etc), 
hot rolls, super salad bar and cold drinks, a tradition for those going 
back to Peoria from Putnam Park or any Indianapolis event. Plus when my 
table was wimpy in singing "happy birthday", a table of Harley bikers 
bellowed out the song with gusto. I shared the cake with them! Just 
more fun than a 57 year old guy should be allowed to have.

Thanks to my family for letting me skip out on a family affair with the 
in-laws so I could hang around with smelly guys in fast cars.

Don Mallinson
Proud to fly the SHO Banner at SVTOA events!
_______________________________________________
Shotimes mailing list
Shotimes@autox.team.net
http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo/shotimes



John Stout
90 Titanium (Cone Killer) Back to everyday duty
05 Mazda 6 (Zoom Zoom)
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.  Orwell
If you don't SUPPORT OUR TROOPS  GFY



















		
---------------------------------
 Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page