jesus built my m3

Mileage: 94485

"Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true
Jerry lee lewis was the devil
Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet
All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world
So there was only one thing that I could do
Was ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long" -Ministry

Today I crawled out of bed at 6am to make it to the Norcal UFO autox school. The school overall was a good time.

Since Beth thinks blogging should involve pictures, here's a pic from the last bmw autox:

In the morning we did a set of exercises: braking, skid pad, slalom, big fat box with lane changes. When I started on the skid pad I was a bit underwhelmed by my instructor, who told me I did it perfectly when I asked for feedback. I am a master of the skid pad, but perfect? I'm looking for some criticism here. So my second run we reversed the direction and went counter clockwise. I botched that one up a little more and fishtailed a bit and caught it. He said that run wasn't as good as the first. The other exercise of note was the box. Both runs I overdrove the car and slid all over. I plowed through cones both times and surely raised the blood pressure of my instructors.

After a lunch break we set out to drive a combined course. It was one of the best courses I've done at Marina because it was long (~70 seconds) with a good mix of high speed straightaways with technical elements in between. It also took up most of the Marina lot, and as a result there were some sections that were closer than I've seen with other clubs when there are multiple cars on course. There were no incidents though, so it worked out.

My runs were 71.xx, 73.585 (+2), and 70.793. I was frustruated with my first 2 runs and was overdriving the car as usual. I settled down for a 3rd run that felt slow and I botched the final turn, but apparently "felt slow" = smooth and I got into the 70's. I was moderately pleased with that, as the fastest car in the "advanced" student group was doing a 66.

So then the instructors drove. I got a ride in a 63 second trailered in and prepped Corvette. That car is a beast. I also got a ride in an NSX, though it was the driver's brother's car and it was his first time driving it... so he only did a 70 second run.

I was going to head out but they decided to have fun runs. I was hoping to break the 70 second mark. My first run I botched a couple of turns and got a 71.488. Man that made me angry. So I decided to change it up and try to stop stressing. I put in Ministry - Psalm 69 and put on Jesus Built My Hotrod prior to my next run. I pulled up to the line with music blaring and put down a nice smooth run. It just felt okay, but the timer told me it was better: 69.646. For my final run, I rocked to Ministry again and hit my groove: 68.198.

On the ride home, I decided that I may be addicted to the sound of my car's intake under full throttle (it growls). The music added noise so I didn't feel the need to gun the gas as much, and I was smoother. Either that, or Jesus built my m3...