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Race cars

2021-10-05 11:04 PDT

now listening: Gave Up On Us - NINA - Synthian

Holy shit, it's October and my last entry was in... JUNE?

Okay so, here's what happened in the meantime.

I moved, so now I'm out of Oakland and in Livermore. It's been healthy. Actually, really healthy. It's less about being in a different city and more about not being in my old place. It was kind of a psychic black hole.

I bought a race car at the end of July, a 2021 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack 1320. It's fucking amazing and I just want to drive more. It's funny, with the RAV4, driving was a chore that I did to get to where I wanted to go. I've had days where I spent 8 hours in the drivers seat of the challenger and I could have gone way longer. I have the bug to race, so I signed up for my first track day. I also want to find an old 80's car to build a race car out of. Something like a Porsche 938 or an Audi Quattro.

My race car

I think I've been getting into cars because I'm burned out on computers. They're mostly bullshit and the people who pay you to do stuff with them are doing fuck all that matters. With tech, I've had to be personally motivated to solve problems effectively. Cars are an engineering challenge that's half intellectual, half actually get your hands dirty, and I love it. Then, you get to go drive the thing. I'm digging it. Engineering meets adventure.

Also, every time I look at my car, I still think "damn, that's my car." This is weird, I've never been a "car person," but now I definitely am. I notice other cars, I have opinions on them.

I probably should find better tires than the drag radials for the track day, plus I have to buy a track (e.g. nomex fireproof) jacket and helmet I don't hate.

I guess that's it. Not much else to say. If the career change I'm working on doesn't work, I don't know what the alternative is.