Getting ideas for my new Project Miata.

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So for the last few weeks, I’ve been gathering parts for a new Miata project that I’m just about to reveal on |StartingGrid|. The goal is to make a nice little street/track Roadster that will make driving more fun, and take some of the driving duties off solely Project Kyoko.

However in the meantime, I’ve been looking at wave after wave of Roadster videos, getting an idea of some of the crazy ideas that I actually might be able to do with this project. So Roadsterdrift.com, actually has given me a quite ridiculous idea.

tcs_1

The nice thing with a blank slate project car is that you do get a chance to dream ridiculous dreams though. God, isn’t the internet great? Hopefully, I’ll be able to write-up a new post soon on my new project. In the meantime…Youtube!

|Weekend| Simming it up!

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During the off-season, it’s always important to find someway to sharpen your racing skills for when the spring time returns. So over the weekend, I played some RFactor on a friend’s computer.

In my opinion, quality simulation games are a good way to improve your mental programming while racing on a budget.

We spent the afternoon practicing with classic Formula 1 cars, on tracks that we’d never driven before. It gave us some time to re-learn some of our old skills, and also create a list of new habits to start working on for the upcoming season.
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(PSA) |StartingGrid.org| is looking for someone to wield our Facebook page!

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As StartingGrid is looking to evolve in 2013. However, we’ve only got so many hands to get all of the projects that we’ve started done. This is where we need your help!

SGKing

You’ll get a fancy title and everything! How does “Overlord of Social Media” sound?

We’re looking for a few people to help in maintaining some of our social media tools, like our Facebook page, to spread the |StartingGrid| cause. We need someone to continue finding cool photos of cars and grow the followership by facilitating in online discussions. Cool, right?

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Why you should want to help |StartingGrid|

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Most car sites show up and say “Here is my stuff. Take it or leave it.” They don’t want your help to improve their content. They don’t want to reach out and engage with readers.  They just want you to watch as they do all of the cool things.

Thankfully, |StartingGrid| doesn’t work that way.

We’re proud of the fact that we reach out to our readers and say ‘Come! Make this place your own!’  In order for this site to be a quality little corner of the internet, we believe that it needs to be shaped to be the way you want.

However, in order to do that properly, we need your help.

cropped-sglogo.png


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|Video| Gordon and Bowyer- WTF #NASCAR!

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I’m not an intense follower of NASCAR, but today’s race at Phoenix caught my attention. Not for epic racing, but some ridiculous driver behavior. Four-time Cup champion, Jeff Gordon intentionally turned into Clint Bowyer to put him into the wall with two laps to go.

Granted, Bowyer was trying to low-side Gordon when there was plenty of space on the high side.  Granted, Gordon and Bowyer have come together a few times during this season  and Gordon had gotten fed up with it, but this debacle left me shaking my head.

I don’t care what the intentions were from Gordon or Bowyer. At the speeds that Sprint Cars are traveling at, there is NO place for on-track retaliation like this. The childish behavior of both drivers took out Joey Logano, and put the rest of the field at risk. Hapless race-victim, Logano put it best on Twitter after the race:

“When I was young I thought @JeffGordonWeb was the best driver. Now I’ve lost a lot of respect for him. #verydumb”

Well said, Joey. This was all just very dumb. Just stupid. The ensuing post-crash fight, which partly caused the race to be red-flagged had my mouth hanging open. It was just ridiculous.

Entertaining, but ridiculous.

/rant

|Rant|-Racing Drivers! Tweet to me, not at me! #f1 #nascar #indycar

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With the introduction of popular social media tools like Twitter, people stay connected better than ever before. Through your social network, people are able to share life experiences anywhere around the world. People gather in these online communities when they find something or someone that they find to be interesting.

As its impact has become more mainstream, more people are reaching out on a social media platform of some sort. They are people who are looking for some sort of engagement.

In real life, no one likes being talked at. They like being talked to. They like feeling that they are part of the conversation, rather than just being forced to observe one at a distance. Social media works the same way. When fans feel like they are a direct part of the experience, the more they want to engage with it and bring more people to experience it too.

With all that being said, why don’t more racing drivers engage more directly with their fans?  In a world where finding sponsorship dollars is harder every day, you would assume that racing drivers would do whatever it took to engage more with people in order to prove to sponsors that they are a person with large market appeal?

Surprisingly, that doesn’t happen.

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|Rant| Formula 1- Do you ACTUALLY want me to watch you? #f1

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A few days ago, I was watching a replay of the 2004 Italian Grand Prix on YouTube. The race was long enough that the video needed to be broken into six parts. I was moving through the parts, minding my own business when suddenly I encountered this…

WTF! This race happened EIGHT years ago!

Seriously Youtube? Seriously, Formula One Management Group? What could you possibly be thinking? This race happened eight years ago, yet Formula 1 lawyers still won’t let me watch it. This constriction of online media is the exact reason, in my opinion, that Formula 1 is having trouble adopting younger fans.

You can see this problem in our ‘Formula 1′ section on the blog. Since FOM sweep through YouTube and continue to block videos we have alot of articles with dead multimedia associated. So yet another reason for me to gripe…

It seems that Formula One in general is continuously losing touch with the fans that are trying to support the sport. Ticket prices are higher than ever before, preventing fans to attend the races in person. Buying a Red Bull hoodie can cost over 150 dollars, and you can’t watch races online without paying more egregious fees. Meanwhile the FOM are wondering why people have decided to watch other sports?

Seriously?! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot by basically shoving new fans out the door, before they even get there.

In the last ten years, media had started to evolve into the digital format. Social media interaction have exploded. Users are demanding higher levels of engagement and interaction with content and the players involved. The fans want more. Yet here is Formula 1, going out of their way to block users from seeing the sport and making supporting it prohibitively expensive while complaining that they’re watching their user base decrease and remain older.

Well, no duh! If you go out of your way to block me from watching the races, why would I keep trying to watch it? Why would I advocate that other people watch it? People don’t watch as much on television. The internet is the new primary source of media consumption, and Formula One just seems to ignore it as if it doesn’t exist. I’m sure if a new person was searching on Formula 1, and got the blocker prompt that I did on Youtube, most would simply just search on something else and turn away.

In the modern era, how are you expected to teach new fans about the history of Formula 1 when the sport itself goes out of it way to make sure that young people can’t view it easily?(In an era where more young people don’t even find CARS to be as interesting we used to, this is a worry.)

Ironically I can watch full feeder series races like GP2, because the sport doesn’t market itself well and therefore is generally ignored by the sporting community. (Lucky for me? ) However unless I’m willing to pay for it, or pirate the feed illegally, I’m not allowed to watch the top flight of motorsport. I’m not even allowed to watch the recent race edit without logging into the Formula 1 website.

When I brought the situation to my friend David, (whose not even a Formula 1 fan) he instantly brought up the idea of how easy would it be to create an official channel on YouTube which showed replays of Grand Prix? It’s not like it wouldn’t be popular! FOM has to go out of it’s way to block users from uploading content already! If FOM offered content themselves, then it would make sense to ACTUALLY block people so you went to their channel instead! (It also counts as free advertising for related merchandise. which is probably worth much more than Youtube.)

Seriously FOM. This isn’t rocket science. Get your act together. Loosen up your wallets. Offer free online feeds. Offer new ways to entice engagement via online media. The money that you’ll gain finding new adopters into the sport will far supersede the money that you think that you’re losing through copyright infringements via Youtube. In a sport where racing teams are spending hundreds of millions of dollar to find tenth of a second, you’re just leaving money on the floor by being stingy and not letting people enjoy the experience.

Maybe I should just watch more IndyCar. They offer full race feeds on Youtube. I can never miss a race.

Why Are Keys Needlessly Big?

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Keys Should Be Smaller
Pictured above is a collection of keys. The pair of keys on the left are to the Healey. They are nice and small, small enough to merit a little leather folding key holder so they aren’t lost in your pocket. The foursome of keys on the right include keys to the daily driven Saab and Miata, also a pocketable collection. The big plastic thing in the middle is the key to our newest addition, a Fiat 500 Abarth. Notice the bit of wire sitting between the Abarth key and the rest of the daily use keys? That’s the keyring that failed to keep the daily use collection corralled together. Adding the key to one vehicle made my key collection no longer pocketable. I was able to put them into my pocket with reasonable facility this morning. I drove the Healey today, it being a nice Friday and all nice Fridays being “drive your cool car to work day”. On arrival at my office, single-handed (I was holding a coffee) key removal was impossible with out destructive measures. This is asinine.

There is no reason the Abarth key needs to be as big as it is. Am I supposed to feel better about the car because it has a pants entangling folding key? I should be able to keep a reasonable collection of frequently used keys and have them stowable in the pockey of my jeans. This does not strike me as an unreasonable desire. Were I a hipster or otherwise prone to wearing overly tight pants, I would be prepared with the requisite male purse. But being a run of the mill middle aged jeans wearing nerd, I am not prepared for this level of clothing and belonging management.

I think the only solution for me is to drive old cars.

Unique Pieces

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With all the modifications you can do to your automobile, it is very hard to stand out in this day and age.

What hasn’t been done? What has been done too many times? What makes your ride unique?

Bright green wheels are nothing new but this one really stood out to me and he has a fish as a hood prop.

|Talking Point| – A plea for the organic…

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I want to preface this post with a disclaimer that the below post is just my own thoughts. Don’t worry, we’re not closing down or anything drastic-supercrazy.  I just needed to find place to put these ideas down on ‘paper’.

Before I get started though, I want to make sure that I say thanks to anyone and everyone who has contributed to the site in the last year.  We couldn’t do this without you.

Ever since we’ve come online, we’ve called ourselves an ‘Automotive Lifestyle Blog’.  What does that mean?  To me, the vision has always been for the site to be a relaxed place for people to come and share cool stuff about cars.  Nothing too complicated.

I don’t want to put any pressure on anyone. but I want to give more people open access, so they can share their views of the automotive lifestyle. Whatever that means to them. I get that we all have busy lives, and this project isn’t supposed to be ‘work’.

We’ve always had an open door policy when it comes submitting content and ideas. Writing opinion articles, submitting photos, whatever. I’ve always wanted the site to be as social as possible, rather than a one way flow of content from moderators to users. I want to inspire our contributors to create unique content, but I also want to energize our readers to let us know what you think!

I’m just trying to figure how to convince you guys to join in without feeling like I’m ‘selling’ you on it.  That’s the hard part. I want to create cool things that grow organically, so I want you guys to feel like you are part of the picture, not just watching it.

Is this making any sense? What do you think? Is what I’m saying of actual interest to anyone? I’d really like to hear any and all of our thoughts. Email me, post comments, reach out on Facebook. Just let me know what you think.

If this post reaches out to you in anyway, then I’m speaking directly to you.  I just could really use your help in figure this out. Basically, how do you create ‘atmosphere’?

-Davin S.

Logo idea that grew from some of the thoughts of our Facebook users. The idea is to use this on shirts, watermarks etc.
It may look simple, but the idea grew organically through you guys.

|Random Thought| Where have all the fun cars gone?

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Is the Fiat 500 the modern Austin Mini? Now stay with me for a minute. The idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds.

We all know that the current trend of cars have them getting heavier, and stuffed full of additional add-ons that many car enthusiasts don’t want. (I don’t need an in-dash GPS, my 3lbs Garmin works just fine). The Mini, the Civic, and even the Impreza. You name it, and the current version is heavier and more vanilla than the last. Power outputs are increasing to make up for the added weight in cars, but that doesn’t make them any more fun to drive.

The original Mini Cooper and Civic used to be the symbols of slow cars that we loved to drive fast. The Miata, Datsun 510, the 240z, the list goes on. Cheap to insure and run. It got me thinking that there aren’t many modern cars that really represent that classic ethos. With the cars that we have available now, it’s no wonder why our current generation of children don’t find driving to be that fun anymore. I always found that to be super-sad.

I wish there was a modern ‘fun car’ that would could re-ignite that passion of driving in our culture. The Fiat 500 comes to mind. Pretty lightweight and a good value for money, this car fits the bill of thrill on the cheap. The Toyo-baru FRS/BRZ/GT86 might be another good example, but after that the list is starting to come up short. Maybe the Mazda 2 or the Ford Fiesta?

Can anyone else think of a modern fun car? What would you want to buy, if you could only get a new car?

|Rant| Is this the day that the music died for RWB?

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Earlier in the year, Raul-Welt creations started to emerge from Japan and make its way into the mainstream. When that happened, I started to express a general concern about how I wasn’t sure if exposure into the global limelight was going to be a good thing for the once underground-awesomeness that was RWB.

And then it happened…knock-off kits have started to appear of Nakai-san’s unique body kits. This body kit by VAD is just the first example that I’ve found. It’s clear that they’re trying to copy the Raul-Welt style, even down the riveted fenders. They say that imitation is the kindest form of flattery, but honestly I just feel like aero-kits like this start to white-wash out the impact that RWB has spent so much time trying to build.

Does this have the raw-style of an RWB car? No. Does this car look like it was built with meticulous passion and care? No. Take a look at any videos of Nakai-san working on one of his projects, and you’ll see that Rauh-Welt cars are built with a bespoke passion and enthusiasm that can’t be duplicated. But it sure can be washed out by imitation-look kits.

Does anyone care about imitation parts? Am I overreacting?

|Rant|-Will the REAL Mini Cooper please stand up?

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Apparently Mini, like Lotus, has gone insane. I just read that they are coming out with a two door version of that abomination that is the Countryman. It looks like this…

I can’t even put into words the rage I feel by seeing this…thing. Who needs this? Why even call it a Mini? It’s not even tiny! Whatever happened to lightness, agility and efficiency?

Whatever happened to the actual Mini Cooper? Our small little friend that spent Sunday afternoons tripoding around cones, and showing larger cars the business? If I were Paddy Hopkirk, and saw what they were calling Mini’s nowadays, I’d go around bashing heads in.

Bring back the Mini please. What we have now is a BMW.

/rant

Stickers…I love stickers. (Ideas?)

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So I’m thinking about having some window stickers made for the blog. Something simple and easy like a 1 x 4 inch sticker. (Tiny!)

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With that in mind, I’m playing around with some logo ideas. What do you think?

Have any better ideas? Email me at relaxeddriver(at)gmail.com

Why We Race: A Concise Explanation

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The Autosport Labs Lab Rat

Friend of StartingGrid, Doug Chase – Chief Everything Officer of Chase Race, drove in last week’s 24 Hours of LeMons event at Sears Point Infineon Raceway. He was driving the Autosport Labs Merkur “Lab Rat”, which is pictured above and is worth a post just highlighting its unique features – live telemetry in a $500 crap can racer!.

Doug recently said the following about being behind the wheel of the Lab Rat and it resonated with me as a great explanation of what racing really feels like.

“Last Saturday I spent two hours at the wheel of a race car, and it was the most relaxed that I had felt in months. Never mind that we were racing in the rain, or that the windshield wipers broke, or that there were 170 other cars on track.

At that moment, nothing else in the world matters. Work is gone. The internet is gone. I couldn’t answer the phone if I wanted to. For those two hours the only thing that mattered was piloting the race car, a task that happens to be quite fun, and that I happen to be reasonably good at.

When my stint was up and it was time to come in and change drivers, I climbed out of the car relaxed, refreshed, and feeling more at peace than I had felt in a long time.

Then Sunday we did it all again, except without the rain.

And life is good.”

Public Service Announcement- Working on another site redesign.

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So once again, I’ve got my hands dirty making changes to the site.  I’ve spent some my spare time checking out other blogs, and see what design themes that I like. After a bit of thinking and comparing, I felt like our site was a bit like this:

“Sigh…” Originally, I was aiming for something more like this:

So I’ve decided to make some more changes to the blog. I’m working on attempting to create a cleaner theme with fewer widgets. The site design will be changing in small bits over the next few days, so bear with me if things seem to be a bit difficult to find.

Also on the topic of content, I’ve reached out to a few of you just to see what new things you would be interested to see.  So stay tuned for new posts to reflect some of those. In the meantime, just hang out and let me know if you have any additional ideas.

“The gears are a-turning…”

Heading into 2012…as if we had a choice. ;)

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Well we’ve got about thirty-five hours left in 2011 as I write this post, so I figured that this was a good of time as any to reflect on the year gone by.  I can say that I’m pretty content with the progress that StartingGrid.org has made over the last nine months.

  1. We’ve posted over 430 articles, full of video and photography about ‘Automotiveness’
  2. New writers have come onboard from all over and started contributing awesome content.
  3. We’ve picked up some followers on Facebook and on Twitter (Totally cool folks, btw!)

Looking into the new year, I’ve got some interesting aims for the blog that should serve to provide our followers with even more original content.  We’ve picked up a few sponsors over the year, and we’re working together on a project to increase exposure of StartingGrid.org to a wider audience. I can talk about it more as 2012 progresses, but it should lead to be pretty interesting.

—

Other things that will be in the pipe in 2012.

  1. More project log posts that work on ‘Kyoko’ finally gets underway.
  2. More authored posts and video from our contributors.
  3. Also, I’m learning more about web design and code, so hopefully you should see some new widgets and UI enhancements to the site

I also wanted to take the time to say thanks to all of our followers over the year. I know that there are a lot of blogs to surf over, and I wanted everyone to know that I appreciate the time that you take on ours.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any feedback, or want to join in and start doing some writing yourself!

It’s been a fun ride in 2011, and we’re looking forward to bringing you more cool stuff in 2012. Bang!

-Davin Sturdivant.

Everyone should learn to use a manual gearbox…

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Driving a manual transmission is a skill that every car enthusiast should have.

I was thinking about this topic on the way into work, watching drivers just randomly drifting in their lanes on the freeway. It’s the sad classic story of the modern age.

Proper usage of a H-Pattern gearbox is a dying art-form. Most people don’t know how to do it.

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Trains V Cars: “Hell on Earth, This is Hell on Earth.”

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Picture the scene, you’ve just been at work for 8 hours, you’re tired, you’ve run to the train station and 4 very rude ignorant imbeciles have barged in front of you. You’re exhausted, it’s Friday night and the girlfriend you haven’t seen for over two weeks is waiting at home for you.

There is a train in 10 minutes, and you’re on the right platform ready to go. What could possibly go wrong? Well if you’re stood on any platform at Birmingham New Street – every-last-bloody-thing imaginable.
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Cars V Trains: Since when did parking cost a million pounds?

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Press play.

Cars are getting frightfully expensive. I realised this, this afternoon when simply trying to park in Coventry city centre for a few hours. Before I tell you (and you scroll down), guess how much they make you pay to park in a car park with dirty water dripping from the ring-road above and tarmac that hasn’t so much be laid as ploughed. Go on, 4 hours in Coventry, guess. £2.50? £3.00 perhaps? Wrong.

Scroll down…

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‘Our Tim joins StartingGrid.org

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Hello StartingGrid readers! I’m Our Tim, the latest contributor to this wonderful blog and I just wanted to say a quick hello before I start publishing new posts and you all think “who is this guy?”.

So yes, hi there! My real name is Tim Watson, but I use my nickname (and stage name) of ‘Our Tim for most things I do. Old habits die hard, so if you see any posts ending in ‘Our Tim or OT, that’s me :)

Speaking of, a bit of background would be good wouldn’t it? Well, I work for a multitude of radio stations here in the UK and I’m a freelance presenter. My life is completely dominated by anything with four wheels and an engine and I’m completing a Masters in Automotive Journalism at present. I’ve spent far too much time around cars and below are a couple of projects I’ve done over the past year.

This first one is a video project completed for my undergraduate studies and tells the story of why some cars are more than just cars. Make sure you have a biscuit and a hot beverage before watching it, I’ve been told it makes for a far more pleasurable viewing experience ;)

This one is my final project from my undergrad studies and my on going research. Car Radio, a podcast style show that people can download and listen to anywhere they like to find out about their favourite thing in the whole world: Cars!

And finally, this is just a little treat for you really… I shot this down at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire, UK. Its a Ferrari 206 Dino starting up and revving – absolutely stunning it was, and it sounded better than it looked!

So yes, that’s me! I hope you like the above links, and you enjoy reading my posts, its a pleasure to join the StartingGrid blog and if your interested, here’s my own blog which i post quite a lot on - http://our-tim.blogspot.com/ - and also Project 365, (http://365project.org/ourtim/365) a photo everyday for a whole year, so you’ll be able to find out what trouble i get myself into on a daily basis!

So until the next post, have a good day/night/sleep… depending where about you are in the world :)

Cheers,

‘Our Tim!

Introductions- Andrew Howe

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Hi.  I thought I’d start out on StartingGrid by introducing myself.

As an amateur racer (an autocrosser to be more precise), I’m the car owner, the engineer, the mechanic, and the driver.  I drive the truck, I stock the cooler, I book the hotels.  If that seems like a lot of responsibility, that’s true.  The reward?  Just a few minutes of glory, a big grin, and good memories.  Very few of us take anything monetary back out of the sport.

Now, a bit about my background in motorsports.  Autocross is a test of precision and speed in a time trial format. Each driver gets 3 runs at a course with their best time going in the results.  There is no practice; the course is learned by walking it.  It is marked with cones and hitting a cone invokes a fatal 2 second penalty.  Being perfect for 60 seconds is the holy grail of autocross.  The one that is most nearly perfect wins.

I drive a 1982 Reynard chassis Formula Ford.  It is underpowered, but capable.  When it was new, it was one of the best rides out there and the European series was a stepping stone towards Formula 1.  Your favorite F1 drivers from the 80′s all came through the Formula Ford ranks.  The cars are very forgiving but painfully slow.  Every ounce of speed must be carried through the corner to be fast.

I’ll be writing about car setup and driving technique.  My personal strengths appear to be in setting up the car and driving the best line.  I’m not much for driving with my hair on fire, but I can do it from time to time.  Usually you’ll find me being methodical, precise, and living between 9/10ths and 10/10ths.  As an amateur, this seems to work fairly well.  And, the more seat time I get, the more comfortable 10/10ths feels.

Recent in-car video from the SCCA Solo National Championships:

If I were more tech savvy, I’d find a way to embed that directly in the post.  (Editor’s Note: Don’t worry, Andy. I’ve got your back. ;) ) Oh well… something more to learn.  In the mean time, I’ll see you on the Grid.

What is your moment?- “What is your reason for living?”

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*This post is actually one that I’ve dug up from my archives. I wrote this when I was in my undergraduate studies in business school. I’ve kept it as it was when I wrote it, grammar and all, but it explains alot of why I’m so passionate about my interests.  Sidenote- it is a long post.

For every person, they have that one activity that when done perfectly brings them moments of absolute bliss. Some people call it being in the ‘zone’, others call it euphoria. Whatever you call it, it’s that moment where everything clicks. It involves all of your senses. Life is perfect, or as close to it as it can.

You have no problems or concerns and you just exist in that moment. Those who are passionate about what they do, spend their lives training, searching and seeking to control the ability to access that ‘feeling’ at will.

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Envious? Jealous? Totally Awesome?-Who knows…

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Not sure what of all of this that I’m most jealous of:

  1. Sweet helmet stickers
  2. Awesome purple driving gloves
  3. Drift Miata

 Seriously.  Thanks to RoadsterDrift for the find.

(Also, I know I owe you guys some more detailed posts. They are coming, I promise.

Currently I’ve been on a tuning car/small car kick, because they are totally awesome and attainable by the everyman. You can blame the Formula 1 summer break for this too. ;)  

I’m also just working on several mini-projects at once.If you want to see something more specific from me, let me know and I’ll think about generating some content around it.

Either that or email me about an interest in being a contributor, and I’ll let YOU guys come up with some of the content.

Why not?)

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Out for a drive: Random thoughts

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So I’ve been looking for a photographer for the blog for a while. Tonight, I got fed up and decided to just take the cameraphone out and take a picture of the car. (I should really get a nice camera though)

Plus I got a chance to just cruise around town and just enjoy the Miata at night, which is always a good thing.

What is it about cars and gas stations that make me think that I'm in Initial D?

Some thoughts from the management. ;)

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So  for the next few weeks, Formula 1 is taking a holiday for the summer break. The time off from F1 is giving me some time to reflect and think about what I’m using the blog for.

Personally, I like the StartingGrid, because I get a chance to share some awesome features about cars and driving. However lately, I’ve realized that I’ve been flooding the blog with Formula 1 content. Now while that’s no bad thing, that’s not all I want this blog to be about.

I’m going to take more of an effort to feature more road car articles, since that’s where my passion lies. They’ll be more real-world content from me working on my MX Roadster, and also doing more karting.  You’ll also be getting more personal statements from me, etc. (We’ll see how that goes.)

Sorry for the blurry camera phone pictures.

I’m also reaching out to find some interested contributors to do some writing for the blog, so that we can have a few extra viewpoints, besides my own.

For this end of the quarter, I’m really looking into transforming the blog into more of a conversation space for car enthusiasts. I’m going to need help from readers and writers to help make this more fun, but I really think that it will pay off nicely in the end.

-Davin

 

The Importance of Driver Enthusiasm-Video

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This video was taken on Jenson and Lewis on the build up for the British Grand Prix. While that race has been over and done with, I’m featuring it for an entirely different reason.

What this video really shows is the passionate and fighting spirit that these two guys have for racing. It shows how important it is to have a strong support team around you, as you’re developing and fighting for a dream. As a driver, or as just someone who loves racing, you have to show enthusiasm, as the challenges before you can be so great.

As you watch this video, take a moment and think about what excites you about the things that you love to do in life.

Use that as your energy to move to the next level.

*****

Sidenote: I promise, I do have some more ‘driving-technique posts coming up soon. I just need to make some time to finish one of them off.

Random Thought: What’s the point of having so many reserve drivers?

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No point. Exactly. Limiting testing was the worst thing to happen in Formula 1 for a long time, because these guys (and test drivers) have NOTHING TO DO. Unless they are racing in lower series and locked into a race seat in the future, having 3-5 reserve drivers is just a waste of money and space. (Talking to BOTH Lotus teams here!).

Unless you’re planning to make a footballer team to wrestle the other teams into submission…

See? Not doing jack! God… </rant>

Why we exist.

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Hey there guys. Welcome to the ” Starting Grid”.  So, from the off, why are we here? What made us make this blog?

The reason why we exist is simple. The writers here at the “Starting Grid” are you guys. We’re drivers.

Know why?

  1. We’re the guys who love to get up at 4:30am on a Sunday to go to the race track.
  2. We spend out afternoons discussing the benefits of left foot braking, while surfing Youtube finding Senna videos.
  3. We definitely love a bit of opposite lock, whenever the opportunity presents itself.
  4. We spend days wrenching on our own cars, and nights at the local kart track trying to find the best line.
  5. Plus, we love a good chat about cars. Anytime, anyplace.

BTW: About that Senna video…

Just like we do as drivers, this blog with grow and evolve everyday. As we get rolling, the topics that you see here will vary and change. From talk about Formula 1, pictures of us at a track day, or talk of the latest car that’s coming out, we’re here to spread the love of cars and driving, with our own unique twist.

We’re just figuring out what that is now. ;) You’ll learn more about us, the cars we drive, and our tastes with each coming post.

Come along for the ride.

Bang.