Josh and Erin in the Twin Cities

In my defense, she was called Coby because she was riding through a parking lot crossing an alley without looking down the alley when she crossed it. Essentially, not paying attention to what she was doing. I know it is a buzzkill to have to keep so vigilant, but that is what keeps your skin intact when you are riding a scooter, motorcycle, what-have-you.

Anyway, now that is settled, I have an autocross update. Yesterday was the first race on the new tires/wheels and I have to say that they performed beautifully. The tires gave great grip, turn in was more precise, and the car was more controllable all around. All I need now is a good alignment and the car will actually go where I want it to.

The first few runs of the day I coned on, and I was not improving, and I was getting frustrated. Basically, I was just trying to pussy-foot it around and be smooth. Well, there's smooth and then there is smooth and fast. You can be smooth and still push the front, rear, all four. So, for the afternoon session, I just said screw it, I'm going to slam one in and see how it goes.

I dropped 3 seconds off my best time from the morning. On a 60 (ish) second lap. I went from high 67s to a low 64 with no cones. I guess I was just thinking too hard about it and not just doing it. As I got better in the afternoon I got happier and was able to play more with the car. The M5 will have to wait a few more weeks at least. (incidentally, I did find a smoking deal on one, we shall see how the little lady responds to it...)

I still finished 4th of 4, but the top two were in the top 10 on raw time and top 5 in PAX, so I don't feel so bad about it. The car I was chasing all day is a little Nissan Sentra, and just when I thought I had gotten him, he upped his game as well and got me by a second or so. The good thing is that I was able to get my PAX time into the 80's (out of 150) and my raw time put me squarely on 100 of 150 drivers. Not great, but good for now. It is also good to know that I was just being a wanker and need to drive the damn car like I stole it.

My last run was a good one, but I probably lost about 1/2 a second in one section, it was a right, left, right and I was on a flyer. I got into the right nicely and the back started to come around, no problem, hit the left and flung it back that way, then slammed it hard to the right for the last corner of the set and the back kicked out that way. Slam on the gas hard and it all lines back up with minimal drama. I wish I had video of it though, it must have looked cool to see a front wheel drive car fishtailing through a short slalom.

I found a link to a video that someone took from their M3, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ7EfBxkdJc

Here is another that shows the course better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScDYYX6_bE4

Oh yeah, and we went to see the 'Dark Knight' last night, it was awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes movies. Heath Ledger's performance was AMAZING. It was all Joker, no Heath in there at all, the performance of a lifetime. He was really freaky in a lot of the scenes and did an incredible job, I can't talk highly enough about it.