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Thursday, Jun 22, 2000
June 22, 2000
Fear and Drifting in Las Vegas
Earlier this week I was at yet another driving school. This was my third installment with Derek Daly in Las Vegas. This school was a test of sorts. I've been feeling like I've reached a plateau as a driver. I wanted to see if I could break through to another level, or if I had reached the pinnacle of my abilities.
By the end of the second day, I was making good progress, getting better lap times, driving more consistently, etc. Then I switched cars. The new car had significantly more horsepower, was noticeably lighter, and was a lot more tail happy. In the first few laps, the car was quite a handful. Several times I had to carefully feather back on the throttle, because the car was sliding around. However, after about five laps, I had tamed this wild beast, I was ready to start dialing in some speed.
This last session of the school gave me the answer I was looking for. To drive better and faster, I must to simultaneously do the following: drive very fast and very consistently, study my actions and reactions, study the car's response to my inputs, detect flaws, make decisions about how to correct those flaws, and implement those decisions. Hopping into the new car, I was able to do all of that.
I drove to Vegas and back for this school. This was something of a warm-up for my cross-continent trip later this summer. I was hoping to learn a few lessons which would make the big trip go more smoothly. Here are a few:
- drain the ice chest frequently
- allow time for spontaneous events, like a swim in an alpine lake
- use a radar detector
- avoid recreational activities which alter the eye's response
I intended to take the scenic route on the way down to Vegas. But I took longer than expected to clean out my office at work. It's easy to accumulate a lot of stuff in seven years. So I just shot down I-5, and cut across the Mojave to I-15.
On the way back, I went through Death Valley, the eastern Sierra and Yosemite. The name Death Valley seems like a bit of hyperbole. Compared to the area around the Dead Sea, Death Valley is a garden spot.
Driving through mountains and basins, I got an impression of what the area around Vegas, Lancaster, etc. looked like before people settled. The uninhabited basins have an awesome emptiness.
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