The story of two bad wrecks and how experience teaches that managing expectations is key for track days (and even more important for wheel-to-wheel racing).
Disaster struck in early 2020 when Mike was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, with the COVID pandemic shutting off New Zealand from the rest of the world shortly after - effectively ending his booming tour business.
In the broad realm of performance motoring, there are essentially three classifications of enthusiasts: Those who seek pure power, those who seek pure finesse, and those who seek a balance of the two. For those seeking finesse, top-down sports motoring doesn’t get much better than the Honda S2000, and while the high-revving, 240 horsepower four banger under hood won’t satisfy the power hungry, it does propel the S2000 with enough punch to get an inexperienced driver into trouble, and boy does it sound good doing it.
The daily headlines have been full of news about the bailout of the U.S. auto industry from its various problems. As interesting as such details are, I’d like to suggest that they aren’t the important part of the story for automotive enthusiasts. In a dramatically changing automobile industry, what we’ve witnessed up ‘til now is more like the preparation for the invasion of Iraq. We’re entering the phase where we actually invade. But the hard parts and the decisive parts start after that. Or, if you prefer a happier analogy, we’ve been witnessing the prep for the wedding. Now we’re about to go in to the wedding ceremony and then off on a honeymoon. After that, the hard work and – we hope – good times begin. Ongoing life isn’t a wedding ceremony or a battle, and we would do well not to confuse the two.
Ford’s Tempo replacement in the mid-1990s only had a six-year production run, but when engineers from Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT) got their hands on the Contour for the 1998 model year, few people could’ve anticipated the cult following that would follow.
I confess to having mixed emotions about the Obama administration’s move over the weekend to throw Rick Wagoner under the Escalade.
On the one hand, Mr. Wagoner was pretty clearly toast last fall. He had to get the axe, at a minimum for political reasons, but for sound reasons as well.
Despite the April Issue indication you may have noticed on the cover of this month’s Winding Road (check out our full new issue at www.magazine.WindingRoad.com), it’s actually just around the middle of the long Michigan winter as we write this. That’s bad news for anyone who values anything in the way of a short sleeve or a naturally occurring tan, but it’s surprisingly good news for us driving enthusiasts.
We lean towards that group of people that embrace four full seasons in all of their glory, and love to drive through each of them. Which is why we’ve been paying special attention this year to the motive joys that can be had when our world is white. Be it driving a sports car or a convertible, with a new set of snows or in a frigid testing environment, we’re into winter driving. Find out why.
