"J. Drew Silvers" (drewcoustic)
02/17/2014 at 10:07 • Filed to: Car Flavors, racing
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"J. Drew Silvers" (drewcoustic)
02/17/2014 at 10:07 • Filed to: Car Flavors, racing | 9
| 12 |
Sports of any type have a rather rocky history with me. When I was a kid, baseball was my favorite activity by far, but around the age of ten, I put away my cleats and left that hobby behind me. Years later, as a young adult, I worked in the golf industry for a little over five years and enjoyed playing the game, but never really cared to take much interest in the PGA tournaments and didn't even get very excited about meeting touring professionals for that matter. The day I stopped paying attention to baseball was the same day I started paying attention to cars, but what I have never been fond of is the thought of automotive racing as a whole.
As you can tell, sports in general do not hold my interest very well. This isn't for a lack of trying, however.
In the summer of 2010 an old high school friend invited me to dinner and asked if I would be interested in building a car for the 24 Hours Of LeMons series with three other guys since I was the only one out of the lot with a garage. This seemed right up my automotive alley, so we found a car, started paying our monthly dues and built a good bit of said car in my garage, minus sending it out to have the cage welded in and the final prep work.
Days Of Thunder , anyone?
We spent the entire summer of 2010 building that car after work and late into the night every weekend. There was a slight buzz around my suburb about what we were doing since the LeMons series was still somewhat of an underground happening at the time. People were interested, we were all having fun with the build, and the stress was pretty minimal for the most part. We arrived at Carolina Motorsports Park at the end of that summer and did our laps on the practice day. While I was out there on the track, it was fun...for a while...
You see, I went into this whole experience thinking I would finally find a sport I loved participating in and which would trigger the more endorphin-laced forms of pressure and stress in that process. All of the guys on my team were open-wheel racing nuts and two of them actually worked on an IndyCar team for a while, but I was never into any of that. I didn't get any of that rush of the racing life and edgy, competitive experience it enthralls until the tail end of practice day when we blew a CV joint boot.
What I realized when this happened was that the actual element of caring about racing culture in my case had less to do with lap times, statistics, and driver style or identity - my element was in the paddock, turning wrenches, stressing out about getting the car back on the track. Whether the car did well in the actual competition suddenly stopped having an effect on me and my mindset became "Does it work as well as it should?" which, in a 1992 base model Chevrolet Beretta isn't saying much. For the record, my old team lives on in the form of an RX-7 instead of the Beretta and have had much more success since then, only I am no longer part of it.
The thing is, I can be put in a room full of enthusiasts talking about any type of cars or whatever may be bolted to them and I am happy. When someone starts talking about F1, Nascar, or WRC related topics though, I get bored. I guess this stems from the fact of me not being very competitive when it comes to organized events because I would rather spend time challenging myself and being my own biggest opponent to properly handle a task. Self-motivation is a huge factor in every part of my life both in recreation and professionally. Some may call such a downfall, but I consider it a carefully balanced component of my character instead.
In the past I considered myself a little less of an automotive enthusiast because I just couldn't get into the entertainment value of the racing culture. The other day, however, I started thinking about the idea at length and finally came to terms with my own definitive solution to the "problem" I had.
My analogy of reason goes something like this:
I play guitar. I have been a guitarist for a little over a dozen years. The style I play almost daily fits my personality perfectly, so I play on my strengths and try to always push myself to that next level of ability within my genre. "Shredding" like guitarists who play harder rock and metal has never appealed to me, so I never learned how to do it properly. This is a style I respect and can listen to because I appreciate it, but it is not in the confines of something I want to be able to play. I now see cars and racing in the same light as I see music - I appreciate it all, but only take serious interest in what is most appealing to me.
Every enthusiast has their automotive strong suits. I don't think I am less of a car guy because I would rather spend my time building up a car than slinging it around a track or watching someone else do the same.
What do you think?
Grace and Peace,
Drew
Z_Stig
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:13 |
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Racing is just another sub-culture of the larger automotive culture.
BlythBros.
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:14 |
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I'm the same way. Self-motivated, introvert, not competitive. I like the idea of maximum power extraction from an engine with a set of constraints, but the sport doesn't do much for me.
Party-vi
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:14 |
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Certainly not. Just because you don't care for a certain aspect of the automotive world doesn't make you any less of a car nut. Lowriders don't do a damn thing for me, but just because I don't dig them doesn't mean I don't love cars. Soviet cars are dry toast to my automotive palate, but not liking them doesn't make me any less of an enthusiast.
I don't think you can create a checklist for loving cars, it's just something you know you love.
crowmolly
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:14 |
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Not a prereq at all. There are thousands of car folk who don't give a shit about racing.
I am take-it-or-leave-it with a lot of pro racing divisions. Most of them, actually.
ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:15 |
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No.
Example: Stance.
Clearly these people love their cars, since they spend inane amounts of money making them less functional.
However, aside from purpose built drift cars, stanced cars will not survive the rigors of real racing.
Goshen, formerly Darkcode
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:18 |
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Not really, and this is just one of possible reasons why not.
RMudkips
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:19 |
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Answering your title question, I don't think so. There are many different cars that we don't really care for in terms of racing abilities, just as there are many different guitars that we don't really care for in terms of bending abilities.
I think you having some experience as a race technician (?) is still a pretty good way to help others with your experience. It's awesome that you tried that route.
Aaron James
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:29 |
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Those of us that can turn wrenches are certainly enthusiasts, There really isn't a defining set of rules that say you have to follow a racing series and wear the T-shirts every weekend while yelling at your TV screen for Sebastian Earnhardt Faust Jr. to get his ass in gear and go faster. I was never good at team sports or competition in general, I would get too worked up about the results instead of enjoying the journey so I totally get where you are coming from. The Journey of building a car and the satisfaction that it is you who is keeping it on the track can certainly outweigh who gets the best lap time. Fewer and fewer enthusiasts can actually work on their cars due not only to increasing complexity but also to a cultural change. When I was a kid it seemed like everyone's dad worked on cars so I could learn not only from my brother and dad but also from my friends dad who was always wrenching on something and always invited us to help and learn. So keep on wrenching and pass it on to others when you can.
spanfucker retire bitch
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 10:35 |
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No.
And thus, Betteridge's law of Headlines strikes again!
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J. Drew Silvers
> spanfucker retire bitch
02/17/2014 at 10:49 |
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That's more of a "law" if you don't have any real content to go with your question. I answered my own question, but I do get people who assume I'm into NASCAR (constantly) because I'm a car guy. With that, there are obviously a group of people out there who would answer "yes".
50ford500
> J. Drew Silvers
02/17/2014 at 11:41 |
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I don't really think it's necessary. There are plenty of people who are into racing that don't even know how to change their own oil. My Mom and Grandma are good examples of that. They both enjoy NASCAR but aren't really car savvy.
Conversely; I'm not really into most motorsports (just don't really have the time partly) but I love cars. I like driving them and looking at them and yes, occasionally working on them. I just don't get jollies watching other people drive them.
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J. Drew Silvers
> Goshen, formerly Darkcode
02/17/2014 at 18:12 |
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True. Land barges are a little less common, but still have quite a following. There were some panthers and I believe an Olds full-size running around the LeMons race I did. Running Wilwoods on the front...they were docked a few laps...