peak performance

a while back, delwyn posted about her experience with cars.

do you remember that?

it got me thinking about my own experiences with cars.

i grew up in a family that was very much focussed on cars.

at various times my dad owned an armstrong-siddeley, a jaguar xk 120, a jaguar c-type replica, and a jaguar xj6. my dad (and often my brother) spent weekends inside or underneath those various vehicles, tinkering, repairing, whatever it is that people do with their cars.

there's an irony in that isn't there?!

you see i don't drive.

i have never held a license.

in fact to get around i bicycle, or i walk, or i get a ride, or take the bus.

i do all that i can to counter my carbon footprint

including buying carbon offsets for my friend dave who drives me to work in the wintertime

when the thought of an eight kilometre walk to work in the morning is far too challenging.

i'll walk home at the end of the day.

there's an irony isn't there -

something for a therapist to have a go at!!!

bloggy chums - have a go at it!!!

so, my father and my brother both raced vintage jaguars.

their main vehicle of choice for racing was a sky blue 1969 jaguar xj6 - the 13th one made actually.

this car was presented in concour's d'elegance for a little while and then finally it had a v12 engine and a standard transmission put in and they took it racing up and down the eastern seaboard of the united states.

so as i was growing up painting and writing poems and listening to music,

they were stripping down, rebuilding and racing cars.

i love cars, well car design actually.

in fact, i had serious aspirations towards becoming an automobile designer

and one day i'll share the portfolio i assembled towards that end.

i love the smell of gasoline, leather, oil, i love some features of car culture - especially being there on race day. the noise, the energy. in fact long, long ago, my brother and i drove to sebring for the 24 hour race there twice. a distance of 1300 miles - each way. our record for a one-way journey was 23 hours.

before we left we'd buy a bag of donuts, a few bags of chips, a few cans of pop and an air freshener!!!

it was good to be young, irresponsible and whatever else all that suggests!!

so, here i am , well aware of the irresponsible use of fossil fuels and the consequences of that practice but i still enjoy watching racing and today's posting is so completely different to what i usually share that i expect people will stay away in droves.

if i could i'd have the monty python crew here mouthing the words:

"and now for something completely different".

the only sales pitch i have for visitors here is that the onboard camera work is breathtaking and gets the adrenalin pumping!!!

i'd love to be a passenger in a car like this on a ride like this.

so this one is for my bruvver who lives with his ladylove in vancouver!!!

here you go david.

enjoy!!

(viewing tips - set the film at full-screen and put on your headphones - crank the volume to full

and prepare to sit on the edge of your seat!!!)

this is entitled "peak performance".

it features a highly modified ford fiesta rallycross roaring up pikes peak

this short film is entitled "climb dance".

there.

i've got that out of my system!!!!