The adventures of Debbie the girl : racecar driver

[Ian c]

I think I may have created a monster .....

I've known Debbie about 6 months now .
When I met her she had little to no interest in cars .
She has had a couple of cool aircooled beetles in the past and her current car was a new beetle turbo .
Because she liked the colour .
And because she thought it was cute .

I bought the boxster about 5 weeks ago now ..
I was putting too many miles on the 997 , there was a lull between projects after modifying her beetle and getting my 964 back from the painters , and it was cheap ...

I decided it would be an awesome idea to put her on the insurance .
I could then volunteer her as designated driver and get as drunk as I wanted too

Fatal mistake ...

She made comments along the lines of :
it feels so good around the corners ..
I can't believe how much fun it is ..
It wants me to drive it faster ..
Etc . Etc.

And so the seed was planted .
I suggested doing some training in the car to make her understand it a little better and become a more competent and safer driver in the process .
We talked about autocross and how it was easy ... Just driving around cones in a parking lot

Well , she got so excited she couldn't sleep !!
(Oh ****************)
So I contacted a couple of pca instructors and started the process of getting her some professional advice whilst learning .
I'm a firm believer in practice does not make perfect , it makes permanent ..... You have to be practicing the right things from the start

The car still is not ready (project car and all will be revealed in a week or two) , yet there was a pca autocross this weekend at el toro , and a mentioned we may want to go and check it out ....

Another fatal mistake , another sleepless night .

So sometime after lunch on Sunday we finally arrived ...

Daunting .
Apprehensive .
Scared .
Nervous .
I'm not sure how to describe it , but the was still enthusiastic even though she was surprised by the size , speed , and professionalism of it .
(Oh ****************)

Later that day she did convey her main worry from our spectator session :
She had never worn an helmet before .
(Oh ****************)

With this , I realized I had missed a vital step on the racer ladder .
Go karts !!!

How could I be so stupid !!

It is the logical first step .

So suggested we go karting sometime before her first autocross .
Another mistake .
Another sleepless night ..

So that is what we did tonight's.
I researched local tracks , and go kart world in Carson seemed ideal .
6 tracks , different speed karts , competence testing for faster carts , and gas powered .
It seems all the local tracks now use electric karts , and I have never driven one , so I wanted gas as imho it takes that long to pick up scrubbed speed due to bad driving i learned pretty quickly the best way around the track (plus the fact I had a 250lb pipe fitter catching me up and "bumping" my rear every time I messed up

[Ian c]

A bit of background before I post the pics and videos ...

Debbie has been driving over 30 years now and has never had a ticket .
Up until 6 months ago Debbie had never been in a porsche
Up until 6 months ago Debbie had never been in a car doing 100 mph
Up until 6 months ago Debbie had never been in a convertible
Debbie thought I was stupid when I suggested bend and slip road speed signs where merely a suggestion of the minimum speed .
Debbie involuntary screamed when I demonstrated pdk launch control .

Debbie's that smooth at driving , I fear she will be a better driver than me

Debbie said her first time karting was awesome then went strait to bed .
I'm still up now at nearly midnight , struggling with the adrenalin rush and typing an essay online

Yip .
I have definitely created a monster

[Ian c]

So we had to do a skidpan track session , and a half-speed car session to qualify for our "licences" to drive the big boy carts .

We did this together so there are no pictures of Debbie finishing and me waiting for a marshall to push me back onto the track

I decided to hold a 30 minute drivers meeting where i would teach her everything I know .
After a minutes talking , a few seconds explaining that racecar spelt backwards is racecar , and five minutes silence , we decided to abandon the lesson and go strait to the track .


Hers a pic of debbie being nervous and excited , yet looking kinda cool ..






And her is a pic of her "instructor" looking like a dick in an oversized helmet .





Obviously I kicked ass and was the most awesome driver they had ever seen , so I sat out the next session so I could see where Debbie went wrong and show my other main skill .
Photography .

the pics may seem to show she calmed down each lap and got tighter and faster .
I am disputing this .
I say her girls wrists couldn't handle the pressure and she had to ease off as the laps went by .
It is obvious she was going faster the first few laps as she was sideways in the corners , weakening out to sideways on the exit to the straits, then weakening out to be flat throughout .
(I am not jealous or bitter )

[Ian c]

[YOUTUBE]UGObV5sFg&sns[/YOUTUBE]



[YOUTUBE]xh9159ckwNU&sns[/YOUTUBE]

[Brad Roberts]

Fix the links!!

[Ian c]

I can't !!!

I'm used to forums with a youtube thing

The Internet is another one of my awesome skills


[YOUTUBE]Y-UGObV5sFg[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]ZUuT5da3RNE[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]xh9159ckwNU&sns[/YOUTUBE]

[Brad Roberts]

Just grab the url and forget the forum formatting!!

[Ian c]

Manly ass-out through the corner
Jul 22, 2013 - YouTube


Iffeminate ass-out exiting the corner
Jul 22, 2013 - YouTube


And girly smooth driving all the way through .
Jul 22, 2013 - YouTube

[jb92563]

Good strategy, distract the other drivers with Debbie so you can get an edge.

Now she'll be asking if you can build her a racecar too, and you'll have to unless you want to share yours.

Another Porsche convert

[Ian c]

I'm not sure about a racecar !!!
She's more than happy with a relatively stock looking car and knowing how to drive it ..


I just hope it stays that way

A have 73 racecar shell in storage as a long term project .
The idea is to make it into an rsr style hot rod to be used on the streets for summer sunday blasts etc .

If push comes to shove it would be cheaper to keep that as a racecar than a roadcar , but I doubt it would be as competent as a boxster .

Who knows what the future will bring

[Johnny Danger]

Originally Posted by Ian c

I'm not sure about a racecar !!!
She's more than happy with a relatively stock looking car and knowing how to drive it ..


I just hope it stays that way

A have 73 racecar shell in storage as a long term project .
The idea is to make it into an rsr style hot rod to be used on the streets for summer sunday blasts etc .

If push comes to shove it would be cheaper to keep that as a racecar than a roadcar , but I doubt it would be as competent as a boxster .

Who knows what the future will bring

Just image her reaction to speed yellow !!

[Ian c]

It's still yellow from its race days ...

Gulf colours is where it's at

[Brad Roberts]

Steve Lindberg built?? (I may have the speeling wrong) I met him at the Mid Ohio SCCA Runoffs when I was crew chiefing for two SCCA Porsche's!! One ran in GT2 and the other in GT3 (circa 1993 or 4.. I have slept since then)

[Ian c]

I don't know brad .
I'll have to look back through my emails to see .
I bought it off don Ramsey at aircooled classics in Knoxville .


Just been karting again
, great fun , but no pics as we where the only two there on the fast karts so we went on together .
I only managed to spin off 3 times
One recovered and two needing Marshall assistance

Oh and this time I also picked a helmet off the rack by trying different ones for size , rather than grabbing the biggest I could find for comedy value .
This meant i could drive with 2 hands on the wheel , rather than one on the wheel and one holding the helmet on .

We're going to k1 in irvine tomorrow to try out the electric karts ..

Managed to get a REAL good deal on a pair of bell sa2005 helmets today ....
If anybody takes a size small and wants an open face helmet for ax etc send me a pm and ill pass on the details . (I'm pretty sure it's a pricing error)

[Topless]

Originally Posted by Ian c

Managed to get a REAL good deal on a pair of bell sa2005 helmets today ....
If anybody takes a size small and wants an open face helmet for ax etc send me a pm and ill pass on the details . (I'm pretty sure it's a pricing error)

No pricing error, just closing out old stock Ian. The 2005 helmets expire and become obsolete for most motorsport events in 2015 so they are priced to move now. If you don't need date compliance they are at a very good price right now.

[Kenny Boxster]

Sounds like you guys had a blast. I plan on going carting with some friends soon!

[Ian c]

Originally Posted by Topless

No pricing error, just closing out old stock Ian. The 2005 helmets expire and become obsolete for most motorsport events in 2015 so they are priced to move now. If you don't need date compliance they are at a very good price right now.

Reduced down to 200 everywhere I've looked .
Not a great deal compared to the prices of sa2010 variants .....

I got them for less than 40 each .

That's LESS than it costs to replace the peak ...

A great deal if you don't have a helmet , even if it only lasts until 2015 comes out .
I thought I read that 2005 will be good until the 2015 versions are actually tested and available and this is normally a year behind (2016) ?
Either way , it was an irresistible bargain !!
If we get a dozen AXs out of it I'll be happy .

Now I have to see if the gas karting place will let us use open-faces then we don't have to wear their scabby helmets and head socks !!!

[Ian c]

Originally Posted by Kenny Boxster

Sounds like you guys had a blast. I plan on going carting with some friends soon!

The electric karts at k1 where great fun .
We got there early and there was only 2 other guys on track with us .
One was even wearing our local pca region tee shirt , but he left before I could say hello .

It's a lot neater and more "corporate" than the gas engined place .
The carts where new , and more importantly the helmets where new and had padding in them and where sized correctly
Even the head-socks where "one use only"

A different experience as the track was flat and the karts where electric , but was awesome .
I highly recommend you try them out if you have a place local .

No pics though .

[Kenny Boxster]

I went and did 60mph karts with some friends. Crazy stuff!

[Ian c]

Glad you had fun !!
it is one of them things that EVERYBODY should try ..
We had planned on doing gas Saturday and electric Sunday again .
But it got too late once I had finished installing her rear muffler so we missed out on Saturday .

Did two 14 lap goes on the electrics again this morning though !!

Awesome fun , and we both shaved a second off our best lap time on the second go .

I think these are 40mph karts .
Have yo seen the f1 karting thing ?
I think it's in minn or somewhere . Open outdoor track and 100mph rotax karts
I wish that was as close as my local tracks are ...