Saturday, November 8, 2008

I feel the need....

Go-karts. Wow. Now THAT was a blast.

It was a smaller group than we thought, only 6, but that's OK because the track can only take 8 racers at a time. We had the track to ourselves, and the competition was fierce. We were driving around that little track (probably a bit longer than a half mile, but MASSIVELY curvy) like Formula One pros. Accelerate to the corner, brake just a touch, slam on the gas and driiiiiiift through the curve. And for you non-racer types, "drift" really means "controlled skid." Just like in the movies.... screeching tires and all. Do it right, and you can practically take a 90-degree turn at full speed. Do it wrong, and you spin through 360 degrees (or worse, 180 degrees) to a dead stop.

The steering is so hugely sensitive that the wheel only really moves from, well, if 12 is straight ahead, you could turn the wheel as far as 10 and 2, but it was enough to get you through the hairpin turns. The brakes were, well... the word "placebo" comes to mind, except that they did in fact work a bit. Enough to let you drift, anyway.

Your seat is all of 4 inches from the ground, the center of gravity not much higher than that. The engine is right behind your back and the vibrations are teeth-rattling. After our first 15-minute race we took a water break. No kidding, the vibrations and the stiff steering left us all holding our water bottles in shaky hands, unable to control the trembling.

We drank our water, looked at each other, and with big smiles, almost in unison, said, "Let's do that again!"

And we did.

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