The Edge And Back
It was an orange 2022 Corvette. That’s me waving from the drivers side, ready for three laps around the race track. The C8 Z51 model Corvette makes 475 horsepower. The jaunty wave of the hand from the car toward my daughter taking the picture, was but a small part of the story. I have no prior experience driving on a racetrack. Reclining in the Corvette hearing the rumble of the V8 in the engine compartment behind the seats, a voice in my mind intermittently offered this public service announcement, — “you are about to die.”
Since I am writing this account on the day after, that was an overstatement. When the “go” signal was given by the track marshal, I pressed on the gas pedal and the self preservation warning light in my mind switched off. For the three laps around the track, one thing alone occupied my mind. Peering through the windshield toward the next turn rapidly coming up, focusing upon braking, eyes lined up with a orange cone marking the apex of the curve, then accelerating — how to get around the track as smoothly as I could manage. The long straightaway was breathtaking, the engine screamed, the Corvette finding it’s legs and in a heartbeat or two I’d lift to brake hard for the next curve…
Yeah, this is hard to describe, a different order of experience by comparison to doing the dishes or mowing the lawn. The mind plays a negligible part in all of this. The mind features greatly in preparation, measures to be taken to safely execute laps around the track. Show up at the track on time, pay attention at the drivers meeting, and be sure to pay for the insurance… Once in the seat of the car when the “go” pedal is pressed there’s no time for thought. The body is an intimate extension of the car and vise versa. Does the driver control the machine or is it the other way around? There’s no room or time for any thinking, one just reacts.
At the completion of the three laps, I stood next to the car, feeling my body shake. Stepping away from a “reality” that I could never have imagined, I returned to the normal world, a world where there’s time enough for thought, for sorting and searching for the right words to describe the experience.
I happily paid for three more laps around the track.
Interested in a Supercar Experience? CLICK HERE
