Drifting
He’d been working furiously to get the car ready for it’s maiden outing. He has this great car for drifting, a Nissan Skyline. Pretty car, and with the new stuff he’s done to it the engine purrs, if something that loud can be called a purr and not a roar?
But Friday it was the Mustang’s turn. Jon calls it the "Driftstang". It’s an 88 Mustang, and Charles has been redoing it. He put it best, "I didn’t know that Auto mechanics was a full contact sport." It had been a hard week, and he got the ’Stang up and running just in time.
We drove the Foose, of course. Jon has nicknamed it, The Baby. I was thinking something a little more macho, but the nickname has stuck as such names will, so there it is, the Foose is now officially, The Baby.
The Baby got a lot of attention last Friday. It is a car that you will notice even if you know almost nothing about cars, but if you know cars, well, she’s a pretty girl. No, strike that, she’s beautiful. We’ll try to get some more pictures of her up, later, and maybe even with me in the picture.
I drove The Baby all the way to Gateway International Raceway, except for the exit we missed. Not my fault, I was driving, not navigating. Then, I just sort of lost it. Okay, I killed the engine twice, which is actually pretty darn good, but it was still stressful. (Perfectionist, who me?) We’d also seen the huge line to get into the event, and I asked Jon to take her in, because I was not up to riding the clutch in stop and go traffic to that degree. So we parked and switched drivers.
Let me say, though, that the car hugs the road like she was made for curves. Whatever speed you put her at, she stays. Shifting is getting easier, and smoother for me. I love driving this car on the highway.
Though, the Baby, is the first piece of machinery that I’ve been around that psychically projects. We got passed by a red Dodge Charger, and she thought, "Oh, hell no!" So loud that Jon jumped, and I argued out loud with the car, that if I tried to catch the Charger I might get my first ever ticket. The Baby’s reply, was not sympathetic. The car does not like to be passed. The car does not like to drive slow, but it will drive beautifully at any speed, it just wants to go faster.
We met up with Charles and friends, then off we went. The Foose had a spot behind the fence with the other pretty cars, which was pretty cool.
Here are pictures of the mustang, some before the decals went on, and some after. Jon took these pics early in the evening. Drift Pirates rule!
Late in the evening, I finally accepted Charles’s invite to do a ride along. What’s that? Well, you get strapped into the passenger seat, put a helmet on, and you get to ride along while someone drifts. The pictures of me before I did it, are thanks to Jenn, who asked permission to take pictures, which we really appreciate. That’s me getting tucked in, and that’s me with the helmet, a little wide-eyed.
I remember thinking, I trust Charles. Hell, I trust Charles with my life and the life of my husband as our security. I must say though that idling towards the entrance to the "track", with the mustang’s engine roaring, I was wondering what was I thinking? (The Skyline has a base purr, but the mustang roars.) I actually contemplated saying, no, stop, right up to the moment Charles pulled out onto the "track". Then it was too late to be chicken. But I do trust Charles, I really do, and I proved it. Crap. 
The pictures here of the mustang in action are of Charles alone. Jon took them earlier, but had put our camera up for the night by then, and also you couldn’t really see me in the car, only the helmet. Good helmet. 
Charles wasn’t so much trying to drift the second time out, my ride along, as get a feel for the car. The mustang drives very differently from the Skyline. So there was a lot of just seeing what the car would do, and how it handled. The windows are not in yet, so I remember clearly, thinking I could touch that orange cone. Heck, I could pick it up and carry it with us. I resisted this urge, but we saw that one cone a lot, just outside the door. One of those little urges, you get, like touching tigers, and stroking irreplaceable works of art. Mustn’t touch.
We also saw the Jersey barriers up close and personal, and the wall, and we were supposed to. Drifting is about seeming to loose control of the car, when in fact you are very in control of the car. It was exhilarating, and frightening, and like nothing I’ve ever done before. The last time I was in a car that was doing anything close to this was the time in collage when I almost hit a telephone pole after my tires found some black ice. Here I was, doing it voluntarily. Seems wrong when you put it that way. But we did it, Charles drove us back through the opening, and we were done. Safe. Wow.
Here is a picture of us afterwards. See me smiling. Thanks again to Jenn for this picture. 
There was only one picture of Charles beside the car, because he’s moving so much he’s a blur. Carrie, another fan we’ve met at several signings, said, that a lot of her pictures of me are like that. I’m just a blur of movement. Sorry about that. But the car thing was Charles’s blur. Even standing still he was not really still, more vibrating? It’s always interesting to see your friends in other elements, than the norm. You always learn things about them, and sometimes about yourself.
Jon was going to do the next ride along, but it got to be too late for us pumpkins. We went home about 12:30 or 1:00 A. M. No, we were in bed by 2:00. Long night, but a very interesting one.