Last Christmas I got a very thoughtful present from one of my best friends: a voucher for four laps on a racing circuit in a sports car. Even though I drive regularly, I had not been the typical fan of fast cars. Not that I disliked them, I just had no special interest in them. That changed today.
We finally set up the time and place with the firm that offers these cars for rent and I was originally supposed to drive a Chevy Camaro this morning. After we arrived, though, I was told that they couldn't get hold of one. Instead they had four other sports cars parked outside the hangar (it was a circuit set up at an old airport). There was a BMW of some sort, a Porsche 911, a white roofless Ferrari and one Nissan GT-R. Since I wanted to drive a Camaro and the GT-R's looks are the most similar with its, I couldn't not have picked it. My other friend who knows much more about sports cars than I do (not surprisingly, I don't really know much more than I need to) told me, that I made the right choice. In fact, the GT-R was the only car not designed, but computed. The Nissan dev team just tried to find the most aerodynamic shape for a car and the GT-R is what the got (see pic here).
I love this approach, it's just so … strait forward. You need a car to be fast? Cut down the friction. Done.
The actual ride was amazing, the straight parts of the circuit with that 500 horse power pushing me ahead were - surreal. Cannot be described to someone who has never tried it or hasn't ridden a roller coaster.
The outcome of this? I want to know more about this car. I want to know more about cars in general. This is a thing I never though I would be interested in, now I am. I want to go drive on a circuit again. Same thing, never thought I would like to do it again.
And this is just one interesting field I came up by by accident (pun intended). Who knows how many more there are still waiting?
Let's go and explore.