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Archive for category auto racing and driving

Driving Fast And Faster

Aug 18

Posted by ira in auto racing and driving | No Comments

A friend’s friend came by the other day with his new car—a 2010 Panamera Turbo. This is the fastest of the new four-seaters that Porsche has just introduced, and I was invited to take a ride in it and then to try it out. I’ll describe what it was like in a second to fly in a car that can go 188 mph and reach 60 mph in just 3.8 seconds. First get a sense of the sound right here:

Can you smell the burning rubber? Can you hear my heart racing and how hard I might have been breathing? Driving cars isn’t as strenuous as playing tennis or lifting weights, but it’s a sport that can really take your breath away.

Porsche Panamera Turbo

OK, so on a windy road near my house two weeks ago, where the curves are sharp enough to have signs ordering you to slow down to 30 mph, we drove over 60 in my new friend’s Panamera. It was beautiful. Handled so well. All the fast sport cars I have driven are classics from 1960 to 1988. This Porsche is a 2010 model that has all the latest technology. A dream. And not only do you have confidence that it won’t break down—a rarity in the old cars—you know it has many built in safety features designed to prevent you from killing yourself.

sleek lines for a four-passenger car

Then we stopped, and the driver told me I had to take the wheel. He wanted me to enjoy the experience. I hesitated. He insisted. I think I was nervous about damaging his car. I’m glad he pushed me. So we changed seats, and I drove those turns at 70 or 80. It was easy, a summer breeze. Our third friend was in the back seat being thrown left and right as I got the hang of it. I felt better that I wasn’t going to crash.

Finally I was told about Launch Control, a special feature that allows you the thrill of a superfast start: zero to 60 in just 3.8 seconds. 500 HP at 5500 rpm. It’s astonishing what a difference cutting two or three seconds to get to 60 can feel like. Yes, yes, I know. You’ve heard it all before. It’s like being on the nose of a rocket taking off, the tip of a bullet just fired, an amusement park ride that throws you backwards. In fact it reminded me as well of being on a swing when I was a kid, when you lean way back, close your eyes, and are pulled down towards the ground, while your stomach feels as though it stayed up in the sky. You’re not quite nauseous, but it’s scary, like you’re disoriented and in free fall, and about to die, but believing you could make it through to survival.

Of course you have to stay on the road the whole time, eyes wide open, picturing those guys in jet fighters who have their skin stretched back on their faces, feeling the force of all those gravity “G’s.” It was exhilarating. Thrilling. Seconds of fear and finality. I loved it. Both passengers did too, describing the same high, although each had been there before me. I sure appreciate my friend’s courage in letting me drive his car. Very generous.

[Check out this video to get a slight sense of what I experienced. (When you reach the screen this link takes you to, go down to the acceleration line (0-60), click on the link to the Sport Chrono Turbo Package, and then play the video starting at around 1:36)]

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Racing And Crashing

Aug 17

Posted by ira in auto racing and driving | 1 Comment

ira ready to race—9/06

I want to be honest about racing and crashing. I’ve been on a race track in my own car and in the open cockpit car provided by the Skip Barber Racing School for its three-day course in Lime Rock, CT. I have friends who race, and some have many of their own cars that they compete in at different tracks in different states and countries.

Unfortunately I am a chicken when it comes to racing. I like cars, and I like going fast. But I learned at school that what I think is fast was almost the slowest in my class. Others are willing to up the danger ante with greater speed. And they drove like crazy people. No way I can stomach that risk. I have been in, seen and avoided too many accidents on the road and on the track. I love skidding around the turns, but I am just too nervous about the other drivers. On the track, I have watched newly restored cars crash into walls and need to be restored again. I have seen school cars miss turns and hit guardrails to my left. I have had a car on my right spin a 360 or 720 directly across my path…luckily the training taught me how to miss him on the right as he went to the left on the grass and into the wall. So I avoided smashing right into him.

looking ridiculous and probably nervous


In a normal street car, I have fallen out when a door opened on a turn (I held on to the door and had my butt dragged). I went downhill on a curvy street once, and the driver’s door opened up—he grabbed the steering wheel and pulled himself in as we turned hard to the right, over the grass, hit a house, totaled the car, knocked me out and broke my date’s nose. Those were the days when three of us could sit in the wider front seat. Another time when I was a passenger in the winter, we skidded on ice directly into the right front door of a car that had spun before us and stopped perpendicular to the road. Our two cars were totaled as we skidded towards a 300 foot drop…but were saved by the cables of a guard rail that didn’t fail.

So for me driving fast is limited to Connecticut country roads with turns and lots of shifting in cars that can barely make it to 60 mph in six or seven seconds. That’s it. A long long six seconds. As for top speeds, 110 is the fastest I have ever gone on a highway. I’m always nervous about a mechanical or tire failure. I also know some cops personally who’ve warned me about the severe penalties for going over 84 mph. I cannot even grasp the courage or stupidity of an acquaintance who spent extra money to boost his Audi RS6 from 500hp to maybe 540hp and then tell me how on a normal road one night, he risked killing himself or one of the many deer who meander here by going 150 mph at 2am. I WISH I HAD THAT COURAGE…OR LACK OF CAUTION. I am just too conservative.

So though I have owned cars that can do over 150 mph, I don’t see where to drive them at that speed. In Europe on the Autobahn, yes, where a business partner once took me in his Mercedes at 220 or 250 kmh (132-150mph). I’m not sure exactly how fast, because when he just about missed his turn and had to suddenly veer to the right, and we almost crashed and rolled, I wasn’t watching the speedometer any more…although he laughed a lot and told me I shouldn’t worry. But he seemed used to it. And I know from my own limited experience that you can be driving in a sport car at 90mph+ and not even realize you’re going that fast if the car and wheels are well balanced and in tune. It feels like 40. Maybe 140 feels the same. Nevertheless I play it safely and get my thrills by not braking on the turns that I sometimes take 20 or 30 mph faster than the signs tell me to go.

Guess there’s no benefit in owning those superfast Porsches. Unless I want to relocate my stomach again for 3.8 seconds…

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Rudy Kellerman Races His New Porsche

Nov 16

Posted by ira in OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, auto racing and driving | 1 Comment

Rudy’s story about his Jai-Alai life was posted on August 31st, and a picture followed on October 30th. Now Rudy has bought a new car and written about his adventures driving at supersonic speeds.

Hey Ira,

I could not resist putting my new Porsche Carrera S on the track. This was last weekend, November 7-8, at Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIC, formerly called Moroso). Here I am in front of the much faster Porsche Turbo cars.

Rudy Kellerman Zooooooooms ahead of more powerful cars—11/7/09

Rudy Kellerman Zooooooooms ahead of more powerful cars—11/7/09

I have never been on this track before. I had just bought the car, as you know, and wanted to see how it handled. I joined the local Porsche Club of America (PCA). They hold events throughout the year for enthusiasts. The majority of the cars are Porsche. They are some vintage cars and some outright track cars such as the Porsche GT3.

In the beginning when they don’t know you, they assign you an instructor to guide you and show you the proper fast line. I have to say, I was very comfortable driving on the track and extracting the potential of a great handling car. You pull almost 1G when you go around the corners. And when you stomp on the brake after a long straight doing 140 mph, your eyes feel like they are going to pop out of your face.

Passing slower cars is allowed provided it is on the straights and the driver ahead of you gives you a signal. No passing on the curves for safety reason. It is not a race, but more of a driver’s education event. I had a great time until someone noticed that my tires had worn down to the cord. It was lots of fun, especially when you overtake a much more powerful car like the Porsche Turbo or the GT 3’s with your Carrera S. Read the rest of this entry »

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The “Sport” of Driving Sporty Cars

Nov 1

Posted by ira in auto racing and driving | 1 Comment

I have in the past driven cars with others on a race track. Everyone knows that auto racing is a major sport to do and to watch. It’s exhilarating and life threatening.

Although you don’t have to have the shape or fitness of a bodybuilder or professional athlete to steer and shift, let me tell you that it takes lots of focus, nerve, coordination and strength to turn that wheel on the curves. It’s hot in your suit and helmet, and within 20 minutes I had open blisters on my gloved hands.

I swear that's me in there—9/06

I swear that's me in there—9/06


However I didn’t feel safe enough to take the sport seriously. I could never trust the other drivers on the track. So now I cruise on country roads at speeds under 80 (or 70), and hope that the cops won’t catch me when I exceed those ridiculous signs limiting speed to 40 mph. Jeez!

Why do they make the laws for the old folks over 60. Not all of us that age are plodding along with limited visibility and reflexes. I love the ups and downs of our rural Connecticut hills, the smooth meshing of gears I shift manually, the long sweeping “S” curves that roll me gently side to side.

I’m still motorcycling for goodness sake. I can dodge those deer and squirrels really well. But I definitely limit my driving thrills to the public roads.

So when I again leased a new car last week, I took it for a spin past autumn leaves. But there were two things different this time: the color and the acceleration.

the latest family car—11/1/09

the latest family car—11/1/09


What do you usually choose? We have had a slew of Audis up here, because we have read and found first hand how good they are in the snow. Their all-wheel drive may be the best, and I want all of us who drive it—including my daughter—to have the safest ride possible. But we usually pick conservative, practical colors like black, gunmetal gray, silver and midnight blue. Totally predictable, dignified, undistinguished, and finally boring.

Something in me changed this year. Could it be my age? An altered ego? A yearning to appear younger? I used the power of my purse to overrule my daughter and picked bright red. “Brilliant red” is the official name of the color. “Fire-engine red” is what the salesman called it. “A magnet for cops writing tickets” is what a 22-year-old warned. “I love it” is how my son reacted.

On the other hand, I picked the least powerful car offered. Although I would prefer a stallion for myself alone, I don’t want my daughter and the others who drive it to have more oomph than they need. Tickets I can put up with. Accidents I can’t.

So there I was tooling around in the car a few days ago for the first time. Can you believe I didn’t test drive it? After happily leasing more than six Audis over the years, I was confident it would perform well enough and just let someone else deliver it while I was at a college reunion in Florida.

Dino hiding in fall colors

Dino hiding in fall colors


Wow does it move! I have to tell you how shocked I am. This car’s stats claim it goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 6.7 seconds. Definitely a peppy pony. To put this in perspective, I have driven a 1972 Dino Ferrari, and it doesn’t reach 60 in less than 7.0 seconds. A Jaguar XKE from 1965 takes at least 7.4 seconds. So this minimal horsepower car (211) can really jump away from lights and pass those slow and pokey puppies. Whatta gas. What fun. There I was having a blast, whipping down the roads and enjoying the last reds, yellows and oranges of autumn colors. I was well camouflaged and fit right in.

And so far…no tickets.