Last go before winter.

Last go before winter
Frosty days coming soon™
‘neath grey skies wingèd flight
Summer fades to pale light

Slalom Sheriffs and conesⁱ
Three-eight song splits the skiesⁱⁱ
Defoliated treesⁱⁱⁱ
Unmask Dundon pre-freeze^iv

But fixing this critique^v
Of Carrera S mill
Sends Jay out on his bike^vi
To say “simmer down tyke”

“Back off or go home
Subjectively it’s loud
For cranky neighbour twits
Who’d quick deny permits”^vii

Keeping valves closed’s a strain^viii
Half-throttle cuck-oldry
Like banging fine dimes^ix
Sporting more domes than rhymes

But we’ll take the respite
From torrential fake thieves
Still better than streets rips
Or raw-dogging mid chix

It’s all part of the journey
There is always a way^x
Mechanized and measured
Ambition never feathered^xi

Now so long ’til next spring
Leetle whoopee will sing^xii
After this winter.

1. The local county police technically had the track rented for the day but I still snuck a few laps in the back half that they weren’t using. But what, you might ask, were the county police doing at a private race track in the first? Surely practicing high speed manoeuvres, yes? Well, no, because this isn’t Florida and it isn’t in our prairie culture to run from the authorities, so you might not believe it but the black-n-blue were practicing reverse parking, specifically in their their windowless, sensorless Ford Econoline vans. Because it turns out that low-speed parking lot accidents are one of the biggest variable budget costs that they deal with, and so why not spend a couple days and a few hundred man-hours minimizing it? Go figure! Yes, this is what a painfully peaceful country looks like, kiddos, for better or for worse. ↩
2. The 981 GT4 has a 3.8L flat-six engine from the 911 Carrera S. It’s not a GT Department motor but with a little help from Dundon’s race headers, it doesn’t leave much to be desired in acoustic impact. ↩
3. It’s amazing how much acoustic absorption capacity that leaves on trees have. In mid-October, it’s a LOT more echoey out on the farm. ↩
4. Who woulda thought that Dundon race headers would have the exact same effect as Balenciaga runway shows:

   Increasingly deep concussive bass boomed into our chests on the other side of the glass. Bass like the concussions of bomb shells. Like the concussions of music loud enough to forget the bomb shells. Something loud enough to bury the memories. As if only with new pain could the old pain be suppressed and subdued. However momentarily.

   ↩

5. The 981 GT4 is almost perfect out of the box except that the engine sounds just a bit flat for my liking, unfortuantely my “fix” of this makes it too loud for full-bore track use, but some turn-down tips and Cargraphics valve shutters might be the way to have my cake and eat it too! We shall see in the spring. ↩
6. Jay, the owner of SCR, loves to patrol his property on his e-bike. ↩
7. Jay’s neighbours really can clamp down on the fun and it’s not beyond their reach to have his track permits revoked. They keep trying but he keeps prevailing! Besides, if this is what “annoying neighbours” means, in the context of what’s possible, we’ll take it. ↩
8. The stock muffler valves automatically open around 5,000 RPM in gears 1/2, and around 3,500 RPM in gears 3/4, but even that is only under partial throttle. At WOT the valves rip open almost immediately, so balancing the loudness while trying to feel out the track in a completely new car is some task!  ↩
9. The 981 really is perfection for SCR. Mid-engined, smaller size, lighter weight, taller gearing. Maybe the front end could be a little more planted (wen double-wishbone GT4? 2030? Ever?!) but there’s still a massive amount of predictability and confidence in that car on that circuit. 10/10 would fuck again! ↩
10. Again and again:
    

    Black waves,
    Of energy,
    Of time,
    Of attention,
    Of consciousness,
    We are not obligated
    To complete the work,
    But neither are we free
    To desist from it.

    ↩

11. Where has all the ambition in our culture gone? Possibly sucked up by our illiteracy, linear education system, historical naivety, lack of continuity, atomisation, and general depair… so say Maxi Gorynski and I’m largely inclined to agree.  ↩
12. “Little whoopee” === “Lethal Weapon” in Italianised English

     

    @carloandsarah

    OH SHEET💀😭

    ♬ original sound – carloandsarah

    
    And what is this happy little Cayman if not that? ↩