After last week’s Martian session, ever-alert reader Mr. J. Baruth couldn’t help but ask: “Why churn through all these 6 figure trackday cars to run Spec Miata times? You don’t strike me as someone who cares what people on the street think of him.”
Always inclining to appreciate where Ol’ Cracker Jack’s coming from, and forever open to a good reality check from those with more hard-won life experience,i let’s break down his embedded criticisms assumptions one-by-one to see if there’s more merit than meets the eye. Without further ado, for your enlightenment and entertainment:
Assumption #1: I’m churning through trackday cars
Reality Check: The Martian is only the second track-specific street car I’ve ever purchased, the 981 GT4 I purchased in 2023 was the first. (The R35 GT-R that I purchased in 2017 only became a track-focused vehicle after I got extremely bored during peak pandemic fever in 2020/2021, but was not purchased with lap times in mind). In 20 years of having my driver’s license, that’s still not a lot?
Assumption #2: Six-figure trackday cars are excessive
Reality Check: The kind of casual and lightly competitive track driving I do is really closer in spirit to gentlemanly equestrian of a century ago,ii which means that it’s not just pure essentialism, even though it’s miles more functionalist than the local show-and-shine club. And since “context is that which is scarce,” it’s worth noting, at least in the part of the Great White Wilderness I call home, that “excessive” would actually look much more like seven-figure trackday cars à la Porsche 935, Valkyrie AMR Pro, or Czinger 21C. But a regular production Porsche with a stick-shift? Nah, that’s just good ol’ fashioned German engineering with a smidgen of “new new” and a sprinkle of Andy P-ness (!). Plus, if the next-gen GT cars really do end up being turbo or hybrid or both, we’ll miss these MA2 engines even if they’ll never be quite as fondly remembered as “Mezger.” So why not have some fun with them, y’know? Besides, to put things in stricter context, when Herr Jack was my age, I seem to recall that he was excess-maxxing his twin(!) Phaetons around VIR in between Ketel One-fueled Ruth’s Chris benders with various ladies of the night. So am I being any more risqué, over-the-top, or “excessive” than that?
Assumption #3: I’m running Spec Miata times
Reality Check: Track record at SCR for a Spec Miata is 1:59.5, meaning that I’d likely run in the 2:05-2:07iii range (or 10-15 seconds slower than my GT3) IF I EVEN FIT IN SPEC MIATAS PROPERLY. At a long-limbed 6’1″ and 185 lbs, I’m not Jack-sized by any stretch (although he’s even barely Jack-sized anymore), but the couple of times I’ve tried Spec Miatas left a lot to be desired in the ergonomic dept, and that’s something I care quite a lot about. I’m sure SM could be tailormade to suit almost any giant or midget, but I can’t say I found the driving experience of them to be anything to particularly aspire towards, however effective they may be for skill development on a more modest budget.
Assumption #4: I’m optimising for lap times
Reality Check: I’m optimising for curiousity… as ever!iv The money (and toys) have been pleasant and certainly welcome corollaries of my seemingly tireless life pursuits, but I’ve actually never been that motivated by money or even material goods for their own sake.v Back in the day, in 1st year undergrad, my father even tried “incentivising” me with a new Audi A3 if I could get a 3.5 GPA. The result? I spent 10 hours a day playing NLH poker in the sciences library (affectionately dubbed “Cameron Casino”) with a dozen other degenerates and shuffled my way to a 2.8 GPA. And it still worked out great? I mean, I mostly just optimised for curiousity, autonomy, staying active, and having time to think, which is why I now spend most of my days meditating on energy policy, covert banking and intelligence operations, China-US great power competition, the geopolitical implications of hypersonic weapons and cheap drones, as well as other bits of randomness like vintage furniture design, poker (!), crypto, philosophy and religion, world history, etc., to say nothing of my pursuits in cars, golf, cycling, cigars, and world travel. With all that buzzing around, who even has time to think about money! It might even be said that optimising for numbers is gay, but whether it’s gayer than Porsche, the jury’s still out.
Assumption #5: I don’t care what people on the street think of me
Reality Check: While it’s true that I find the Cars & Coffee crowd about as appealing as driving a BMW M4 into the nearest lake, it shouldn’t be underestimated how much I enjoy bewildering said diaper-wipers by using my “precious” things in seriously unprecious ways.vi So being that I can well afford to use a magnesium-bladed riding mower for such gentlemanly purposes – that it serves practical, personal, and social roles with such roguish aplomb – there’s every reason to do exactly that.
But at the end of the day, dear reader, let’s not take ourselves too seriously! While I hear where Jack’s coming from and we’d all do well to respect our elders more than is currently de rigueur, if these chaotic (and catholic) times call for anything, it’s certainly a little more irreverent fun.
If anything’s the Spec, doesn’t that have to be it?
- As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I sincerely do my best to surround myself with men who are comfortably 10-15 years older than me. I’ve found this to be very much the sweet spot in terms of me being able to imagine myself in their shoes in the not-too-distant future so that I can glean from them what I can and avoid the same landmines they’ve stepped on, while in return exchanging my youthful exuberance and open ears. The age gap also perfectly minimises ego and peer competition, which is ideal for men to actually have a conversation that isn’t just veiled boasts and zero-sum one-upmanship. I wouldn’t go as far as to call these relationships “mentorships” but they’re really just win-win friendships for men looking to bond with other men anytime after those formative college years. Would recommend this offset. ↩
- It’s not 21st century drone warfare, where quantity (and low-cost) have a quality all their own. Shahed, Orlan, and Bayraktar anyone? Sorry Anduril, you’re not on the list! ↩
- To take a golf analogy, I’m a high-single-digit handicapper in time attack. Not exactly championship-winning material, but just good enough that the allure of being an “equipment whore” is unbelievably compelling. Seriously, who doesn’t wanna bring a gun to a knife fight? Particularly when your gun is dead reliable and can be serviced locally. Try that with your Czinger! ↩
- Well, not just curiousity, but also fun, love, and beauty. But that’s probably a bit too much to completely cover today. ↩
- In the framing of Jane Jacobs, my moral aspiration and seemingly inherent predilection is much more towards Guardian values rather than Commercial values. So as much as I see merit in Commercial tenets such innovation, competition, voluntary agreement, efficiency, thrift, and honesty in contracts, I generally find it socially corrosive to discuss what things cost or how much money I make, and find it rather dull the tendency of my contemporaries to commodify everything. ↩
- Or more broadly how seriously I take the task of oppressing plebs, being the fundament of civilisation that this activity is, and how well I understand the role of the automobile in this service. Hey, it’s not my fault we live in a Machiavellian world, that’s just modernity, yo! As J. Bi explores with H. Mansfield:
Although perhaps a more disciplined Straussian would never admit to this, but this likely just reveals how close to the bottom of the top 1% of the neo-feudal hierarchy your (not-particularly-humble) author is. If I was just a bit higher up, I’d be dreamlessly invisible. ↩