Last week I realized I'd never taken my 3yr old daughter for a ride in the new rally car. In Nov. before Tall Pines I said I would wehn I got back, then... well the car was not exactly mobile. She never asked, I forgot...
She used to love riding in "the rally car" which was my daily driver 240SX coupe I ran TSD's in. But then I stopped driving it.
Anyway, after about 1/2 hour trying to get her seat strapped in on top of a Sparco Pro200 I was ready. I bring her out and she's got her ear protectors on (hates noise), I load her in... "Oto-san (Japanese for dad) this is very amasing!" "I've never seen anything like it"... As I strp he I I realize she's shaking from excitment. I also realize that it's one of the first times she's even seen the car as it's always in the shop which she's not keen on due to the noise.
Anyway, off we got, slowley out of the village, onto the dirt road, past all the houses. I warn her I'm going to "boost now" and get a big smile. 2k to 7k in about 4 loose seconds and BANG, the hood comes up and smacks the roof --- "Opps... Oto-san forgot to close the hood properly", I look across and see a scared little face, while I'm trying to look under the hood and pull over to a stop. She didn't cry until I was beating on the hood trying to close it, but stopped as soon as I assured her it wasn't her fault and was no big deal.
I strapped the hood down with one of my spare tire ratchet straps and climbed back in. "Now what Oto-san?" she said, I replied "we should go home", and she replied "But why we didn't finish our drive!"... What a trooper! I had to drive around for another 20 minutes before I was allowed to go home!
Was I ever pissed at my boneheaded move, forgetting the hood pins... another fucking hood wrecked and the roof all bent to shit. Luckily I have a hood in stock and the roof... well it can stay like that and we'll call it character!
-Martin.