I took my 3yr old daughter for a spin...

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.

My 6 yr old has LOT of seat time in the rallycar.. People laughed when they saw a GTX with full cage sitting in some parking lot with a kid seat on the navvie side. I know I'm gonna have my work cut out for me in another 10 years but man it's worth it. We started him on karts when he was 3, he instinctively knows how to 4wheel drift and point the thing in the right direction for power-on to the straight..better to learn that stuff now, then in a real car, later!

---

Jay Woodward
Snohomish, WA
'90 Mazdog Frankenprotege
Chronologically, 46...

My 6 and 3 year old boys were the first passengers in my rally car.. even before my co-driver..

Talk about some fun! They loved it. Both of them are car nuts anyway, so a spin in the rally car was greatly appreciated by them both. Cookies are fun for young and old alike.

The hood flying up is classic.. Just about every rallyist has done it once, and those that haven't probably will. It's all about the timing right?

Jay,
Sounds like our boys will be rallying together in 10 years or so.. Now's the time to build the foundation. "The Drift" is in those kids' blood..

---

Build the car, race the car, crash the car, fix the car..Repeat

B- Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> The hood flying up is classic.. Just about every
> rallyist has done it once, and those that haven't
> probably will. It's all about the timing right?
>
>
Some people have the foresight, intelligence, and dashing good looks to choose superior cars with hoods that CAN'T fly up that way.

Like my Saab.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

john vanlandingham Wrote:
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> Some people have the foresight, intelligence, and
> dashing good looks to choose superior cars with
> hoods that CAN'T fly up that way.
>
> Like my Saab.




I like that!

---

Nick Taylor.
Knobhead.
Los Angeles, CA.