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asjoseph

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... this is an OEM MR2 Supercharged interior. Less than 200 ever made, that is an OEM leather steering wheel for an MR2 Supercharged, in blue. And, I have two of them. The original unit is now in transit, on its way to Texas, for restoration. That is cocoanut oil and hair conditioner I have, soaking into the replacement antique leather steering wheel you see, here. I have spent US$ thousands, on this interior. Well worth every penny, in my opinion. I do mods only as a last resort AND only if it doesn't add weight... I don't do stupid mods. If I have to do a mod which adds weight, I counter it, removing weight from higher up. Brake modulation on short-wheelbase mid-engined vehicles is onmicritical. No ABS (e.g., anti-lock brakes), moreso. Henceforth, as would any level-V driver worth his salt, optimization of pedals for heel-and-toe I deem imperative. I've driven everything from sports cars to CanAm cars to IMSA. My heel-and-toe philosophy a hand-me down from endurance drivers from the golden age of organized motor sport who schooled me during my formative years, is not something which can be elucidated, sans its overriding philosophy, in a 10 second sound byte. Race tracks are dumps. The only thing trickling down from organized motorsport is, aberrant behavior. There is no joy for me in Solo I or Solo II, self-important SCCA bureaucrats spoon feeding my car back to me, in 20 minute work-run groups. Any idiot can do a track day. Hitting the same turn, over and over, it's a mere matter of time before most any garden variety idiot gets it right. High stakes hard core canyon driving, you have one chance to get it right. If you don't, it's a long way down. And, you'll have ample for reflection, pondering the demerit of your mistake, on your ride down. An 85% attrition rate for those who call this their principle pastime, likelihood 1 in 52 million you'll still be alive in 4 years, it better be a meat and potatoes philosophy, than the bread and butter, me-first, dog-eat-dog philosophy plaguing contemporary organized motor sport. A hard core canyon driver 40 years, equates to a rough-hewn, cinched and sewn philosophy of unparalleled conservatism unrivaled in depth, breadth and extent by heathen, simple-minded hedonistic savages subverting organized motor sport, using it to normalize criminal behavior. Cut from a different cloth, I and my cohort share a deep, everlasting reverence for driving those in law enforcement and organized motor sport grope to mimic. Ad personam, I don't optimize for my 1st ten minutes at the wheel; I optimize for my last 10 minutes at the wheel. A freak of nature with a Frankenstein driving style (e.g., I awaken after everyone else is dead), I initially thrash around in my seat a considerable while, taking a long time settling in. Only after the first hour or two am I just getting warmed up. That a hard core OTR enduro spans several hundreds of miles, ending up who knows where, I may need to get out of this car, and walk another 11 hours, through the Mojave desert (that's actually happened; no more Fords for me). I optimize for fatigue... I need to be able to heel and toe this car, drop-dead-tired. The affect a counter-intuitive contradiction, this little car would be more dangerous driving fatigued to the local corner market, than going 10/10ths deep in God's canyons. Configured an "always-on" heel-and-toe, only when my right foot is zero degrees upright do I not get throttle when braking. Any slack in my ankle, I automatically get throttle when braking -- which means, though I can heel-and-toe involuntarily when fatigued, this car can only be driven by a level-V driver (e.g., even for short trip to the market driving this car, a common motorist could get in big-big trouble). Said another way, always-on heel-and-toe shifts percentage prerequisite for situational awareness away from professional driving, to conventional driving Only to the trained eye would what you see below constitute an always-on heel-and-toe -

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asjoseph, Aug 31, 2014