It was crystal clear at dawn, with frost on the ground, but promising a bright sunshiney day. The visibility was fantastic, showing the stark and brilliant snowfields both on the Sierra Buttes, above Downieville, and the snow capped Mount Lassen far to my North, as well as the snowy mountains north of Clearlake, sometimes called the Escalante, or staircase. It was really a bit cold for a down vest over a fleece, and I did wish I had sleeves for it today. I did my walk listening to "Snuff" by Terry Pratchett, staring at the brilliant view and breathing the frozen and very dry air, knowing this is what the Ice Age is like, and came back resolved to do some digital driving with my Xbox. When you wreck in a game, you aren't arrested. And there's a button to press to get back the last 10 seconds of terrible mistake you just made. Simulators are wonderful teaching tools for proper driving skills in the real world. A pity my Brother does not feel the same.
The TVR, which I just drove in the Forza 3 Xbox 360 Game has some interesting flaws. The biggest flaw is it is too fast. It would genuinely be improved by slowing the hell down with a much smaller engine and race in a slower class rather than the GP it is designed for. Its a beautiful car. But it has a big engine which gets a surge of power, late, making it something that throws you into a ditch on many corners. Managing the power, and timing the boost, is really hard to do. Its around 2400 pounds, but has 380 HP and 350 lb-ft of torque, which is enough to break the tires loose. This is a bad combination in a front engine rear wheel drive car. I do recommend, when driving arcade simulators like this, to use the cockpit view since that allows you to react like you would in a real car and drastically improves you reaction times to loose tires and braking for corners properly, because you can judge your speed and the distance.
I have noticed, living as I do in the mountains, that torque is your friend. Turbos have to be kept revved high to stabilize the boost pressure and if you spin up and down with lots of corners you boost will try to break your tires free around the apex, and then the car will try to kill you. Most people consider that a bad thing. I think Dad was really smart not to get a turbo version of his car. In most cases that turbo will kill you here.
My alcohol of choice this holiday is a mix of stout, hard cider (carbonated), and Zinfandel. Some of each, I think. No liquor, no scotch. Scotch sneaks up on me, and its a little too easy to drink too much, and regret it later. I won't be driving anywhere, except on the simulator, so that's just fine. And I've got cheesy poofs.
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