Drifting is just demolition derby autocross

8/6/2016

I slept in a bit this morning – guess I must be getting old or something. Met up with my parents for breakfast and then headed over to the Livestock Center, which had a swap meet, autocrossing, and drifting. Drifting is a pretty new sport and this is the first year that Hot August Nights has featured it, so I really wanted to see what it was like. I’ve never seen a real drift event so I have nothing to compare it to, but if they’re anything like this one was… well, you should go see them!

Basically, drifting is like autocross, if it was run by a bunch of demo derby guys. You’ve got a tight course with several turns and your job is to get through those turns with as much drama as possible, while (ideally) not running over cones or other drifters or concrete barriers or photographers. However, the drama is the highest priority, so if you run over stuff in the midst of a really awesome smokey slide… well, the judges kind of forgive you, I guess.

We ended up skipping the swap meet in favor of watching this ridiculous sport for hours, and I don’t regret it one bit. There were some really great drivers, and then there were some drivers who removed a lot of pieces from their cars. We saw cars that ate cones, cars that ate their own bumpers, cars that ate other cars’ bumpers, and what must have been hundreds of very close calls. My favorite car was, of course, a Mustang… kind of. Some genius had put an early 2000’s Mustang front face on a Nissan 240SX wagon. And hot dang could that guy drive! So here’s what that looked like… (side note: I've realized I can put videos in these posts!):

Eventually we were covered in clutch dust, chunks of tire, and a whole lot of dirt, so we decided to get inside for a bit. There was a display of really beautifully built cars for sale down in the arena. Originally I had intended to spend a while down there looking at all of the high-dollar builds, but honestly as soon as I got down there I wanted to leave. I was struck with this profound sense of sadness – out of all of the beautiful cars on the floor, not a single one had been built to cherish and build memories with. They had all been restored just to make money. Yeah, I know I’m overly sentimental about this kind of stuff, but it just all seems incredibly sad to me. I couldn’t imagine ever building Jane to be perfect just so I could ship her off to the highest bidder. I hope that those cars found good homes with people who would enjoy them instead of just letting them collect dust.

Anyways, away from the depressing stuff… we headed back to the hotel area for a bit to check out some more incredible cars! The Reno fire department was showing off their classic firetrucks which was a real treat. The engines on the older ones (1910’s) were totally insane looking. Engines sure have come a long way in the past hundred years.

1917 ladder truck

Engine featured individual pistons, external valves, a bunch of weird stuff I don't know too much about... cool!

Ladder truck so long that it needs a guy steering in the rear. Looks precarious!

Chain drive???

Manual air/fuel ratio adjustment - you are your own tuner at all points in time!

Just a couple more pictures of some of the cars at the show:

Awesome track record

And it's an all-original survivor car!

Pretty cool that Nevada has these custom HAN plates

Something seems off here...

Something seems REALLY off here....

When all else fails, paint your license plate onto your car

Found the Nomad again!

After a quick bite at a local brewery, we all piled into Jane and took off for Atlantis. People had been telling me all week how awesome it was over there so I figured I’d take a look. They were advertising a car show, a “Cruise of Champions”, and some free t-shirts and goodies and stuff. Sounded good! Well… except it kind of wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of great cars there! But the “cruise” was just winding your way along each and every row of their massive parking lot. Once you’re in, you can’t leave. And even if it would only take you five minutes to reach the exit normally, with thousands of spectators standing in the “cruise path” you pretty much are required to be in that parking lot for at least half an hour, slowly inching up on the latest funnel cake-bearing oblivious attendee. I really was not a fan. And we didn’t even find the free tshirts and stuff! At least we got a good picture out of it hopefully (taken by the professional photographer there and being sent to my house currently).

Parked for a few minutes before figuring out that I could only leave by going through the entire parking lot

Awesome "flip-floppy" paint

So at that point it was 9PM and I really wanted to go cruise Reno one last time. So Mom hopped in the passenger seat, Dad went to the Reno sign to take pictures, and I rounded the block with a bunch of other cars. But… they shut the cruise down early for fireworks! So I ended up not getting to go down the strip one last time. Guess I’ll have to save it for next time. I do know that my parents got a couple of great shots of Jane from the previous cruises, but since they haven’t sent me the pictures yet no one will see them! I’ll try to update the blog when I get the pictures.

More than a little disappointed, I took Jane back to the hotel to clean her up before hitting the road in the morning. I did get a consolation prize, though: some really awesome shots of the cars and the fireworks! So at least there’s that.

Going out with a bang

Tomorrow I’ll be on the road again heading back to Austin. I’ll be taking my sweet time – well, at least in comparison to my whirlwind trip out. I’ve never quite mastered the art of cruising slowly in this car. But I guess it’s probably entertaining to see a bright blue flash pass you on the highway. Until then… Kelly signing out!