metalchurch wrote:Ron, a drag racer would be cool too! Another cool one for me is a Rally car racer, I think that would be awesoe to race @ over 100 mph on a dirt road with limited vision. Especially at night time or other elements.
I wanted to be a rally car driver in 2001 and put myself through 14 hours of classroom and 6 hours of in-car up in VT over the course of a week.
I can tell you its absolutely brutal. I would rather be a tackle dummy for the steelers than be a rally car driver. The car soaks up about 30% of it, your body gets the rest. You have no time to think, even "oh this is fun" is too long of a thought. You just want to go home by the end of the second day...
I liked the 1998 Subaru Group-N car we used so much I bought the WRX, but decided that rally is not for me at all.. I like being alive too much (had two really close scares).
The WRX came with a SCCA membership so I decided to try my hand at autocrossing (on pavement, with cones, kinda like a short road course). That was fun for about two years. Put another 24 hours of on-track training and 14 classroom hours in over that time. Got my NASA road license.
Then I focused on drifting.. That is a fun time right there. I bought several Chrysler Conquests to turn one into a good drift car. Still a work in progress (about 60% done with the engine, 70% chassis). I still actually want to drift since going to a Drift Day out at Beaver Run in 2003. It was a heck of a good time, no pain involved.
Just this past winter in Feb, I wanted to get back into 'real' racing again and had a chance to do some real road course stuff while on a visit/wedding trip to AZ. I drove my friend Matt's spec Miata (same who has the M3) and thought "wow this is great!!"... Then I took a ride in a guy's porsche 944 turbo works... Fully decked out road machine, same exact car that held a 3 year strangle-hold on a GT class in europe some time in the 90's, originally backed by porsche..
It was at PIR (phoenix int, yeah the NASCAR track), but only used turns 3 and 4 of the NASCAR bank (which is WAY steeper than it looks) and the in-field INDY/CART road course. Coming out of the inside of turn 4 out into the PIR straight 6" from the wall at 160MPH, wind so violently ripping through the car that the little 'marbles' and rocks on the track were being sucked through the drivers window and we pelting me in the left side of my face. (driver had a full-face helment, now I know why they come out of their cars with their faces so dirty in the old days).
My neck hurt for 2 days after that, real bad. You kinda give up trying to hold your head against the forces after the second lap, not for any other reason than they are too tired to hold your head up at all. This car did not have those fancy side supports on the passenger side, just the drivers side. I did have my neck support with me. It did nothing to help.
As much as I love cars... my body would need so much conditioning to do that kind of stuff that it almost feels like you need to be 'bred' for it, or know thats what you want from the time you're 14
But I guess if all things were covered, including the physical side, I wouldn't mind being paid to do that. While I feel its kinda retarded to drive a car in a left-handed circle for 500 miles, I'll never say the guys driving are in anything but the best of shape and deserve their pay..
(ooops.) 
