buckle-up

  With the second post written for the National Auto Sports Association (NASA) digital publication, Speed News, I upped the ante somewhat. While the central theme was about going fast and having fun, little did either Margo or I realize the commitment this would require! To be honest, for most of that first year on track with NASA as a participant in their High Performance Driver Event (HPDE) program it was more a case of hanging on and hoping to be able to drive home with the car we brought. This second post also made reference to a previous post that appeared on this blog. It was a reference to an outing in a Ferrari F430 that good friend David Roberts had arranged for me and my good friend Brian Kenny while we were visiting him in Sydney. The venue was Sydney Motor Sport Park and with a number of weekends completed with NASA there was still no denying that a huge gulf in skill existed between a pro driver and those like Margo and I wanting to simply drive our car fast. For t...

  OK, so let’s talk cars! After all, this Buckle-Up blog has always been about motor vehicles, road trips, car shows and our time out on track. I know, it’s been a while to dedicate a post just to cars but for Margo and me year 2020 represents a milestone. That’s right; we didn’t buy a single car all year! Mark that down as a new record for Margo and me although truth be known (and already recorded in earlier posts), we did order a new car for delivery sometime in 2022. Does that even count? Worth noting, however, was how we took the time in 2019 to reduce the number of cars from six – plus an RV and trailer – to four and this year that number will be further reduced to just three. Count them; a garage with only three cars to choose from. I seriously don’t know if I will be able to adjust to this new reality! For the past two decades, we have really had opportunities to pretty much test drive many different cars.   Some we truly did enjoy more than others even as we had ac...