First post, first experience

elo der.

okee so the blog diary thingy has begun. my name's zaahir, and thought i'd wanna start thinking aloud hehe. yay :/

aweh so i'm 22, a mechanical engineering student at university of kzn, and i enjoy listening to and playing music (guitar), drawing, art, and MOTORSPORT. i luuuv racing, is the only thing worth loving without ending up getting hurt :P emotionally, anyway. starting this blog mainly for racing...for now.

i have been quenching that thirst by playing computer games: sim-racing. this year i have finally scraped JUST enuff cash 2 get my real racing going. starting formula vee, openwheeler/single seater formula existing to be affordable compared to other formulae, and i've been very lucky to meet and mix with the right people in fvee, as i wouldnt have been able to afford certain things and entire races of the season...but that now looks possible. thanks anthony ;) i'm definitely not starting to make a career out of this, logistics and my age make that impossible; im saying this coz i keep getting asked when im getting to formula1 HAHAHHAA....idiots.

the only experience i do have is computer games. that is some computer programmer who fudged some code to make u THINK it handles like real life. is it like real life at all? of course not. i have not done competitive karting (rentals dont count!!) or any competition race car driving, so am i at a disadvantage.....? geez i hate it when i get asked how many races i've won. WTF i havnt even started yet LOL and it will take a LOT of money, experience, a better car, and most probably a lot more skill than i have right now to pull off anything CLOSE to a win :/

okay. so 1st time in a race car. december 2006. fuck i was nervous. i was just scared of crashing the thing, anything i'd learned in games was probably fake, how could i trust any feelings i've developed with that. sure it may be similar, but its gotta be exact if you want to make it out the 1st corner of zwartkops alive while pushing hard. the 1st feeling was just incredible happiness. God knows how long i've been waiting for this moment, the acceleration is incredible, the beating ur body takes is just cool. when u're done battered and bruised, u get a sense of accomplishment. ehhhh after the raw feelings of driving this single seater around, i started to think abt sliding the car, getting my clutch/gear shifting smooth, just generally getting to know my new pablo honey. i definitely wasnt pushing hard at all, i cannot afford ANY repairs at the moment. so i looked like a total NOOB just crawling around the track. meh, who cares. i didnt crash hehehe.....struggled to get 2nd gear, in fact didnt get it at all. its a 4-speed beetle gearbox, i'm way too tall for the car (took the seat out, sat on the floor and fuel tank so i could drive the thing) so i thought my leg was getting in the way while trying to select 2nd gear. the 2nd corner of zwartkops is a hairpin, so u need 2nd gear for that corner....the fucking thing was just grinding, ended up going thru there in neutral everytime :P i was the only fvee driver there at this track day, so i didnt have anybody to consult about the probem....but watever, i had other things to learn abt the car still. i wasnt confident at driving at high speeds and on the limit. i certainly dont do this sort of thing on public roads. so, 1point to karters, 0points to simracers.

i only managed to get out for 2x15min sessions, so there was not much i could learn. especially with the mentality that i needed to NOT CRASH. in every braking zone i couldnt be on the limit, coz my shoes were too big, my foot kept catching on the steering column when moving from acc pedal to brake pedal....not cool. eehhh but zwartkops is a nice track!!! 1st corner is scary. 2nd corner is a bitch (coz that DAMN 2nd gear), the sweep is just a thing to get you to 200kph (apparently), 3rd corner takes a bit of bravery coz not much of a braking zone. the rest of the track was tight stuff, is the only place i felt confident to throw the car around to see what would happen.....i ended up on 1m16.0 i think it was, which is pretty disgusting. the lap record is 1m10.1.....but considering i was taking the 2nd corner in neutral, chilling out in all the braking zones and fast corners.....it didnt seem SO bad. my aim should be to get 2-3sec from the leaders i PRAY. oldish car, old tyres, and im a total noob. so the day was just a basic "get to know the car" and "seal the deal" as i was testing it to see if i wanted to buy it. it is a good solid car, it is not a race winner right now for sure, but will get me going.