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Nitrous BBQs, websites and fun. |
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Written by Devin Durham
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Tuesday, 14 October 2008 |
This past Saturday at the Midnight Drags, the top of my head opened up, an etherial light poured into my skull, and a fundamental epiphany made itself known to me:
I like to have fun.
When this website was conceived it was intended to be a repository of
unimpeachable car performance related information, with a strong
emphasis on promoting real drag racing over illegal and dangerous
street racing.
I compiled a multiple page list in a nice new moleskine notebook of all
kinds of interesting things to talk about like nitrous systems and
torque converters and what "dwell time" means and on and on, and then
made all sorts of copious notes about each subject and then promptly
let it sit on my desk for the past year and a half.
The problem is that all that just isn't very fun. It is information
that I think is important, especially given the amount of internet
bullshit opinion that floats around wearing the guise of fact, but
it's just a little bit dry and preachy.
These thoughts came to me while I was watching Flyin' Hillbilly
barbeque my nitrous bottle. You see, I don't have a heater and the
bottle pressure was very low, and the grill was a nice hot heat source
and one thing led to another and the next thing you know, there's my
white NX bottle sitting next to a couple of minute steaks. Crowds
gathered around, jokes were made about The Fast And The Furious
(imagine Vin Diesel running in slow motion shouting "NAAAWWWZZZ.") and
then some fairly profound explanations about how N2O isn't actually
flammable until it reaches a temperature of 580+ degrees and therefore
the only real danger was popping the blow-off valve on the bottle, and
since we only ended up adding about 150 pounds of pressure to the
bottle, we were still easily 400 PSI in the clear when I took the
bottle and re-installed it into my trunk. You see, all it all it was
not only fun but it was instructive as well.
The rest of the night was just as informative to me. What we had was a
large group of good friends all having fun doing something they really
enjoyed, that being trying to push a bunch of street cars into a
performance envelope they were never intended to reach. Do you really
think that anyone at Chevrolet ever expected an HHR to seriously be
threatening the 12s in a quarter mile? Is there any logical reason to
push a 14 year old Lincoln to 110 mph in 1320 feet? We do it to prove
a point and to show what we can accomplish, but the primary motivation
is that it is fun. Couple that with a running commentary from the
tower by Flyin' Hillbilly and the fact that my car still smells like
bbq and it all comes together: if this site is going to work and if
new articles are going to be added with any sort of regularity, then a
generous portion of fun is going to have to be added to the mix.
I hereby make the following promises: Things are going to be a lot
lighter around here. I am going to be a lot more relaxed about what
gets talked about and how things are managed. So basically I am going
to try to be a lot more Top Gear TV show and a lot less college
textbook.
And I have it all to thank on a little nitrous barbeque. "Nitrous just like mom used to make!"
Here's a few photos of the event for the enlightenment of everyone who couldn't make it:
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 October 2008 )
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