The Chalybeate

Saturday 8 March 2008

Track Day

My mate Neil likes cars, and he earns lots of money, so he has bought himself a Porsche.
It's shiny, new, dark blue and looks very pretty. Neil's a good driver, even though he's faster than I would like, and I told him both when he took me out in the car last June.

I've been prompting him to take Moonface out in the car for some time, to give her the experience of being driven stupidly, scarily fast; probably she last had that experience when she was seventeen, drunk, and in the back of some yokel's souped-up Mini. Ah, the follies of a misspent youth, and she had several.

So, when Neil suggested that we go along to watch him drive fast around a race-course and possibly have a go with him, we said yes. Castle Coombe course was having a track day for the Porsche Club of GB, so the pits were full of shiny powerful Porsches ranging from twenty-year old hobbyists' cars to the most expensive, flashest fastest motors in the country. We had an experience: it was a very different day out to those we normally have. Tom came along with us, and since he was keener than Moonface he went first as passenger, looking professional as he put his mandatory helmet on and strapping himself tightly into the navigator's seat. He enjoyed it, as the track was slippy enough for Neil to put some wiggles into the tail at corners, and following other cars' spray around the track.

In the end, the day ended early as the drizzle morphed into rain and the track became too wet for fun so Moonface didn't manage to get a ride after all. Some other time, perhaps.
But it was good for Tom, and a glimpse of another anorak area that we normally never see.
And what an area for anoraks! Not only can you buy lots of personal gear - special suits, helmets, shoes and so on; but the cars themselves take so much attention. We were told, by those in the know, that of the thirty or forty cars in the paddocks, a massive proportion of the UK's GT3's (whatever they are; they seem to be slightly bigger than the other cars, in a brighter range of colours, and with huge parcel shelves at the back) were parked for all to see. Pretty, anyway.


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Wednesday 5 March 2008

Wining

I'm drinking a Chilean Pinot Noir at the moment. A cheapish branded wine, from Cono Sur. It's just like an expensive Burgundy should be, but without the expense.

They say that Burgundy is like wine with the wine taken out; and I generally agree. Several times, I've bought "good" Burgundy, only to find it thin, acidic and astringent. I probably won't bother doing so again. Yes, it can be terrific, but at a cost. How can the Chileans do it? There are half a dozen brands of Chilean wine that are consistently enjoyable, whether one is drinking red or white, sweet or dry, and all at a sensible supermarket price. It's now my criterion for purchase - look for the country, grab a bottle, have a decent two or three nights' glass of wine without thinking that I made the wrong choice.

And all because a bloke called Beer started thinking about wine in Allende's day. He was a Brit, of course.


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