Lifts and Light
I’m so used to seeing McLaren P1’s in Race Mode, but I really like to shoot them when the chassis lift is activated. Plenty of clearance when you need it, slammed to the deck for proper aero when you want it. And there’s even a setting in the middle to use on the road. I expect to see this feature with increasing frequency on cars of the future.
Also, I just got a GoPro Hero 3+! Okay, I know I’m a little behind, especially because the Hero 5 was announced this week. But hey, all my GoPros so far have been free, so I’m not really complaining. Here’s the first photo I took with it, from a drive last weekend.
Looks fine on my Macbook, but a little dull on my (calibrated) work monitor. Hmm. I think I should calibrate my Mac.
Listen
What in the wide world of sports is going on here?
At the recent Canepa Cars & Coffee meet there was a lot going on as usual, like this 240SX that arrived well before I did and was just sitting in a puddle of its coolant all day. At some point, I saw the (young) owner get in the car and casually drive away. Okay then.
Pre-Historic Meet: The Reunion Before the Reunion at Laguna Seca
At the end of every summer, there is an epic event called the Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Despite the deceptively ambiguous name, this is the west coast’s most prestigious vintage racing event. However, this event doesn’t just happen; it takes over a week of setting up and in fact, they actually pre-run the event the week earlier.
At this event, colloquially called “Pre-Historics”, I would estimate (and these are purely guesses) that the car participation is perhaps 75% yet spectator participation is a scant 1% of what it is on the real Reunion weekend.
Slow Roller
I’m all about the slow pan; of all the photography techniques that’s probably my favorite. Normally, one of the challenges of hand-held photography is to keep the camera perfectly still, but with panning shots you’re shooting an object in motion with a camera in motion. Fascinating.
This was taken in the middle of a low-speed parking maneuver, but the 1/15 shutter speed really exaggerates it. When Brendan posted it up on Instagram, he got a bunch of comments like, “Sweet parking lot hoonage”. Job done, then.
The most annoying thing when I’m trying to take a panning shot is when people see me and slow down. Keep going! On the other hand, these guys in the 912E saw me and went flat-out. The car squatted, made a lot of noise, but with a whopping 80hp it didn’t really go anywhere. But I still got the shot.
Star Road 