Out of Body Driving

Allow me to break the 4th wall: 

We’ve been swimming at the bottom of a deep lake for the past few Whimsies. 

My First Date with Jinx went down a treat.

The Voice I Didn’t Mean to Find was a huge surprise.

How Did I Find This Place told the tale of a year spent in stillness.

And there’s more to come. But before we return to the bottom of the lake, I think we could all use a breath, a beat, a pause… A little adrenaline. So if you’ll continue sitting around the campfire, I’ll tell you a story I probably shouldn’t. 

———

There’s a lovely corner on a quiet stretch of road near my home. A fast, short, sharp, slightly off-camber left-hander that just aches to be driven with spirit.

And if you are driving with spirit, there’s little margin for error.

On corner entry, the shoulder to your right is about two feet of gravel-littered pavement. If you decided not to turn and drove straight off the road, you’d pile into the one or two cars that are typically parked at the end of someone’s driveway.

On exit, the shoulder is the same as above, but bleeds into a ditch instead of driveway. Beyond the ditch waits a gnarled, wire fence. If you went off here, your front right corner would likely dip into and catch the far side of the ditch, flipping you head over heels through the fence and into the field beyond. Not ideal.

Usually, I have spirited-but-not-stupid fun with this corner.

Like you, I’d rather not wake up in a ditch surrounded by twisted metal.

But a few weeks ago, something unprecedented happened as I rounded the corner before the dangerous one:

My mind switched off as surely as I’d switched off the car’s traction control system when I started driving—I slipped into a flow state. My body and spirit took the wheel.

(Or perhaps Jinx did.)

None of this was done consciously. I just drove, and nearly shit myself after. And all because I’d been thinking about Kimi Antonelli, who takes corners like this. Total lizard brain moment.

Approaching this lovely corner, I edged my car as far right as I dared without dipping a wheel off the shoulder. As the apex neared, I waited longer than I ever have before turning in, then swung left sharply, decisively. Perfect timing. Nailed it. 

Except I could feel the tires slipping much closer to their limit than I’d ever felt before. 

I locked in. Breath caught. Heart rate surging. Spirit free.

Passing the corner’s apex, my eyes clocked the speedometer: 

91 kilometers per hour.

That’s when I considered shitting my pants.

I’ve driven this corner similarly quickly before, but with traction control—which in these fast corners gives 10-20 kms/hr of speed that the car isn’t actually capable of without the computer’s help. So 70-80 kms/hr should have been plenty sketchy.

Upon reflection, the only reason I didn’t end up in the ditch was because I approached the corner using a very wide line for entry, turning the corner ‘shape’ from a hook into a slice, reducing the lateral load and keeping the car settled. Thanks Kimi.

I was hit with this thought a few hours later:

Holy shit. I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to the edge of grip… And I didn’t even mean to! No way am I ever going to try that again. That’s some flow state shit that can’t easily be replicated and is absolutely not worth the risk.

So never again, but good grief Charlie Brown… What a wild experience.

With love from the forest,

~ Alexander

(and giggles from Jinx.)

P.S. Edges are where we find out what we’re made of. Yours will be different from mine, and mine yours. Adrenaline and risk aren’t requirements. Look for what tests you, what challenges you, what you want to overcome. There’s gold in those hills that’ll change your life if you start digging.