#Rally Car Experience Days in Scotland

[neiljohnsblog]

Discover the Excitement of Rally Driving Days: What to Expect and How to Prepare

Scotland, with its rugged landscapes and winding roads, offers an ideal backdrop for rally enthusiasts. Rally-driving days in Scotland provide a unique opportunity for thrill-seekers and motorsport fans to experience the adrenaline of navigating challenging terrains in a high-performance vehicle. Whether you're a seasoned rally driver or a first-timer, these experiences promise an unforgettable adventure.

In this blog, we’ll explore what rally driving days in Scotland are all about, what you can expect, and how to prepare for this exhilarating activity.

Why Choose Scotland for Rally Driving?

Scotland's diverse terrain makes it a prime location for rally driving. From forest tracks and gravel trails to scenic open stretches, the country offers an authentic rallying experience. The dramatic landscapes and unpredictable weather add an extra layer of excitement, pushing drivers to adapt and hone their skills.

Rally driving days in Scotland are tailored for individuals and groups looking for a mix of challenge and fun. Whether you're celebrating a special occasion or simply fulfilling a lifelong dream, this activity is bound to leave a lasting impression.

What to Expect on a Rally Driving Day

1. Comprehensive Briefing

Your rally driving day begins with a safety briefing and introduction to the car you’ll be driving. This is an essential part of the experience, as you'll learn about handling techniques, safety protocols, and the layout of the track or course.

2. Professional Guidance

Experienced rally instructors are on hand to guide you through every step. They provide one-on-one coaching, helping you master techniques such as drifting, throttle control, and navigating tight corners.

3. Hands-On Driving

The highlight of the day is, of course, getting behind the wheel. You'll experience the thrill of accelerating on straightaways, tackling challenging turns, and feeling the power of a rally car as you manoeuvre through the course.

4. Post-Driving Debrief

After your driving session, you’ll receive feedback on your performance. Instructors will offer improvement tips and may share insights on how to advance your rally driving skills.

How to Prepare for Rally Driving Days in Scotland

Preparing for rally driving days involves both mental and physical readiness. Here are several suggestions to help you maximize your experience.

1. Choose the Right Attire

Comfortable clothing and sturdy footwear are essential. Some venues provide specialized gear, but it’s always good to check in advance. Avoid loose clothing that could interfere with your control of the vehicle.

2. Stay Hydrated and Rested

Rally driving requires focus and quick reflexes, so being well-rested is crucial. Hydrate adequately before your session to keep your energy levels up.

3. Understand the Vehicle

If you have prior knowledge of rally cars, familiarize yourself with the type you’ll be driving. Most rally driving days offer vehicles with manual transmissions, so knowing how to operate one is a definite advantage.

4. Listen to Instructions

Your instructor’s guidance is invaluable. Pay close attention during the briefing and follow instructions during the drive to maximize safety and enjoyment.

The Benefits of Rally Driving

Rally driving days in Scotland offer more than just an adrenaline rush. They also provide valuable skills that can enhance your everyday driving abilities:

Improved Car Control: Learn advanced handling techniques to better manage your vehicle in challenging conditions.

Increased Confidence: Tackling rally courses builds confidence, helping you remain calm under pressure.

Memorable Experiences: The combination of scenic surroundings and thrilling activity makes rally driving an unforgettable adventure.

Best Locations for Rally Driving in Scotland

Scotland boasts a variety of venues ideal for rally driving, often located near scenic or historically significant areas. While we won't mention specific names, these venues typically offer a mix of forest tracks, gravel circuits, and tailored driving courses. They are designed to cater to all skill levels, from beginners to advanced rally enthusiasts.

Who Can Participate?

Rally driving days in Scotland are suitable for most individuals, provided they meet the minimum age and driving license requirements. Whether you're planning a solo adventure or a group outing, these experiences can be customized to fit your needs.

Gift the Experience of Rally Driving

Rally-driving days also make for exceptional gifts. They’re perfect for birthdays, anniversaries, or corporate events. Gift vouchers are often available, allowing recipients to book their session at a time that suits them.

Final Thoughts

Rally-driving days in Scotland are an incredible way to immerse yourself in the world of motorsport. The combination of stunning landscapes, expert guidance, and the raw thrill of rally driving makes these experiences second to none.

Whether you're looking to test your skills, celebrate a milestone, or simply try something new, rally driving days are a must for anyone seeking adventure. With the right preparation and mindset, you'll leave the day with a newfound appreciation for the art of rallying and memories that will last a lifetime.

Ready to experience the thrill of rally driving? Scotland is calling!

[johnalexcooper]

Get Behind the Wheel: Discover the Thrill of Rally Car Experience Days

Scotland’s rugged terrain and stunning landscapes make it the ultimate playground for motorsport enthusiasts. Rally Car Experience Days in Scotland offer a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the exhilarating world of rally driving, combining the adrenaline of speed with the challenge of handling various surfaces and conditions. Whether you’re an aspiring rally driver or just looking for a thrilling adventure, these experiences are designed to deliver unforgettable memories.

What Are Rally Car Experience Days?

Rally Car Experience Days are specially curated events where participants can drive powerful rally cars under the guidance of professional instructors. These events typically take place in off-road settings, including purpose-built tracks, forests, and open countryside, offering a variety of terrains like gravel, mud, and tarmac.

Participants are introduced to the fundamentals of rally driving, including handling oversteer, mastering sharp turns, and perfecting braking techniques. The goal is to replicate the authentic feel of rallying, allowing you to unleash your inner driver in a safe and controlled environment.

Why Choose Scotland for Your Rally Car Experience?

Scotland is renowned for its breathtaking natural beauty, but it’s also a haven for motorsport enthusiasts. The country’s diverse landscapes provide the ideal backdrop for rally driving, with tracks that test both driver skill and vehicle performance. Here’s why Scotland is the perfect destination:

Diverse Terrain: From forest trails to rugged gravel roads, Scotland’s varied topography offers a dynamic rally driving experience.

Picturesque Settings: Each turn and straightaway offers a view of Scotland’s iconic landscapes, making your rally experience as scenic as it is thrilling.

Rich Motorsport Heritage: Scotland has a proud history of motorsport, making it a fitting location to experience the world of rally driving firsthand.

What to Expect During a Rally Car Experience Day in Scotland

Professional Instruction

Your day begins with a safety briefing and an introduction to the basics of rally driving. Professional instructors provide detailed guidance on vehicle controls, driving techniques, and the dynamics of rally cars.

Practical Driving Sessions

The heart of the experience lies in getting behind the wheel. Participants take to the track to practice essential rally skills, such as power sliding, handbrake turns, and negotiating tight corners. You’ll feel the thrill of controlling a rally car as it navigates challenging terrain.

Timed Laps and Challenges

Some experiences include competitive elements, such as timed laps or obstacle challenges, adding an extra layer of excitement. These sessions allow you to test your skills and see how you measure up against others.

Memorable Atmosphere

The camaraderie among participants and the enthusiastic support of instructors create an electrifying atmosphere. Whether you’re cheering others on or pushing your limits on the track, the energy is contagious.

Who Can Participate?

Rally Car Experience Days in Scotland cater to a wide range of participants. You don’t need prior driving experience to join—most experiences are beginner-friendly. However, a valid driver’s license is typically required. For those with advanced skills, many providers offer tailored experiences to push your abilities to the next level.

Perfect for Special Occasions

Rally Car Experience Days aren’t just for motorsport enthusiasts; they’re also a fantastic way to celebrate special occasions. Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, or corporate team-building event, rally experiences provide a unique and unforgettable way to mark the day.

The Benefits of a Rally Car Experience Day

Adrenaline Rush: Few activities can match the thrill of rally driving, where speed meets skill.

Skill Development: Learn advanced driving techniques that improve your overall vehicle control.

Memorable Experience: Create lasting memories in a unique setting that combines adventure with Scotland’s natural beauty.

Stress Relief: The focus required during rally driving provides a welcome escape from the pressures of daily life.

Top Tips for Your Rally Car Experience Day

Dress Comfortably: Wear clothing that allows freedom of movement and sturdy shoes suitable for driving.

Stay Hydrated: Bring water and snacks to keep your energy levels up throughout the day.

Listen to the Instructors: Pay attention to their advice—they’ll help you get the most out of your experience.

Embrace the Challenge: Rally driving is all about pushing boundaries, so don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.

Why Rally Car Experience Days in Scotland Make a Great Gift

If you’re searching for a unique gift idea, look no further than Rally Car Experience Days in Scotland. Perfect for adventure seekers, car enthusiasts, or anyone who loves a challenge, these experiences provide the ultimate thrill. They also make excellent last-minute gift options, as many providers offer vouchers or digital gift certificates.

Conclusion

Rally Car Experience Days in Scotland offer an unparalleled opportunity to immerse yourself in the excitement of rally driving while surrounded by some of the most stunning landscapes in the world. With professional instruction, diverse terrains, and an adrenaline-fueled atmosphere, these experiences promise memories that will last a lifetime.

So, why wait? Get behind the wheel, feel the power of a rally car, and discover the thrill that only Scotland can provide. Rally driving isn’t just an activity—it’s an adventure that leaves you exhilarated, inspired, and yearning for more.

[bertiebusyt]

Nightmare Van Life Problems could have been Disastrous

Nightmare Van Life Problems could have been Disastrous https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX06FDc6MH8 What a DISASTROUS day, Van Life Fuel PROBLEMS from cheap Supermarket DIESEL . Welcome back to our channel as we experience fuel problems after using cheap supermarket fuel when suddenly the EDC engine warning light comes on as our motorhome started juddering and misfiring whilst driving along a busy dual carrageway .We have to do an emergency stop and panicked to find a solution 0n the road . Find out what we did to try and resolve the issue before a complete breakdown . Plus we book onto a campsite but when we turn up there is a rally on and we was not welcome and did not want to risk getting stuck on a muddy field so we had to turn around to try and find somewhere else late at night to park up . We then had trouble paying for the park up online as it would not accept our payment . Todays Vlog is all about us not having a great day in Van Life and how we overcome the issues thrown at us all within a few hours . We give some valuable advice from what we have learnt through real situations and real events in our Motorhome life . In this Vlog we include ; Fuel Problems Booked Campsite Issues Solutions on the road Overnight park up Van Life Travel Pets in Our Motorhome Beautiful Beach and Castle ����Hit subscribe to join our travelling family & never miss an update on motorhome adventure, real-time vlogs, travel tips, and loads of laughter. / @bertiebus 🔗Support Our Channel ☕Buy us a coffee: https://ift.tt/0TFAMjC ✅ Stay Connected With Us. 👉Facebook:https://ift.tt/a2rNbWs?... 👉Instagram: https://ift.tt/sBylGiC... 📩 For Business Inquiries: needham1505@gmail.com ============================= 🎬 Recommended Playlist 👉 Bertie Bus • How We Got Lost In Mallaig: A Van Lif... 🎬 WATCH OUR OTHER VIDEOS: 👉 We SCREWED up in MALLAIG Scotland 👉 Someone has hit our van in the car park 👉 Flooded Sink Problems .The jo 👉 Anchored down on the West Coast of Scotland., Living in a Motorhome on the road full time . • The Best Fish & Chips on the West Coa... 👉 Strange happenings in our MOTORHOME VAN LIFE ============================= ✅ About Bertie Bus. Hi guys. We are John and Zoe. We started our YouTube channel in Aug 2022. We live full-time in our motorhome called Bertie. We have two gorgeous border collies with us on our travels. We release a vlog every few days and keep it real and entertaining. We also keep it within two days of where we are. Please join our family and become one of our friends. Please subscribe and follow our adventures for tips and ideas or just to laugh with us and our banter with each other ❤️ For Collaboration and Business inquiries, please use the contact information below: 📩 Email: needham1505@gmail.com 🔔Hit subscribe to join our travelling family & never miss an update on motorhome adventure, real-time vlogs, travel tips, and loads of laughter. / @bertiebus ================================= #vanlife #travelwithpets #traveltips #motorhome #livinginavan #problem #travelvlog ⚠️DISCLAIMER: We do not accept any liability for any loss or damage incurred from you acting or not acting as a result of watching any of our publications. You acknowledge that you use the information we provide at your own risk. Do your research. Copyright Notice: This video and our YouTube channel contain dialogue, music, and images that are the property of Bertie Bus. You are authorized to share the video link and channel and embed this video in your website or others as long as a link back to our YouTube channel is provided. © Bertie Bus via Bertie Bus https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwG3U4blYbNJ5biJvFIydZA June 03, 2024 at 12:00PM

[sgt-paul]

THE TIMES (December 22, 2021)

PAUL: Life had just started to get a bit messy when Linda became pregnant with Mary. Allen Klein [the American business manager] was involved with the Beatles and, over the year, things seemed to get more chaotic and worrying. Then, the miracle: our Mary. The chaos got pushed to one side and all I cared about was being a dad. But there was still a lot of unpleasantness flying around, so in the end I said: “Let’s get out of here, go to Scotland and be a family.” It wasn’t planned, but Mary came at exactly the right time. She changed my perspective to a degree where I could look at what was happening with the Beatles and think, “Does it really matter?”.

If you were a dad in the late 1960s, you were part of that first wave who got involved with the whole process of pregnancy and birth. One afternoon I remember going down to the local Family Planning Association and picking up a booklet called You Are Having a New Baby. I loved reading it: “At this-many-weeks, your baby will be as big as an orange.” And then being there at the birth! In my dad’s day, that would have been unheard of.

My first solo album came out in 1970 and I decided to use one of Linda’s photos of me and Mary on the cover. This tiny head poking out from the inside of my jacket. These days you wouldn’t do it because it feels dangerous to put pictures of your kids out there, but back then we weren’t bothered. A lot of musical acquaintances warned me that being a dad would change my professional life. You can’t take kids on tour, you can’t have them in the studio. My professional life did change because I was no longer in the band, but I was still writing and recording. For the first Wings tour in 1972 we simply packed a load of nappies and toys and took the kids with us.

Later, when they were at school, I’d have a word with the headmaster. “Look, we’ll be away for six weeks and I don’t relish the thought of getting a call in Australia saying something’s happened to one of the kids.” The school gave us a list of the lessons they’d be missing and we took a tutor with us, which the kids hated. They saw it as a six-week holiday. Like all parents, we were dreading the rebellious teens, but the most rebellion we had from Mary and Stella was having to listen to Wham! all day long. Looking back, I guess that wasn’t too bad.

In 1998 Mary and the kids lost their mum and I lost … Linda. I knew it was my job to be “strong Dad who keeps it together”, but you can’t do that the whole time unless you completely hide your feelings. Eventually my emotions started leaking out. That’s when the roles were reversed and the kids rallied round me. We got through it, but we all struggled because she was the glue that held everything together.

Linda would have been so happy to see how far vegetarianism has come since we started the food business [in 1991]. And now Mary’s continuing the tradition with her own vegan cooking show. Yes, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved musically, but I’m also proud that Linda played such a big part in bringing vegetarian food into people’s homes.

Christmas and new year were a big family thing when I was a kid, so I keep the tradition going. Me and Nancy [Shevell, whom he married in 2011] like to go to Mary’s, the grandkids running around with their new toys. I do it for them as much as me — I want them to experience the same joy I felt at their age. That connection with family is what keeps me sane. I’ve got my fingers crossed for 2022. Like everyone, I’m hoping we’ll get a chance to do some of the things we’ve missed out on, see the people we love. It’ll be nice to have a bit more normality.

MARY: My earliest memories are split between London and the farm in Scotland. The excitement of city life versus absolute solitude. It was still exciting but in a different way: riding ponies, climbing trees, helping Mum in the kitchen. And the sound of Dad’s guitar.

It makes me laugh now, but there were some afternoons when we’d be watching cartoons and Dad would wander over with his guitar. He’d sit down and start playing this beautiful music, messing around with melodies and songs. We’d all give him an evil stare. “Dad, we’re watching telly. Go in the kitchen.” One time he said: “Do you know how many people would love to be sitting here now, listening to me play guitar?” I just shrugged. “But we can’t hear The Wombles.”

Being a vegetarian family in the late 1970s marked you out as different. Everybody said it was all Mum’s idea and she’d forced Dad to stop eating meat, but they did it as a team. I remember them discussing recipes and Dad saying he still wanted something he could slice for his Sunday roast. Mum was always excited about cooking and she inspired me. Dad’s pretty good in the kitchen — he’d make a great sous-chef. If you ask him to sort out the mashed potato, it’ll be the best you’ve ever tasted. He’s meticulous, just like he is in the studio.

Of course people made fun of Mum and Dad for being veggie. They made fun of Mum for a lot of things, saying she wasn’t a real musician, she wore odd socks and charity-shop jumpers. The real problem was that she didn’t fit the mould of the woman they wanted Paul McCartney to marry. They wanted someone who went to all the chichi parties, but Mum was more interested in feeding the animals on the farm.

Mum and Dad insisted we went to the local comprehensive school, which made me feel a bit awkward at the time. I’d be in school for a term, then off on tour. When I came back, all my friends had made new friends. Now, when I look back, I realise what a smart move it was. It kept us grounded.

Dad was almost too enthusiastic when it came to helping with homework. On my own I could knock it off in half an hour but Dad would get out the encyclopaedia, he’d be cross-referencing and drawing graphs. The teachers must have got suspicious when I gave in these ridiculously detailed essays. Dad said education changed his life and he wanted to pass that love of learning on to us.

I look at Dad and think, after all he’s been through, how has he managed to stay in one piece? He has found a way of keeping a level head, no matter what else is happening in his life. My own personal theory — I’ve not talked to Dad about this — is that he needs normality because that’s what inspires him. Real life and real people. That’s where all the music comes from.

Every year that goes by I seem to find a new level of admiration for what Dad has achieved — and Mum too. My husband and I have this game where we try to get through a day without coming across a reference to Dad or the Beatles. What usually happens is that I get to around nine o’clock, then something comes on the radio or I see an ad for the new Beatles documentary.

I do listen to the Beatles at home, but it’s the Wings stuff I play the most. Mum’s not around any more, but when she’s doing her backing vocals I can still hear her and Dad together. There’s a song called I Am Your Singer — that always gets me. “When day is done, harmonies will linger on.”

STRANGE HABITS:

Paul on Mary

She can do a very powerful whistle to catch someone’s attention. I once asked her to do it for Prince Charles.

Mary on Paul He has an exercise routine every morning and finishes it off with a faultless, unsupported five-minute headstand.

[eventurous-teambuilding]

Indoor Team Building Games

Worried about the weather? Risking your corporate away day in the rain? Then opt for some indoor team building that can go ahead come rain or shine. Team building is great for motivating teams and encouraging bonding between employees. It has a bit of a cringe reputation, but companies are getting wise to this and providing more and more interesting options to satisfy even the biggest cynic.

Take a look at some great indoor team building games from Eventurous - leading providers across the UK:

Indoor Soapbox Derby

Frantic fun in this indoor version of the infamous soapbox race, Participants construct a car from a flat-pack kit and add a custom style to it. Be conservative or flamboyant, it’s up to you - but don’t forget you will need to join the race at the end when things heat up! Great fun for all and good at boosting motivation, ambition and team morale.

Crystal Clear Indoor Challenge

Based on the hit 1990′s TV show, this frantic challenge sees competitors come together to battle through each puzzle. The aim is to make it to the crystal dome and each crystal collected extends your time to grab as many silver tokens as possible to win a prize. encourages development of problem-solving skills and teamwork

Check out these options from leading Scottish team building experts Amazing Days Scotland:

Domino Rally Extreme

A fond memory for most, domino rally was a favourite in the 1980′s and this retro charm still gets you gripped. In this challenge, each team must pitch their idea in a bid to gain the best equipment and enter the International Domino Rally Championships. Highlights are played on the big screen and each domino setup is linked to the next for the grand finale of your company logo in dominoes.

Advertising Legends

Ever wanted to make an advert?

Well you can now. Split into teams, your task is to make an advert for a random product or your company. Learn from the film-making expert provided, get out and about in the city and use the latest equipment to create your masterpiece. Then sit through the laughter as each advert is played to everyone. Great fun and really aids the team bonding experience.

Did You Know:

A 2008 meta-analysis found that team-development activities, including team building and team training, improve both a team's objective performance and that team's subjective supervisory ratings.

So there you have it. A far cry from the often mundane team building events from the past. Check out these top indoor team building activities, which are fun, friendly and motivational to help encourage your employees to bond and perform better together.

[gibbzer]

Diary Of A Dutiful Daughter

I wrote these posts on Blogger years ago but am now shifting them all over here. 

This first one is about my sister who has Downs Syndrome. My mother, her carer, had died a few years before,  leaving my brother and I in a state of real concern about how she, and we, would cope in our mum’s absence. The post tells some of how we did. 

My sister, my mate.

The day my sister was born was the day I grew up.

Not physically. I was still in buckskin shoes and ankle socks. But it was the day my brother and I passed into my mother’s out-tray. The day my mother cut our invisible chord and wrapped it tight round my sister’s pale sick heart.

My sister had arrived as the ambulancemen were carrying my mum out of the high rise and into the forecourt. My cousin was there when it happened. We were upstairs - 6 floors up - watching my aunt’s black and white television. (I have no memory of what was on.) My cousin said my sister’s tiny body was the same colour as her best lilac blouse.

The day we found out my sister was Downs was the same day Neil Armstrong lifted off for the moon. My brother and I sat in the car outside the hospital eating opal fruits. (None of your Starbursts then!) I watched my parents go in as one thing and come out, one lifetime later, as another. It was their body language. My father was more hunched. And my mother’s eyes were red.

She would tell me later that the hospital offered to take my sister ‘away.’ (Who knows where ‘away’ was. It was the 60’s.) But that was never on the cards. One of my mum’s repeated litanies was ‘What’s for you, won’t go by you!’ She lived by it. And so did we.

They got back in our wine red Ford Anglia and we drove to Stevenston. To my Aunt Mamie and Uncle Davie’s caravan. They weren’t real relatives but they were my parent’s best friends. Chosen relatives. They had experience of disability. They had Anna. Not their own child but their niece. We’d grown up with her too. Anna was blind, couldn’t walk and had the learning age of a 5 year old. She was 25. And we loved her.

It was summer. We played football, ran on the stones, ate ice cream cones and fell out with my ‘cousins’ while inside the caravan my mum wept. On the journey home it was pitch black and my brother and I sat in the back, noses pressed to glass, watching the moon. “Are they there yet?" "Bet I see them walking on it before you do!" "How much?” In the front my mum and dad sat silent. They must have felt their future as black as the sky.

My parents were told she wouldn’t last the year. My dad was working in Nigeria at the time. An electrician by trade he’d decided there was no future in Greenock so he’d gone abroad to carve a living. By the time my sister was born he’d worked and lived rough in Pakistan, East Africa and Nigeria. It was another one of my mum’s litanies. ‘I’ll say this for your dad, he’s a good provider’. She meant it as a compliment.

Now we had a crisis. Did my dad go back and leave us all here? To wait for my sister to die. As always my mother took control. She swept us all up and off we went. To Nigeria. My brother went to a local school. I taught myself by correspondance course. My tutor was in Australia. I did the work, put it in the post and he marked it. It took three weeks for a composition to come back. I was my own mistress. I loved every single minute of it.

Just as well, because my mum had other things on her plate. Her mission, which she embraced with a passion, was to prove the doctors wrong. By the time we went back to Scotland, on leave, my sister was walking, talking, even swimming and the murmur in her heart had gone.

My sister was my mum’s life and her achievement. I wrote a film about the intensity of their relationship. I was with them when they both watched it for the first time. When it was over she turned to my sister and said, "That’s not you, you know. You’ve got better manners".

But it was my sister on the screen. And my mum. And ‘Kenny’ was me. I was working through my anger and my love. Selfish, I know. Just like the characters in my story, my mother had kept my sister close and safe. She was bright, artistic, talented, kind, polite, funny and happy. But she’d never been left alone for as much as five minutes. She’d never been out of my mother’s sight. She’d never been to a Centre, never mixed with other Downs people, had never made her own dinner, picked her own clothes or crossed the road by herself. And all those chickens came home to roost when the fictional events of my story became the facts of our lives.

The week the film premiered in Glasgow my mum was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Her response was characteristic. "We need to talk". She didn’t cry that day. Well, not in front of me. She died two and a half years later. She’d been given six months. But she held on, determined not to leave my sister. I lied to my mother more in that time than at any other in my lifetime. (And I’d lied to her a lot.) I promised her I would keep things exactly as they had always been. I would keep my sister close and safe. I needed my mum to die in peace.

My sister and my dad lived with us for two months after she’d gone. Two months. That’s all. But we were all on top of one another. No one could breathe. My husband and I couldn’t work. My excuses choked me. So they went back to their own flat and I drove the thirty miles to see them every day. My mother’s ashes were in the boot of my car. To chide and comfort me.

I got social workers involved. They provided carers. Sometimes three different ones in the same week. My cousin rallied round. Without her we could not have managed. My sister learnt to use the microwave and clean the toilet. She made sure my dad didn’t fall over or set the house on fire. She hid his cigarettes and dished them out one by one. She’s my mother to the root. She discovered a love of baking. Though we had to draw the line after she baked four huge banana cakes in one week and polished them off by herself.

I gave her money but she bought all their food and choose her own clothes. I arrived one day to find her feeding our demented dad a sandwich of avocado, chicken, tinned salmon AND beetroot. Another day she went out wearing pink velour joggers with a swingy leopardskin jacket. She’s four foot eight and weighs twelve stone. I could feel my mother’s disapproval in the bite of the air. We had what we euphemistically call ‘blips’. We had tears and tantrums. Both of us. In spades. She was living a late onset adolescence. My dad had early onset dementia. It was an interesting time.

Then I committed the most cardinal of sins and enrolled her in college. She was 38. The ghost of my mother was two steps behind her the first time we walked down the corridor. The room at the end was full of other adults with a variety of learning difficulties. Some were Downs. The first thing my sister learnt was that she was part of another family and that we were not all there was.

Now she’s about to go into her third year. This year will prepare her for work. She’s just been nominated as a finalist in Scotland’s Adult Learning Awards. My knee jerk reaction, apart from pride, was to tell her not to be disappointed if she didn’t win. I followed that up with a quick ‘what’s for you, wont go by you!‘ Her response was swift. "Who do you think you are? My mother?"

If I think back to that night in the car, the night the astronauts were on their way to the moon, I remember exactly how I felt about having a sister with Downs. I’m ashamed to say my major disappointment was based on the fact I might not be able to dress her up in pretty clothes. Last week she tried on my favourite little black Ghost dress and looked fantastic in it. She’s wearing it to her award dinner next Tuesday.

[firstfootingscotland]

Shuffles at Féis Lochabair

Greetings from Lansing where I am spending a few days before heading to Washington and Oregon for shows with banjo-player Allison de Groot. While Scotland is feeling more and more like home, it's wonderful to pay a visit to the state of Michigan where I grew up for a mouthful of dry cold air and lots and LOTS of snow!

Before returning to the United States I had the pleasure of spending Saturday, February 9 working with step dancers from Fèis Lochabair in Fort William. Fèisean nan Gàidheal have been incredibly supportive partners in the First Footing residency, facilitating interaction with dancers from across their national network. I was eager to get to interact with dancers from this community as I boarded the train from Edinburgh at 7:15am on Saturday morning. 

The trip was quiet until six bearded men in all-weather gear boarded the train an hour into the journey. As big men are wont to do, they straddled the aisle, taking up two tables on the train with backpacks and crampons. Amid their outdoor accoutrement, soon their table was also strewn with cans of Tennents lager and empty crisp bags as they laughed and boisterously chatted to the trolley hostess. They played pipe band renditions of "Amazing Grace" and pop versions of "Caledonia" on repeat on the speaker of their smartphones as we sped northward through the Trossachs, through Rannach, Corrour, and Roy Bridge. Here the men rowdily disembarked, pouring out of the train still singing and I presume in search of hills to walk and bothies to nap in while the rest of the train rode on in silence until we reached Fort William. As I alighted from the train, the sunlight made the snow on the mountains sparkle in the afternoon light. Shortly I was picked up opposite the train station and whisked away by car to work with the dancers of Fèis Lochabair. 

(Snow on the mountains en route to Féis Lochabair)

Dancer and dance teacher Jane Douglas hosted me incredibly warmly, greeting me as the enduring afternoon rays streamed in through the windows of the bright community centre. As the dancers arrived, I felt very lucky indeed to meet such a welcoming group of movers. The first class, specifically for dancers in under the age of eighteen, impressed me with their crisp percussive articulation and their astute timing. After warming up, I led the group through a series of step dance combinations that I hoped would be both stimulating and challenging. I was startled by their verve; they were eager, even willing to execute the steps one at a time in a circle consecutively as we endeavoured to dance as one, each dancer continuing the phrase where the previous left off. "As though we were singing a song or playing a tune together," I told them. Soon we were passing steps back and forth around the circle together, working to maintain a consistent dynamic and tempo.  

(Working with a group of students and their instructor Jane Douglas during my February 9 visit to Féis Lochabair) 

Over the course of the class, I began to get a sense for the patterns of footwork the dancers were familiar with. When teaching I find it takes some time for me to observe and process the specific step conventions the students have previously been exposed to; to gain a sense through of their movement history as we dance together. For me, the goal then is to share material that departs from these physical patterns or builds on them to break physical patterns, proposing new physical possibilities. For example, this group was familiar with the common step dance pre-fix of audibly placing weight on one foot, brushing the opposing foot forwards and backwards striking the floor once in each direction, hopping on the weight-bearing foot, and tapping with toe of the non-weight-bearing foot. "Step, shuffle, hop, tap." The convention of hopping after the shuffle is found throughout many step dance forms and as I watched the practiced ease with which the dancers demonstrated this step, I could tell it was a gesture their bodies were comfortable with from their great work with Jane! 

I hypothesized internally that a similar step convention with a slightly different use of weight would be challenging but also help develop new neural pathways and motor skills among the students. To that end, I suggested the dancers try a step with a similar beginning, again audibly placing weight on one foot, brushing the opposing foot forwards and backwards striking the floor once in each direction, and instead of hopping on the first, weight-bearing foot, rocking back and placing weight on the shuffling foot, then finally stepping again with the first weight-bearing foot. "Step, shuffle-ball, change." While this step enunciates same number of sounds, it uses a slightly different use of weight.... and shifting weight is what step dance is all about! This new step proved to be a challenge but the students took it up swiftly. After a few repetitions, suddenly the class was collectively departing from well-worn physical patterns, using their weight percussively in new ways. 

(My second group of students with their instructor Jane Douglas during my February 9 visit to Féis Lochabair)

The second group of students, all adults this time, smiled encouragingly as I thanked them for attending and for welcoming me so warmly to their community. We began the second workshop by warming up and then working through a series of exercises reconsidering the dynamic possibilities of one particular step dance rudiment: the shuffle. 

(Diagram 11.1 from Flett & Flett’s 1964 book, Traditional Dance in Scotland)

Shown above in a digram from Flett & Flett's 1964 book Traditional Dance in Scotland, this step is comprised of a swinging brush contacting the floor in a forward motion, followed by a retraction, brushing the floor as the foot returns. The shuffle is a two-way exchange of energy directed through the foot, striking the ground twice in action and reaction. 

In my ethnographic work, I've encountered many gestures that employ a similar pendulum-like step dance rudiment with diverse names: Flett & Flett call it a “treeple.” In tap dance they’re called "shuffles," while in Appalachian clogging, they are referred to as "double-toes," "rallies," "trebles," or "batters" in Irish step dance, “látigo” (Spanish for "whip") in flamenco, and “frotté” (in French, literally, "to rub") in Quebecois gigue. 

In addition to its wide geographic dispersions and culturally-specific meanings, this step is also an incredibly malleable rudiment. It can be altered in many ways, including changing which parts of the foot contact the floor, shifting the rhythmic feel of the shuffle, the step's metre, and even its timbre. After discussing, demonstrating, and having the students embody these various axis of variation during Saturday's class, I asked each student to dance two shuffles with the stipulation that could be similar or contrasting) and instructed the group to repeat them. In addition to a few giggles, this exercise also usually yields some really interesting variations in the infinite variability of the step. This workshop was no exception! My hope in sharing the exercise was that the dancers might reconsider the shuffle's many possibilities, identifying their own tacit presuppositions about the step or biases based upon culturally-specific experiences of the different ways the shuffle functions in percussive dance forms. (1) I've found this strategy consistently helps students discover something new in a step they may have known for many years. I was certainly not disappointed as the dancers extemporized new combinations of shuffles that I had never seen!

After the workshop, a quick rest, and a bite to eat, I was one again whisked to the next event, a cèilidh benefiting Fèis Lochabair at the Ben Nevis Distillery. There, musicians from the Fèis Lochabair Cèilidh Trail set up the PA, called the dances, and performed for and with one another as students from Jane's school performed both highland and step dance pieces. Afterwards, I took to the floor myself to perform two short solo sets. (After which one attendee remarked, "that was proper Brechtian theatre with step dance!") 

(Dancers at the February 9 Féis Lochabair cèilidh at the Ben Nevis Distillery)

As I watched dancers sashay through a Virginia Reel at the end of the night, I couldn't help but genuflect on the opportunity to share steps and shapes here. It had been a full, rich day, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. As I sped southward on the train towards Edinburgh the following morning, the sweet sounds of pipes, piano accordion, mandolin and dancing feet ringing in my ears, I was very grateful indeed to have spent a day dancing in the shadow of Ben Nevis among the rich community of Fèis Lochabair. 

First Footing is a collaboration between dancer and dance researcher Nic Gareiss, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education, and the School of Scottish Studies with support from Creative Scotland. For engagement opportunities check out the First Footing website.

(1) This method of teaching and creating is largely informed by the work of philosopher Michel Foucault, especially the way that his writing explicates and reveals the power of tacit presuppositions. Here I apply this to step dance pedagogy: What do we presume about a step, about its morphology, its utilization. Once we identify the assumptions we've made, it's possible for us to explore new movement possibilities that critique or work against those presuppositions. For more on this, see Michel Foucault's 1969 book, The Archeology of Knowledge. 

[classyfoxdestiny]

Scottish minister demands investigation into nursery over alleged racism

Scottish minister demands investigation into nursery over alleged racism

A Scottish cabinet minister has called for an investigation into alleged racial discrimination at a nursery that refused a place for his young daughter.

Humza Yousaf, the devolved government’s health secretary, said a Dundee nursery had claimed there were no places available for his two-year-old daughter Amal.

But they said a white friend who called to check was told there were places available on three afternoons a week at the same establishment.

Mr Yousaf said applications had been tested by other family members and reporters, with “white-sounding” and “ethnic-sounding” names being accepted and rejected respectively on the same day.

A spokesperson for the owners of the Little Scholars Nursery in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, said they were “extremely proud of being open and inclusive to all” insisting that “any claim to the contrary is demonstrably false and an accusation that we would refute in the strongest possible terms”.

The spokesperson told The Daily Record newspaper, which first reported the claims: “In addition to our owners being of Asian heritage, across more than a decade we have regularly welcomed both children and staff from a range of different religious, cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, including two Muslim families currently.

“We have also regularly made arrangements to accommodate different lifestyles by, for example, providing a halal menu for those children who come from Muslim families.”

Mr Yousaf said he and his wife had contacted the Care Inspectorate and are also seeking legal advice on the issue.

Mr Yousaf said: “We are fooling ourselves if we believe discrimination doesn’t exist in Scotland. I believe evidence we have proves our case beyond doubt.

“As well as reporting the nursery to the Care Inspectorate we are also seeking legal advice.”

The minister, who has played a high profile role in Scotland’s response to the Covid pandemic, said that contacting the Care Inspectorate with their concerns was “not a step my wife and I have taken lightly”.

He tweeted: “After our nursery application for our daughter was refused a 2nd time, my wife asked her White Scottish friend to put in an application for a Child the same age. Within 24hrs of refusing our application my wife’s friend’s was accepted.”

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Mr Yousaf went on to claim that “three White-Scottish applicants offered tours of nursery and spaces, often within less than 24hrs”, while at the same time that applicants with Muslim names were “being rejected, including application for my daughter”.

He added: “It doesn’t matter what my position or how senior in Govt I may be, some will always see me, my wife and children by our ethnicity or religion first.

“We have given Little Scholars nursery every opportunity for an explanation for the disparity in treatment, none has been forthcoming.”

“With no explanation from Little Scholars, we will pursue the truth and get answers we deserve.”

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[nora-durst]

2017 Best Happenings Tag

Every year on tumblr I see loads of posts about how sucky the year was - and you know sometimes they’re not wrong but I’m not going to forget the good things either. 

I was tagged by @violaeade!!!! tysm 💕💕 (This is so so late but I really wanted to do this because this year kind of almost killed me but...i lived bitch... so it will be good for me to remember the good things about 2017 ☺️) (i’ll probably post some best of 2017 selfies soon, too)

January -- started my new year off with one of my best friends, whom I barely get to see because we now live really far away from each other. visited the art museum and its special exhibit on german expressionist cinema with the aforementioned friend and her super cute gf, which was good wholesome fun and reminded me that maybe I don’t need to always be drinking to have a good time???

February -- directed a play that my friend wrote, which was very very cool and made me feel so honoured to be surrounded and trusted by such creative people. and this is very nerdy but my a cappella group placed second in the ICCA quarterfinals, which meant we qualified for the UK finals and were named one of the top eight groups in the UK!!! We also got to perform at this super rich 18-year-old kid’s birthday party and our audience was basically just a bunch of smashed high schoolers and it was some of the most fun I’ve, like, ever had

March -- went to London to compete with my a cappella group, ate a creme egg mcflurry (seriously, heaven), LORDE DROPPED HER FIRST SINGLE IN FOUR YEARS, wandered about london listening to that aforementioned single trying to find my train station but enjoyed the journey a lot more than the destination. witnessed my flatmate kill a huge spider with a makeshift flamethrower, which was truly iconic.

April -- SEASON THREE OF THE LEFTOVERS BEGAN. I performed in a fashion show??? which was weird but also cool and helped me meet some awesome people with whom i probably would have never interacted if not for this experience. got into a £150 event for £5, got trashed on free champagne, then rallied to attend a ball with my friends later that same day. got into an internet fight with a fuckboy i used to be friends with, which sucked, but so many of my girlfriends came and backed me up, which was awesome. Made my triumphant return to the world of slam poetry.

May -- saw cute stoner boy again, which had a slightly negative effect on me but was altogether Very Good. Turned 20 drinking wine on the beach with my pals and then later that night shared a Moroccan cigar and a deep chat with my flatmate, who I never thought I would be as close to as I am. Went home to watch my little sister look like a princess at her high school graduation. Was welcomed back to my job at the pool with open arms :)

June -- worked lots of hours at the pool, becoming closer with my bosses, who are now more fathers to me than my own biological father. Lorde finally dropped Melodrama. The Leftovers finished forever, and the finale both shattered and healed me (but that’s a post for another day).

July -- Had a bangin’ fourth of july with my cousins. Pulled off a heist with my coworkers in which we stole a bunch of cones from the rival pool, then basically drove off into the night and explored forgotten places -- one of the best nights of my life, tbh. Got a lot of free frozen custard from my friend. Saw Walk the Moon and the Naked and Famous in concert. Went swimming in Lake Michigan at night just as a storm was rolling in, which was just as surreal and incredible as it sounds.

August -- Got a super emotional farewell from my dads bosses on my last day at the pool, which definitely didn’t did make me cry in the car on the way home. Went back to Scotland to perform at the Edi Fringe Festival with my a cappella group, which was, as always, awesome. Saw my first burlesque show, which was wilder than I could have imagined. Climbed to the top of a mountain and watched the sunrise. 

September -- Got to spend two more weeks with all my friends in Scotland, enjoying unusually beautiful weather. Had an unexpected heart-to-heart with a friend who’s notoriously emotionally unavailable. Spent hours on the phone with my sister discussing It at 4 am. When I had to go back home, the beautiful weather was continuing.

October -- had a #lit Halloween costume. Stranger Things 2 dropped!!! Got some wonderful and unexpected support (and a free chocolate bar) from a grocery store clerk. Skyped all the friends I hadn’t spoken to in a while. Wrote an essay about sexual harassment that got some awesome feedback online and not only reminded me why I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but made me feel like maybe I actually could be one. 

November -- my sister came home to visit, which was great. Skipped out of Thanksgiving with my relatives, whom I was just really not mentally or emotionally prepared to see, and instead saw Lady Bird for $5 at the local theater and then went to the beach to hunt for sea glass. Finally reentered therapy.

December -- got a new job working for a place, which, while not as awesome as the pool, I really do like (and it turns out I’m pretty good at selling shit, who knew). Binged and fell in love with some new shows. Went to see Star Wars with my family on Christmas Eve.  And on New Year’s Eve, in true cyclical fashion, the friend whom I spent last New Year’s with knocked on the door at work entirely unannounced to whisk me away to a house party in the city <3

Even though it’s the 2nd of January and you might not actually want to think about 2017 anymore lol, I’ll tag some more people to do this: @nancywlwheeler, @jeynehopper, @cryptidsoda, @kiwithegr8, @only-freakin-sunflowers,and anyone else who might want to do it!

Happy New Year, lads

[onlinecarreview]

Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro review - living the American dream

Seeking respite from clogged UK roads, we find solace in the freedom and isolation of California's El Mirage lake bed

Isolation is a difficult concept to truly experience in the UK. Some parts of Scotland manage it, but there’s always a wiggle of tarmac or the bobbing cable of a power line somewhere in your line of sight, evidence that humankind is never that far away.It’s something I’ve always loved about travelling in the US.

Go to the right spot, at the right time, and you might be the only human being on the planet. Stand on the parched, dusty surface of El Mirage, a dry lake bed north of Los Angeles that covers almost 76,000 acres, and as the sun dips behind the mountains to the west and the landscape adopts an eerie silence, it’s just you and your shadow, stretching dozens of metres towards the east behind you. A moment away from work, from emails, a moment alone with your thoughts.

The silence might be even more stark were it not for the shutter click of photographer Aston Parrott’s Nikon, as he captures the descending, glowing orb through the windows of the car we’re here to drive - a Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. I say car; what I mean is pickup truck, or simply ‘truck’ in local parlance.

Not a style of vehicle evo regularly gets its hands on, but we’re not entirely oblivious to the category either: we’ve run one or two in our long-term fleet, since they make brilliant workhorses for evo’s less glamourous errands.

It’s bigger, feels tougher, looks angrier

The ‘Taco’, as I quickly discovered, is a slightly different beast. What it shares with the pickups available on UK shores is utility, and rather rudimentary construction. There’s a ladder chassis, for instance, and the rear is suspended not by coils but by semi-elliptical leaf springs. Where it differs is almost everywhere else: It’s bigger, feels tougher, looks angrier, drinks petrol rather than diesel, and is - unnatural though it is to use the phrase in this context - more focused.

The focus comes courtesy of TRD, or Toyota Racing Developments. I’m most familiar with TRD through hotted-up Japanese sports cars, having steered numerous Celicas and MR2s around virtual circuits in the Gran Turismo series, but in the States it’s a name associated mostly with trophy trucks and NASCAR. The Tacoma features several TRD bits and TRD-selected improvements, from a naughty exhaust system to some trick Fox dampers and a quarter-inch aluminium skid plate under the front end.

Up front, mounted roughly chest-high if you share my 5ft 9in stature, you’ll find a 3.5-litre, naturally-aspirated V6 making 278bhp at 6000rpm and 265lb ft at 4600rpm. As the numbers suggest, and as I found out not long after leaving the confines of Los Angeles, it’s an engine completely out of step with modern expectations of performance.

The TRD Tacoma isn’t slow as such, but it needs working remarkably hard if you’re used to the relentless thump of something turbocharged. Shortly before heading to the US I’d driven the Mercedes-AMG GLC 43, whose twin-turbocharged V6 makes an extra 84 horses and 119 lb ft, and does so 500rpm and 2100rpm sooner respectively. It’s also around 150kg lighter than the 2007kg Toyota, which allows it to get to 62mph in 4.9 seconds. Toyota doesn’t quote figures for the TRD Taco, but we’d estimate it’s a good three seconds slower to 60.

It’s a difficult car to make a case for on the road too, at least if corners are your thing. The loping highway gait is actually quite pleasant and the high driving position feels purposeful, but detour into the twists and turns of the mountains around LA and you’ll go to sleep that evening with the sounds of tortured rubber in your head, and reeling from nightmares about canyon-seeking understeer. It turns out that off-road tyres aren’t conducive to on-road grip, and turning the feel-free steering in either direction feels like opening the valve on an airlock. With time its responses become predictable, but you have the most fun when you eventually stop.

But that’s not really what I came to America for, and certainly not why I paid my $15 daily fee to enjoy the El Mirage Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Area. Where trackdays are the last bastion of the thrill-seeking UK motorist, Americans get another option: spend a day hacking around in the wilderness, free to do largely as you please.

Within reason - the lake’s custodians take a dim view of firearms and fireworks, and you’re kindly asked not to tear up the lake surface by doing donuts - but beyond that your only real limit is your imagination. Want to zip about on quad bikes or dirt bikes? Go for it. Need somewhere to land your light aircraft? Be their guest.

Want to stage an impromptu race with your mates? That seems to be fine too (and El Mirage is more than suited to it - the Southern California Timing Association, which also runs Bonneville Speed Week, regularly hosts events at El Mirage). And if you simply want to turn up with your buddies and have a barbeque, you can do that too.

My own plan was pretty simple. I wanted to take a truck - the kind of vehicle that millions of Americans buy every year - and see how much fun I could have for my fifteen bucks.

Test number one: Speed. El Mirage is over six miles long from tip to tip, and around two miles wide. It’s also very flat and has a hard, sun-baked surface. And good visibility, so you can pretty much point your nose to the horizon and go. The Tacoma shifts clumsily down its six-speed automatic transmission, clears its lungs and emits a guttural bellow from the TRD exhaust as it heads for the red line.

Each shift is slurred like slushboxes of old, but the pace is definitely increasing. Top speed in the brochure is a limited 113mph; I lift off at a nice, round 100mph on the dial, followed by a mile of fine dust that’s almost certainly ruined the backdrop for the handful of people making what appears to be a low-budget music video.

Yumps next. The one thing we can’t find at El Mirage are proper rolling dunes, so we scout the small, sandy speedbumps that line the lakebed for potential air-worthy candidates. Photographers love jump shots whether you’re testing a Kia Picanto, a 918 Spyder or a two-ton truck.

My first attempt is little more than an uncomfortable thump, but the next is much more promising. Bit of a ramp on both sides, decent height. The TRD’s definitely getting air on this one, but Aston isn’t happy. ‘Faster, Ingram’, he says.

Faster, Ingram goes: I sink Converse to carpet and hit the ramp with a good 10mph more on the clock than last time. The front gets air, pointing the nose skywards, but then the back wheels hit the ramp and send the nose quite rapidly down. Sand replaces sky and I land with a sickening shudder. It’s enough to have set the wipers going by themselves, but a few exploratory wiggles of the steering suggests everything is still functioning.

I loop around to Aston, doubled with laughter as he shows me an image that will no doubt define my career

I loop around to Aston, doubled with laughter as he shows me an image that will no doubt define my career at evo: front wheels tucked into the arches, skid plate on the dirt, and back wheels a startling distance off the ground.

Remarkably, the only visible evidence of the landing is a scuffed skid plate. A BMW X5 would probably have set off all its airbags and auto-dialled for emergency assistance.

We try something a little closer to terra firma. One, solitary hillock standing proud of the surrounding bush looks inviting. Until we get close, that is. The damn thing looks a hell of a lot steeper than it did from half a mile away. Let’s be methodical: Clunk transmission into four-wheel drive, low range, engage the rock-crawling mode, foot off the brake... and up she goes, accompanied by the chunter and chatter of the ABS grabbing individual wheels to maintain traction.

I’m feeling quite proud of myself until it gets even steeper and I chicken out, but plans to fake the top-of-the-hill pictures and reverse back down are dashed when a couple of locals pile up the hill behind me at about eight times the speed I crawled up and park immediately behind. Bugger.

El Mirage is just one of dozens of off-road playgrounds in the area

Thankfully, they’re able to direct me to the top (‘Left a bit, you’ll clear that rock, give it some gas’), I thank them, and they say ‘no problem’, graciously pretending I’m not the most pathetic “four-wheeler” they’ve ever seen. One does take an interest in the truck - he currently drives a battleship-grey Toyota FJ Cruiser on huge tyres, and is looking to trade soon. He also tells me that El Mirage is just one of dozens of off-road playgrounds in the area, before roaring off down the hill again and shrinking to a spec in the distance.

By now the sun is sinking and I’m seeking a different, more traditionally evo kind of thrill. Lining sections of the lake are gravel roads and firm dirt trails, pockmarked by bushes and small dunes. To any self-respecting petrolhead, the rally stage builds itself.

There’s just one problem: while I’m back in rear-wheel drive, the traction control won’t fully disengage. Long, trophy truck-style skids are not there for the taking. But at low enough speeds the electronic nanny’s back is turned and I send thick clouds of ultra-fine dust into the sky as the ‘Yota slews sideways. It feels hilarious, perched so high and throwing armfuls of lock at every slide. Might be the most fun I’ve had all day. Maybe all year.

And the best thing? There’s nobody around to witness, nobody to disturb, and nobody to push passive-aggressive notes through your letterbox. Fifteen bucks doesn’t buy a lot these days. But it can buy you a few hours of blissful, automotive isolation.

[neiljohnsblog]

Get in the Driver's Seat: Why You Should Book a Rally Driving Experience Today

For motorsport enthusiasts and thrill-seekers alike, rally driving offers an unparalleled experience of speed, skill, and adrenaline. Scotland, with its rugged terrain and breathtaking landscapes, is a prime destination for rally-driving enthusiasts. Rally driving experiences in Scotland combine the natural beauty of the region with the excitement of one of the most demanding motorsports. If you’ve ever dreamed of navigating challenging courses, mastering sharp turns, and feeling the rush of gravel beneath your tyres, now is the time to make it a reality.

The Appeal of Rally Driving

Unlike traditional motorsports, rally driving takes you off the smooth surfaces of a race track and places you on unpredictable terrains. From muddy trails to rocky paths, rally driving tests your abilities to adapt, react, and maintain control under pressure. Each turn and obstacle brings a new challenge, making every second behind the wheel an adventure.

In Scotland, the variety of landscapes enhances the experience. From rolling hills and dense forests to wide-open moorlands, the terrain offers a mix of challenges that cater to drivers of all skill levels. Whether you’re a beginner eager to learn or an experienced driver looking to hone your skills, Scotland's rally driving experiences offer something for everyone.

Why Choose Rally Driving in Scotland?

1. Stunning Locations

Scotland’s natural beauty sets it apart as a rally-driving destination. Imagine racing through tracks surrounded by lush greenery, majestic mountains, and pristine lochs. The Scottish Highlands, for example, provide an iconic backdrop for rally courses, blending technical challenges with awe-inspiring scenery.

2. World-Class Training

Many rally driving experiences in Scotland include guidance from experienced instructors who ensure that participants get the most out of their sessions. These experts provide valuable tips and tricks to help you navigate challenging courses while staying safe and maximizing your enjoyment.

3. Authentic Rally Cars

One of the highlights of rally driving experiences is the opportunity to get behind the wheel of purpose-built rally cars. Equipped with specialized tyres, enhanced suspension, and powerful engines, these vehicles are designed to handle the toughest terrains. Feeling the power and precision of a rally car as you tackle hairpin turns and uneven surfaces is an experience like no other.

4. Catering to All Levels

Rally driving experiences in Scotland are tailored to suit a wide range of skill levels. Beginners can learn the basics of car control, braking techniques, and cornering strategies, while more experienced drivers can tackle advanced challenges and improve their skills on demanding courses.

What to Expect from a Rally Driving Experience

Safety Briefing and Training

Every rally driving experience begins with a comprehensive safety briefing. Instructors will guide you through the fundamentals of rally driving, including vehicle handling, gear shifting, and navigating different terrains. This ensures that even first-timers feel confident and secure before hitting the track.

The Thrill of the Drive

Once you’re in the driver’s seat, the real excitement begins. Depending on the package you choose, you might start with a few practice laps to familiarize yourself with the car and the track. Then, it’s time to put your skills to the test on a variety of surfaces, including gravel, mud, and asphalt.

Post-Drive Feedback

Many experiences include a debriefing session where instructors provide feedback on your performance. This is a great opportunity to learn from the pros and identify areas for improvement, making your next rally drive even better.

Benefits of a Rally Driving Experience

Boosts Confidence Handling a rally car on challenging terrains can significantly boost your driving confidence. The skills you learn, such as maintaining control in tricky situations, are transferable to everyday driving.

Adrenaline Rush Few activities match the adrenaline rush of rally driving. The combination of speed, precision, and the unpredictable nature of the terrain creates an electrifying experience that stays with you long after you leave the track.

Perfect for Celebrations Rally driving experiences in Scotland make for unforgettable gifts and celebrations. Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, or a corporate team-building event, this activity guarantees memories that will last a lifetime.

A Unique Adventure For those looking to try something out of the ordinary, rally driving offers a unique adventure that breaks away from the routine. It’s not just an activity—it’s a story to tell, a challenge to conquer, and an experience to cherish.

Tips for Booking Your Experience

Research Locations: Scotland offers a range of rally tracks. Look for one that matches your skill level and preferences.

Check the Weather: Scottish weather can be unpredictable. Dress appropriately for the conditions, and be prepared for a bit of mud—it’s all part of the fun!

Read Reviews: Look for feedback from other participants to find the best experiences. Positive reviews often highlight excellent instruction, well-maintained cars, and exciting tracks.

Book Early: Rally driving is a popular activity, especially in scenic locations like Scotland. Making a reservation ahead of time guarantees that you will obtain your desired date and time.

The Last Word

Rally driving experiences in Scotland offer more than just a thrill—they provide an opportunity to connect with nature, push your limits, and create unforgettable memories. Whether you’re a motorsport enthusiast or simply looking for a new adventure, rally driving is an experience you’ll never forget.

So, what are you waiting for? Get in the driver’s seat, embrace the challenge, and discover why Scotland is one of the best places in the world for rally driving.

[johnalexcooper]

Exploring the World of Rally Experiences: What to Expect and How to Prepare

Rallying is one of the most exhilarating motorsports, combining skill, precision, and adrenaline in a high-octane environment. For those who have dreamed of taking the wheel of a rally car and navigating rough terrains and winding tracks, Rally Experiences UK offers the perfect opportunity. Whether you're a seasoned motorsport enthusiast or someone looking for an unforgettable adventure, rally experiences provide an immersive way to test your driving skills in unique conditions.

In this blog, we'll explore what you can expect from a rally experience, how to prepare for your day on the track, and why these experiences are becoming increasingly popular across the UK.

What is a Rally Experience?

A rally experience allows participants to step into the driver’s seat of a rally car and navigate courses that replicate the conditions faced by professional rally drivers. These experiences typically occur at dedicated rally venues across the UK, featuring various terrains like gravel, mud, tarmac, and even snow. Participants will have the opportunity to drive on tracks designed to challenge their abilities, learning how to control the car through tight corners, hairpin turns, and fast straights.

Rally experiences can last from a few hours to an entire day, depending on the package you choose. Most rally experiences begin with a briefing session where participants are introduced to the basics of rally driving, including the handling characteristics of rally cars, essential safety measures, and key techniques such as drifting and handbrake turns.

After the briefing, it’s time to hit the track. Under the supervision of experienced rally instructors, you'll get behind the wheel and put your skills to the test. The feeling of controlling a car at high speed on rough terrain is unlike any other form of driving, making rally experiences in the UK a unique way to push the limits of your driving abilities.

Why Choose Rally Experiences in the UK?

The UK has a long-standing history of rallying motorsport, with many iconic stages and events taking place throughout the country. This legacy makes it one of the best destinations for rally enthusiasts, offering a wide variety of tracks and venues where you can experience the thrills of rally driving.

Here are some reasons why rally experiences in the UK stand out:

1. Diverse Terrain

The UK's varied landscapes provide ideal rally conditions. Whether it’s gravel tracks in Wales, forest stages in Scotland, or tarmac circuits in England, each venue offers a different challenge. Rally experiences give drivers the chance to tackle these diverse terrains, allowing them to experience the dynamic handling and responsiveness of rally cars in real-world conditions.

2. Top-Notch Instruction

Rally experiences in the UK are typically led by highly trained instructors with vast experience in rally driving. These professionals guide participants through each stage of the experience, offering tips and feedback to help you improve your driving technique. With their expert guidance, even beginners can quickly learn how to master a rally car and enjoy a safe, yet thrilling experience.

3. Accessible to All Skill Levels

Rally experiences are designed for a wide range of drivers, from complete novices to those with prior motorsport experience. No matter your skill level, there’s a rally package that suits your needs. Whether you're a first-time driver looking for an adrenaline rush or an experienced driver hoping to fine-tune your skills, rally experiences in the UK are customizable to your abilities.

What to Expect on the Day

When you arrive at your rally experience venue, you’ll be greeted by professional staff who will ensure your safety and enjoyment throughout the day. After registration, the experience usually kicks off with a safety briefing and an introduction to the rally car you’ll be driving.

The Rally Car

Rally cars used in these experiences are typically modified to handle rough terrains and provide maximum control. They are equipped with roll cages, racing seats, harnesses, and rally tyres, ensuring a safe environment for participants. You’ll get a rundown on the controls of the car, how to handle the gears, brakes, and throttle, and how to use techniques like the Scandinavian flick, which is used for controlling the car in tight corners.

On the Track

Once you’re behind the wheel, the real fun begins. You’ll start with a practice lap or two to get a feel for the car and the track. Then, with your instructor guiding you from the passenger seat, you'll tackle more complex sections of the course. You'll learn how to navigate sharp turns, handle high-speed straights, and control the car in challenging terrain.

Rally driving is a test of concentration and coordination, requiring you to adapt quickly to ever-changing conditions. As you gain confidence, you'll push the limits, getting a true sense of what it’s like to drive on a rally stage. For many, this is the most exciting part of the experience, as they feel the raw power of the rally car and the intense focus needed to master each section of the track.

Instructor Feedback

At the end of your driving session, your instructor will provide detailed feedback on your performance, highlighting areas for improvement and offering tips for future driving. This feedback is invaluable for anyone who wants to take their rally driving skills to the next level.

Preparing for Your Rally Experience

To get the most out of your rally experience in the UK, it’s essential to come prepared. Here are a few tips to ensure you’re ready for the day:

1. Clothing

Rally experiences typically take place in outdoor environments, so dressing appropriately is crucial. Wear comfortable, weather-appropriate clothing and sturdy shoes suitable for driving. Some venues may provide racing suits, but it’s always good to check ahead of time.

2. Safety Gear

Safety is paramount in rally experiences. Helmets and other necessary protective equipment will be provided by the venue. Make sure to listen carefully to the safety briefing and follow the instructor’s advice throughout the day.

3. Driving License

A valid driving license is usually required for participation in rally experiences in the UK. Be sure to bring this with you on the day.

4. Mental Preparation

Rally driving is a physically and mentally demanding activity. You’ll need to focus intensely on the track, your car, and the instructions from your guide. Coming into the experience with a positive and focused mindset will help you get the most out of the day.

Why Rally Experiences Are a Must-Try

Rally experiences in the UK offer more than just the thrill of driving fast on rugged terrain. They provide a chance to develop your driving skills, push your limits, and experience motorsport in a way few other activities can offer. For motorsport fans, rally experiences are a dream come true. For those seeking an adrenaline-pumping adventure, they provide an unforgettable opportunity to break away from the everyday routine.

Whether you’re preparing for your first rally experience or are already a seasoned driver looking to hone your skills, rally experiences in the UK offer something for everyone. From the heart-pounding thrill of speeding through gravel tracks to the satisfaction of mastering advanced driving techniques, rally experiences are truly a one-of-a-kind adventure.

Ready to take the wheel? Rally Experiences UK is waiting to welcome you to the exciting world of rally driving, offering memories that will last a lifetime.

[lodelss]

Kiley Bense | Longreads | November 2019 | 14 minutes (3,580 words)

  What I notice are the boots: two pairs in worn black leather, lined up beneath a bookcase, their heels pressed against the turquoise-painted baseboard. They look as if their owner had stowed them there in one careless motion, after yanking them off his feet. The toes of one pair turn slightly into each other, just kissing, and the others face off-kilter toward the corner of the room.

This room is a shrine made by freezing the contents of a life in time. It belonged to a French soldier, Hubert Rochereau, who was killed during World War I at the age of 22. His parents sealed off his bedroom intact, and when they sold the house the deed included a stipulation that the new owners leave the room untouched for 500 years.

The wallpaper in the room is a pale pink-and-white stripe, the bedspread a fading snowflake-patterned lace. The books have cloth covers and paper labels taped over their spines. There are framed photographs on the shelf, and on the desk sit an iron-wrought key and a tarnished pipe. A tattered soldier’s coat hangs beside the desk, all its brass buttons dulled with age, the blue fabric fraying.

I got stuck on those boots and on this room vibrating with the memory of a man gone more than a century, because here was a memorial for a soldier that didn’t erase him as an individual: a young man with a serious gaze and dark hair.

When we remember our war dead, we often do so en masse. We visit fields where rows of white headstones radiate outward in straight lines, touching the horizon. We pin red poppies to our lapels and stick yellow ribbons to our bumpers, hoping to express our collective grief. We hold a minute of silence, or two, marking thousands of vanished souls with an absence of sound. We leave a wreath at the base of a monument inscribed with so many names that it would be impossible to linger on any one of them, let alone understand and feel the pain that each of their deaths meant to those they left behind.

Last month, at a rally in Minnesota, as he talked about his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, Donald Trump invoked the deaths of service members and his own feelings about meeting their families as they waited to greet the coffins of their loved ones at Dover Air Force Base. He called visits there “a very tough experience.” “We meet them, and we talked to them, and their son or daughter is being flown in from some far away place in a coffin, and these things are just impossible. I don’t know how parents can do it, even […] I see parents make sounds, that were just 20 minutes ago absolutely fine, make sounds, scream and cry like you’ve never seen before,” he said. Trump noted how surprised he was by this display of emotion, how he hadn’t expected it because the mourners seemed “okay” before the caskets arrived. He didn’t mention any of the families or soldiers by name.

* * *

In March 1949, nearly six years to the day after he was killed in combat in Tunisia in World War II, my great-uncle Dick Halvey’s body was finally shipped back to the United States. His remains (“skeletonized,” the records say, and covered in a shroud) arrived in New York harbor with 66 other coffins, his name a typewritten pause between Grover, Willie B., and Hamilton, Billee L. From there the caskets were driven to Rosslyn, Virginia, in a mortuary car. Dick Halvey would be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in section 34, lot 2162, under the Latin Cross. A few inches of column in the Philadelphia Inquirer announced that Halvey’s rites would be conducted on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, at 2 p.m. The notice mentioned that Halvey had played on his high school varsity basketball team and had worked as a manager of the shipping department at Stadham & Co., in Philadelphia.

Unlike earlier obituaries, which had only mentioned the names of Dick’s father, Brendan, and brother, Robert, this one records my grandmother’s name, too. “A sister, Patricia,” it reads. It also contains an error, one many of his obituaries reproduced: “At the time of his death he was 24.” But Dick Halvey hadn’t yet turned 24 when he was killed in Tunisia; his birthday was still four months away. He was born the week a heat wave broke at the height of summer in 1919, a third blue-eyed Halvey baby, dressed in white pinafores and smiling with full cheeks.

Saved in the scrapbook my grandmother made to preserve Dick’s memory is a map of Arlington, a cartoonish rendering of the cemetery’s expanse. The route to Dick’s grave is traced in red pencil, a winding line that ends in one hasty X.

Like many mourners before and after him, Brendan Halvey found solace in the idea that his son had died for a reason. In 1943, he wrote in a letter that he believed that Dick had “accomplished his earthly mission” and called the war “this great cause.” He was “mighty proud” of his boys.

* * *

The Gettysburg Address ends with a promise: “—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.” I think that this is what scares us, the public on whose behalf American wars are fought, what moves us to build polished statues heavy with patriotic symbolism and idealistic poetry. We are terrified that all those shortened lives were brought to an end for no reason at all. We want to imagine that soldiers and sailors die in glorious charges—that they greeted death because they chose to. We picture the cavalry in a medieval tapestry: knights weighed down with bright armor, swords that glister in falling sunlight, screams and drums and flapping pennants. This impulse to romanticize has only become stronger in the wake of our 21st-century “forever” wars, where open-ended conflicts rage on for murky reasons. At least individual death can be unquestionably heroic, sacrifice without qualification. War is almost always gruesome and wasteful, ugly and unfair, but it was once slower and closer, a way of killing and dying that the world wars brought definitively and irrevocably to an end.

We are terrified that all those shortened lives were brought to an end for no reason at all.

In World War I, the rapid-fire massacre of human beings on the battlefield reached a pinnacle that history had never before seen. “What passing-bells for those who die as cattle?” Wilfred Owen wrote, in “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” one of the Great War’s most devastating poems. “No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells.” So many of those who perish in war die because they were unlucky, because they didn’t duck at the right moment, because they stopped to tie the lace on an undone boot at the wrong time, or because they happened to be standing on a patch of dirt destined to explode. There is little agency in these deaths, only the searing injustice of the arbitrary and the utterly pointless. And the more pointless the slaughter, the more we try to cover up its cause and paper over the waste with perfect salutes and platitudes about honor. In the morning reports from Dick Halvey’s unit, the clerk records that two men suffered nervous breakdowns after experiencing an aerial bombardment for the first time. They had to be evacuated from the front, each no longer able to function because of extreme terror. The clerk signs off this entry the same way he has ended every other eventless notation: “Morale of the men is very good.”

Then there is this poem, one whose lines I often find skittering through my mind, written by Timothy Corsellis, a young pilot who had trained with the British Royal Air Force. It is about the distance between the idealism of a young airman and the reality of serving. Corsellis begins “What I Never Saw” with the war he had envisioned as a civilian, a war of dramatic violence and worthy causes. The war he encountered was nothing like these grand visions:

What I never saw Were the weary hours of waiting while the sun rose and set, The everlasting eye turned upwards to the sky Watching the weather which said, ‘Thou shalt not fly.’ We sat together as we sat at peace Bound by no ideal of service But by a common interest in pornography and a desire to outdrink one another.

The poem ends in the thudding and sarcastic realization that nothing he had imagined could have prepared him for what he found in military life:

When I was a civilian I hoped high Dreamt my future cartwheels in the sky Almost forgot to arm myself Against the boredom and the inefficiency The petty injustice and the everlasting grudges The sacrifice is greater than I ever expected.

Corsellis was killed in an accident in October 1941 when his plane stalled and crashed in Scotland. He was 21.

Across the Atlantic, as the United States galloped into the war, most civilians were insulated from confronting the bodily price victory required. When “Three dead Americans lie on the beach at Buna”⁠—the first photograph showing dead American soldiers in World War II⁠—was published in LIFE Magazine in September 1943⁠, the public was shocked. Not, I suspect, because they were surprised that soldiers could die in this war (plenty already had, including Dick Halvey), but because of the way the image depicted the dead: three men strewn like driftwood on a beach in New Guinea, the figure in the foreground facedown in the sand, his legs sunken into the soil, only the sodden heels of his boots visible. There is nothing sacred about this manner of dying, no decorum or sense of ceremony.

An editorial accompanied the photograph and explained why the magazine had chosen to publish it. “What shall we say of them?” it begins. “Shall we say that this is a noble sight? Shall we say that this is a fine thing, that they should give their lives for their country? Or shall we say that this is too horrible to look at? Why print this picture, anyway, of three American boys dead upon an alien shore? Is it to hurt people? To be morbid? Those are not the reasons.” According to the editors, the justification for publication is for the American people to “come directly and without words into the presence of their own dead.” Words are not enough to convey the truth of what is happening, the editors argued: “This is the reality that lies behind the names that come to rest at last on monuments in the leafy squares of busy American towns.”

It took the magazine just under a year to convince government censors to allow the publication of the photograph. Ultimately, pictures like this one and news reels that showed the magnitude and the disgrace of the war, as well as its real and terrible effects on American bodies, helped to turn morale around on the home front. Many Americans hadn’t wanted to get involved in World War II; before Pearl Harbor, they’d wanted to let Europe and Asia burn alone. By the fall of 1943, the war seemed without end and a triumph for the Allies elusive and far-off. Seeing these images of American soldiers filled civilians with a fervor that fueled massive war effort at home, from the factory workers building bombs and the boy scouts selling war bonds to the neighbors tending victory gardens and the children collecting scrap metal.

* * *

The platform at the Arlington Cemetery Metro station is crowded. It’s 2013, deep into summer, and people are wearing t-shirts emblazoned with eagles’ heads and “Don’t Tread on Me,” flag-printed visors, and plastic flip-flops. They are holding maps and talking loudly. At the information desk within the cemetery’s grounds, a woman says that it’ll be eight dollars to take a tram to section 34, and would I like an audio guide? What I want is to know when Arlington became a tourist attraction and stopped being only a field of grief, though maybe it was always both.

I think about a three-star Yelp review I came across claiming Arlington was worth a visit only if you take the official tour; the writer wasn’t planning to come back a second time, in any case. I think about the emails that arrive in my inbox every May with cheerful subject lines like “Memorial Day sales to shop right now! The biggest and best deals!” I think about the teacher at my high school who taped a sign with an updated count of the death toll in Iraq to his classroom door, and about how no one ever seemed to stop to read it.

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Walking to section 34 doesn’t take long: just take Eisenhower Drive to Bradley and turn at Pershing. It’s July in Virginia but mercifully it doesn’t feel like it. Clouds linger, and the grass hums with the sound of thousands of mosquitos’ wings, batting against the weight of the air. When I get to the crest of the hill where the World War II service members lie, I pull out the scrap of paper on which I scribbled the number of the grave: 2162.

Arlington is supposed to be a sanctuary, and out here, where the wind is hushed and the tourists don’t often go, it does feel sacred. What’s not so hallowed are the infinite numbers and their respective stones.

Dick’s headstone is midway up the hill, under the shade of a tree in bloom. The tree’s roots have erupted around the stone next to his so that a whole corner of it is submerged under soil and knotted bark. How many years has it been since someone else stood here? How many since anyone came here for him? Why didn’t I remember to bring flowers? Should I snap a branch from the tree and lay it where his head might be?

What I want is to know when Arlington became a tourist attraction and stopped being only a field of grief, though maybe it was always both.

I consider my reasons for coming here and for repeating a pilgrimage my grandmother can no longer make. I wanted not only to retrace her steps, but to continue the task she had begun in assembling the scrapbook dedicated to her brother’s life, of preserving who he was as an individual.

Dick’s burial at Arlington buoyed my great-grandfather Brendan. He could have chosen for his son to be laid to rest beside his mother at a local Catholic cemetery in Philadelphia. But he insisted on Arlington because it was important for him that Dick’s death appear in context; while he hadn’t had control over the specific circumstances of his death, Dick Halvey had signed up because of his principles, not because he was forced to go. As a high school student, he had written of the importance of “principled men” willing to take action against the evil in the world.

Standing on this lonely hill, I am reminded of the conviction my great-grandfather and great-uncle shared, and I have to acknowledge that part of Arlington’s power⁠ — part of the power of the collective memorial⁠ — lies in its scale. I can’t help but wait there in stunned and broken awe. The endless white stones, anonymous from a distance, their owners’ names legible only if you kneel close, convey the enormous price of war better than any one of them could alone.

* * *

Like many American politicians of the past 30 years, Donald Trump has occasionally leaned on the phrase “boots on the ground” when talking about taking military action. In 2015, then-candidate Trump said that his plan to destroy ISIS involved seizing any oil that existed in the territory the group controlled. “Any place where they have oil, I would knock the hell out of ‘em, and I would put boots on the ground in those areas; I would take the oil,” he said. Here, calling into MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Trump conflates himself with the troops he’d potentially be commanding, and never seems to think about what sending “boots” abroad might mean in reality.

I think the phrase has persisted and will continue to persist because boots resonate as a symbol and as a substitute. It’s a metaphor that works to erase human distinction in the service of a politician’s threat, but packs just as much power as a stand-in for the dead and the missing, those whose unused boots remain on the battlefield or on the floor of a young man’s empty bedroom. This is also why one of the most common makeshift war memorials is the battlefield cross, a pair of boots with a rifle struck between them, helmet balanced atop the gun. At the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., visitors have been leaving combat boots at the foot of the wall for decades in an attempt to personalize its faceless surface. Most pairs are tied with handwritten tags bearing the names of their owners.

In 1971, the 16th year of the American war in Vietnam, artist Eleanor Antin’s “100 Boots” project brought empty boots to life. The boots she chose are black, matte rubber; they’d reach a soldier’s knee if one ever wore them, though in “100 Boots” none ever does. Antin’s project captures the boots in a series of black-and-white photographs as they gather and convene, commune around a bonfire, board a ferry, and march across open terrain. The boots go on reconnaissance; they bivouac; they climb and take a scrubby hill. Leaving ownerless footprints wherever they go, these boots act as an antidote to the metonym they can’t help but conjure. The negative space that hovers above them is a potent reminder of what we really mean when we say “boots on the ground,” the one word the euphemism obscures: bodies.

* * *

In Tunisia, I fixate on the sheep, huddled everywhere along the road. It’s been five years since I followed the route my grandmother took to Dick Halvey’s grave in Arlington, and now I’m walking on ground where he ate and slept and fought and bled, taking one step farther on a journey that she couldn’t make. The sheep are for sale for Eid Al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, now a few days away. They wait in pens and under palm trees, shaggy woolen coats crusted with bits of straw and dirt; I see them crammed into truck beds, their dark eyes wild and dancing.

Sheep watch me on my way to the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Carthage. Established in 1948, today it’s the resting place of 2,841 soldiers who died in the region. The military buried the last American service members in foreign soil during the Korean War in the 1950s, and while some have gone missing since, no more Americans are intentionally left abroad. Those whose bodies weren’t returned to the States remain in government-run cemeteries in Panama and Belgium, France and the Philippines, Luxembourg and Mexico, Italy and Tunisia, the places where an empire stamped its boots and pitched its tents, leaving behind rubbled towns, English slang, chocolate bar wrappers, and spilled blood.

We pull up to a shut gate. A guard leans down from the booth to tell us that the cemetery is closed because a storm tore up the grounds the night before. “She’s American,” my interpreter says, gesturing at me in the backseat, passport clutched hopefully in my hands.

There aren’t many alive who remember the names on these graves, and fewer still who once spoke those names in greeting or in grief.

When I get inside, the supervisor greets me by asking if I know someone buried in the graveyard. “No,” I say. “But my great-uncle fought in the North Africa campaign. My grandmother’s brother.” He nods and hands me a binder of newspaper clippings about some of those who are buried here: The pilot and crew who went missing in the desert after their plane crashed, and who then wandered for days until they died of thirst, delirious and broken. The Medal of Honor recipient who charged when others fled. Few of the cemetery’s visitors these days are related to anyone buried here; too much time has passed. There aren’t many alive who remember the names on these graves, and fewer still who once spoke those names in greeting or in grief.

The cemetery’s design echoes Arlington’s: sharp white headstones cut into crosses or stars, columns stretching to the edges of the site. The inscription on one catches the sunlight; the letters are painted gold⁠ — this is the grave of the man who earned the Medal of Honor for his service. Today there are leaves and branches on the grass and in the flower beds, the result of last night’s winds. As I stand looking at the stones, the chapel’s bells play a tinny rendition of “God Bless America,” and the music plinks over a lawn mower’s growling in the distance.

On the chapel’s walls, a series of mosaics depicts the North Africa campaign in World War II. Swirls of tiny squares of deep-blue tile make up the sea; smooth beige slabs stand in for mountains and sand. Yellow and turquoise planes hover over the tiled water, looking like a frantic flock of gaudy birds. Curving arrows surge and streak across the maps, each one a marker for the movement of troops over land, for the collision of armies, bodies, and bullets. I focus on the part of the map that shows the region of Tunisia where Dick Halvey spent his last days. Near the place where he died, I press my fingers to the cold tile, and I remember.

* * *

Kiley Bense is a writer and journalist who has written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, Literary Hub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She was a 2018 winner of the Poets & Writers Amy Award for poetry.

* * *

Editor: Ben Huberman

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Drones, Take Two & Stargate

Welcome, hello, G’Day, hi, we are glad to announce the latest episode from Nerds Amalgamated is here. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed recording it for you. Also as Supanova Brisbane has now happened we have to say thank you to all those who stopped by the booth, it was fantastic to meet you all. We hope everyone enjoyed the week end and have lots of photos to remember how cool it was. It was awesome seeing so many amazing cosplayers and catching up with our friends from Comics2Movies, the Sons of Obiwan, Jamie Johnson, Super Tee, Cyanide Pop Press among so many others.

First up this week we have facial recognition drones being utilised by Police Scotland to help find people who get lost. That’s right folks, AI drones using facial recognition to find individuals. Now, we know what you are thinking, hang on, this is a problem, next we know it will be used for… You will need to listen in to find out more. But we are sure you will enjoy it and have a laugh.

Second, we have news that is promising for game developers and gamers all over the world. Yep, that is a bold claim, but we are sure you will agree when you hear it. Those legends at Take Two have discussed the future of gaming and the expectations of a drop in the costs of game development. What is suggested is great and worth looking forward to. We have some fun on this topic and really get into it.

Our third topic for the week is about Stargate Command. No, the Goa'uld aren’t attacking, and the Wraith haven’t found the way through the Stargate to our universe. No, it is sad news, but possibly good news also. That’s right, a little bit of good news to look forward to that off sets the bad news. Now for the fans of Stargate this news is pretty big, and for those who need to evolve their appreciation then you better hurry up. The Professor and Buck are now contemplating a marathon viewing based on this news. Want to know what this news is you know what to do.

As normal we have the shout outs, birthdays, remembrances, and special events. As always, thank you for listening, take care of yourselve’s, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

Facial Recognition Drones - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-50262650

Take Two’s hot take on Next gen - https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-09-19-next-gen-wont-see-dev-costs-spike-take-two

MGM shutting down Stargate Command - https://boundingintocomics.com/2019/11/01/mgm-shuts-down-stargate-command/

Games currently playing

Buck

– Call OF Duty WW2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/476600/Call_of_Duty_WWII/

Prof

– Call Of Duty WW2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/476600/Call_of_Duty_WWII/

DJ

- Did Not Play

Other topics discussed

Drone Interrupts soccer match

- https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/15/albania-charged-uefa-serbia

Chinese police anti drone guns

- https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2079045/chinese-police-force-equipped-anti-drone-guns

Hong Kong bans make up

- https://boingboing.net/2019/10/05/facially-absurd.html

Hong Kong ban masks

- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/hong-kong-protesters-rally-ban-wearing-masks-191004144726630.html

Dutch police use eagles to hunt drones

- https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/12/16767000/police-netherlands-eagles-rogue-drones

‘Missing’ Icelandic tourist

- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/missing-icelandic-tourist-goes-in-search-of-herself-8096831.html

An Aspie Life (PC Game)

- https://store.steampowered.com/app/786410/An_Aspie_Life/

Joseph Mallozzi’s blog post on the future of Stargate Command site

- https://josephmallozzi.com/2019/10/31/october-31-2019-stargate-command-and-the-future-of-stargate/

New Melbourne Brown Coats (Firefly & Serenity fan club in Melbourne Victoria)

- https://www.facebook.com/newmelbournebrowncoats/

Drostand Hynd (Call of Duty : WWII Character voiced by David Tennent)

- https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/Drostan_Hynd

The Monuments Men (2014 war film directed by George Clooney, and written and produced by Clooney and Grant Heslov.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monuments_Men

Canadarm (also known as Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS))

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadarm

Chicken Run 2

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Run_2

Hulk (2003 American superhero film directed by Ang Lee based on the fictionalMarvel Comicscharacter of the same name.)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_(film)

Lou Ferrigno (American actor, fitness trainer, fitness consultant and retired professional bodybuilder)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Ferrigno

The Incredible Hulk (2008 American superhero film directed by Louis Leterrier based on the Marvel Comics character the Hulk, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Universal Pictures)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Hulk_(film)

Shoutouts

4 Nov 1922 – In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Thus, began a monumental excavation process in which Carter carefully explored the four-room tomb over several years, uncovering an incredible collection of several thousand objects. The most splendid architectural find was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins nested within each other. Inside the final coffin, which was made from solid gold, was the mummy of the boy-king Tutankhamen, preserved for more than 3,000 years. Most of these treasures are now housed in the Cairo Museum. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/entrance-to-king-tuts-tomb-discovered

4 Nov 1942 – Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel begins a retreat of his forces after a costly defeat during the Second Battle of El Alamein. The retreat would ultimately last five months. The Allied victory in the Second Battle of El Alamein was a huge morale boost after a long period of attrition in North Africa, and it made a national hero out of General Montgomery. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/4/newsid_3564000/3564385.stm

4 Nov 1973 – The Netherlands experiences the first Car-Free Sunday caused by the 1973 oil crisis. Highways are used only by cyclists and roller skaters. - http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/november4th.html

Remembrances

4 Nov 1992 - George Klein, Hamilton, Ontario-born Canadian inventor who is often called the most productive inventor in Canada in the 20th century. His inventions include key contributions to the first electric wheelchairs for quadriplegics, the first microsurgical staple gun, the ZEEP nuclear reactor which was the precursor to the CANDU reactor, the international system for classifying ground-cover snow, aircraft skis, the Weasel all-terrain vehicle, the STEM antenna for the space program, and the Canadarm. He died at the age of 88 in Ottawa,Ontario - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Klein_(inventor)

4 Nov 2008 – Michael Crichton, American author, screenwriter, and film director and producer best known for his work in the science fiction, thriller, and medical fiction genres. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works are usually within the action genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomize the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. Many of his novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and scientific background. He wrote, among other works Congo,Sphere,Jurassic Park, Rising Sun & The Lost World. Films he wrote and directed included Westworld,Coma, The Great Train Robbery, Looker, and Runaway. He died from lymphoma at the age of 66 in Los Angeles, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton

4 Nov 2014 – S. Donald Stookey, American inventor. He had 60 patents in his name related to glass and ceramics, some patents solely his and others shared as joint patents with other inventors. His discoveries and inventions have contributed to the development of ceramics, eyeglasses, sunglasses, cookware, defense systems, and electronics. He was a research director at Corning Glass Works for 47 years doing R & D in glass and ceramic development. His inventions include Fotoform, CorningWare, Cercor, Pyroceram and Photochromic Ophthalmic glass eyewear. He died at the age of 99 in Rochester, New York - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Donald_Stookey

Famous Birthdays

4 Nov 1925 - Doris Roberts, American actress, author, and philanthropist whose career spanned six decades of television and film. She received five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild award during her acting career, which began in 1951. She had several prominent roles in movies, including playing opposite Shirley Stoler in The Honeymoon Killers, Billy Crystal in Rabbit Test and Robert Carradine in Number One with a Bullet among many others. She achieved continuing success in television, becoming known for her role as Raymond Barone's mother, Marie Barone, on the long-running CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. She was born in St. Louis,Missouri - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Roberts

4 Nov 1933 - Sir Charles Kuen Kao, physicist and electrical engineer who pioneered the development and use of fibre optics in telecommunications. In the 1960s, Kao created various methods to combine glass fibres with lasers in order to transmit digital data, which laid the groundwork for the evolution of the Internet. Known as the "Godfather of Broadband", the "Father of Fiber Optics", and the "Father of Fiber Optic Communications", Kao was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication". He was born in Shanghai - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_K._Kao

4 Nov 1953 - Peter Lord, English animator, film producer, director and co-founder of the Academy Award-winningAardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace and Gromit. He also directed The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! which was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 85th Academy Awards. Lord is the executive producer of every Aardman work, including Chicken Run, Arthur Christmas and Flushed Away. He was born in Bristol - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Lord

Events of Interest

4 Nov 1847 – Sir James Young Simpson, a Scottish physician, discovers the anaesthetic properties of chloroform. On inhaling the chemical, they found that a general mood of cheer and humour had set in. But suddenly all of them collapsed only to regain consciousness the next morning. Simpson knew, as soon as he woke up, that he had found something that could be used as an anaesthetic. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Young_Simpson

4 Nov 1960 - Mary Leakey and Louis Leakey discover first Homo habilis jaw fragments (OH 7) also nicknamed "Johnny's Child" at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The remains are dated to approximately 1.75 million years, and consist of fragmented parts of a lower mandible, an isolated maxillary molar, two parietal bones, and twenty-one finger, hand, and wrist bones. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OH_7

4 Nov 1977 - The Incredible Hulk, an American television series based on the Marvel Comics character The Hulk premiered on CBS. It starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Bruce Banner, Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, and Jack Colvin as Jack McGee. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Hulk_(1978_TV_series)

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Follow us on

Facebook

- Page - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

- Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/440485136816406/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094

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Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nerds_amalgamated/

General Enquiries

Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.com

[itsworn]

Ask Anything, Car Craft Readers Questions Get Answered

Pat from carcraft.com: Hey Guys I’m a long time subscriber to CC and have a question; How does an Audi R8 engine at 318 cubic inches with no turbo and no supercharger put out 610 horse power? At over 8000 rpm!

Steve Magnante: I’m with you on marveling at how the Audi R8’s naturally aspirated, 318 cube V10 cranks out so much power. And lets’ not forget the recent (2013-2015) Porsche 918 e-Hybrid Spyder. It’s direct-injection, gasoline fueled 4.6 liter V8 makes 608 horsepower without the aid of turbo or superchargers. But Porsche didn’t leave it at that. As Porsche’s first e-hybrid supercar, its 608 horse V8 is supplemented by a pair of electric motors that deliver an extra 125 horsepower to the front wheels and 154 horsepower to the rear wheels for a grand total of 887.

As groovy as that is, I know I’ll never own one and get a giggle out of the fact a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon would likely put a bumper on the German vengeance weapon in the quarter mile. Magazine tests say the 918 cranks 0-60 in 2.6 and the ¼ in 10-flat at 145. By contrast, the NHRA itself has verified that the Demon runs 0-60 in 2.3 and can rip 9.8’s at 140…nee-ner, nee-ner.

Back to naturally aspirated highlights, here in the States, lets’ not forget the amazing and affordable performance offered by the 2006-2013 General Motors LS7. Ranking high in many “world’s best engines” polls, this naturally aspirated wonder mill cranks 505 hp and 470-lb/ft with traditional push rod architecture (as does the Demon’s Hemi). Best of all, GM took the bull by the horns and blessed it with titanium intake valves and connecting rods – pure exotica by traditional Car Crafter standards. The LS7’s key accomplishment is how it reminded the world that the elegant simplicity of push rods and cam-in-block architecture is still fully viable at the top level of performance.

There are many other examples of new age naturally aspirated gas V8’s and V10’s that set new standards of power and efficiency. Today, extreme horsepower levels are available from every carmaker…even Hyundai. If nothing else, American carmakers were way ahead of the curve in recognizing the fact that fast cars sell better than slow cars – as far back as 1932 when Henry Ford launched the everyman’s V8, the flat head.

The kicker is how technology has allowed these fast cars to be more fuel efficient and emissions friendly than ever before. We can now have our cake and…you know the rest. I’m no Audi expert, the first two Audi memories that pop to my mind are a 1971 Audi 100 LS four-door sedan owned by the parents of a would-be high school crush. Built long before Audi discovered all-wheel-drive, Shannon’s Dad bought the front-wheel-drive car used and learned the hard way about how costly Audi repair and maintenance could be. Over and over, the welded flange mating the head pipe to the exhaust manifold fractured.

The resulting unchecked exhaust flow not only ruined the Audi’s luxurious pretensions, it also turned the cabin into a gas chamber on cold nights. I tried to win points by telling sweet Shannon’s parents that an aftermarket header would solve the recurring head pipe failure. But they sold the car after the third head pipe broke and rendered it an ear-splitting nuisance. There would be no header…and no date with Shannon.

My other Audi memory stems from the Group B Sport Quattro of the mid-1980’s. In 1985 I spent a semester at the University of Stirling in Scotland and filled my head with British car magazines that raved about its 306 horsepower inline five and all-wheel-drive. Another eye opener was how Audi factory driver Walter Rohrl dominated the rally scene with those amazing altered-wheelbase monsters. Altered wheelbase? Yep. But unlike Chrysler’s axle shuffling A/FX tricks of 1965 for enhanced drag strip traction, Audi’s hack job (a full 12.6 inches of floor pan and body were removed from behind the front bucket seats) was done to make the cars tighter around corners on the European rally circuit.

Only 224 of these stubby critters were built in 1983-’84 and at 86.8 inches, their wheelbase is shorter than a Shelby Cobra! With a single turbocharger, the Sport Quattro’s SOHC five-banger cranked out 306 horsepower, but was ready for 600 with basic tuning. Since this isn’t Audi Craft magazine, lets’ get back to the cutting edge engine design that allows the modern R8 to make 610 horsepower naturally aspirated.

Zeroing in on the 318 cube Audi R8 mill you reference, its’ a far, far cry from Mopar’s polyspherical A-series (1957-1966) and small block LA series (1967-up) V8 engines familiar to most Car Craft readers. The amazing feat is how it survives 8,000 rpm despite its long V10 architecture. But at the root of things are tried and true hot rodding practices to maximize air flow, minimize friction and make it all live for a hundred thousand miles – or more.

Truth be told, more and more bread and butter engines are reaching efficiency levels once reserved for all out race machinery. Computer aided design, net-shape casting technology, anti-friction coatings, direct injection, exotic alloys and low viscosity lubricants are just a few of the many advances behind this amazing new breed of power plant. Get ‘em while they’re hotter than hot!

If it has a back seat and non-flared wheel arches, it ain’t a Sport Quattro. The “Sport” part of the name denoted Group B rock star status. Today these stubby critters command hundreds of thousands on the collector scene.

Choke Hold

Dan Coates via Car Craft.com: This may sound naive, but exactly why is a carburetor choke necessary? I know the choke causes a richer mixture to enter the combustion chambers, but why? My stock 351 Cleveland 1973 Mustang runs fine after heating up after the butterfly valve opens up. Why can’t it run fine with the same leaner mixture on a cold engine? Why does temperature difference make the choke necessary?

Steve Magnante: Your question is not as naïve as you think. All of us know that, to start a cold engine, you need to use some type of mixture enrichment device. In the day of the carburetor, most cars used a device called a choke. As you’ve pointed out, a choke is a butterfly-type device which limits the amount of incoming air, effectively increasing the fuel strength of the incoming mixture. Other types of carburetors, like side draft Weber and S.U. carburetors, didn’t use choke butterflies, but instead provide a mixture-enhancement circuit which accomplished the same end by adding more fuel to the normal amount of air.

With the advent of modern electronic fuel injection, the cold enrichment function is typically handled by an auxiliary fuel injector (like on the GM 305 and 350 Tuned Port mills) or via computer programming to add extra injector duty cycle when the engine is cold.

Now to the main question: Why does this have to be done? To burn correctly, a certain weight of gasoline must mix with a certain weight of air. The stoichiometric (chemically correct) ratio of air to fuel is 14.6:1 under most conditions. Ratios with less air and more fuel are referred to as richer mixtures; conversely, ratios with more air and less fuel are referred to as leaner. In order for your engine to actually burn the fuel, it must be in the form of a vapor mixed with the incoming air.

On a chilly morning, when the fuel, air, and engine are all cold, the fuel does not vaporize readily. In order to get a mixture which has a fuel vapor-to-air ratio which is stoichiometrically correct, it may be necessary to add as much as double the raw fuel to reach the normal effective mixture strength.

I once owned a Max Wedge Dodge (clone) that had a hand-operated choke-pull cable under the dash. The single choke cable branched out to each of the 750 cfm Carter AFB’s and on the coldest mornings, with the choke flaps fully closed, the idle exhaust plume was stinky rich. Not a good recipe for preserving oil viscosity and preventing gas-washed bores and rings. But after a few days, I learned how to use just the bare minimum of choke closure and gentle accelerator movement. Within five miles, I could open the choke entirely. The 1969-’70 Boss 429 Mustang was another manual-choke muscle car.

After a certain period of time, the heat generated by combustion spreads to the intake manifold and fuel system, reducing the need for supplementary fuel enrichment by improving the fuel’s ability to vaporize. When the engine is up to full operating temperature, there is no longer any need for supplementary fuel enrichment, and the systems are turned off – either manually or via a heat-sensitive bi-metallic spring assembly – like on your Mustang’s Autolite carburetor.

In fact, once an engine is up to full operating temperature and running under low speed or cruising type conditions, its mixture may be made even leaner than normal. On virtually all of today’s EFI equipped cars, sophisticated temperature and load-sensing devices constantly ensure that the engine is running as lean as possible for the given set of operating circumstances. When operating properly, this provides low exhaust emissions and optimum fuel economy. And so, that’s the story on cold start fuel enrichment.

Heartbroken

Steve Magnante: Car Crafters love rock and roll music just as much as we love our cars and fun trucks. Except for the short list of top-tier freak mobiles I’ve built and owned (denoted by the presence of a carefully selected factory radio delete plate and no sound system beyond the exhaust headers), my cars – and workshop – witness plenty of loud music, much of it performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

So please indulge me for a moment to remember Tom Petty, who passed away in October, 2017. Beyond many hours of listening to his down to earth vocals and blazing guitar work, Petty played part in that rite of passage we all experience if we’re lucky: our first rock concert. For me, it was the summer of 1982 and the Heartbreakers’ latest album “Hard Promises” was churning out hit after hit. And so, aboard a buddy’s first-year 1978 Saab 99 Turbo, we drove to the show at the Cape Cod Coliseum in Massachusetts. That’s where we learned the value of the 1978 Turbo’s one-year-only alloy rims and how the rectangular cooling slots work great as bottle cap removers.

The opening act was one-hit-wonder Tommy Tutone, who played “867-5309 Angel” twice before Petty took the stage. Funny thing, my home town of West Brookfield (MA) actually used the telephone exchange number “867”, and still does today. This song was all too real for some poor sucker as pranksters by the thousands called asking for Jenny.

With Tommy Tutone’s opening set out of the way, Petty took the stage but seemed to be in a lousy mood. He said the crowd was pushing in too close to the edge of the stage and yelled at them to back off. Then again just a year before, in December of 1981 a stampeding crowd at a Who concert in Chicago led to tragedy. Crowd safety was a big concern at concerts thereafter. But after Petty walked off stage for the third time, the band stayed on stage and kept playing. It was clear The Star was having a moment and the Heartbreakers weren’t in the mood to go along with it.

The rest of the show was a blur, after all its’ been 35 years. While some concertgoers might have been upset by Petty’s temper (I think they only completed 9 or 10 songs), I thought it was cool and treasure the fact my first concert was a Heartbreakers show. Okay, now for an embarrassing – and automotive – confession I need to make.

One of Petty’s more famous songs is “American Girl”. When I first heard it on the radio around 1977, the lyric that reads “She could hear the cars roll by��Out on 441…Like waves crashin’ on the beach”, my teenaged ears heard: “That ‘ol 440 was like waves crashing on the beach”. Yep, I thought for sure Petty was making a Mopar 440 Magnum reference right there on American radio. To me, it was an awesome pushback against the disco wave that was in full effect. – and in the middle of the disco era no less. I have to admit, I’ve held onto that wished-for 440 reference until…now. In researching Petty’s discography to help nail down exact dates for this report, I researched the actual lyrics and there’s nothing Mopar about them. Still a great song though! Rest in Peace Tom Petty!

To Barrel or Not To Be…

Don Nelson via Car Craft.com: I recently inherited a 1960 Lincoln Continental and don’t know what to do with it. Though it sat in my grandpa’s garage for over 20 years, it hasn’t moved or been started in decades. My question is this: when I removed the air cleaner to see about getting the engine fired up I was blown away to see a two-barrel carburetor. Books tell me the V8 is a 430 but I just can’t believe that two-barrel is factory stock. Is it?

Steve Magnante: Your eyes do not deceive you, if it hasn’t been replaced over the years, there ought to be a Carter ABD two-barrel carburetor atop that cast iron intake manifold. Rated at 315 horsepower, the 1960 Lincoln 430 marked a switch from the Carter AFB four-barrel carburetor Lincoln used in 1959. That engine – also a 430 – was rated 350 horsepower. Moving back a year, 1958 marked the debut of the Lincoln 430 V8 engine under discussion and – go figure – for this one year it was equipped with a single Holley 4150 series four-barrel carburetor. Output was 375 horsepower and it was Lincoln’s highest (gross, not net…big difference!) rating up to that point. But it’s true, as Lincoln closed out the “fabulous fifties”, power dropped from 375 to 350 to 315 from 1958 to 1960.

About your 430 V8, as I’ve pointed out in this column before, it was all new for 1958 with 4.29 x 3.70 inch bore and stroke dimensions and served Lincoln through 1965. In ’66 bore and stroke grew to 4.38 x 3.83 inches, bringing displacement to 462 where it was used into the 1968 model run. As a “Heron” type engine, the 430 / 462 V8 has no combustion chamber voids cast into its cylinder heads (like the Chevy 348 / 409 and International Harvester 266 / 392 V8). Rather, the top ends of the cylinder bores are shaped to create a wedge-shaped area at piston TDC that forms the combustion chamber.

Getting back to the seemingly odd choice of a two-barrel carburetor atop such a huge V8 engine, in 1958-’59 power seekers were offered no fewer than three two-barrel carbs when the “J-code”, 3×2 400 horsepower option was chosen. Here, Lincoln replaced the single Carter 2-bbl with a trio of Holley 2300 series two-barrel carburetors, of the same family used later on 1967-’69 427 Tri-Power Corvettes and 1969 – ’72 Mopar 440 Six Pack muscle cars (yes, a handful of 440 Six Packs were built in 1972). This six-barrel 430 was also offered in the 1958 – ‘59 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser.

Helping to explain Lincoln’s horsepower freefall, the 1960 models arrived at a sobering time. The U.S. economy had been soft since 1958, sales of miserly compact cars like the Rambler American and Studebaker Lark were setting records and the new breed of Detroit compacts (Corvair, Valiant, Falcon) loomed. The first marketplace backlash against “gas guzzlers” was in play. Amid the turmoil, Lincoln stylists had taken wacky space race body designs to the extreme – and John Q. Public wasn’t biting.

To appeal to the public “thirst” for improved fuel economy, Lincoln engineering teams concentrated on low end torque and installed these two-barrel carburetors on all 430 engines right through 1962 when increasing curb weights triggered the return of a modest four-barrel carburetor. Interestingly, throughout all of this, every Lincoln built through the mid-seventies retained a full length dual exhaust system, a detail otherwise rarely coupled with a two-barrel carburetor.

Over at Lincoln’s nemesis – Cadillac – the new decade marked a similar refocus on understated luxury. Tail fins were shrinking and once-legendary hardware like the triple-two-barrel Eldorado engine option was cancelled after 1960. From then on, the same 325 horsepower 390 V8, inhaling through a single four-barrel carburetor went under all hoods through 1963 regardless of model. And speaking of singular, after 1961 dual exhaust, a key Caddy symbol of power, was eliminated. I’ve mentioned it here before but if you find any 1961-up, pre-EFI Cadillac with a dual exhaust system, it was definitely not put there by the factory. Yup, even the 1970 Eldorado with it’s one-year 10:1 compression 500-cuber was a single exhaust affair. How it delivered an advertised 400 horsepower is anyone’s guess (it didn’t but there was torque aplenty so nobody complained).

At Chrysler, the 1959 – 1960 timeframe delivered another big block / two-barrel oddity. After a solid eight year run, in 1959 the Chrysler Fire Power Hemi engine program came to an end and the wedge era began. Simply put, the complexity of its double rocker shaft architecture and heft of its hemispherical combustion chambers proved to be expensive overkill. The more conventional LB-series wedge-type V8 arrived in 1958 at 350 and 361 cubic inches. For 1959 Chrysler increased the wedge’s stroke from 3.375 to 3.750 and the RB (raised LB) was born. From the start, the LB series was offered with a single two-barrel carburetor on economy models but also with single four-barrel, dual four-barrel and even ram-inducted dual four-barrel induction (1960-’61) for police, towing and factory high performance models like the Plymouth Fury, Dodge D500 and DeSoto Adventurer.

Thanks to the extra stroke, the 1959 RB grew to 413 cubic inches and then to 426 (1963) and 440 (1966) and saw duty in everything from Imperial limousines to Max Wedge super stockers. But for 1959 and 1960, certain Chrysler Corp. models were fitted with an odd 383 cube version of the RB block. With its 4.03 x 3.75-inch bore and stroke, the tall deck 383 was a smaller bore (by 0.220 inch), longer stroke (by 0.375 inches) alternate to the conventional low deck 383 which employed 4.250 x 3.375 inch interior dimensions.

When we remember that the LB and RB intake manifolds are not interchangeable due to the RB’s taller block and greater distance between heads, then it pays to be on the lookout for 1959 and ’60 Chrysler Windsors with the base 383 V8. Find one and you’ve got the only instance where Chrysler put a single two-barrel carburetor on an RB wedge engine. Don’t bother with 1959 – ’60 Chrysler Saratoga’s because their tall deck 383’s share the same cast iron single four-barrel intake manifold as any RB 413. But if its weird you seek, then the RB two-barrel intake manifold is your goal.

Other head scratching big block / two-barrel matchups include Chevrolet’s penchant for topping certain 396 “rat motors” with Rochester two barrel jugs. Never installed in SS or similar performance-oriented machinery, these mills were once fairly common in station wagons and family sedans. Most were yanked, hopped up and live on today in hot rods of every description. But the single two-barrel anti-sheen never rubbed off onto the 427 or 454, a good thing that helps these legendary power plants remain untarnished by hum-drum reality. On the other side of the coin, the GM W-series (348 / 409) stands as one of the very few Detroit V8 families that was never offered with a single two-barrel carburetor. Triple two-barrels, yes (348 only), but never just a single two-barrel. Cheers all around!

Ford committed another big block carburetor crime with the 1969-‘70 429 Thunder-Jet. Based on the canted-valve 385 / Lima engine series, this (supposed) 320 hp 429 was the polar opposite of the same-year Boss 429. The Thunder-Jet and its’ small Motorcraft two-barrel carburetor were strictly installed in full size Fords and carry engine code K in the VIN’s fifth spot. Happily, iconic Ford bent-eights of the 406, 427, 428 and 460 varieties never inhaled through anything less than four-barrels (often eight on the 427).

Going back to GM, when the 455 cubic inch-a-thon hit in 1970, Oldsmobile was the only division to embrace two-barrel induction. Though fairly popular on station wagons and family cars, the Cutlass Supreme SX was very unique in that – like the 4-4-2, 7.5 liters of torque were standard. But…fuel misers could opt for the L32 455 two-barrel carburetor if they pleased. Pushing back into the mid-sixties, the new-for-1965 Olds 425 was offered with single two-barrel induction in full size Jetstar, Delta and Dynamic 88 models. While the hopped up 400’s packed into same year 4-4-2’s cranked 345 / 350 horsepower, the emasculated 425 two-barrel was good for 300 (310 with automatic). But no doubt the torque offset the slide.

By contrast, Pontiac never offered its big 421 or 455 with a two-throat jug, though from 1967 through 1969, GTO buyers wanting more of a pussy cat than a tiger could go for the “step down” credit option. This tamed the Goat’s 400 with a milder cam and…you guessed it…a single Rochester two-barrel carburetor delivering 255 (1967) or 265 horsepower through 1969, after which the step-down stepped aside for good. Keeping the image intact, these step-down GTO’s retained dual exhaust, hood scoops (faux) and the rest of the usual GTO dress up goodies.

Finally, we have Buick and AMC. Though it is known that AMC never besmirched its top-tier 390 or 401 V8’s with two-barrel carburetion, I’ve read that some Buick 455’s built toward the end of the engines’ life finally got two-barrel induction instead of the Rochester Q-Jet used since 1966. I’ve scrounged plenty of junkyards but have yet to actually see a 455 two-barrel.

So there it is Don. I hope this little roundup of factory-issue big engine / small carburetor combinations sheds new light on your inherited Lincoln. As you know, the vast amount of chrome on these cars can break the bank if its’ in need of re-plating. Assuming yours is complete and free from structural rust, why not simply clean it up, revive the mechanicals and drive it? You don’t say if yours is a drop-top, two-door or four-door (as they exist in order of collector interest), but since you’re into it for free (Thanks Grandpa!) yours a good problem to have.

Found inside the trunk of a 1959 Windsor airport limousine, the rare RB 383 two-barrel intake manifold is as rare as Hemi stuff. Too bad it’s useless for power.

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Events 8.21

1140 – Song dynasty general Yue Fei defeats an army led by Jin dynasty general Wuzhu at the Battle of Yancheng during the Jin–Song Wars. 1192 – Minamoto no Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192) 1331 – King Stefan Uroš III, after months of anarchy, surrenders to his son and rival Stefan Dušan, who succeeds as King of Serbia. 1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Battle of Ceuta. 1680 – Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt. 1689 – The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland. 1770 – James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. 1772 – King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British forces begin besieging the French outpost at Pondichéry. 1791 – A Vodou ceremony, led by Dutty Boukman, turns into a violent slave rebellion, beginning the Haitian Revolution. 1808 – Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War. 1810 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates. 1821 – Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances. 1831 – Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, which will claim the lives of 55 to 65 whites. 1852 – Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory. 1863 – Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by pro-Confederate guerrillas known as Quantrill's Raiders. 1883 – An F5 tornado strikes Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic. 1888 – The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs. 1897 – Oldsmobile, a brand of American automobiles, is founded. 1901 – The International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres is founded in Copenhagen. 1911 – The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee. 1914 – World War I: The Battle of Charleroi, a successful German attack across the River Sambre that pre-empted a French offensive in the same area. 1918 – World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins. 1942 – World War II: The flag of Nazi Germany is planted atop Mount Elbrus, the highest peak of the Caucasus mountain range. 1942 – World War II: The Guadalcanal Campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru. 1944 – Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins. 1944 – World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically important town of Falaise, Calvados, France. 1945 – Physicist Harry Daghlian is fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 1957 – The Soviet Union successfully conducts a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile. 1959 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day 1961 – American country music singer Patsy Cline returns to record producer Owen Bradley's studio in Nashville, Tennessee to record her vocals to Willie Nelson's "Crazy." Rib pain lingering from her near fatal car accident earlier in the year had kept her vocal range stifled the week prior. This time, Cline was successful in the first take. It marked the first and last time her vocals were dubbed to the Decca Records session musicians' previously recorded instrumental track. Prior to this event, Cline had always recorded with live accompaniment. Patsy Cline died in a plane crash on March 5, 1963, outside Camden, Tennessee. The recording of "Crazy" would become her signature song. 1961 – Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes. 1963 – Xá Lợi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngô Đình Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalizes Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead. 1968 – Nicolae Ceaușescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals. 1968 – James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine. 1971 – A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured. 1982 – Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon. 1983 – Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor). 1986 – Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range. 1988 – The 6.9 Mw Nepal earthquake shakes the Nepal–India border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured. 1991 – Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union. 1991 – Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses. 1993 – NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. 2013 – Hundreds of people are reported killed by chemical attacks in the Ghouta region of Syria. 2017 – Great American Eclipse traverses the continental United States.