I’m trying a new approach for August. I’m attempting to keep notes through the month as I go, rather than try to remember it all (and, indeed to do the post) a week or two into the following month. Let’s see how that goes…

Narrator: It did not go well

PretendyDriving
The first of the month was another round of the NEC, and after a mediocre qualifying, a couple of mistakes which sent me off-track (which I managed to gather up and save, instead of putting it in the barrier), and one punt from a fast car on an outlap which required some repairs, I finished up fourth in class, hiking my iRating up to 1695, and, more importantly, shuffling me up the championship standings for the MX-5 class to 22nd, out of 750 drivers who have raced the little Mazda in the German forest so far.

Melons 24h: Gumption Racing ran a 24 hour endurance event with a difference, instead of the super-fast Le Mans Prototypes, and GTE cars, we used the Mazda MX-5 and the VW Jetta, with an emphasis on fun, not being a dick, and trying to be as new-to-endurance-racing-friendly as we could. It was well received, one absolute loon did the entire race solo, and we’ll be running something again next year. Of course, I say “we”, I did minimal work towards it, I think the majority of the organisation/stewarding props must go to Andy, Jonathan, and Bart.

New Toys
Back to pretendy-driving again, sorry*, but using last month’s new-old toy, I printed some brackets for some small vibration motors from AliExpress, hooked the motors up to an arduino, put the motors in the brackets, the brackets in the pedals, and now when the wheels over or under rotate (i.e. lock or spin), I get tactile feedback through my feet. Or to put it another way, “brakes go brrrrrrrrrr”.

I also treated myself to a TS80P soldering iron, because tiny portable soldering iron is a particularly useful thing to have. Next month’s new toy is likely to be a new USB powerbank, because this month, I also discovered that the PD powerbank I already have is missing the PD modes which the soldering iron requires. Rendering it much less useful/portable.

*anyone would think that after the best part of eighteen months mostly spent inside, I’d be itching to get out and about, but, nope, my new hobby is too much fun, and racing these cars in the real world is far too expensive.

RealWorldDriving I didn’t do as much of this as I was intending to, because the cheap car I bought to hopefully last me a year, after my Galaxy died, also died. This time at 70mph in lane two of the A40, on a three lane section with no hard shoulder.

Engine went bang, lots of oil smoke happened, and I managed to coast/coax the car to the chevrons between the entry sliproad and the main carriageway, with thanks to the car I had just overtaken for braking and making space for me to move over. Coming to a stop with smoke pouring into the cabin, and seeing smoke coming from under the bonnet is an interesting feeling, not knowing if the first call is going to be the RAC or the Fire Brigade. I do not recommend.