This summer came with a lot of changes for me. I moved to a new city and left the car back home, but this didn't prevent me to start testing my skills and my metal.
I managed to register my car as a competition vehicle, a friend kindly gave me a set of old racing tires. They had plenty of thread left, but due to their age they were really hard almost like plastic. The good thing about them is that once they are warm they grip unlike any tire I've had.
With the car ready, me and a couple of friends headed to Făgăraș rally, which was more like a city special stage. It ended up being a battle between drift and grip. After the first timed run I went to check the time and I had quite a surprise... I was first and I had a 6 second lead.
The main competitor ended up being one of my friends with a Toyota Aygo. The small car is very well suited for this kind of event. It's light has quite a bit of power for its size and turns on a dime.
My drift buddies stole the show, but the clock wasn't ticking in their favor.
As the course got cleaner the times started to improve and the Aygo was improving at a faster rate than I was.
So I pushed harder and harder until I shifted from first to second gear hard and damaged the synchro mesh in the gearbox.
I was still first but would the gearbox hold till the end?
Although a sharp noise accompanied every gear change from first to second the gearbox held. In the end I managed to win the event by a healthy 10 second margin.
As the event ended I set sight to a way greater challenge... A hill climb, but that in an other post.
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