Memories revisited

- Never Stop Dreaming -

In my entire history of being alive, I have only shed tear for a single machine, in fact a car. That was because it was the first car that I had driven since obtaining a licence and it was this very car that shared my woes, my tears, my girl, my adrenalin, my everything. When I was happy, or with a sweet girl, or crying my heart out over a broken relationship, or tearing up tarmac, smoking other wannabe amateur racers, etc., this amazing black beauty was always there silently roaring to my every emotion or action. In fact, not once had she given up on me even when I abused her in every way I can. And I am very sure those who had shared some memories with her would not detest to the sheer demeanor of her graceful beauty. It was this very beauty that propelled me to have a decent mastery of controlling a manual beast.

Along the years, somehow those vivid street burning days seems to wane of like a flicking flame fighting hard to stay "alive" but in the very end, all became nothing but memories. As much as I would like to push the same adrenalin out of an automatic vehicle, it was just not the same feeling as having a full control over the clutch and the high revs of the engine each time a corner was entered.

On the 10th of January in the 2010 year, a little spark was all it took to re-ignite this sleeping demon of the night. Tiny but moderately fast for speeds below 80km/h was a white Suzuki with full manual control. I didn't really push this toy car until last night when I was rushing for nothing. 2 cars were in front of me in the dimly lit back roads. Immediately in front was another small 600cc car and in front of it was a Nissan March coupe. The small Kei in front of me was crawling at 40 odd when I decided to pass it when the chance came...surprisingly, the driver took it as an insult I presumed and very soon he was kissing my ass. I really had no intention of pissing off anyone but being sandwich between 2 cars, I could only speed up a little but this action soon proved to be a death wish. The March in front took it as an invitation to unleash the beast and the very next few moments, I could see the distance increasing from the tail of the March.

Clutch in, shift down in less than 1 sec was all that it took to hear the roar of my mini Suzuki. Glancing into the rear view mirror through the frosted rear windscreen, the incandescent headlamps appeared smaller and smaller and finally darkness as I entered a bend. The March with a higher engine capacity was obviously fast on the straights...but the lightness of the Suzuki would edge in on the corners. After a few bends, bumps and slopes, the Suzuki spat out the flaws in my face. The suspension was hard but not properly set up which makes felt like the car was about to break into pieces each time I hit an uneven surface, the brakes pads was fading because of the constant high speed hard braking, the car was in fact very light and very hard to control at high speeds since each bump would send the car "floating". With no RPM meter in the car, I could not gauge the red line except by gut feel and thru the speedometer. And no matter how hard I tried, the car did not have enuff power to overtake the March so I was left trailing it all the way to the end.

What turned out to be an unprovoked overtake soon turned into a adrenalin pumping, tarmac burning, asphalt tearing sensation all the way home. Slowly, I felt the magic coming back slowing and realise the flaws of the vehicle and how to overcome it. I simply cannot find enuff words in the English context to dictate the experience but to those who had ridden in the magical black beauty would know exactly what I am talking about. Funny though but I seem to have a kick outta of tearing up farm roads in darkness with little AAA powered toy cars. Nonetheless, I was really glad that what was thought to be lost was simply sleeping awaiting to be awoken with a little polishing. With snow and icy roads for about 2 more months, a manual 4WD toy car makes a good toy in the cold.

Sweet!