What do car people do during the winter?

When car people can't get out for spirited drives due to snowy mountain roads and are relegated to merely daydreaming about track days, what do we do? Well, I can't speak for all of us, but here are a few things I've done this winter:

1. I attended a winter driving school. I went to Audi's winter car control clinic at Georgetown Lake in early February. Though it was inexplicably freaky to drive around on a frozen lake, particularly later in the day when the ice got warm and started to creak, the exercises were very interesting and fun. My favorite was the spin avoidance exercise, which involved first getting the car up to ~20mph, then cranking the wheel 90°, pulling the hand brake, waiting for the car's rear end to come around, undoing everything you just did, waiting for the car to come around to 180° and start rolling backwards, when you could then brake to a stop. Left to my own devices, I could've done that one all day. (Sadly, I forgot my camera, so I'll have to go again next year in order to take some pics to share with you.)

2. I put stickers on my driving helmet. I'd ordered a set of roundel stickers for the M3 last month and just tonight had the brilliant idea to put a few of the extras on the back of my helmet. (I left the old sticker that matches the S4's on there, out of deference.) Now I can be all matchy-matchy with the M3 on track days. [Insert giddy, girlish hand clapping here.]
   



3. I got together with a bunch of car people and talked about cars. I met a new group of folks who drive amazing cars and like to talk about them as much as I do. Their cars were slightly more expensive than the M3, but that didn't keep us all from checking out each other's cars, discussing what all mods we'd made to them, comparing notes on where we like to drive, and so on and so forth. But next time, I think I need to park a little farther away from the Gallardos, as they make the M3 look like a giant, monstrous, hulking blue tank. (My car was at least a foot taller than that black Gallardo there. She looked HUGE, I tell ya', HUGE!)



4. I had some maintenance done. I wish I could say that I've taken this winter downtime to do a bunch of sweet mods on the M3, but I just haven't gotten there yet. Quite frankly, it may be a while before I do. (She's pretty good as-is and I kind of want to check her out on the track before I start making any big changes/investments.) But in the interim, I've had a bunch of general maintenance done, which just happens to have included a new set of angel eyes…

Yeah, don't deny it. Those look goooooood.

So there you have it. That's my car-related winter season in a nutshell. If you're a car person, what do you like doing during the winter (I wish I could really be) driving season?

Comments

[Tara Anderson]

Leslie, thanks for shining a light on what car-o-holics do during the cold season. I thought y'all just hibernated.