Gymkhanas, the Lodge Freeway, Big Heads and Crazy Driving - post # 401

In the early 80’s, I lived in Detroit and drove a BMW 320i. While a lower echelon BMW, in those days, and in that place, it was unique. When I visited the auto companies I would borrow a car so I would pull on to the parking lot in an appropriate vehicle. My old friend Jerry Rubin had a BMW in the 60’s, which was completely unusual and he had the only one I’d ever seen at that point.

I would roar around town, pumped up in my little Bimmer, and have a smile on my face. This car appeared after my Mazda RX7, a sort of a 40th birthday gift to me.

At some point I heard about the Gymkhana. Gymkhana is a type of motorsport practiced in Canada, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and South Africa. Similar to autocross, gymkhana courses are often very complex and memorizing the course is a significant part of achieving a fast time.

Gymkhana events are time and/or speed events in an automobile. These can feature obstacles such as cones, tires, and barrels. The driver must maneuver through a predetermined "track" performing many different driving techniques. What separates gymkhana from traditional autocross events is that the gymkhana requires drivers to perform reversals, 180 degree spins, 360 degree spins, parking boxes, figure 8s and other advanced skills. Drifting is also encouraged where helpful or necessary. Essentially, a gymkhana is any event featuring a starting point, a finish line and some sort of "obstacle" to get through, around, or by, all within a time limit.

I went to my first gymkhana and wanted to enter after looking over the course. I think it all took place at Chrysler headquarters but I can’t remember. It was exciting, and probably it was with the BMW, but I looked at the course, knew it was confusing to me, but figured I’d try it anyway.

I went to sign up and discovered that I needed a helmet to participate! I ran around like a crazy guy trying to borrow a helmet but knowing down deep inside that I would fail and never participate. I suffer from “big head” syndrome, a syndrome that runs through my family. My mother had it; one of my daughters suffers from it, as do I. It’s not a good “big head” problem, but a bad one. I was crushed!

I have since gone to a motorcycle shop, because they specialize in stuff for bikers, many of whom are big guys with big heads, and purchased a less than attractive helmet that fits my head.

My head redefines “one size fits all”. It doesn’t!

I now use an online company called the Big Hat Store. They say, “We decided to open our store in 1998 when we found few extra large baseball hats available for my brothers and father who like me have extra large heads! After looking throughout the country I found it was tough to find large caps and, for the few that I found, quality was lacking. Our big hats are custom manufactured to ensure quality fit and comfort. Our big hats contain more cloth and are made from a bigger die pattern than normally sized caps. Only proven fabrics and stitching are used. They're larger around and deeper (higher crowned) than normally sized hats. They will not sit on the top of your head like a beanie. Our hats look and feel good! Furthermore, we ship our hats in boxes (vs. paper envelopes and tubes) so that hats you order will keep their shape.

Our store, The Big Hat Store, is located in Troy, Michigan

http://www.bighatstore.com/

They do not sell motorcycle helmets but they have great baseball hats, etc.

I used to drive to work in those days, when I lived in Bloomfield Township, using the Lodge Freeway most of the time.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

M-10, also known as the John C. Lodge Freeway and Northwestern Highway is a state trunk line route in the US state of Michigan. The southernmost portion follows Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit, and the southern terminus is at the intersection of Jefferson and Randolph Street. The northern terminus is in West Bloomfield at the intersection with Orchard Lake Road. M-10 was built in segments throughout much of the 1950s and 1960s. It carried several different names before the entire route was finally officially named The John C. Lodge Freeway in 1987[2]. M-10 was named after John C. Lodge, an influential Detroiter and mayor of Detroit from 1927-1928.

In the early 80’s, coming down the Lodge from the ‘burbs into Detroit, there was an unwritten race going on. It was unscored, no names were given, but cars would race each other until they left the freeway to get to work. I hadn’t noticed it until I got the Mazda, and it continued when I had the Bimmer, but it was always on the Lodge. All sleek, expensive or two passenger cars were invited by no one in particular to participate. You got the picture the first time as you drove along and were silently challenged by someone. A Corvette would drive up next to you at 60 or 70 miles an hour, rev his engine and take off like a bat out of hell! If you had a normal car you just assumed these were individual crazy drivers, but there was an insane pattern to all this. Different cars would appear at different times of the morning and roar, weaving through heavy rush hour traffic getting there jollies in the mornings. It was you out there with the occasional Ferrari, Lamborghini or more normal Corvettes and Mercedes.

It was not safe but it was one hell of a lot of fun. Also, in the morning, we were probably all sober, and that way there were less accidents. I wouldn’t do it today, but in hindsight, it is nostalgic.