If you've been following my articles you have read that my mind is always racing. I just can't shut it off! When I lay down at night you'd think that it would be spooling down and looking for a good place to stop and get off for a while...No way, it ramps up with a new thought that expands exponentially - - and I crunch away at numbers and concepts that I wish to explore, usually motorcycle or automobile related (but not always). I think flat-out until exhaustion finally takes over. When I wake up, I always try to recall what I was thinking about so I can expand on it even more throughout the day. I'm sure this is not the case for everyone. But God made me like I am and I'm going to ride the wave. Kowabunga Dude!
Anyway, I've been stuck on the notion lately that you just can't make enough progress towards your life's goals without going out on a limb to follow your dreams. Yes I know all about being called "selfish" and "foolish"... But you know what? Most every time I've really done it, I was having the time of my life! That my friends, is why we get caught up in these projects like speed record hunting. For a person of my inclination for mechanics and design, it makes me dig deep and try to arrive at the best solution before moving ahead. I need to get it right in my head and then the drawings start to flow and metal chips start to fly.
My imagination allows me to place myself in all the different systems of the motorcycle or race car and think what solution is best suited for the task. For instance, I try and think like an air molecule being mixed with fuel and rushing into a blazing hot combustion chamber, being squeezed to near chemical destruction and then exploding with a violent force! I then imagine that I would be riding a great shockwave and then where I need to be when the next group of toasted molecules comes slamming along? I can also think like a wheel that is spinning with great centrifugal force and feel the gyroscopic effect on the mounting hardware, how it travels and acts against the center of gravity...
Ok so you get the picture...My imagination or my dreams if you will, get me moving toward my goals and the project takes life. Early on, when I was a kid, I didn't have the skills or resources to explore what my mind was conjuring up - - but I did have a father who understood that exposing your son to great events like motorsports, could only add fuel to the fires to succeed. He almost always would invite me to come along and see all the action. In southern California you could see it all from airplanes to cars, boats and motorcycles, sometimes three times a week! By the time I was 10 years old, I'd been to Ascot, Reno, Riverside, Pamona, Irwindale, Perris, Orange County, Saddleback and the Great Salt Lake! I've seen and heard the ferrocity of top fuel dragsters, the deep guttural growl of big block CanAm cars, the shriek and wail of supercharged P-51 mustangs banking around pylons and the long rising note of a streamliner accelerating off into the distance and over the horizon...When you watch great accomplishments like this take place in person, it changes you forever.
Of course you follow that up with issues of Hotrod, Road&Track and Cycle magazines strewn about the house and I would read the articles and set my mind in motion. I once wrote a story in the 4th grade about tuning a blown hemi top fuel dragster trying to set a national E.T. record! The story went on and on about changing gear ratios and trying to stay on top of the tires without blowing them off...My teacher thought I was NUTS! She gave me a lousy grade because of a few misspelled words and she just KNEW that I was a plagiarist heathen! I guess I should've just sent the story to Connie Kalita because he needed it that year...No recognition for your efforts really sucks but it comes with the territory when you are going your own way and following your dreams.
Some disappointments are always lurking about...There is NO substitute for learning the fundamentals before pursuing a difficult goal. Your dreams should be the catalyst and the reality of all the effort involved will bring the success. I've been there MAN, standing along pit wall, completely exhausted from an all nighter when your driver blasts past and gives you a big thumbs up! Seeing the flagman jump in the air and swing the checkered flag down as your car or motorcycle rips across the line FIRST! The sleepless nights making the vehicle perfect pay off HUGE right then and there! I still get goose bumps when I think of those moments of success. To me, THAT is benefitting from following your dreams!
I've had the privilege of working on all sorts of mechanical marvels (the Dave Uihlein collection) from a 1903 Mors Grand Prix car, The incredible Miller 91 supercharged straight eights, Bugatti type 35 and a 1933 Alfa Romeo 2.3 Mille Miglia to name just a few. I discovered what all the fuss was about. Vitorio Jano, Harry Miller and Etore Bugatti were GODS creating amazing things! They were dreamers of a very high order!
I read some stories about those incredible cars, dreamt of what it would be like to work on & drive them and set my mind on getting a job with an active and diverse collection.
Once I found the position, I pursued it vigorously and David Vogel Uihlien (Schlitz beer and First Wisconsin Bank family) offered me a job riding heard on his substantial historic racing car collection. Life changing to say the least!
So now I'm looking at the challenges of building a motorcycle to set a speed record. This is definately following my dreams. I'm prepared to accomplish it in steps, but I know that I must push it to the extremes to be satisfied. It's been on my mind for years and now it's time to see it through.
Follow your dreams??? Get Going MAN! Life is way too short!
Always Racing!
Phil
