Jacky Lai

    The other day, my friend and I found a new karting place beside Da Jung shopping mall.  It's a great news for us since the karting in TaiMall was shut down.  We used to go karting in Shin Dien and TaiMall before the company went bankrupcy.  Any place otherwise is either too far or too expensive.  And in February, other karting-mania came up with this place and we decided to give it a shut.  We didn't have a chance til last week we finally gathered several friends to go for the trial.

    The circuit is actually part of a parking lot.  We can still see some remains.  The track is pretty rough, but they do have decent rental karts.  Speed track is about 120 meters long in between two high-speed curves.  3 complex hairpins are pretty challenging and critical to lap time.  As soon as we left the pit lane, comes the speed track.  Push the throttle all the way to the first curve and brake hard to enter a left'n'right-hairpin complex.  Then, there's 40 meters for acceleration coursed smoothly to the right and followed by a right'n'left-hairpin complex.  Push carefully to escape the 2nd complex and stir violently with throttle half-opened to pass the last right'n'left complex.  As we pass by the entrance of the pit lane, we hit the timer and the speed track is right in front of us again.  My friend Brian and I made 32 sec flat in our first trial.  Track record of the day was set by us, approximately 0.2 sec under.  As a trial, i would say that is very successful.

     After the first trial, we went to that place again yesterday.  It's the Employee's Day, so we've been charged 250NT for 10 mins.  Marshals were paving the last hairpin complex and we saw lots of crust at the apex of every hairpin.  Kinda worried though, we got dressed and chose our kart.  Engine sounded just the same, but tires were totally different.  Thanks to the rough surface of the track, the tires must have been scratched off and lost, say 60% of grip.  We could hardly control the kart in and out every curve.  Brian even spun several times during the race.  Driving very aggressive though, my record was 1 sec up compared with last time, whereas Brian was 3 sec up.  We tried to figure it out, but the marshals told up that it aint easy to make a sharp improvement on a day like that.  Apex too slippery, tires unchanged.  Too many disadvantages for us to cut record.  Anyway, rental karts are just for fun, ain't it?

    Karting aside, it is the cinemax that matters.  SBC, Star-Bridge-Cinemax, is on the fourth floor of the mall.  The first time here, we saw "Wild Hogs" after karting.  It's about 4 middle-aged bikers with very frustrating lives and looking for a way to restore their fountain of youth.  The four of us talked much about this movie.  We love to drive; we love the excitement; We love to push the throttle and listen to the roar of the engine.  We are very likely to spend our first 100 throusand to buy our own kart and rent a spot in a professional circuit like the RKS.  Are we likely to loose our fountain of youth by the age of 40?  Our lives so miserable?  Wow!!