Tuesday, December 1, 2009

It's all relative...

"A minute spent with a loved one feels like a second, while a minute on a hot stove feels like an hour." How true the words of Einstein, his "theory of relativity". However, it's a bit different with speed. The feeling is very similar though...

Still recovering from the stage where realisation dawns that a dream from the future just hit reality bigtime, waaay sooner than expected, I can say I am truly awed at the true meaning of certain things taken for granted. How fast is fast? How slow is slow?

"Go slow!", she yelled at me... We were on the 20bhp Pulsar 220 doin about 60. "My Kine doesn't even go 60!" 60, to her, was fast. Yeah, with a bike like that, to me, 130 was fast! Yet here I was, just a few months down the line, with a massive 315bhp V8 engined 4x4 super-sedan, needle past 200! And boy how soon did she get there! The scenery turns into a total blur as you floor that pedal, and feel the shove into the back of your seat. The safety belts tense up and hold you there. The acceleration, for me, was brutal! 210... 220... Traffic! Brake down to 60 in under 3 seconds. Feeling the G-force squish me. That was fast! Yes, to me it was...

Then there's the Murcielago. The Zonda. The Veyron. And, of course, F1 cars. 100 comes up in 3, or even 2.5 seconds. F1 cars do 0-200-0 in 5.5 seconds dead. No Veyron or Aero TT can match that yet. It's all relative. If I had a Veyron, fast would be 407!




No comments: