D is for Drifting, E is for Engine, F is for Fuel Cell

Guest Post by Alex, protagonist of Dead Heat:

So Lisa wants me to do another blog post for her. Like I ain’t got better things to do with my time. Like I owe her a favor, after what she did to Cole. But hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

So where are we? Oh yeah, “D.” Even a dumbass like me can follow the alphabet that far. “D” is for drifting. That’s when your tires break loose, and you’re sliding, but you ain’t outta control yet. If you remember what I told you the other day about a car being loose, that’s one way of drifting. But you can also drift with all four wheels. Drifting is about as badass as it gets. It looks totally cool, and it feels even better. Unless you’re some uptight old lady in an ice storm, in which case it’s probably gonna scare the hell out of you.

“E” is for engine. Yeah, I know that’s lame, but there ain’t a whole lot of racing words that start with “E.” I know Karen said maybe I should use economy run or end plate, but that ain’t stuff we use at small tracks, so I don’t know much about ’em.

“F” is for fuel cell. I was gonna say firesuit, but that’s too easy. Even if you don’t know what a firesuit is, you can probably figure it out. A fuel cell is this special gas tank that’s full of foam, so the gas can’t slosh around too much. You don’t want the gas going to one side when you’re in a corner, or the engine won’t get no fuel. Fuel cells are built so they can take a lot of abuse without ripping open and causing a fire. You’re gonna want to mount your fuel cell right in the middle of the trunk of your race car. First you get yourself some one-inch square tubing to make a frame for the fuel cell to sit inside. Then you weld that frame to the roll cage. Then you build a sheet metal shell to go around the fuel cell and you bolt the whole thing in place.

All this safety stuff is kind of a pain in the ass, but if it keeps the driver safe it’s worth it. Unless some smart ass writer comes along and kills him off even though he was doing everything right.

I’m just saying.