So here’s the deal. I’ve always wanted new experiences… and one of the things on my bucket list is to go sky diving. I’ve always wanted to do that but was held back by the thought of the feeling of the ‘drop’. Like I love rollercoasters but the one thing I can’t stand to bear is when you feel like you’ve left your stomach behind (still because I love the thrill I end up doing all sorts of roller coasters). Recently though I happened to find out that sky diving doesn’t have that drop feeling at all.
It basically just feels like floating all the way down from the air.
That removed my last and actually only fear of sky diving and I was all up for going. So in Vegas last week I had researched a place to dive and decided to go. The day before I planned to go I was talking to Shorty about it and she wasn’t excited about the idea. She said “NO NO NO… What if you die?”. Then I asked her if she’s putting her foot down and she said “Yes”, followed by a stamping of her right foot on the ground.
I didn’t give up though. I kept bugging her about it all the way till the night before and she finally said
“Okay! Google skydiving accident stats and let me see them”.
So I googled it hoping to find something encouraging. That you know… it’s really safe now with technology. The stats I pulled showed that in 2012 alone, about one reported person a month has died from Skydiving. If that didn’t scare Shorty enough, it went on to describe how the accidents happen. In one case both parachutes didn’t open on the way down and the instructor and student that was strapped to him just went splat on the ground. The student died on the spot but the instructor lived. Though he was critically injured.
In the end I yielded. So I started looking for another experience to do in Vegas and I found one where you can drive supercars on a race track.
I signed up for it immediately and the next morning we found ourselves on the way to a race track.
When we first got there, they got us to go for a briefing on some basics of driving on a track. Then they brought us in a car around the track so we got familiar with it and then they got us all to put helmets on.
Shorty said the helmet made everyone wearing it look silly. Never bugged me though heh. After suiting up, we picked whatever cars we wanted from the whole selection of Ferraris, Lambos, SLS, R8s, Astons and the likes. Then we sat in the car with an instructor who then taught us how to drive. He taught me how to take turns quickly… you know… slow down before a turn, drop a gear and then release a gear just while you’re making the turn.
I ended up trying out two cars. The first one was a Ferrari 458 Italia which apparently costs upwards of RM2 million in Malaysia. This is the instructor briefing me before I got on to the track.
The 458 is the latest Ferrari and I must say it was amazing to drive. I thought it was the most forgiving car to drive. I could take sharp turns too quickly and no matter how I punished the car or yanked the steering wheel, the car would stick to the ground.
I got a video done of me driving the car with the instructor. You can watch it here.
After the Ferrari F458 Italia I tried the Lamborghini Gallardo.
Unlike the Ferrari 458, the Gallardo is the lower end of a super car (unlike some of the other Lambos). So it didn’t handle as well as the Ferrari but somehow I loved it. I loved how it”s smaller and more compact looking… and looks really sharp. I thought I’ve always wanted a Ferrari before… but now I think my dream car is a Lamborghini Gallardo.
Because it didn’t handle as well as the Ferrari (and because I’m not a good race track driver) I ended up taking turns too quickly and had my car skid. Was still loads of fun though.
At the end of the experience we had one last option (notice how they only allow you to go for this next option only at the END). We could go on a “ride along” on a Corvette. The driver was a professional race car driver that would drift the whole track. I asked my instructor if I should go for it and he said “Well do you like rollercoasters?”
I said “YES!” and he replied “Then go for it!“. So I did.
This is a video of what happened next.
I had two new experiences that I had never had before that day. One… to drive super cars on a race track.
And another… to ride with a professional driver as he drifted through the track. Both were equally awesome.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space