Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/86221
:need for speed Need for Speed This month, Toni Marshall shares how she got to drive very, very, very fast and found herself wanting to sell her 'drivers' car as a result of it. SPEED, MUCH LIKE WEALTH, is a very relative concept. Just as no matter how much money you have, there will always be someone who has more wealth than you can ever imagine. Likewise, while travelling in a car at 240km may seem ridiculously quick, a triple-seven airliner can cruise at around nine hundred kilometres an hour. As a lover of 'drivers' cars, I love to drive fast. Now this doesn't mean I spend all my time driving illegally. Driving as fast as I dare through a winding and narrow piece of road is so much more of a thrill than travelling twice the legal road limit on a straight piece of tarmac - well for me it is any way - see, it is all relative. Not all the cars I own are fast cars. The 'project' still lives in pampered luxury under a cover in the garage. She cannot be driven fast, in fact, she often doesn't start at all! My fast car sits under cover just outside the front door. She baits me each time I leave home. "Come on Toni, let's go somewhere fast!" Given my work commitments, most days, I just have to pat her curvaceous flanks and hop in a sensible car and get on fulfilling those tedious obligations we all have. Just occasionally though I answer her call. Such a day happened a few Fridays ago when the fast 'drivers' car and I spent the entire day at Taupo's Motor Sport Park together - driving fast!. Hell it was fun! Up very early, fast car gassed, on the road with Sat-Nav programmed (although I knew exactly where I was going - am I the only idiot who does this just to try and beat the predicted time of arrival?) and I am already visualizing the sequence of the corners on of the Taupo track as I drive sensibly to 'fast car' nirvana. 70 | www.hermagazine.co.nz The day is well organized and the 28 participants are broken into three groups who rotate through three skills sessions. These sessions focus on track knowledge, driving skills and skid control - all very relevant for the ultimate session of pure track time planned for the afternoon. I prove to be more than capable of handling my car and it proves to be as fast as most of the cars there - so it's roll on the track time! Open Track briefing complete - very strict rules for this session - helmet on and we are set to drive fast, real fast! So here I am, a driver in a 'drivers' car on a driving circuit with NO speed limit. It's my time to meld with my machine and become one with the track… OMG this is terrifying! No it is exhilarating! No it is … stop thinking and focus on driving for God's sake, driving FAST!!! Yes, I drove. In fact, I drove faster than I have ever dared. Through corners and down straights. Braking harder than I had ever braked before, changing gears like there was no tomorrow. It was physically and mentally exhausting for me. My fast car however, took it all in her stride, after all this is what she was built for, she was at home here on the track. It was me that was the imposter. It was me that was on the edge. It was me that hesitated through corner three and four and perhaps six and seven too. So much for loving to drive fast! The 'drivers' day was over way too fast but an evening at the beautiful HIlton Taupo was part of the event and it gladly provided an excellent chance to mix and mingle with others who have 'drivers' cars and love to drive 'fast'. What a cacophony of personalities, all in love with cars, all ruddy cheeked from the exhilaration of a day's driving - or good red wine - all talking fast about the experience of driving even faster on the track that day. New friends made, I slope off to bed replete from all things fast. I lay awake for quite a while that night thinking about my 'drivers' car. What a waste! Just sitting there under cover, just sitting there depreciating at a vulgar amount every month, just sitting there waiting for a 'fast' drive. Like an inattentive parent, I have not paid enough attention to this 'fast' car. And ironically, when I do drive her, she must just laugh at my regular efforts to push her to her limits? A decision is made! I must sell her, freeing her from a dreary existence with me - Ms Slow - and let her live in the fast lane with a real 'fast driver'. FOR SALE Fast Car. Pampered, loved and preened. Hardly ever been driven fast - except once. Was bloody expensive now sensibly priced. Enquiries to heart broken Ms Slow. 0800 TOOSLOW Since my 'track day' I have purchased a 'trickle feed' thing that keeps the battery of the 'project' charged. She has started every time I have gone to take her for a spin - very exciting! We've gone out on at least two sunny afternoons and together we take our combined age of over ninety years very, very quickly though some very, very tricky roads - well we think so because as you know, speed is a relative thing! PS Fast Car not yet sold.