Last weekend the Roger Albert Clark Rally took place and it brought out this perfect Lancia Stratos. It’s great to see such high quality, modern footage of one driven in true anger. The livery is perfect. S/o to Sideway Media for providing this week’s bit of Youtube serenity.

I find myself thinking quite a bit about how jaded I can be when it comes to my enthusiasm for cars and motorsports. I try not to be a wet blanket but something in the society and culture surrounding the hobby these days really gives me the ick. 

1) I HATE the holier than thou approach. So many modern influencers take this angle when providing you with grainy racing footage overdubbed with some tired trap beat; or when one MUST constantly remind you that they take better care of their shitbox than you do. This kind of shit is for the birds. I too have some hot takes but there’s something in a delivery that can be very off-putting, particularly when there’s some level of feigned exclusivity being communicated. It doesn’t fucking matter.

2) Gatekeeping. We are all guilty of it and we all hate being on the receiving end of it. We’ve all been to a Porsche meet where the inevitable “have you ever even driven one” line surfaces. Suppose we asked a 6 year old football fan something similar; “have you ever even wasted an entire Sunday barely moving and consuming far too many calories?”. Give it a rest. 

3) Those who could use a swift kick in the ass. This is for every Drive to Survive fan who became an F1 technical expert overnight. Then, watched the second season and got it in their head that they have some secret undiscovered driving talent that leads to them crashing into a neighborhood pole because they tried to “warm the tires” in their Nissan Altima. The art of humility is gone.

Bonus Youtube Serenity Clip #2. If you haven’t yet become obsessed with the rich OM606 turbo diesel content the internet has to offer, I invite you to click above.

Next week will feature a brief review of the W210 300 Turbo Diesel as part of our Impressions series.

For now, we leave you with this week’s driving tune. To be played/imagined when driving the night shift, on the road or track.