Terrence Singh is a freshman business administration major. He is a member of the Commuter Student Organization and the NSU Motor Club. His enjoys watching races, working on his car or his friends’ cars, and going mountain biking. He dislikes annoying drivers and his philosophy is “Don’t say a car’s not good until you look under the hood.”
I’ve liked cars since I began playing with Hotwheels. The car my first radio-controlled model car was modeled after and the car I often used in video games became what I now drive: a 2005 Acura RSX Type S. It was a nice change from a boring, automatic hand-me-down 1997 Acura RL I used to own. A few months after getting it, a couple friends helped me install an Injen cold air intake, my first modification. Next came the soon to be regretted Tein lowering springs which were replaced with Progress Competition coilovers that have 350 and 650 pound-per-inch spring rates.
A DC shorty header and Buddy Club cat back exhaust were added later. Without knowing it at first, I made modifications useful for Street Touring class [one of Sports Car Club of America’s category of vehicle modifications], brakes being the final step for improvement. With MacPherson front suspension and high-mounted tie rods, it’s not an ideal track car, not even an ideal front wheel drive Honda.
After simply hanging out and watching people perform shenanigans in their cars at the Sunoco on I-27, I’ve finally progressed to Autocross, a form of motorsports in which drivers compete individually on a course marked by cones. I’m far from an ideal autocrosser but that’s less important than experience. At the Bank Atlantic Center and Buckingham Airfield in Fort Myers, I was nearly embarrassingly beaten by a veteran autocrosser in a 1991 Honda Civic. I did place second in street touring class in a race against me and another driver. But I’ve improved, and that’s what matters most.
I’ve autocrossed with two other drivers from NSU and hopefully, I will do more in the future. Balancing school and my hobby became easier with extra first semester scholarship funds that was $10 more than what my coilovers cost. I’ll usually just spend one day of the week on car stuff, whether it be improving it, fixing what I broke or perhaps an Autocross event. The rest of the week is spent studying and selling small car parts, mainly lights, online.
A race feels something like this: I’m near redline in second gear. I brake hard, activating the antilock braking system, hug the apex, trying to overcome understeer, depress the clutch and blip rounds per minute to downshift to first smoothly, then finally finish that corner and anticipate the next.
There are many people I know who share the same passion for cars, several at NSU. I encourage anyone who is interested in cars to join the NSU Motor Club and look on TrackWeekend.com for upcoming events.
