If there is one thing the car business has plenty of, it’s a host of characters and personalities. That’s what makes us unique. It takes a special kind of person to connect with so many people while leading them to complete the purchase of a product second only to a house in cost and value. And with the personality comes unique nicknames. Take, for example, one of my colleague’s name Ski. Ski Had a very intimidating presence about him, but he was one of the nicest guys in the world. He had his own way about doing things for just about everything you could think of, and sometimes you were wondering, “like what in the world made him think of that?” But all in all, if you ever needed a hand with something, he was always willing to help out.
One late afternoon in the fall of 2007, Ski approached me with a request to help him deliver a vehicle to one of his customers. “Hey yo, Need you to follow me down to one of my customers’ house to deliver a car in a little bit.” I remember it was a slow day for sales that day and I didn’t really have any customers I was helping at that point, so I said “No problem. I’d be happy to help you out.” Ski told me he was gonna leave in a few, and then he brought me a key to a pre-owned 2005 Mini–Cooper S 6-speed two door coupe to trail him in. “Yo, follow me in this. I’ma be driving a Honda Odyssey to my customers’ house.”
This was my very first experience, driving a Mini-Cooper and it took me a few minutes to kind of get familiar with the controls and how to start the vehicle. I saw a slot where it looked like a key was supposed to fit in so when I put it in and I was told to push the key in and that ignited the car, and “Off we go.” Ski’s customer lived way back in an older part of the West End of Richmond off of Old Staples Mill Road. What was special about this road was that it was pretty windy and had a lot of different twists and blind turns so as I’m driving this 6-speed vehicle, I was really focused on following the twists and turns fairly well. Old back roads never really bother me as I grew up in the mountains of Floyd County outside of Roanoke Va, so I was pretty used to the different twist and turns and everything and how to drive carefully and comfortably. I remember I was following Ski to his customer’s place and wondered how far we had to go. Seemed like we were driving for a good Hot Minute (Lol). When we finally and pulled into the driveway, Ski told me just to wait in the car. He would need a few minutes to sign the paperwork and to give the keys to his customer. So I sat in the car, listening to the radio, kind of playing around seeing how everything worked and I thought this car is pretty cool. Definitely different from what I was used up to that point. I wonder how it would drive like I don’t know highway speed maybe? But anyway, Ski came right back to the car surprisingly in like 5 minutes and was ready to go. As I was getting ready to put the car in gear, Ski motioned to me, “Hey yo, move over, I’m driving back!!” I said, “All right, no sweat; don’t mind riding shotgun. Little did I know the ride back was gonna be way more exciting and freakin scary than what I realize.
He drove down the long driveway from his customers house, very unassuming; didn’t really think anything of it in the moment. He turned the signal on to get back onto Old Staples Mill Road; that’s when the race rally started… All I remember was hanging on to the passenger handle (the Oh Shit Handle) above my head and whipping around the back roads like we’re in a Baja race. First thing I did was look behind me to see if someone was chasing us. Next thing I wondered, “Does this Cat have any warrants or something I should know about?!” Because, literally we were driving like we stole somethin’. I looked over at ski and I said, “Man, what in the world man why are we going so freakin fast for?! He looked at me and said, “I wanna see what this car can do!! These bad boys can hold a turn like nobody’s business!” I said, “Do we honestly need to find out today?!”
The scenery that I admired coming up to the customer’s house went by a helluva a lot faster this time around (Lol) as we were whipping around turns, going up and down hills at the “Speed of Light” and blurring right back onto the main strip of the West End. Ski had a handle on the car, that’s for sure, but man I tell you what; I certainly saw a different version of the West End of Richmond in terms of it being so blurry and fast. It was one of the funniest and scariest moments that I could remember to date.
Car Guy’s Car Tip
Even though it was a lot of fun and freakin scary, one thing is for sure: A driver should never speed around blind turns or windy roads that are not closed off or not within a safe and professional driving platform. Any time when you’re encountering road conditions like this, it is always important maintain the Set Speed Limit listed and always be sure to keep your eyes peeled to each turn coming. You never know when may encounter debris, rocks, even another vehicle in your lane