What Racing is All About

To the non-racer, the people that drive their cars on the race track are just plain idiots that risk life and limb, burn money faster than a crack user, spend all their time making their car go 1/10 of a second a lap faster than the the previous race weekend, and are generally wacked out.   Monroe made these cool plaques that helps explain the insanity that goes on in a racer's mind.  These are high quality plaques, using dark walnut wood with beveled edges.  There are two versions of the plaque that he is selling.  The big one is 20"x13" and is diamond etched on black enameled engraver's brass. The header is fully filled high definition mechanical engraving.  It looks like this:
 

Next to Racer Magazine, so you can see the size of the plaque
Click here for a closer picture of the etching
Click here for extreme closeup of the etching

Edges are beveled, and wood is about three times as thick as Racer Magazine

Comes with mounting hole cut into backing plate.  Just stick a nail on the wall and hang it up!
(ignore flash from camera)

The price for this piece is $95 + tax and shipping.  Normally, to engrave a letter it is about 10 cents a letter.  This plaque has 3300+ letters on it, so $95 is a bargain.  A good gift for a racer, mechanic, co-driver, pit crew, etc.

There is also a smaller version of this (12"x9") using digital screening.  It has the same wood, and is black letter on a gold faceplate.  It kinda looks like it was etched, but like I said, it is "digitally screened". 

The digitally screened version for $32 + tax and shipping.

You can order these plaques exclusively from The Pulp Store.  Support Monroe and Hayashi's racing habit, buy some stuff from us!  It makes the perfect Xmas gift for someone.  Below is the full text of what is on the plaques:

What Racing is All About

It's about money, of course; for most it's about finding it, finding enough of it, and then finding more. It's about guzzling money like water, about living with the guilt of burning up so much hard earned cash. But it's much more.

It's about supremacy, being top dog, king of the hill, head honcho, the big kahuna; standing out above the crowd, being number one, the best.

It's about speed. It's about riding the fastest, scariest, hold-onto-your-hats-geez-I'm-gonna-wet-my-pants-best-damn-roller-coaster ever invented.

And it's about power. It's about leading the charge of a thousand screaming banshees, having your body wrenched and twisted and tossed about by the hands of great unseen forces; and it's about taming a blind raging Herculean monster, and bending it to your will.

It's about brilliant colors, flashes of light, ear-splitting shrieks, and bone-rattling rumbles. It's about the unforgettable smell of burning rubber, smoldering brake pads, and gear oil. It's about reaching through the steering wheel all the way down to the tires and feeling the road slipping past your fingertips. It's about sensing the weight of the car shifting from tire to tire, like water in a pan. It's about the tug of the shoulder harness across the collar bones, and the cramp in the leg from
pressing the gas pedal through the floor.

Racing is about all of these things, and much more.

It's about passion; burning desire, insatiable hunger. It's a perverse yet overwhelming love affair with steel, glass, and rubber. It's about a relentless courtship with speed.

It's about conceiving and nurturing a child--the benefactor of your skill and wisdom, and a victim of your ignorance. It's about saving a rusting pile of disregarded scrap from the crusher and making it stronger, faster, more real and alive than it ever was, or ever deserved to be. It's about
caring for your creation, loving it; pushing it to its limits, exalting in its greatness, and forgiving its weaknesses, because they are your weaknesses.

It's about dreams and hopes and fears. Dreams of glory; dreams of carving out a small niche in history, like Mario, and Sterling, and "King Richard". Hopes. Hopes that the many long winter hours of lonely toil in the cold, dusty garage will bring smiles come May, and a nod of approval from the brutally indifferent stopwatch. Hopes that the brakes will be there on call, as you hurtle without recourse into the unforgiving concrete canyon. Hopes that, in the end, you'll be able to look back on the whole experience and find it worth the price, while living with the fear that it won't be.

It's about determination, perseverance, and the strength of resolve. It's about patience and discipline. It's about putting in the time, double checking, attending to the critical details. It's about concentration, and focus. It's about controlling the overpowering urges, sticking to the game
plan, and keeping your head when the unthinkable happens. It's about testing, and measuring, and worrying, and sweating the small stuff

It's about faith; faith in yourself, in your crew, in your fellow competitors, in the workers, and in the men and women who designed this car, these tires, and this track. It's about believing in your roll cage, and your safety harness, your Nomex suit, and the fire system that has never been put to the test. It's about knowing that no matter what happens, you chose.

It's about deep and lasting respect, caring, and friendships; about sharing joys and disappointments, pitching in, and easing the load.

It's about living life in the cutting edge of a razor, hanging it all out there, going for broke. It's about knowing, without doubt, by-damn, that you're alive. It's about putting your heart and soul into something and letting the whole world see what you can do. It's about knowing that in the
midst of the confusion and emotion and heart-stopping action, you were the one that mattered.

-Anonymous