Formula Wannabe

Obey your Mazda

Jun 11, 2003 at 4:00 am
Chances are, most of us think we're much better drivers than we really are. And the odds are even greater than most of us really, really want to drive a race car. OK, it's not a real race car, but the Mazda Rev It Up at UMB Pavilion (14141 Riverport Drive) on Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15, will let you test your driving skills -- and speed -- against pro drivers and other amateurs in a spiffy new sports sedan. For $40, you get a couple of hours of instruction and a turn in a Mazda6 on a road-skills course. It's not exactly a race course, what with the orange cones and all, but speed definitely counts. The St. Louis winner, like those from the other fifteen cities on the tour, will go on to the finals in Monterey, California, along with five wild-card selections from each city. Instruction starts at 7 a.m.; driving lasts until 6 p.m. Check out www.mazdarevitup.com or call 877-311-5771 for more info. -- Matthew Everett

Radio-Controlled Reverie
De plane! De plane!

SAT 6/14

At last year's Come Fly Away: Radio-Controlled Planes & Choppers day, visitors couldn't get over two things: how big the planes were and how fast the helicopter was. Some of the gas-powered planes, with their six- and eight-foot wingspans, couldn't fit in a standard car -- they had to be brought to the library's parking lot in a van or SUV with the seats folded down. The helicopter was another story. A hobbyist, using his remote control, fired up the surprisingly large (and expensive) toy. The rotor turned faster and faster, the whine of its engine continually rising in pitch, until the copter slowly rose from the blacktop. In the air, the chopper zoomed through the sky, diving, climbing, flying far away and back and turning loop-de-loops. Send your Poopatrooper way up high at 2 p.m. at the St. Louis County Library-Daniel Boone Branch, 300 Clarkson Road (free, call to register, 636-227-9630). -- Byron Kerman

Put Your Lover on Ice

SAT 6/14

There comes a time in a relationship when you have to take it to the next level. You finish each other's sentences; you've switched to her brand of toothpaste; she understands hockey's offsides rule. Familiarity has set up camp, and complacency is right over the next ridge. At this critical juncture, there's but one option: You need to ride huge blocks of ice down grassy hillsides together. Sioux Passage Park (Old Jamestown Road, east of Vaile Road) will help you take the big plunge. Couples age twenty and older enjoy a romantic dinner by torchlight at 6 p.m., then coast downhill on blocks of ice. Bring $15 per rider and an old towel; you don't want to be freezin' the parts you'll be squeezin' later in the evening. Call 314-889-2458 for reservations. -- Paul Friswold