The origin story of the Carhappy Lady

Greetings-greetings! 

Welcome to my blog, which I guess I should start with an introduction of me and of what the heck Carhappy Lady is. Well, she is me! 

You know how people advise that you should not wait forever to find the perfect solution, you should start with a good enough one. A few months ago I started to think about making an instagram diary about my car-related trips, and I was in that paralised state when already I wanted it pretty badly, but I felt that I don't have a good enough name. Then I consulted with a work friend (haha, more like I was talking AT her), and I finally thought okay, I'll just start with the good enough name, so I made my new instagram account in the next 5 seconds, and she was my first follower! 

Now I really like the name, because I think it is a good reminder that - apparently - cars make me happy. It was quite a surprise, because I am a 32 year old women, who never in her life was interested in anything even remotely connected to cars. Even though, at some point, I was the owner of one. Even though I grew up with cousins who were crazy, and I mean CRAZY about Formula 1. 

I was passionately disinterested, so to say. Then, emotional trauma came, which I won't go into, but basically my life as I knew it ceased to exist, and "post-traumatic growth" happened. Either that, or I'm just trying to fill in the hole of what I lost with something and honestly, I prefer the first take. :D

One day back in September 2023, I participated in a workplace-organized LEAN training, and we were showed a video about the evolution of the F1 pit stop and also what people do to make it as efficient as it is. (When I tell this story, at this point I usually ask the "nonbelievers" if they know how long a pit stop is, and what they answer is not even close to reality). Funny thing is that the video was very engaging, but there was something wrong with the computer or the internet, because the video froze off the laptop. Twice. So we gave up, and didn't watch the second half of it.

However!! I couldn't live my life not knowing the rest, so I looked up the video on YT, watched it, then I watched another one, then another one and another one, which went on for a few hours, when I thought that what I'm doing makes zero sense, because I get superdetailed information, but I still don't understand the big picture. So I thought it was time for Drive to Survive, which was the show my Danish bestie recommended me to prove that F1 is full of drama.

In my passionate disinterest (which was already evaporating at this point), I thought that it is either going to be interesting, or  I will be able to prove the Danish bestie wrong. Well, guess which one didn't happen! :D

Fast forward a month, I watched all of DTS, I watched a few races, and at some point I realized that the Ferrari museum is not out of reach either physically or financially and I also had the craving to visit it because I started to suspect that I might be a Tifosi (aka a Ferrari fan). Went to Maranello, got the suspicion confirmed. 

I think I will write about this trip in the next post, but now let me just tell you that it was one of the happiest days of my life, and looking back at the pictures (see above) - I'm just kind of shocked how it really shows on my face. I was glowing, and it was caused by a bunch of cars. And that was how I coined the word carhappy.

That handle was already taken on instagram, so I had to add something, and because the Italian guy in charge of the simulators in Maranello kept calling me lady, I thought, well, okay... :D

Since then I have taken a lot of other adventures. Most of them are Formula 1 related, but my interest kind of expanded (it seems F1 is a gateway drug), so all types of motorsports and cars are on the table at this point.

On this blog, I would like to keep a diary of my car adventures for myself; inspire you to have a life that you actually LIVE and find the things you are passionate about; and also of course show you all the events and places and stuff that you can do if you are into F1 or cars or travelling.

Disclamer: I know nothing. :D I've been investigating a lot of car stuff (ChatGPT would tell you about it), but I still have a lot of black holes about how cars or motorsport work, so more experienced people are welcome to answer my stupid questions. :D And less experienced people are welcome to ask, but I'll also try to explain everything, because I also know that my sister will read this, and she really does know nothing (at the moment, I'm training her in F1 drivers and teams, but that is the extent of her knowledge now).

Disclaimer 2: I'm Hungarian, but because I watched all the videos in English (and DTS in Spanish), I speak no F1 in Hungarian (I bought a dictionary, though), hence the English. Later, I might also write the posts in Hungarian as well, we'll see.