Today is President’s Day in the United States and a confusing mix of regional holidays in Canada. So, we’re going to take the day off here at The Truth About Cars.
Why is that? The time we get off is rare. Sometimes we get caught up in the politics and mechanics of the automotive industry that we forget what’s important: the cars. So, I’m going to put my time off to the best possible use — and go for a drive.
Sometimes readers don’t realize the amount of work that goes on here behind the scenes. We are constantly juggling stories and looking toward the future. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more about that future soon. In the meantime, I want to ask you all something.
What’s your most memorable drive? It doesn’t need to be the stereotypical Hollywood picturesque cruise along Highway 1 or the first time you flogged your Miata through the Tail of the Dragon. Simply put, when you think of the most enjoyable time you had behind the wheel, what experience comes to mind?
How about behind handlebars? The first ride I took up the “thumb” of Michigan (Jefferson to M-29/M-25 up to Port Austin) after taking delivery of my Dyna Switchback.
I used to live right on lake St. Clair, but that’s merely a duck pond compared to the actual Great Lakes. Lake Huron is so deep and blue (and drinkable!) it’s beautiful.
My handlebars best ride was at 39°12’53.5″N 79°12’21.8″W. This is a 4 mile section with great turns, no cars, and great road surface that drops 1300 ft from the hilltop to the bottom. I was on my Trek road bike and held an average of ~35mph. Leaning into the corners, hammering in top gear on the straights. The weather was great that day and it was the last 4 miles of a 30 mile loop. Brilliant.
In a car, I would say coming across the Bighorn Mountains into the eastern side of yellowstone ranks up there. Too many people on the road, though. Same goes for the Beartooth Pass.
I have multiple, some great ones on bikes. Montana post repeal of the national double nickle was fun. I was on a back road foothills of the Rockies and looked across a meadow. A herd of horses were running across the field. I pulled over and watched spell bound.
last summer I went to Calgary to get my son. He likes vehicles and travelling too. We chose a back road from Calgary to Canmore. It would of been heaven on a bike or a sporty car but it still turned out to be a blast even in my big pickup. As we approached Canmore we could see the Rockies, forests of green and off in the distance poking out of the forest a massive Canadian flag.
My son and I felt like pulling over and singing “Oh Canada”. Damn, it made me feel great to be Canadian.
I will not forget one run from Santa Fe down to Albuquerque. I was out there for summer work, driving my Detroit Iron in from Michigan, with my freshly minted BS that qualified me to wear khakis and take notes.
I had probably done some suspension damage when I hauled way too much out there in the vehicle, and the brakes were not good. It didn’t help that I wasn’t the world’s most experienced driver, either.
It was dark, there was thunder, there was lightning, the wind was blowing at what seemed like 50-60 mph, all the windsocks were stuck straight, and, at least at the time, New Mexico was not very good at marking the lanes.
So, what do you do? Crank up Yankee Rose and do as the locals do – as fast as possible down the mountain to the plateau. Who knew you could get an Olds 88 to 90 uphill? Who knew you could do that while being passed by every F-150 and Silverado ever made going over a hundred?
That was the car that, in a similar storm while driving to work out there, a mountain lion bounded over the hood in Pueblo, so it really liked being out west.
Have a good holiday!
Seeing DEADPOOL got my week off started well.
I may drive to the Poconos gun ranges with my dad – who just bought a new shotgun.
Hopefully there won’t be any State Police on i80 when I decide to exceed 150 MPH.
No holiday for krhodes1 today. Slaving away in my home office, learning VMware SRM for an engagement next week.
Went to lunch and to run my car through the carwash today. The Maine State Police had a nice holiday speedtrap going on the Maine Turnpike. Cop on an overpass with a laser gun, 5-6 more lined up on the onramp or with “customers”. This was my onramp (Exit 47 for the locals), so no worries for me, but they were still at it when I went home two hours later.
So be careful out there, don’t want to see you on the news! And for Dog’s sake don’t video the high speed run and put it online! :-)
My local Ex-pat Stammtisch here in Bavaria got tix for DEADPOOL at the Cinemaxx in Regensburg speilt at 2320 hrs on Friday. So totally worth it. Picked a friend up in Nurnberg in my ’00 BMW e46 coupe, full tank o’ gas, quickly imbibed a Doenerkabap and Helle, and motored the autobahn South in less than 40 minutes doing 120 mph in the left lane as Gawd intended. Arrived just in time for the previews. now if we could just convince the Germans to give up the disgusting sweet popcorn it’d been perfect.
My most memorable drive so far is a toss-up between my first run from Vegas to Yucca (my first drive out west) and a perilous jaunt up US-33 over the mountains the morning after a light snowstorm with a van full of kids and cargo, with the temp gage on my suffering 2000 Pontiac Montana doing its best imitation of an altimeter on the successive uphill/downhill sections.
Tomorrow we begin a road trip with two friends from the Flint area down to Port Canaveral, FL, which will be my longest road trip so far. We’re calling it our Great Escape, as we’ll be making the trek in our friends’ new (to them) 2008 Escape Hybrid. I’m anticipating a longing desire for more leg room about Mile 300. My entreaty to the media department, thinly veiled with sarcasm, for an company vehicle for the trip was met with no sympathy. Apparently they don’t count witty comments on automotive blogs as “press.”
The nerve…
I’ll give it a try …
… it is the mid 2000s. My wife and I are in our 2003 convertible, top down on a beautiful sunny day in early April, moving fast somewhere in western Missouri along Route 66. The bruising (little if any refinement) Bose stereo is on and turned up, meeting (superbly) the only real design brief it has: to be heard clearly at 80 mph with the top down.
The CD changer (remember those?) has Real Life by Simple Minds on and Jim Kerr is singing:
“All my love, you’re the best,
Every little thing that I possess,
It’s all emotion when you take control,
I can feel wild horses running in my soul.”
The wind whistles and buffets us and the LS1 rumbles gently and the trick 50th Anniversary paint glistens in the bright sun.
“Quit dreaming this is real life baby”
Driving through the Black Forest in Germany (2013 730i xDrive)
Driving through Germany in particular (2013 730i xDrive)
Driving on the Nurburgring (M135i hatchback manual)
Riding on a bus to Monaco from Cannes, France
Riding on a bus to Florence, Italy
“flogged your Miata through the Tail of the Dragon.”
Close. Back in 2004 I bought a 2002 MR2 Spyder on a Wednesday and left for Knoxville/Tail of the Dragon the next day. I have some relatives that live about an hour from Tail of the Dragon so I thought it would be a good road trip. I was right! Although the car was loud on the interstate, it was a blast on the 318 curves and 11 miles that make up the Tail of the Dragon. The weather was great and the car handled like a go cart. There was a group of 12-15 Miatas running that Saturday and I tagged along with them for a while. It was good to hang out with people who had a similar passion about driving their cars. I believe that was the funnest time I ever had in a car. I am hoping to buy another MR2 this year and repeat the experience. Good times.
I’ll never forget driving across Sicily. The locals drive wild there.
Sardinia for me. Flat out insanity was appreciated as style and enthusiasm. It was good fun, but not my personal favorite drive.
Bogotá to Lima, 1987, in a Renault 4. A lot of the Panamericana was still unpaved then. In rural areas local kids would roll big rocks into the roadway to collect “peaje”. This is some of the most stunning scenery on the planet and includes everything from the high Andes to coastal desert.
July 2013….My wife was still in the early stages Early Onset Alz. We took a road trip down east. Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, then down into Main. Through New Hampshire, and Vermont, and upper N.Y state. All with our 2008 6cyl, automatic, Mustang, convertible. Top down 90 percent of the time.
Running the Cabot Trail {north shore of Cape Breton island N.S}. That had to be one of the high points. It really brought meaning to the old question ? Is it better to drive a fast car slow, or a slow car fast.
Great memories
I’m very sorry to hear of your wife’s difficulties. The trip sounds very nice; hope it was great for her, too.
Thank You SCE….she loved it
Mikey,
My deepest sympathies about your wife. I’m glad she loved that drive.
Thank You.. David
“Is it better to drive a fast car slow, or a slow car fast.”
I think it’s more about engagement. There are cars (fast and slow) that are engaging to drive. You can’t come close to the limits of the faster ones on public roads but they are still fun to drive.
You also have some cars (both fast and slow) that are not that engaging unless they’re being pushed.
For the most part, I prefer engagement and will gladly trade a decrease in power, 0-60 times, trap speed or what other bench racer metric you want to apply.
Thank you for sharing that wonderful memory, mikey. My thoughts and prayers are with you and yours.
Thank You…. Tresmonos
That sounds like it was a great trip. Also, I’m sorry to hear of your wife’s difficulties.
@mikey – take care. I wish you and your wife all the best.
Thank you fin car and Lou .
I’ve got a couple.
1st- My girlfriend in college worked for Ford. I don’t remember her actual title but she traveled to dealerships in the region and helped with their marketing. She rated a new Ford vehicle, and after so many miles, the company would take it back and I presume sell it.
Well, when she had a Thunderbird Super Coupe we took a trip down to South Florida. Let me say that at the time, the SC was one of my favorite cars, and to me was better than the Mustang GT. The car, the woman, and the location all combined to make a memorable trip.
2nd- A detachment to Rota, Spain where it was hard for me to believe that noone wanted to explore the environs (but they did talk of getting so drunk that they couldn’t walk) so I rented a small hatchback–I think is was a Seat but I’m not really sure–and explored southern Spain.
Went to Tarifa with a friend of mine to take the ferry to Morocco but got there too late to make the boat. We went all around Andalusia and had a hell of a time. And just so you know Spanish women are the best looking (and have the best figures) in all of Europe;-)
It was the summer of 1992. I was a 29 year old accountant attending a firm sponsored income tax continuing education conference at a hotel on the outskirts of the LAX airport. The conference began Tuesday mroning and was scheduled to run through Friday afternoon. My flight home Friday did not leave until 11:30 p.m. – a true red-eye. By Thursday night I was ready for the nightmare to end. As I was walking through the hotel lobby I noticed that the Hertz desk was advertising a Mazda Miata rental for $49/day, unlimited miles. I went to the conference that morning as scheduled, signed the attendance sheet, and at 9:15 “excused myself” to use the restroom. I never returned. I logged over 350 miles that day in the Miata on the Pacific Coast Highway. Returned the car to the hotel rental desk a little after 10:00, caught a shuttle to the airport, and left the little Miata behind. But the memory of that drive and that day has stayed with me to this very day. And I finally fulfilled my Miata dreams last month when I acquired a 55,000 mile 2001 British Racing Green Miata. I live in Minnesota now, so I have basically driven it home from the dealership. Spring cannot come soon enough!!!
That sounds like an awesome way to spend the last day of what I can assume was a very boring conference. If only you could have yelled “calc u later!” to your fellow accountants that were stuck there
Congrats on the new (to you) Miata!
Congrats on your 01 BRG, same car as I bought in Florida a year ago. Mine had about 75,000 miles. The 01 Special Edition is a beautiful car.
Driving the Sedona with our 5 kids from Pittsburgh to San Diego and back in the summer of 2010, pulling a U-Haul loaded with all of our camping equipment – including our brand new 18-ft dome tent.
We took a southern route going out, and a central route on the way back, averaging 430 miles a day for 15 days.
The heat was hot, the car was a champ, and the family bonded like never before. We had one cell phone among us, and no video screens – don’t miss the beauty of the land you’re driving through.
It was wonderful.
Seems like a fun trip. Did you go up the Cali coast or stay in San Diego?
From San Diego, we drove north along the coast briefly, then took Rt 15 toward Las Vegas (Dolomite Campground: literally and figuratively, a high point). That was a tough choice, because coastal and northern CA would have been lovely to see.
Ironically, we arrived in SD during something called “June Gloom”; it was in the 60s and overcast, not at all what we expected.
We were on a schedule with camp reservations for each night, so we had to maintain some travel discipline to make each site on time. The only planned hotel stay was in SD, and we had an unplanned one in Dayton, OH during a dog show convention – neither was good.
Lots of fun and great memories.
“…it was in the 60s and overcast, not at all what we expected.”
Sure that wasn’t San Francisco in July.
So.cal coastal weather in the beginning of summer is often disappointing, really becomes nice towards the latter part of summer. By any chance do you work at SpaceX? Have a handful of friends that work at the Hawthorne headquarters here in LA.
SpaceX – no, but I’d love to. They’re getting it done while NASA and its conventional contractors watch in wonder.
Maybe it’s a sweatshop on the inside, but from the outside it seems like an exciting place to work.
Another one comes to mind. Fall of 96. We needed to get my Father In Laws 95 Crown Vic back from Clearwater Fla. {another illness}. I booked a week off work, and flew to Tampa.
I took the “mountain route” up Interstate 95, then through the Carolinas and West Virginia. The driving dynamics of the RWD, and the big BOF, is a driving experience that younger people may never know. Going through the Smoky Mountains, with Classic Rock on the radio. That and the fall colours, priceless. I spent the night somewhere in West Virginia. As I recall, I enjoyed more than a couple of long neck Buds at the hotel bar. I was off, and back on the road at the crack of 10:30 AM next day. Another great days drive, and I was home.
Long drive there, eh?
@ 28 Sure was , but enough room in the trunk, to jam a couple of American “two fours” in there Eh?
Oh yeah you gotta get dem two fours. You can bring dem home and build a nice bench to watch the kids play shinny.
LOL
I’ll take the old truck out today, light up a cigar, see how the old dirt roads are. Nice weather here but I’ll predict that there will be at least one more winter storm to get socked with this season.
On a side trip in Tennessee, my wife makes a wrong turn and we end up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. After a few miles of her slow driving – and the “next exit, 50 miles” sign – I took over. She was in near tears thinking we were going to be stuck on that road for hours.
No I wasn’t in a sports car, instead it was a MY01 Grand Marquis which was a great highway machine. I drove that thing as fast and hard as I could along the curves, inclines, and declines. It handled pretty well though on certain curves it felt like the rear wanted to swap spaces with the front.
I have taken many roadtrips, including a week long tour of continental Europe, but my favorite times spent driving are just the time trials I do through the forest and farm roads north of where I live.
Maybe that time I caught air passing the yokel with a fridge tied down in the back of his pick up.
India. Driving in hell.
My most memorable drive was in India. It was also the most terrifying.
After arriving late at night, we had to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel a long distance away. And never have I seen a more chaotic, rules be damned system ever since.
In the dark of night and on their so called highway, nobody followed any rules. In the darkness, out of nowhere you suddenly swooped in on a horse cart. Or a cycle with passengers on the rear powered by propane.
Or even worse…suddenly, as the headlights come closer, you realized it was a version of their semi truck IN YOUR LANE.
Yup…in you lane driving towards you. And it was your job to get out of its way and survive.
We soon realized there was no such thing as rules of the road. It was whoever made it…their were right. A right hand turn meant nothing. If a motorcycle or taxi could cut in and take the inside turn before you …if they made it…they were in the right. All they had to do was sound the beep…and make their move.
I will always remember the madness of that late night drive.
OK…that was the worst.
The best?
That one, and the many to follow, would always be the drives across the country from Illinois to Los Angeles. Took it in old vans and hot Firebirds. And each one was memorable. Each one opened my eyes to was “epic” really was. I can see why westerns were always the best for wide screen and epic movie settings.
Once leaving central Colorado and seeing the Rockies on the horizon, I knew I was in for something bigger than the corn fields of my Illinois roots.
Driving down out of the Rockies into the beautiful plateaus of Utah and the canyons of Nevada…the desert of eastern California…all the best drives of my life.
I often tell my kids the biggest regret I have as a parent was the fact we never did, as a famiy, the western USA road trip.
I have so many. Regularly driving down to – and through – Upstate NY to visit my first real girlfriend when I was 18, shortly after having bought my own first car, a ’92 Jetta Coupe. As a suburban kid of a big city, zipping down the nicely-paved curved country roads and finding creeks, water falls, and other secluded places was a joy, only some of which were car-related.
Around the same time, taking the same Jetta 750 miles from Montreal to Halifax in under 13 hours – and then returning just over a day later – in order to bring back a rental car with my dad which a family friend had left at our house.
The summer I was 20, having just bought my first motorcycle, an ’89 Ninja 600, and riding down a straight, secluded road, farm on one side, moon reflecting off a canal on the other, with my girlfriend on the back, and my best friend ahead of us on his own bike.
Driving through the Swiss Alps in a nicely-restored ’73 Triumph Spitfire, including the cobblestone switchbacks of the ancient Gotthard Pass (Google it – it’s awesome).
Bombing around at 23 between Burgundy, France and various regions of Switzerland in a Renault Master van during the summer I spent as a bicycle guide.
Hitting an indicated 160 MPH on the sujbect of my avatar picture, a Suzuki TL1000S, on a Quebec back road, just a small part of a 500 mile day ride I took which included heading up to Stowe, VT and attending a Swiss festival in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
The first time I drove my ’99 Miata on the racetrack, and was shown, despite all the reading I’ve done, and the amount I played on public roads, that I don’t know much of anything about real performance driving. It was exciting and humbling. Spinning off the track, dirt and dust coming in through the open top, as well as the sound of clipping a traffic cone on the corner of the track at 60 MPH while just barely pulling off a four-wheel drift at full throttle are two memories that stand out in my mind, too.
The most memorable drives I’ve ever had center around two vehicles: the first Fiesta ST built in North America, and a ’84 Lincoln Continental. Two opposite sides of the spectrum in legality, speed and comfort.
I much prefer the rides in the Continental. I need another project car, soon. And I want it to be a barge of a cruiser. I have hope as the Bill Blass ’79 two door Continental in Fargo piqued my gf’s interest.
Did you ever happen to take some video of the ’84 Conti?
Just the motor at idle. I wish I had shot some in car video :)
I would have loved some footage of a proud Lincoln diesel. Perhaps somewhere an owner is rolling coal out of a rare Fox Conti or Mark VII?
When I was in high school / college, I worked at a summer camp down south, and was dating a gal who worked there too. One summer she decided to teach me how to drive manual transmission on her beater Geo. I remember one night, when I’d really started to figure out stick, that was just about perfect. Flying down back roads on a summer night, girlfriend half asleep in the passenger seat, nowhere to really be, just driving.
I still smile when I see pos Geos.
I learned the stick shift from my dad, but learning from a girlfriend would be way, way better.
Teaching a GF isn’t too bad either! I taught a few. Didn’t have to teach my wife, though. She came with that software pre-installed.
In the fall of 1984, I took my Honda CRX (1.5, 5-speed) on a Sunday dawn drive from near Harrisonburg, VA to DC along the Skyline Drive. It was a glorious morning – next to no traffic, clouds rolling downhill across the road, and the fall tree colors in full bloom. The tiny Honda seemed perfectly suited for the tight bends in the road and at times I found myself doing almost double the speed limit. Unfortunately, a VA highway patrolman stopped me at one point near the north end. He looked at me then looked at the CRX and said “Look, son, I know you’re having fun out here but cut it out!” He drove away without giving me a ticket. I could have fainted on the spot.
My best friend and I were depressed and had a horrible case of cabin fever. So. I suggested we go for a drive.
We took my 1988 Taurus L (yes, the I-4 model) and went up into the mointauns. We found a forest service access road and took off up it. The terrain was horrible, but the car did very well…until the road (if you could call it that) ended and so we stopped and got out. Turns out the road didnt end, at least not intentionally. A slide had destroyed enough of it to make it impossible to drive a lifted 4wd through there, much less a Taurus. So, we walked another 1/4 miles (estimate) and were rewarded with an incredible view. This was before camera phones, otherwise we wouldve taken dozens of pictures Im sure.
We walked back to the Taurus and eased it back down the trail until we found a place big enough to turn it around so we could do the rest of the way down not reversing lol. We were gone all day driving around, it was just what we needed to cure the dreary Washington weather blues.
Another very memorable drive was when I was on Nevada’s 93 in my 1992 Ford Tempo LX V-6. I could take it up to 100 mph, set the cruise, and not see another car/person/sign of life for ever and ever, lol. I love that stretch of road. I miss that Tempo. With the V-6, that car was amazingly fast.
I’ve got a couple:
1) The summer of 2009, when I was 18 years old and had just graduated high school, I signed up for a week as a junior staff member for Appalachian Service Project. I drove about 472 miles (roughly 8 hours down I-75) from Plymouth, MI to Winfield, TN (a couple miles south of the Kentucky border). I was by myself and had no deadlines or anything so I just got to cruise. I was driving a 1999 Toyota RAV4 4-door with an automatic transmission. The car was boring but it had a sunroof and the scenery was beautiful. That drive will forever be in my mind as a coming-of-age experience. Just me and the open road; it was a beautiful thing.
2) Spring Break 2012. I got married Jan 2012, halfway through junior year of college. We lived in Grand Rapids, MI at the time. For Spring Break, I convinced my new wife that we should take a road trip with no destination so we just jumped on the highway and drove south. Eventually we arrived in Indianapolis and decided to get a hotel. While at a rest stop, we saw a United Way flyer asking for help for victims of the March 2-3, 2012 Tornado outbreak. We drove to a station and were dispatched to Henryville, IN, a town of about 2,000 people that had been leveled. The devastation was heart-wrenching, but the spirit of helping people quickly restored faith in humanity. People do care. Beyond that, the trip was a blast. We were driving our 2001 Toyota Camry LE automatic and making memories together on a road trip with no destination.
For both of those trips I was driving Y2K Toyotas; far from the most exciting vehicles. The memories are more important to me anyway. As the years go by, I’ll add more car-focused driving stories :D
I can’t decide which of two (or three) is more memorable.
The first was in 2007, when I drove my MG to California to visit a friend. Took me 4 days to get there and as many to get back. Along the way, I drove US-101 along the Oregon Coast, the Redwood Highway between Crescent City and Cave Junction (twice!), US-101 and CA-1 along the northern California Coast, highways 97, 218, 206, NF-53, and 3 in eastern Oregon (all very lovingly maintained with next to no traffic), returning home via a lovely bit of road south of Anatone, Washington. All said, it was about 2500 miles, just me, a tent, and a old British convertible. Top down the entire time. That I got to spend time visiting my old college roommate for a few days was the cherry on top of a wonderful road trip.
The other was either of the two trips I made to Scotland to support another friend who was running the West Highland Way Race. The driving itself was only ok (the rental car was too big to be “fun” on those narrow highland roads), but when you spend 24 hours in a car with good friends with the singular task of supporting one person running 95 miles over the Highlands of Scotland, the memories are going to be either very very good, or very very bad. In my case, they were good, even the first year when we failed to complete the race.
1. My first legal drive, 35 miles from the Hyannis (Cape Cod) RMV to our summer place in Wellfleet, in the ’65 Peugeot wagon with four on the tree. I come out with my new learner’s permit, and reach for the driver door. My mother says, “you’re not driving,” and I say, why? and she says because of Rt 6, the main highway betw the two. So I say, lets take 6A. She loved 6A, I don’t know why she hadn’t thought of that. by the time we got to the Orleans rotary, she was so comfortable with my driving she let me keep driving, even though after that it was almost all on 6.
2. It’s hard to beat Old County Road between Wellfleet and Truro for both twists and turns, and scenery. I’ve done it a jillion times, and I still love it. The most memorable might have been soon after I’d gotten the new ’93 Saturn (5 on the floor), a very sporty car despite the rep that the later Saturns gave it.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/the-truth-about-saturn/
I had my mother and my brother in the car, and we’d stopped for a box turtle. We got going again just as some honking Nissan SUV came up behind. He tailgated us on the straights, but we’d lose him in the twisties. It was a blast.
3. Skyline in the Shenandoahs between 66 and Charlottesville
4. Skip Barber https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/10/david-holzman-goes-to-the-skip-barber-shop/
5. Often, everyday drives such as between my coffee house in Arlington (Mass) and my home in Lexington in my ’08 Civic (stick) are wonderful. At suburban speeds, the Civic is wonderfully agile, the suspension takes the bad pavement with aplomb, and the engine is responsive and smooth. Yes, it can even be fun to drive a not so fast car not so fast.
6. When I lived in DC, and had the Saturn, there was a particular more than 90 degree (maybe 145) in one of the roads, and the pavement was such that if it was even slightly wet, I could make the Saturn slide with complete predictability, and I would always put it into a slide on that turn.
My current dream is to drive across the country and back, mostly on back roads. I’m sure that will give me loads of great driving.
For me it was cutting school, “stealing” my best friend’s girl friend’s MGB and driving out to Stinson Beach. Yes along Highway 1, finding a head shop in the middle of no where and eating lunch. All that and getting home without getting into trouble. I was forever hooked on British sport cars.
Probably my most memorable were in the same car, an ’85 Jetta diesel. It was purchased from a former roommate that was leaving the country to teach at the time so he needed to sell it and I needed a car. It happened to be a 5 speed, which I didn’t know how to drive at the time. My mum tried to teach me on our ’91 Tercel at one point but I gave up in frustration.
Anyway, the car became mine and I had to learn how to drive it. So I decided to take myself at 2-3 AM to teach myself manual transmission operation. Learned it fairly quickly. Still remember trying not to stall it in various locations in the city I grew up in.
The second most memorable was driving that ’85 Jetta diesel from Ontario to Maine in March of 2000 to meet a girl in person that I met online (on ICQ of all things). Lost my vacuum pump around Kingston, Ontario but I kept heading east because I was on a mission and manual brakes weren’t going to stop me…
16 years later the car is long gone but I have some lifetime/life-changing memories.
This is TTAC, so you’ll need to find something horribly wrong with the experience.
“The car’s seats had the suppleness of an aging witch’s breasts and all of the comfort of a medieval gallows, while the interior plastics were obviously designed by OPEC on a bad day. Acceleration was as swift as a tortoise with its legs removed, but that was refreshing compared to the handling that was less responsive than an aircraft carrier that had run aground.
“The only redeeming quality of this subprime loan on wheels was that Avis was ready to take it back. A holiday in Cambodia with Pol Pot would have been more pleasant than this rolling hunk of malaise.”
-30-
Pch101 – TTAC needs you on board. Sounds like Dead Weight talking about Cadillac.
Cheers :)
It was an homage to Robert Farago, who loves his metaphors, similes and passing references to rock songs.
“Pch101 – I`m fond of metaphors. Great way to get a complex point across in a simple way.
You have been frequenting this site a long time.
The first time I drove rt33 west of Santa Barbara. I was in Monterey for a race weekend with a buddy of mine who occasionally races a spec miata. I had found a stick shift miata rental at lax and on the drive back we got sick of the pch. With no knowledge of the local roads we found a route that went inland, ending on rt58 (amazing!) and then south on 33 through the national park. Just staggering. I realized about halfway down 33 that I recognized it from various magazine and YouTube vehicle tests. On that day my miata love went from hypothetical to actual.
I went 600 miles over my rental agreement that weekend, but when I came in with a list of service items needing care on their 100k mile rental they appreciated my attitude about it and waived all the overcharges.
December 1994… I had quit my job, packed up everything I owned (which all fit into my 86 Mustang LX – hatch mostly closed) and drove from Vermont to Long Island straight thru so I could surprise my fiance’ when she got out of work. Didn’t even unpack at my parents, just showed up. There was so much road salt that it was spraying in the open hatch.
Didn’t really care. It was that trip where I realized I was now the adult, so if I wanted to stop, then I could stop… but if I wanted to go straight thru, then I could.
I don’t have a favorite driving experience. Nor do I have a favorite dental procedure.
But I adore being comfortably numbed for both.
A Google car for you, then!
I am the quintessential AV wannahave. My own clean car, nobody in it I haven’t invited in and leave the driving to Skynet.
But I also expect peace on earth and universal affluence before ever seeing an AV infrastructure in flyover country.
RideHeight – setting the bar high there bud….. hence the nom de guerre ;)
You can add no-carb pasta to my list of things that will happen before AVs.
Here’s a few, in chronological order:
Los Angeles to Missouri in a ’79 Trans Am to go to college. 400 cubes, 4-on-the-floor, t-tops, and ….less than legal substances.
Houston to Missouri in the ’75 Delta 88 my buddy inherited. The thing literally drove like a boat: Turn the wheel, wait for the helm to come around, adjust, repeat. A true Malaise Mobile.
Just out of college, tooling around souther England/Wales in a 1-litre Ford Fiesta with my brother and a college buddy. Perfect car for blasting through those insanely narrow country lanes.
LA to Yosemite and back in a rented 93 Bonneville, solo. I never actually joined the Church of the 3800, but it was great being a guest. Upgrading to the Bonnie from a Cavalier only cost me 5 bucks per day, best money I ever spent.
Idaho to Las Vegas in an ’85 XJ6. Hundreds of miles of empty 2-lane highway. Put the cruise on 85 and let the big 6 purr while the scenery flashed by.
We are always open to welcoming new followers, my son.
A few weeks ago, I took first communion at the Church in the form of my Dad’s former 2006 Buick Allure.
Dad traded it in at the dealership I work at in 2011 with 150,000 km on it. They couldn’t sell it for some reason so they ended up keeping it as an internal vehicle to use for running between our dealer group all over southern Alberta. I picked it up for $500 with 420,000 km on it now. So far, I’m into it for a thermostat and gas cap to clear a CEL, trans flush w/internal filter, and an oil change (all of which is cheap when I buy parts just above cost and do the work myself.) This weekend’s project will be plugs and wires since nobody seems to have any record of those ever being changed.
“And the General did say, ‘Let there be torque.’ And there was torque. And He saw that it was good. Praise AC.”
May ye be blessed with many, many, more kilometers, my son.
2004 Mazda3s, brand new, took it on Freedom Plains Road for the first time, one of the most fun twisty roads in Dutchess County, NY. That was such a frigging revelation.
Another revelation was being navigated onto Ridge Road. Which, despite the name, is more of a dirt path for goats and Wranglers. Ick.
My favorite drive was in my Miata. Last spring I was driving through the Cascades and decided to drive up the north side of Mt. St. Helens. The road was closed right before the turn off to go up to the National Monument. Because of this it was completely deserted, and I had the road to myself. Awesome sunny day too. It was about 65 degrees, I had the top down, and was just able to blast up and down the side of the mountain. It was awesome.
Many come to mind, but number one would probably be heading out from Philly to Chester County to see my girlfriend (now wife) on a midsummer weekend night, with the roof of my Turbo Supra open to the stars above, and REM’s “Losing my Religion” playing on the CD player.
I’ve had some nice drives down to the Florida Keys. Its not exciting as the road is ruler straight and very boring, but going over all the bridges, smelling the salt air and looking out at the turquoise waters always puts me in a great mood – especially when I’m towing my boat.
I’ve ridden along with friends and family in the mountains of West Virgina where each turn was tighter and more scenic then the one before. I’m always shocked at the lack of guardrails up there, sure it allows you to see more but seems dangerous.
I once drove from Scottsdale AZ to San Ana CA just for kicks. I was going to fly but had some down time between business trips so I kept the rental car and drove the whole way. The car was nothing special but I had time to kill so there was no pressure and the desert is so different looking from the east coast where I’ve driven mostly.
Had an awesome ride in a bus while sightseeing in Italy and Monaco. When I realized we were on the main road around the harbor which is part of the F1 circuit I jumped out of my seat and pressed my face against the window like a little kid. The tour bus was going the opposite way of the race so we climbed to the tunnel as we left the harbor behind. The same kind of shock and awe occurred in Rome, when you round a bend and the Colosseum is right there in front of you.
The time I lost my brakes on the track was a memorable drive too… YIKES!
I’ve experienced some amazing machines and drives, being in so.cal certainly helps but a great memory was this past November. I was picking up a rental car at Sixt in Miami, booked a compact for $30 a day when the rental agent went for an upsell and for $20 more a day I could drive a brand new 428i convertible, why not go full tourist and get the convertible I thought. Plus that’s a pretty killer price for a $50k car.
The car itself was nothing mind blowing but putting down the top and driving to Key West was absolutely breath taking, highly recommend it for anyone who is taking a trip to Miami. Driving back through the Keys at night with the top down and that warm/muggy weather felt great, would love to do it again.
Favorite drive in Europe: Edinburgh to Fort William. The trip into the highlands was flanked by fog and rain, but not enough to ruin the views, and the occasional burst of sunshine through a cloud bank lit the verdant fields beautifully. Utterly gobsmacking, that.
Favorite drive in the US: One day, I decided I’d spend the whole day driving my heavily-modded 240SX. I started in Fallbrook, CA and took the 395 out to Rainbow Valley to Rice Canyon, then the 76 to Couser Canyon, turned around and did Couser downhill to the 76, then went up and over Palomar Mountain a couple times, hopped back on the 76 near Lake Henshaw and took Mesa Grande out to the 79. Took the 79 up toward Julian, stopping at every twisty-looking road along the way, then backtracked to Sunrise Highway, which I took down to the 8 before heading back the same way and took the 79 all the way into Temecula, ate a double-double at In-N-Out and headed home. Took eight or nine hours with thousands of feet of elevation change and a wide range of temperature changes.
Driving for the first time on my own on the Autobahn in my father’s 1980 Opel Rekord. 2nd, taking the back road to Cheatem County Dam in Tennessee at the wheel of my sister’s then new CRX Si. Ones I would prefer to forget, but were truly memorable (and frightening), any day I got behind the wheel driving around Riyadh, Saudi Arabia!
The first one was when I took my 1965 Chrysler 300L hardtop to a license plate collectors’ meet in southern California. At the time the double-nickel speed limit held sway, and also speeds on I-5 were lower in Oregon than in Washington, the reverse of the usual situation in those years. Just south of Eugene three new BMW’s passed me doing about 80 to 85. I let them go about half a mile ahead, then matched their speed. Up and down those southern Oregon mountains at that speed was quite a hoot. Several other guys did the same thing, and we had a bit of a convoy going. Unfortunately the Bimmers left the freeway at Grants Pass. On the way back from California, I kept being surprised at how steep the downgrades in the mountains were – they hadn’t seemed that steep going up.
The other one I’ll mention: the first time our daughter drove the 5-speed 1989 Accord on a road other than the gravel backroads close to our house. It was a thirteen-mile stretch of serious gravel and dirt backroad west of Matlock, and she handled the car well and confidently. Near the end of the drive we met a car and of course she was all nervous that the other driver would know that she was only fourteen. I took over when we reached pavement. I suspect that she remembers that drive as well as I do – she wasn’t introduced to actual traffic until she got her learner’s permit more than a year later.
Driving a cheap Renault hatch on the Nürburgring, in the rain, with a french instructor yelling at me the whole way around and my wife being a good sport in the backseat.
Driving a rental TT TDI on the Autobahn at max speed with my wife on our honeymoon. It hit 155mph eventually, down a hill.
Driving my old TSX 200 miles through twisty Appalachain backroads in a day with a friend on a motorcycle.
Driving the 128i up to Lick Observatory… which I just did again yesterday.
Too many to list, really.
I sure liked flogging my Carrera from Halifax to Peggy’s Cove, not via Hammonds Plains, but via Prospect Rd. Wasn’t going too fast, but enough to almost get my son sick a few times. Gorgeous drive. Also Cape Breton, from Sydney to Cabot Trail was beautiful. Not too exciting since we drove the wife’s Pilot.
My older brother and I did a drive of a lifetime in summer 1976 in a well-used ’65 Mustang convertible (six, three-on-the floor). We took out the backseat, chained two spare tires in place, and used the trunk and the rest of the rear area for camping gear, coolers, and luggage. We spent 3 months on the road with no fixed itinerary. Camping out was the order of the day except where we could bum food and lodging from friends and relatives. Starting near Cape Canaveral, FL, we drove through Texas into Mexico, went down the east coast to Tampico, crossed over to San Blas and Mazatlan, up the west coast to California, then back across I-80 to Indiana, then finally southward towards FL. If we found a place we liked, we stayed a while – sometimes as long as two weeks (like on the beaches at the aforementioned Mazatlan). It was a grand adventure that the two of us still talk about.
Now that sounds tremendous.
Not much of a drive, but today’s trip to Palm Beach was special to me. I hit 200,000 miles in a car I’ve owned since new. The manufacturer put the first 15 on it, and I’ve done the rest. Time for some more miles to interesting places.
The most memorable drive was the first drive; in a new (at the time) 1980 Mercury Marquis. The drive lasted less than twenty minutes. Because twenty minutes was all my “instructor” (a relative of mine) could stand. The drive took the two of us through the main street area of a quintessential American small town (the town, at that time had one red light on Main Street; today it has two…unlike the vast majority of American small towns, its population has grown slightly, from about 3,000 to about 3,500 people over the past few decades). We began our short journey in the parking lot of the local elementary school, which is located on the eastern edge of the town. The 20 minute journey ended at the local high school parking lot, after turning up and down several side streets, spending about 5 minutes “topping off the gas tank” (because I supposedly needed to immediately know how to pump gas…”just because” it was important for me to know about this), and after a “near-miss” with the town’s sole (and supposedly “goofy” bicyclist; “goofy” because, back at that time, in that town, it was unheard of for an adult to ride a bicycle rather than drive a car). The high school parking lot is located on the western edge of the town. My “instructor” was so frazzled at the end of the drive that I was not permitted to practice parallel parking in the high school parking lot. This was a great day. I drove for the first time, I drove a big American so-called luxury car (with a V8), I survived the adventure unscathed (so did the car, the town-folk, the gas station attendant, and the bicyclist), and I ended-up with a memory that will last a lifetime.
Last summer, my wife and I honeymooned in Puglia. We rented a Fiat Panda, bought a map, and proceeded to get lost and found again day after day on engaging, marble-smooth, nearly deserted roads in the most romantic and beautiful scenery I’ve ever witnessed. Optima dies, prima fugit.
How does profligate, tax-scoffing *Italy* get marble-smooth roads while the US gets Fallujahn rubble?
Tampa, FL to Fairbanks, AK. Rt 10 to 5 in beautiful LA, up to the CanAm. Love Whitehorse and Kluane Lake.
Toronto-Vancouver this past September to come join my wife and . 3 days of 140-160km/h through some wildly varying terrain and conditions in a Mk3 Jetta that was lacking AC.
Highlights include a crusty DHS guy in Detroit, teaching my 60 year old dad how to use three pedals, and dealing with labour day traffic on the east coast on day one. Also, Steak & Shake isn’t half bad.
Day two started out boring, and involved Austin Minnesota to Butte Montana. As we headed west, however, the terrain became far more beautiful, as did the sky. The buffalo in SD are pretty cool, and the US 212 going west was one of the most incredibly jawdropping stretches of scenery I’ve seen in my life.
Montana was a favourite stretch, not only for the view, but also the cops. At the start of day three, we were stopped doing ~150km/h (my dad was driving), and were fearing draconian penalties. The cop handed me a ticket for $20 and said have a nice day. After stringing him along for a bit, I let him know his license and wallet were far from ruined! Washington was weird, and went from desert to rainforest. The Columbia gorge was beautiful, as was the Snoqualmie pass.
All in all, I’d definitely do it again. It was the final big trip for poor Jetta, which suffered in salty worst case Ontario, and she took it like a champ. I’d recommend crossing the continent by car to everyone, as it’s an experience that lets you appreciate how tiny you are, and how great the world is.
I might have to write this up in a longer format..but best drive that I can think of was eleven years ago.
Columbus, Ohio, to Bar Harbor, Maine.
With my new bride.
In a Miata.
“Highlight” of the trip was I-80 across PA, which hasn’t been resurfaced since the Johnson administration.
I hate I-80, but I think it has improved substantially lately. There were many years, though, where the relentless thump of tar strips every 1.5 seconds was maddening.
A few years ago while playing ‘pretend you’re in a Ferrari’ I had quite the memorable experience of nearly plunging my ’99 Town Car Cartier into the Pacific on a hairpin turn I noticed at the last possible moment on the Kahekili Hwy (it really has no business being called a highway). Think I might stick to the Honoapi’ilani Hwy from now on. ;)
As I approach the age of 50, driving long distance is more of a pain than a pleasure. All of my cars have great seats (Volvo, Mercedes x2)…you would think I’d enjoy it. However a short trip by air makes my trip even sweeter.
I’ve had to suffer both short hop and long haul flight trips and I hated the cattle-car accommodations of coach-class.
Until last summer I thought I would never top the PCH run, which I have done in a C5 Corvette and on a Honda 700 Nighthawk, among others.
Driving the biggest POS ever, a Citroen Berlingo minivan, we toured Ireland, doing the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle peninsula, The Rock of Cashel and so on.
The trip of a lifetime…
Kerry is good, but Dingle is really something special.
Mark,
The topic of this thread, and the deliberate break for TTAC, was a welcome departure from the breathless pace this site keeps.
Thanks for the timeout.
Terrific stories here .
-Nate
A couple of memorable drives for me. One was heading through North Walles to the coast at Abersoch in a Lotus Elan Sprint, top down on a summers day and sensory input turned up to 11.
The other was a mad dash through London many years ago from the northern outskirts to Paddington Station to catch a train. That was one of the times when every bit of looking ahead to judge traffic worked, every traffic light caught at just the right time, less than 40 minutes elapsed time for what would normally, even in those days, take close to an hour. That was in a Renault 16TS, as epoch making a car in its way as the Citroen DS but just about forgotten nowadays.
Driving a MY98 Contour SVT from Bremerhaven to Frankfurt, fall 2000. Flat out 156 mph before you felt the “Ford”.
Driving a MY95 Mustang Hardtop Convertible from Bremerhaven to Regensberg, summer 2015. 140 mph before you felt the “Ford”.
Driving from Frankfurt to Rotterdam in a MY88 VW Scirocco GT 4spd, red with black whale tail, aftermarket 15″ wheels and tuned exhaust. Took a detour south through the Ardennes in November of 2002 just for the f of it. No power but man that car loved the twisties.
My most memorable ride has to be the drive up to Grand Canyon from Tucson, Arizona in a 2014 Ford Fusion. I’m from NYC and that kind of scenery is completely foreign to me. I’ve only seen it in movies, and my desktop backgrounds. It was so beautiful to me that it was tear inducing.