The love of driving.
Discussion
tters i can get in a frenzy way.If ever there was a book that encapsulates this pure love of driving, for me it has to be Peking to Paris.
It was originally run in 1907 when the world had just passed it's driving test, so to speak, and it has the pure excitement that anything is possible, and the sheer joy of completing a by no means certain journey across continents, on roads designed for horses.
It was originally run in 1907 when the world had just passed it's driving test, so to speak, and it has the pure excitement that anything is possible, and the sheer joy of completing a by no means certain journey across continents, on roads designed for horses.
I've not really had much enjoyment from driving since moving to london in 2001; due to the general decline in driving standards and attitudes, both the morons on the roads and the plonkers in charge, driving any distance is sheer drudgery.
We have been gifted use of a holiday apartment in windemere in a weeks time and I seriously contemplated using a "train" to get there and perhaps hiring a car for a couple of days to save costs, given the van will only do 25mpg (say 22 gallons there and back). But as the train takes about 6 hours anyway and costs $50 trillion because we didn't book the tickets before the second full moon after the first day of spring of 1967 that idea was abandoned. Still considered it though.
We have been gifted use of a holiday apartment in windemere in a weeks time and I seriously contemplated using a "train" to get there and perhaps hiring a car for a couple of days to save costs, given the van will only do 25mpg (say 22 gallons there and back). But as the train takes about 6 hours anyway and costs $50 trillion because we didn't book the tickets before the second full moon after the first day of spring of 1967 that idea was abandoned. Still considered it though.
The OP is spot on, driving is just fun no matter what you are in. I remember having a riot of a time hooning my dad's old Volvo estate around the local B roads last summer and putting off taking my test as long as possible just so that I could enjoy a little bit more driving. When I buy a car at some point I will be taking it the long way home, no matter what it is. I miss driving. 
chrisispringles said:
The OP is spot on, driving is just fun no matter what you are in. I remember having a riot of a time hooning my dad's old Volvo estate around the local B roads last summer and putting off taking my test as long as possible just so that I could enjoy a little bit more driving. When I buy a car at some point I will be taking it the long way home, no matter what it is. I miss driving.
Are you not able to drive any more? 
traffman said:
Not sure what sort of character the electric car will bring ......sadly.
As much as I like driving, If the future involves electric cars then that worries me. I like a car that has a proper engine even if it's diesel lol. I also prefer changing gear manually even though it's probably a lot slower than the latest dsg/flappy paddle etc.
I posted some time back in the Lotus forum about their late cheif test driver Roger Becker. I remember he was interviewed by Motor magazine when the Excel came out in the mid eighties. Early in his test driving career he got an evening job as a taxi driver just because he couldn't get enough of driving during the day. That was someone who loved driving for the sheer sake of it. Given the choice I'd rather drive a 20 year-old Transit with knackered syncromesh and an iffy master cylinder over a decent road than ponce up and down the King's Road in a Veyron or whatever. I really really like cars but I love driving.
I may have been drinking this evening...
I may have been drinking this evening...
Going back to my Pug 205 1.1 snotter i bought from a bloke in Sheffield for the grand total of 50 quid. 1 months tax and test and tyres that must have been periously close to the limit.
Driving that thing back across snake pass was an event and hammering that tiny engine in the pouring rain only to look down and be amazed that this tiny, tinny little buzz box with bald tyres was well within the national speed limit made me chuckle.
Despite its skinny little tyres and wheezy engine the steering was direct, the throttle response superb and it cost me buttons to run. God knows what a 1.9 GTI must feel like but i loved that little 1.1 Pug. It had a tailgate a different colour to the rest of the car and had a dent in almost every panel and was hanging onto life but give me thrills for what must have been its last hurrah.
When i sold it (for 100 quid with a fresh mot and tyres) everyone told me 'Nice to see you got rid of that pos' for me i wasn't quite so sure.
Driving that thing back across snake pass was an event and hammering that tiny engine in the pouring rain only to look down and be amazed that this tiny, tinny little buzz box with bald tyres was well within the national speed limit made me chuckle.
Despite its skinny little tyres and wheezy engine the steering was direct, the throttle response superb and it cost me buttons to run. God knows what a 1.9 GTI must feel like but i loved that little 1.1 Pug. It had a tailgate a different colour to the rest of the car and had a dent in almost every panel and was hanging onto life but give me thrills for what must have been its last hurrah.
When i sold it (for 100 quid with a fresh mot and tyres) everyone told me 'Nice to see you got rid of that pos' for me i wasn't quite so sure.
CHIEF said:
When i sold it (for 100 quid with a fresh mot and tyres) everyone told me 'Nice to see you got rid of that pos' for me i wasn't quite so sure.
This is what I'm facing with the current snotter. Family/OH/Colleagues regard it as a POS..... And it will fail MOT, unknown how bad. But it's epic in terms of it's fun factor.
I'm not being funny (even though it's the classic PH recommendation), but have a look at a MX5 (Mk1).
You can pick up a reasonable one for under £1000 (or should that be 'bag of sand'??). They're cheap to have maintained by someone else and are reasonably frugal on fuel and insurance isn't obscene.
They're also reasonably involving to drive with no driver aids (I get asked occasionally, by non car-y people - how do I survive without ABS/traction control to which I reply that I do have it - my right foot) and just generally fun!
They're not fast in the same way the scooby/GT3 is (and I should know!), but it's just great fun. And when the mood strikes, drop the top (i.e. all the time!!).
I've had mine for 3 years and for the last 18 months been having the itch to move on to something else - been so close to other things, but can't see the point.
In short - get one bought!
You can pick up a reasonable one for under £1000 (or should that be 'bag of sand'??). They're cheap to have maintained by someone else and are reasonably frugal on fuel and insurance isn't obscene.
They're also reasonably involving to drive with no driver aids (I get asked occasionally, by non car-y people - how do I survive without ABS/traction control to which I reply that I do have it - my right foot) and just generally fun!
They're not fast in the same way the scooby/GT3 is (and I should know!), but it's just great fun. And when the mood strikes, drop the top (i.e. all the time!!).
I've had mine for 3 years and for the last 18 months been having the itch to move on to something else - been so close to other things, but can't see the point.
In short - get one bought!
For me it's not just the driving... I enjoy working on my cars too. Be it full on engine out stuff or just tinkering with stuff or experimenting with kit... It's the smell, it's the feel of dirty oil and grease. It's figuring stuff out that I have never tackled before.
And then driving it.
And then driving it.
I even get excited when I have to take a company pool car or demonstrator. I have a nice relationship with the fleet manager and he's always good enough to make sure I never get the same car twice; I just want to experience as many different cars as I can before I die.
Even at the tender age of 32 (despite finding my first grey pube the other week), I'm deep into having sampled hundreds of different cars and bikes, from Aston Martins to Ferraris and Fiats to Yugos, and each car leaves a distinct map in my mind of what it was like to drive, like a mental Top Trumps card.
I don't care if it's diesel, petrol, normally aspirated, turbocharged, supercharged or has independent suspension, leaf springs, live axles, convertible, coupe, saloon, estate...
Naturally, I have my preferences but if you don't experience the vast array of different configurations out there, you'll never develop those preferences.
Even at the tender age of 32 (despite finding my first grey pube the other week), I'm deep into having sampled hundreds of different cars and bikes, from Aston Martins to Ferraris and Fiats to Yugos, and each car leaves a distinct map in my mind of what it was like to drive, like a mental Top Trumps card.
I don't care if it's diesel, petrol, normally aspirated, turbocharged, supercharged or has independent suspension, leaf springs, live axles, convertible, coupe, saloon, estate...
Naturally, I have my preferences but if you don't experience the vast array of different configurations out there, you'll never develop those preferences.
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