The other day I left work, started my S, took down the top and pulled out of the lot. All of a sudden all of the signs were in French and I was on the straightaway at LeMans. I lapped all of the other cars in the grid, and was running a sensational race. I was in first, none of the other cars were even in sight. I'd have won too except that I had to stop to open my garage door. It was fun while it lasted.

Sometimes its Formula 1, sometimes sportscar racing. I'm always in the lead, but I always get home before the end of the race.

Has that ever happened to you?

 

Yes, perhaps it's the time of year, and feeling free. When this happens to me, I usually take an aspirin with a glass of Merlot or Cabernet, then go for a little walk.
I think it is a good thing to feel like that.

 

Yes, or something like it ... a couple of weeks ago, on one of the first really nice spring days, I was cutting through traffic and passing cars steadily, one by one, right and left. I didn't need to feel guilty, either, because I was leaving them behind so quickly that I wasn't holding anyone up at all.

I'd only ever seen other people drive like that before - generally 911s as they were gradually disappearing in the distance ahead. It was nice being in the driver's seat, and finally realizing what having a sports car was really like.

 

Hey Warren, this was supposed to be a virtual experience.....
....not driving erratically on a public road

This reminds me of the time that I was driving the S like you on NJ's Garden State Pkwy. Shortly afterwards, I came upon one of the ubiquitous toll booths (this was before EZ Pass). One of the drivers that I passed (wearing some sort of a uniform...security guard etc) pulled up next to me and yelled out the window, "Do you always drive like that?"

I didn't think of a clever reply ("I try to") so just drove off calmly without reply. Nevertheless, recalling this admonition does slow me down sometimes....

 

[QUOTE=ralper,Apr 25 2005, 05:36 PM]
Sometimes its Formula 1, sometimes sportscar racing.

 

Only when the tunafish at lunch was a bit off.

 

Then how did Rob get from work to home? - though there may have been no traffic in his case.

Seriously, it was different from the kind of driving that people get upset at. When you cut someone off and he has to slow down, that's getting in their way. When there's adequate space to cut in and zoom off so quickly they hardly even notice, much less let off the accelerator - that's when it's really fun, and that's what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, the traffic conditions have to be just right.

Not that I haven't driven the way people get upset at ... yesterday morning on my commute, someone started swerving into me from directly beside me, then blew his horn at me for staying in my lane instead of pushing the guy to my right into the ditch. Or maybe he honked at me for being difficult to see, as I had the top down. I know he was upset because he actually hung up on his cell phone call to give me the finger!

 

Warren is quite right. It wasn't virtual at all. It was the little boy in me and his imagination, fueled by my little S, getting the best of me on my drive home. Walter Mitty was my co-pilot.

Who knows, today I might drive home via Watkins Glen or Daytona. Who knows.

 

I consider myself a mild-mannered, poke-along lil' ol' granny-type lady driver just out enjoying some top-down driving (we used to call it joy riding). I don't gun my baby, and I shift around 4 or 5. I ease off from lights and stops and am not interesting in passing folks unless they're going absolutely too slow for the traffic flow. Despite my street name, I'm not out there hotrodding when on these take-it-easy pleasure drives. So, I'm always surprised and amazed when I look in my rear view mirror and see that I've left everybody way back there in the dust without really meaning to. Walter must take over when I'm behind the wheel and he actually DOES what he should have done. I'm innocent, I tell ya! It's Walter.

 

^ Uh hunh. We believe you!