THE ART OF DRIVING
Words by Christian Parodi
Photo credits: Averie Woodard | Devon Janse Van Resburg | Jordane Mathieu | Luke Stackpoole | Matt Howard | Rawpixel
I still remember when as a child, laying in improbable positions on the rear seats of the various cars my father was lucky enough to get in the garage, I kept asking my parents if we had arrived at destination, maybe after a long journey, that because of my young age seemed really interminable. I was bored looking at those landscapes barely sliding out of the side window and I could not wait to get off and stretch my legs, catapulting me right into the grass with my faithful soccer ball. Growing up and almost forced by my mother to fasten the seat belts, the car trips had radically changed, all thanks to my increasing love for cars. I was watching the movements of my father at the wheel and looked pleased every motorist overtaken, sometimes even counting them and pinning on a sheet the brand that won the record with the most number of overtaking – those faster than us were only bandits and in part I wondered how they could go even faster than us. Now, before you jump to hasty conclusions and start thinking it’s time to send me to an analyst, you will admit that you all have been like me, if not worse.
In reality, as the passion for cars was growing in me, that desire to get to destination had turned into its exact opposite, in something that years later, getting my driving license, materialized as the widest sense of freedom. I could finally go where I wanted and within a handful of journeys, the desire to “drive” grew. Road trips have thus become an addiction and without taking anything away from those fantastic holidays for which I had to take the plane. Two words that magically manage to merge together a tide of emotions that encompass the boundless love for cars to the need to exploit them for what they do best: drive. But be careful, I’m not here talking about driving to move from one place to another – that would be easy stuff – I mean driving to make us feel free, to give us moments to keep and chase in the following road trip. Drive to be free.
1 GREAT ADVENTURE, 1000 STORIES.
At the office we do not stop to repeat it, we should keep an album with all the best memories of experiences on some road trip, some out of town drive, or simply photographic shooting that take us along breathtaking roads. Because after all the recipe is very simple, you leave and not necessarily for several days. It could take only one day, a full immersion of curves and petrol and you can live something magical, the result of a perfect joint between man, machine and this time nature too, the best possible partner when it comes to a valley that is lost on the horizon, rocky walls on each side and those colors that we try to capture with photographs that will be our way of returning there, where we felt our heart beat faster than usual. It seems like yesterday when I called my brother and I asked him to pack things up quickly, without giving too many explanations. That day we would have left the emails and mountains of paper at the office, no drafts and notes, I needed to unplug and he was needing that too. Whether doing that on board a Ferrari is something already exceptionally special there is no doubt, especially if the princess in question is called 458 Speciale, but doing it with the person who grew up with you and who shared those same seats in dad’s car, it’s the best way to get kids back to mind and rejoice where we are today.
There is nothing more beautiful than leave sometimes and as in this case without a precise destination. Aware of the fact that our presence was required for dinner time, the satellite navigator in our head decided to point for the mountains, but those not so far from home. Leaving behind the city chaos, heading into the nature with one of the most melodious V8 in the history of automotive was the ideal introduction for one of the days that I hold most tight in me. Among brothers there is that look of understanding when you have to press more decidedly the gas, impossible to forget those laughters, those jokes that made us understand once again how happy we are when we have the opportunity to share all of this. A decisive climb before entering a rock tunnel and flat-out, just before reaching the summit and let us be bewitched once again by a view that seems borrowed from a postcard. Only writing it and I can still feel that smell of hot brakes, burned rubber and that sense of inner peace donated by a stretch of green, interrupted only by bare rock, which rises more and more insistent. That day there were only a few cyclists, giving themselves the same piece of paradise.
Surely it would not have been the same in another context, with a road clogged by traffic, or with my worst enemy (assuming I have one) next to me, but the ingredients for a road trip are not so many, even less difficult to place with each other, to create tens, hundreds, even thousands of moments that will come right into your memory drawer, under the heading “favorite moments”. It takes the right path, of those that can enhance your desire to drive, but especially to better frame the destination and especially the journey, the longest part that you spend behind the wheel. In this case – also for professional reasons – the planning phase plays a fundamental role in the success of a road trip. At the office we often check GoogleMaps and our numerous placemarks scattered around every corner of the globe. Once we have identified our destination, whether it be mountain, hill, sea or who knows what else, we choose which direction to go, going to see how many places worthy of note are in the surroundings of our final checkpoint or intermediate stages. In this way it will be easier to optimize the time and create a personalized itinerary according to our needs. Moreover, thanks to satellite technology, watching the world from above helps us discovering hidden corners, glimpses at times not shown on any road map and then find ideas for some photos or some break along the way.
You also have to keep an eye on the day on the calendar and not just because some Alpine passes are closed in winter, but because the beauty of nature is precisely to change the colors of what is around us and then some places will be more exciting tinted blond in autumn, while others wait to be admired in their greener spring splendor. Finally, the ideal company responds to two voices, the first is the logistic one: we need a car, one of the right ones obviously and with this I do not mean that unless you have a Ferrari or a Lamborghini it’s not worth going out. Far from it, because I have experienced unforgettable experiences even at the wheel of diesel SUVs and small hatchbacks. We are talking about emotions, it’s not about lap times. Of course it will be easier to make your eyes sparkle by unleashing a proper engine in the middle of a mountain road, but do not take this aspect for granted. And then, since I assume just a small part of you will get there on a BAC Mono, next to you bring someone who shares with you more than a simple passion. Bring your girlfriend, a brother, a close friend, your father. Bring someone able to add value to the trip and not a useless human being constantly looking at his smartphone from start to finish.
Why all this? Many people ask me and although I try to explain myself at best on every occasion, I often see in front of me the stunned faces that wonder how you can spend time and money to drive without a specific reason. Well, the actual reason is just that and it is so clear that it makes the explanation difficult. Why? Because I like to feel alive, free and enrich my life with simple things like turning the ignition key, refueling and in the meantime already thinking about the next road trip. What has become an addiction is now clear, but it is an addiction that is good for the soul and also for the body. See you on the road!