Picking The Right Car

For the perfect trip, it takes the perfect car, just for the fact that half of our goal is to drive a huge number of cars that can make us heart beat, even when the annoying local speed limits, require you to not exceed 60 mph. So, last Friday, after getting ready, had breakfast and went down in the streets, taking advantage of Max’s delay (chronic) I get the chance to observe the Californian lifestyle. Impossible not to fall in love with the US, impossible not to travel with your mind, knowing that all this, unfortunately, will end.
But here he comes, I first hear the roar, an unmistakable old V8, then I see a black shape and inside, a lunatic with a smile that goes from one side of the face to the other. My traveling companion has arrived and for the first km he chose a wonderful ’69 Dodge Charger, one of those real cars, no stupid or electronic stability controls, with so much power (about 425-hp) that can leave 3cm of tire on the ground, if you do not handle the gas in the right way. On one hand I expected to drive some modern supercars, maybe a Ford GT or a Viper, but the choice of the Charger was even more apt. Then, I put myself behind the wheel, start the engine and leave full throttle. You really have to struggle in order to put straight the big Dodge, and at the end you have to desist from keeping your right foot on the gas pedal, otherwise you will end up in a disastrous cloud of smoke, still where you were before. Cruising around town is itself a pleasure: coasting the ocean, observing the girls in bikinis playing volleyball and you immediately feel catapulted in your dreams, in that universal imaginary that we Europeans have of America. Not all the United States are like this, it is clear, but here and now, at the wheel of a Made in the USA icon, I feel like being a James Dean with a little ‘less charm. The adventure began in the best way. Now we fill the thirsty V8 and depart towards the central states.

Christian Parodi