That Will To Drive…
They say that if, once parked, you do not you turn around to look at your car, you picked the wrong one. True, very true indeed, but personally I also believe that if you look at it without feeling a bit of violence, it is a simple means of transport. Some of us indeed see their car as a fun tool, that anchor of salvation that pulls us away from the everyday routine, throwing ourselves in a world of smell of petrol and tires screech, trying in every way to hold dear on the asphalt. We do not need so much to be happy, the right car and the right road. As we come closer to our sports car we can’t but follow its lines with our eyes, savoring the steering wheel and imagining us down there, where shortly afterwards we will be focused with our sight bouncing from the tachometer to the serpentine of asphalt in front of us. We can call them emotions, but these are the deeper feelings that differentiate a day like many others from a day that come right in our very own scrapbook. Some cars inspire you evil and you know they want to be abused – you will need strong stepping on the brake and the clutch pedals, proving to be the “alpha male” and gain its trust in you – there are cars that require attention, perhaps for a more gentle mechanical compartment, while other help you to be better than what you actually are, through lightning fast gearboxes and electronic devices that optimize torque, traction, and so on.
No matter if your bottom is resting on the seat of a Ferrari F40 or a 122hp Lotus Elise, because what counts are the chills that your back are going to feel in those moments you turn off your contact with the outside world and you’re gonna be rushing headlong into the stomach of that dragon made of asphalt. A succession of corners, open landscapes, ravines dangerously peeking at the roadside and tunnels that serve as sounding board for a concert played by some angry V8. I’ll throw myself like a fish as if I had had a celestial vision, opening the windows, the sunroof and straighten my eardrums, with the hope that after that curve there is still another way to rape my ears. There is always the desire for a driving day like this, there is always time to feel alive. So, if you do not turn back at your car with a mischievously smile on your face, you’ve not done enough.
Words by Alessandro Marrone
Photo credits: Techart