What’s your favorite car?
ACM – BEHIND THE SCENES
How many times they have asked you the big question – What is your favorite car? – Many times, just as often as most likely you have faced this question on your own. Over the years, in fact, a lot of new models come out and the great strides in technology and engineering, make possible to have hyper-performance cars, so sometimes it would be good to come back again to question ourselves and see if the answer changes or not. Doing a job like ours, of course, will make us drive so many different cars, even those that unfortunately we, mere mortals, could never buy, and so we become more objective and especially targeted by a myriad of information, feelings and memories, which make this perennial search of the perfect car, like an impossible chase in a excitedly dream.
When I was a child, I loved the Lamborghini Diablo: it was my favorite one and I was sure that nothing and no one would make me change my mind. The few times that I saw once live, I’ve been kidnapped by its beauty, but then it came the Murcielago. Then the Veyron and the Aventador, not to mention the Koenigsegg. Those wide and low bodies, that exasperated and exaggerated power, make those the typical dream cars, but then, when you drive, you realize that in real life it is not easy to ground thousands of horses. You need less, perhaps saving a few hundred pounds, and so you begin to consider the various Lotus, Caterham & company, those cars that really satisfy you, that make you feel at one with the road and allow you to reach their and your limit, not forgiving when you make a mistake, but pleasing you when you threat them in the right way. Then you realize that perhaps the ideal car does not cost a million, but a little more than a diesel sedan and therefore can be in the garage of mortal people too. Great news! And what about hot-hatches? The sports ones, of course. Picking up the legacy of those protagonists in rallies, they did entertain our parents and are also suitable for everyday’s life, without sacrificing practicality and comfort. Driving a 500-hp sedan is exhilarating, but if you’re not on a track or on the motorway, where you can really unleash them, it would be like bringing a doberman at a cats show. Performance cars are perhaps the ideal choice then? I immediately start thinking about the Cayman, maybe the GTS, or the new GT4. Sexy, with great performance, nothing is missing. Often, however, electronics, which definitely helps, limits your growth as an experienced driver and when you climb again at the wheel of an Exige, you finally understand why you madly fell in love with it. As with girls, with time, tastes change and probably, we true car enthusiasts, will never find the answer about the perfect car, we will never reach “automotive maturity”, because when a Diablo pass by, we will always remain dazed as if we had ten years.
Alessandro Marrone