Enjoy the Simple Things...

Enjoy the Drive 
By Justin Mascia

 

Let me start by stating that I am not a racer, drifter, or autocross driver. I would categorize myself as an admirer of the automotive experience. With that in mind I would like to discuss something that I think is commonly overlooked by auto enthusiasts, which is the feeling of driving.

To be clear I am not talking about the feeling of feedback from the car. Many car minded individuals can be overheard talking about how much a car tells them about the road or the suspension setup of the car. While this may be important to someone who is heading to a track for a weekend, it has been discussed to death. I am talking about the overall package of driving.

 A recent drive I took in a 1980 Corvette frames this idea very well.  Thanks to my fathers muscle car business I have been blessed by being able to drive at least one of every generation Corvette. The least joyous of these is the third generation, most notably post 1973 production cars.  Without getting into a history lesson about government regulation changes during the '70s suffice it to say sport cars from the middle to late '70s were lacking in power. If you were to ask anyone who knows me they would quickly tell you that I have never had a kind word for any Corvette from '72 until '82.  I laughed at the cars lack of power. I thought it was “sad” that so many of them were ordered as automatics.  However that all changed when a customer recently asked me to take his '80 Corvette for a short trip in an attempt to identify a problem. I grimaced a little then headed out for what I knew would be a dull drive.  

At first I started going through the mental checklist that many car guys go through when driving a car for the first time. I noted the complete lack of power, the soft feel of the steering, and other short comings. Then I noticed the shadow of the car to my left rolling over hillside.  I stopped scrutinizing the car and started to take in the experience I has having.  The car gave an input to every sense. The drivers view over the hood is very low and filled with the high fender flairs and the downward swoop of the hood.  You can feel a small amount of air through the T tops and the low slung seats held me tighter then some racing seats I have been in. The only other sound was the low rumble of the small block V8 (thanks in part to an aftermarket exhaust). 

To go along with the sensations the car provided I became aware of the beautiful country side that was passing by as the sun started to set.  As if to serve as the proverbial icing on the cake a local farmer had cut a hay field that day and the smell filled the air. For the first time in my life I did not want to stop driving a C3.

The Combination of all these small, almost ignorable factors added up to a driving experience that few cars that I have driven can match.  I know my 2007 Subaru WRX STi has never given that complete of a driving experience. I am usually too distracted by the simple joys of taking corners just right or practicing heal toeing.  The same can be said for big block muscle cars. The driver focuses too much on the earth shaking power to simply take in the experience.  In the case of the 1980 Corvette though the driver actually benefited from the combined total of the cars massive shortcomings. 

The simple truth is that without a lot of horsepower or superb handling to distract the driver a different value can be placed on vehicles.  I believe that this is an experience that almost every segment of car fandom overlooks. Tuner groups seem to always be overly concerned with fact sheets of cars. They want to know who turns a quicker quarter or which car did better on a skid pad test. At the other end of spectrum classic car groups are overly concerned with papering their rides to actually enjoy their driving experience.  Often times the older cars that could provide the feel I am describing are overlooked because of there simple nature.

 We all have to start from somewhere

So next time you are out driving and you pass someone in a Miata and your about to make some snide remark about his car stop and think about what he may be experiencing that you are actually missing out on. Take a leisurely drive through the countryside and simply enjoy the experience. Stop trying to apex like your Schumacher and simply go through the corner.

Justin Mascia is an author of Racer's Quarterly