I wonder how similar the set of people who like driving is to the set of people who really value freedom.

I love to drive and through the years, sports cars have been my passion. My first car was a Datsun 240Z. But my dad was a hot rod guy and when he learned that you could put a short block Chevy 350 in it, I think he was trying to kill me... Onward to today, I am in love with my 2012 Audi S4. 3 liter supercharged and such a fun car to modify. It came from the factory with around 330 hp, with everything I have done to it so far, it is pretty close to 475-500 ish. Big , luxurious with a serious bad attitude when you wanna go for it, and handles more nimble than you might think from a four door.

Now here's a subject I can get into. My brother and I used to work on and modify cars when we got our first automobiles. He still lives in New Jersey and I'm in Arizona, he races six-wheelers (he has 4). I have a 2017 Red Nissan Sentra ST when I traded in the Leaf with a depleted battery pack. I love this car it has a CVT tranny, 4 cylinder EFI with three setting engine management system. The Sport Mode is a blast but it does consume more fuel that way. The suspension is tight with fairly wide tires on it. Going up Rt 89A Oak Creek Canyon (known as the switchbacks) from Sedona to Flagstaff it hugs the road. I will never buy or be coerced to buy an electric car.

Love it, can't afford to do it anymore. Not only are the cars more expensive but local governments keep taking away road space (and parking) instead of building more.

We really need to find a way to privatize roads and parking, and the industry of building more, before governments make it impossible for most people to own cars. Which they've been working up to for decades now; that's why most new housing is dense-pack apartments with nowhere to park. This is the main element of the Great Reset and all these stupid Covid shutdowns are for the purpose of letting them get away with it.

Do you have a Half Price bookstore or similar used bookstore in your area? They will usually take them and actually give you money for them.

Absolutely! style, no turning off at traffic lights, no chips to go out. My first was a "57 BelAir Chevy, then a ir
iebird in the 60s,Camaro in the 70ds(kept it 25 years), Corvette in the 80s, Camaro 2010 (my baby) and 2002 Corvette still with me. My husband had a Camaro for the 80s which he kept till it gave up, and now has a Challenger, which I would have to pry from his hands to get rid of.Sadly, UN Agenda 21 wants all cars gone, esp. old ones. One world government!

YES! Got my first car when I was 10...drove it around the yard. Also down the street when the parents weren't home.
All the trouble I got into when I was young was all due to the NEED TO DRIVE!

To this very day, I love driving fast and give me a winding back road and I am in Heaven.

I thoroughly enjoy driving. There's nothing like the open road with little to no purpose listening to tunes. I've seen more than half the country behind the wheel. Unfortunately as we've gotten older my wife is terrified to be in any car with anyone driving other than herself, I'm not remotely exaggerating. Living in Arizona almost anything worth seeing/doing, aside from the many attractions of the city proper, is hundreds of miles away. Combined with covid fears and my wife's fear I refrain from driving significant distances with her. My last vacation, about 200 miles away in the wilderness forest of northeastern Arizona, caused me a world of shit that's lasted two months so far because I went ALONE and enjoyed the peace.

Once I get a 4x4 I intend to drive more often, further distances, and more remote places...alone.

I bought a $75 57 Chevy back in 1967 after grad school. I could do most everything on it except engine rebuild. I could keep old vehicles going but it got harder as computers and emission stuff came along. Now I wouldn't even be able to do much of anything, even with brakes with antilock, wouldn't know how to bleed them.
Will spend my last years doing computer stuff and hoping that Americans don't throw it all away. Not many relatives left to worry about and only what to do with my library of about 1500 books. I don't want them sent to a landfill. Would give them to Goodwill but it is one of the worst charities.

I agree! I get off the interstate every chance I get these days. Rarely have a deadline, and the relaxed driving with (usually) less traffic is well worth any extra time it takes.

Lot of diversity! I had a buddy that did Formula Ford. He finally changed to Spec Miata because the Formula Ford parts went from prevalent to impossible to get. 78 Camaro must have been a huge change. Surprised to see that stepping stone.

I had a Pinto in college that we put a 302 V8 and Bronco posi rear end into. That thing was FAST! My brother an I lifted out the old 1600 cc engine and threw it into the parking lot. Some Formula Ford guy would want that now.

If you come up to the Vette museum, send me a PM, and I'll take you out to dinner.

Nothing wrong with driving used, or even "old" cars. Much simpler to repair. Having the RIGHT old car helps. Up until recently I had a 78 Camaro Z28, T-top, 4-speed. Nobody worked on it but ME. And I did a little bit of everything, from re-upholstery to an engine rebuild.

http://www.ronsautorestoration.com/

Where is this museum? I've got several road trips in the works, and it sounds like something I would like to include (shh, don't tell my wife I'm planning a trip to ANOTHER car museum!)

My current ride is a 2012 black coupe (C6) manual trans. It is a 'Centennial Edition' celebrating the 100th anniversary of Chevy. I also do an occasional track day in a 125cc shifter kart. Over the years I've had quite a variety. Started autocross in a Buick Skyhawk (like the Chevy Monza). in 1977. From there, a Porsche 914, Formula Ford, First gen MR2, '78 Camaro Z28 (4-speed & T-tops), an '88 C4 Vette, RX8, and now the C6 Vette.

Love to drive open roads, no freeways, little traffic, in a sports car! Like to be looking up at mountains, not going up them. Just the feeling of driving with you and the car, toward infinity, no better feeling. Wonder how long we will have that right left?

I am 81 and never had a new car. Saves a lot of money driving old cars. I never liked driving and since the police made me junk my old station wagon several years ago, due to not moving it at least every 10 days, and having heart medicine driver issues, doing dumb things, I don't drive any more. No stores to get food other than a filling station a block away for milk and bread. I get most stuff shipped by Walmart and UPS and then an old 80 year old girl friend from 1974 takes me to the doctor and supper market a little over a mile away about once a month, I can't walk that far.
The Olds Custom Cruiser (1987 model) was a backup car for my 1999 Olds 88 with only 100,000 miles on it. I was driving that and went around a corner and there was a big clunk, a motor mount had rotted off the frame, due to parking for years on a gravel driveway, and the motor dropped enough so that the steering wheel was disconnected from the wheels.

I used to wake up at bout 2:00 am and climb out of my bedroom window to the roof of the back porch, down the trellis and sneak through the yard to my dad's car where I used my secretly made key to start it. I would have arranged to have some buddies at pre-arranged pickup spots and we would joy ride for an hour or so. Some of them would do the same thing so we could do this pretty often without raising suspicion. It would be another 3 years before I was 15 and could get a learners but I did not have to practice a lot for the drivers test. Since this was 1953, in Southern WV, the roads were terrible and steep but there wasn't a lot of traffic.
I still like to drive especially on our trips to Italy. Everyone thinks that Italian drivers are crazy but they are not. They take great pride in their driving skills and when you get the gist of their techniques, you can trust them and glide along with the flow at a very nice clip. On the autostradas I pretty much stay out of the extreme left lane though because going over 200 kph is probably not the best idea for us oldsters.

Thanks for your post, too.
I'll enjoy driving my MX5 again as soon as I can get the repair done on the wiring the mice gnawed through. [grin] Nice weather for a fall drive in the foothills. Or a drive to the Gulf Coast. Enjoy!

Thank you for posting this article and spurring many of us to recall a time when we were truly free; free to not only choose but to act on those choices. Eric Peters at EPautos is a fascinating and intriguing writer. I wound up reading over ten of his articles online and I thank you for that. I recommend others to take the time as well. He brought me back to the thrill of driving and made me want to jump into my Miata and hit the back roads once again. Nothing says freedom more than the beauty of driving a stick, reviving the engine toward redline and shifting when you feel like it. Thanks, freedomforall.

Agree. It corners super neutrally. I've chirped the tires at 60 mph, and had it is a four wheel slide in a corner. It needs new wheels. Has Conti-Extreme Sports, and they are way too hard.

The only thing I wish is it had a modern gearbox. It is an old T-9 (Pinto four speed +1 gear) on a modern 2.0L Zetec w/ mild super charger (~6 psi). When I bought it, I was also looking at one with a S2000 engine/trans with a WRX rear axle. That would have been fantastic!

What kind of Vettes do you have? I love the new one, and love watching them smoke over-priced Porches! There is a fantastic Vette museum/restorer up here, right by my office. The guy has 30-40 beautiful cars in there all the time, and he shoots at one of my gun clubs.

I'm a Ford guy and hate seeing T-buckets with ugly SBC engines. The LS is great. Old 350 SBCs are like a song you never want to hear again. If I hit the lotto, my strike back will be a split-window with a Ford engine and "Powered by Ford" on the back ;)

Old cars are the best.

That Lotus 7 Kit has got to be a kick to drive. You owe it to yourself to at least autocross it a time or two. You'd probably be amazed at what it can do at the limit!

You're talking my language.here. I love to drive, used to take care of my own cars until they computerized everything. First official car was a '68 Mustang, but before that I got to drive everything from a recycled auctioned cop car to a great little Nash Metropolitan (Dad had two). I spent a few years after age 60 as an OTR trucker (class B) driving all over the country and a few years as a proud owner/ operator of a 37' motorhome which we lived aboard as we traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific several times. Just sold my manual transmission pickup last year because hubby could no longer climb up into it.

Definitely a red neck with dirty hands, not a prep school boy with an ascot and no idea how to use a screwdriver.

I helped a soccer buddy (prep school) with his Triumph Spitfire. He couldn't believe it when I was fixing an EGR, and I just took off the valve cover to fix the seal. His eyes bugged out when looking at the inside of the engine/valve train. Funny guy.