Philanthropy and Ferocity: The Experience of Driving a High-Performance Car
Being behind the wheel of a car like the Alfa Romeo 4C or the Nissan GT-R can make you feel as if you’re in an action movie. You look cool and you drive fast to a soundtrack of charging horses.
Don’t get me wrong – I’ve certainly had the same feeling. However, I’ve also found myself in either a Christmas movie or a sci-fi film. Sometimes both, back to back; it depends on the car I’m reviewing whether I find myself engaging in the sort of philanthropy that only gearheads can perform or experiencing an aggression that spontaneously flares up at the sight of a vehicle with more horsepower than subtlety.
THE PHILANTHROPY
I benefited from this back in my early college days in Austin, Texas. I was with a buddy in his car, about to turn left from the Mopac Expressway to head toward his parents’ house. While we were waiting for the light to switch to green, we kept looking at a C5 Corvette Z06 that was about to turn left onto the highway. We began chanting, “Floor it. Floor it. Floor it.” He must’ve heard us because when the bottom light told him to go, he did – furiously. The 5.7-liter V8 under the hood of his coupe was able to fill the entire open space around us with a spine-tingling roar and me and my buddy with an almost juvenile delight. To us, that was living, however vicarious it might have been.
Several months ago, I was traveling down the middle of Interstate 35 in a 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat with my then-girlfriend in the passenger seat beside me. A red Toyota Corolla with four college-aged guys in it pulled up next to us in the left lane. Two of the passengers motioned to me. Thinking they wanted to race, I politely declined with a smile and a wave. Then it occurred to me that they were more aware of how out-gunned they were than I originally thought. Those buddies weren’t delusional at all. They were asking me to give them something other than a thrashing. All they wanted was for me to unleash the Hellcat so they could hear its fury. They were like little kids on a family road trip trying to get a semi truck driver to honk his horn. I gladly obliged, smiling the whole way. As with traditional philanthropy, both sides got something satisfying out of the experience.
Sometimes you don’t even have to be in the car for people to benefit from it. Sitting at a diner eating breakfast and watching a stranger walk up to the Audi R8 V10 plus I was testing just to snap cell phone pics of it was good for my heart…so I had no qualms about digging into my cheesy omelette and hashbrowns.
THE FEROCITY
On the other hand, driving around in something with more than 400 horsepower can also lead to random acts of gasoline-fueled chest-thumping. While stopped at a light and minding my own business in the 2015 Mustang GT, an older Mustang went past me on the left. As it did, its owner felt the sudden urge to make his metal horse gorge on premium fuel. I’m convinced that upon seeing the newer model, the driver of the car was compelled to show me that “the latest” doesn’t always translate to “the greatest.” That’s never happened to me in a 9-to-5 grocery-getter.
I witnessed another act of unprovoked aggression from the driver seat of the Challenger Hellcat. I was waiting on a green light so I could go straight through an intersection. Someone in a Cadillac CTS-V coupe ahead of me and to the right saw the bestial Dodge, one of the few cars around that can make 556 horsepower look reserved, turned right onto the main road, and dumped all of that equine energy through his rear tires. It was if the Hellcat emitted a gas that instantly spiked that man’s testosterone level and his need to prove what his car was capable of.
It’s OK, guys. We’re all cast members in this film. It doesn’t have to be a drama or a boxing flick. Let’s make it a road movie and go for a drive.
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