Sports cars are cool - Even though I don't own one, it's always nice to take a ride in one - like a two-seater convertible - it's a treat for me. When I think about my next car, I always throw into the mix a two-seater - like a Mercedes sports coupe, knowing that for my lifestyle, it's totally not practical (not enough trunk space). Maybe when I retire, I'll venture into the sports coupe world, but for now, I just stare at other people's with some envy.
It's not everyone's sports car that I envy. In the area we live in, there is no shortage of Mercedes, Porsche, BMW sports cars. There are even really nice Mustangs or vintage sports coupes that are really cool. But then there are those that I like to drop into the category of sub-par sports car. These are the ones that either were really nice in their day and just haven't been well-kept over the years or the "enhanced" mid-line sports car that has all the gadgets, rims and custom paint jobs to make them look sweet - think "The Fast & The Furious."
As for the latter, I often wonder why someone needs all those extra gauges lining their driver side window? It's not like they're entering their ride into the next stock car/NASCAR event. I assume that this is just for everyday driving purposes - so what do you really need besides the speedometer, gas gauge and maybe the Hot-Cool meter? I just saw a Honda Prelude that had some iridescent paint job and some Chinese characters etched by the trunk. The driver didn't look Chinese - does he really know what's painted on his trunk? For all he knows, he could have requested 'Dragon' and what it really says is 'Mouse.' How does he know? And I wonder if he knows that they don't make the Honda Prelude anymore...
Then there are those cars that were probably super stars in their day but due to lack of upkeep and TLC, it is now just a clunker. When I saw the Prelude, I saw the clunker - it was a red Porsche Boxster. "Hey Guy - 1984 called...Jake Ryan wants his car back...in mint condition please." It would've still been a sweet car had they not run it to the ground....I mean the Porsche emblem on the hood was even gone.
And it never seems to fail that when you get these sub-par sport cars on the road together, within cars and lanes apart from each other, they all seem to want to race...it's like an unspoken rule - you get the look, the nod and then zoom, off they go. Kind of like when Lane and Monique meet up with the two Asian brothers after Lane fixes up his car, in "Better Off Dead." I see a lot of this on the highways - like when I'm driving back from NJ to VA, on I-95, there always seems to be a race going on as two cars just fly by me, probably at speeds of 100 mph (cause I'm usually in the 70s), weaving in and out of traffic and I wonder, 'Where did this start and thank goodness I didn't want to change into a lane they were racing in.'
Speaking of racing down the highway, I don't even know where to start with those rice-rocket motorcycles that have "gangs" of people racing down the highway...so dangerous...or maybe I'm too old?!
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"Ladies and gentleman, this is Howard Cosell . . ." I love Better Off Dead!
ReplyDeleteWe had this car in our family, a Chevy Lumina. It started out as my dad's company car in 1990 - the first year they came out. Because my dad worked for an automotive plastics supplier, he ended up getting these really cool side effect prototypes added to the car - it kind of made it look like the Lumina in Days of Thunder. Anyway, fast forward 10 years. My mom had driven the car for a while and then my parents had generously donated it to me. One day I came out of a Target, and as I was walking to my car, some guy was standing there. He offered to buy my ground effects. Are you serious? This car is 10 years old, man (if you factor in that whole model year thing). And his car wasn't even white, like mine. So he would have to paint them. I was curious - who did he think he was going to pick up in a souped up Lumina in 1999?
Yeah - I left out the whole Howard Cosell thing because then I probably would've went off on some tangent...We have FRANCH fries....
ReplyDeleteSince you were a chic with all the "ground effects," he probably didn't think you needed it. That must've been a funny conversation.
My Dad liked to refer to the Lumina as the "Lu-meeee-na." We had one as a rental car when we went to tour Yellowstone and Grand Canyon....and Amy slipped on a rock in a lake and fell in the water...ahhh, good times.