While I was at UConn I had this totally disreputable Triumph TR250. I can't remember if my brother gave it to me or sold it to me but it was transportation when I needed it. The tires didn't match and the heater didn't work but it got me to campus and back which was all I cared about.
However, it was a sports car when everyone else was either driving a mommy hand-me-down or walking so I was cool. The seats were out of some other car and weren't bolted down. On a fast takeoff they would rock back as if to do a flip. On Rt 32 there was a long hill with a sharp drop at the top. One of those things that would make your tummy bump when your dad went over them in the family sedan.
Most people confuse speed with acceleration. Blast away from a stop light or make sharp bends around corners and they think you're Speed Racer even though you never go past 25 mph. On the other hand, add speed slowly and you can go down the freeway at 100mph and they will never notice.
One sunny day in the Triumph with the top down I was out driving with my friend Dave. Ahead of us was the hill with the drop. I slowly fed speed to the car while keeping Dave engaged in conversation so that he wouldn't notice.
At the top of the hill we had actually left the ground for a couple of feet which I thought was lots of fun. When I looked over at Dave he was half out of the car flapping in the wind. He was holding onto the top of the windshield for dear life with a terrified look on his face. A moment he would not soon forget.
Another time a popular girl asked me if I would drive her over to town to do some shopping. “Absolutely, your chariot awaits!”
We drove along Rt 195 with the top down (I never put it up short of a blizzard) chatting away when we came to the stop light at Rt 72. Along side of me pulls up a guy in one of those “Woodie” station wagons. He looks at me and Nancy and I look at him, his dumpy wife, and the three screaming kids in the back. I nodded and give him a knowing smile, a thumbs up, and hit the gas.
She wasn't my girlfriend and the car was far from a Ferrari but he wanted to believe the dream was still alive and I couldn't let him down.
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