Today as I rode the Red Dragon to work I came upon a lovely Maserati Quattroporte looking and sounding like petrol burning sex. As I followed behind I reveled as each electronically controlled shift happened in just 100 milliseconds. It was the sound of Formula One technology on the street. Then as this piece of Italian loveliness came to the first curve the driver reigned the beauty in and parked it in the turn. As I went by I looked to see if the driver had spilled his coffee or dropped a contract and instead I saw a man in desperate need of driving lessons. The road straightened out and I heard the ripping linen sound only an Italian vee eight makes and the black auto went past only to once again be parked at the next bend. I was able to keep the Maserati in sight and watched as it was driven like an aging Detroit land yacht. I am fortunate to live in an area where I come across exotic high performance vehicles on a daily basis and my hope is that all of their drivers and riders will invest in a little track time and some professional instruction. It made me a much better rider and driver and transformed how I thought about every vehicle I use. Here is hoping that the next time I come across Mr Maserati he has a big grin as he cruises sedately on the straights and uses a little more of his chassis's capabilities.
Image courtesy of Tuigh, Flickr,creative commons license
I worked for a guy that owned a Porsche 911 - is that the big ugly one? Anyway, he drove it for five minutes to and from work very day so the car had terrible problems from, among other things, start-up water that did not have a chance to evaporate from the exhaust and oil.
ReplyDeleteHis mechanic begged him to get rid of the car because it pained him so much to see the zillion-dollar machine used with such disregard.
Anyway, the guy died a few years ago during open-heart surgery. So...take that.
I used "anyway" twice. That's lazy writing.
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