This Is Why I Drive Fast

It’s all about the size of our smile when we get to point B.

Very few things in life will paste a grin on my face faster than transitioning a 270 degree freeway on-ramp onto an open stretch of clear asphalt. Desolate Colorado mountain roads, early in the morning, provide ample opportunities for pure joy. Tasteful indeed.

This was a terrific post crushed by the staggering weight of people gone safety crazy. It’s quite sad really. As I read the comments from people who seem to be of some universal betterness than the rest of us, I cannot help but wonder how many neon yellow-green vests they have.
One in each car to wear at places such as the gas station. Wouldn’t want the next car in line to forget you are there and plow you over. Better light up in the newest fashion. Don’t want to be run over in the parking lot walking from the four-wheel death machine to the office. And, of course, who would ever dare getting out of a car in a busy grocery store lot without one?
In many ways it has become cliché to point out that those of us who are over forty survived so much that is now considered to be more dangerous than an ISIS death cage during Ramadan. A great many examples have been used. Yet, despite the banality of such things, any reasonable person cannot deny them all to be true.
Many books have been written about the numerous civilizations which have passed through the five stages of national destruction; decreasing reason, fading testosterone, emotionalism, increasing feminism, acceptance of new rule by reasonable testosterone producing civilizations. Obviously, that is what we have here – a population transformed from fearless living creatures to turtles without their shells. Guess which one is great.
The symptoms are everywhere. Within the world of cars they fester in their hand wringer hosts, then spread to others who are unaware how easily the “you’re so dangerous” mentality can be transmitted. Humans, after all, are herd mentality animals, and as we gather the rate of spread increases.
Nowhere is safe.
Favorite sites of open discussion are seen to, almost overnight, turn into hotbeds of safety one-upmanship. Members no longer understand that speed does not equal danger. Irrational volleys of slander are lobbed in place of logic. Soon, the only things accelerating is hysteria and reason as it vanishes in the distance.
Personally, I’m tired of it. I’m worn out by incompetent drivers who see those who aren’t afraid to drive over 45mph as cowboys. People who see anyone excelling and feel the need to put them in their place have no place on the road but they are increasingly abundant. Ironically, they also create great danger as they attempt to keep others in some imagined transcendental place of slowness and security. Jim Smith, doing 50 in a 55, until you start to pass, is the classic road safety hall monitor. Somehow, that guy always manages to get his family truckster, loaded with 1800lbs of safety equipment, up to 80 in an attempt to keep you from going around. It is infuriating.
Fortunately, there is a perfect descriptor that puts it all into perspective – the “Crab Mentality.”
But back to the real reason I bothered with this comment. If speeding is so dangerous, why do these people not drive at half the speed limit? Logic tells me that if I assume speed to be dangerous, then the slower you go the safer you will be. Therefore, why are the road ranger, hall monitor, types still driving within 5mph of the published limits? I can answer that.
They believe they are safe and you are not. Their speed is ok – yours is not. They are the people that quiver at the sight of success. Freedom gets their goat (not GTO). You, the professors of asphalt geometry, tangential trigonometry, physics, and internal combustion are throwbacks to a time when people valued living over life and liberty over chains.
You, my friends, are a living library, written in the language of DNA, providing evidence that mankind is best when it pushes the limits. And they, the safety evangelists, they thirst for a good, old fashioned, book burning.

Interesting! I suppose an article of this nature was bound to provoke mixed reactions, and was probably the authors intent.
Myself, I like to drive quickly, that is that at times I accelerate hard, take corners at speed and sometimes exceed the speed limit, only if I am familiar with the road and the conditions allow, taking other road users and pedestrians into account, and never when I have a passenger.
Awareness is the key. That means that I drive sensibly in built up areas, lower than the speed limit if that is what I sense is necessary.
Taking risks that could endanger others is just irresponsible, you have to take into account those drivers that are seemingly unaware, like those that drive at 40 no matter what, in a 50 and in a 20 zone who are likely to be unpredictable.
Personally I believe that all drivers should have to take a top up lesson every 5 years and risk loosing the privilege to drive, pending a modern retest, if they are deemed to be unsafe.

After giving some careful thought on how best to comment to this article (if at all), I have arrived at the following, which is the revised, polite version of my opinion: I suggest the writer enroll in a proper, established driver training program. I would hope that he would learn that he is, in fact, nowhere near the limits of his machine or skills, and would respect that searching for these limits is left for the track, not for slicing in and out of traffic on public roads. I believe he would find greater respect for his own vehicle, a better understanding of his own skills, and would hopefully learn some respect for the other drivers (and their families), with whom he must share public roads. The latter is clearly not demonstrated here.
I am shocked that you actually had the audacity to write this, which by all accounts advocates speeding and encourages unsafe motoring for many of the other younger (I presume) readers. I thought better of posting on this, but frankly, I am quite surprised by the number of comments in support of this article.
If you actually drive through traffic the way you describe here and I were a passenger in your vehicle, I would likely ask you to pull over so I could take a taxicab instead.
I understand tossing your car around the back, winding roads, but this is plain ridiculous.
Thank you for reading.

Boy, more flames here than a Gemballa 911. 🙂 I also drive fast…by knowing what I can do and what’s appropriate for the conditions. If you’re in traffic and the drivers are inexperienced around you, don’t be an idiot and rocket down the road at twice the limit. It’s all about being aware and in tune with your surroundings. Would you drive the same on the autostrada as you would in say, Chicago? No. I love drifting through corners on snowy logging trails in northern MN, but wouldn’t DREAM of doing that in Minneapolis. A skilled driver knows and is in harmony with the car, the conditions and the surroundings and is respectful enough to not put others at risk.

@Chris Beloud – I stopped reading after [b]your[/b] erroneous use of the word “Your” instead of “You’re” when making [b]your[/b] point. If [b]you’re[/b] not grasping the concept of simple grammar, then I can’t rely on [b]your[/b] opinion on something philosophical like why one would enjoy driving fast.

I dig where you’re coming from… Confidence is key, knowing your blindspots, the flow of traffic, right gear at the right time for power moves, limits of adhesion, etc. What dissuades me is the potential of speeding tickets (mostly the jacked insurance rates for a couple of years) and the cost of my own life and others (got a 5 month-old.)

That being said, I do enjoy taking the M3 out for a good 7am beating now and then :).

Honestly, I prefer to share to road with someone who drives fast and knows what he/she is doing than the bunch of people I see everyday driving at 30kph on the boulevard with their limited attention divided between cellphone, the girls on bikini walking by, the talk with the passenger, etc. They’re driving at 30 kph but still fail to stop at the red light, at the stop signs, zebra crossings…

I also do enjoy driving fast and flowing, traffic allowing it. You’re focused on what you’re doing and your surrounds. It’s becoming almost a lost art. But trying to master it keeps me elated.

I love this article and I couldn’t have said it better. Those of you on high horses, you are better than us, I admit.