I don’t know what it is in the nature of men that makes them like to drive fast. Now I don’t mean just over the speed limit, because without cruise control to exert a little influence, my wife will come home bristling with speeding tickets, while I tend to stick to just a little above—the calculated area of “they won’t bother to ticket me here”. I mean the “let’s see what it can do” style of driving that men seem drawn to, certainly more often when they are a little younger and a lot more foolhardy.
Lately, young men of average means have an interest in cars that just look serious…. Honda Civics and even Chevy Cavaliers dressed up with wings and body fairings, fancy paint jobs, mufflers that sound like you have more under the hood than a four-cylinder designed primarily for economy, and the ubiquitous booming of a thousand watt stereo system with trunk-filling subwoofer. One went by with a lot of noise the other day and I asked, “What was that?” My wife identified it correctly as, “A Cavalier trying to pretend it’s a sports car.” Continue reading