Speed Junkies
It doesn’t matter what your age is, there is nothing like a good speed fix. It doesn’t make any sense. There is nothing natural or instinctual about going so damn fast, hurtling down the road. And maybe that’s what the appeal is. Speed is so far outside our human norm and capabilities. So beyond our comfort zone it creates an adrenaline rush that becomes an addictive quality we can never shake. It’s one of the first things we want to know about a car. The amount of horsepower, its torque and 0-60 capability and what the top speed is. You could be driving the ugliest car known to man but if it goes fast enough, well, in the moment we just don’t care.
It’s the fun factor. It’s those pleasure centers in the brain sparking and igniting and shooting bright lights around and creating a dizzying delight and rush. And when you add to speed the competitive edge of racing the satisfaction is damn near orgasmic. And we really can’t seem to help ourselves much. Youthful drivers pay much higher insurance premiums because they speed so much and cause so many accidents because of it. As we get a little older and a litter wiser we comprehend our mortality a little clearer so we tend to slow down purely out of self preservation. But when the opportunity arises and the desire takes us we’ll push that accelerator to the floor and go.
We can talk incessantly about how fast our car is and how it performs and how much fun we have pushing it to its limits. We can daydream about what kind of after market additions we’d like to make on our cars. Looking at car websites for flashy rims and superchargers and exhaust options and fascia moldings and skirt packages is like car pornography. Boys plaster there walls with pictures of their favorite cars and tape them up right next to the poster of the bombshell babe in the scant bikini. Not that there aren’t girls out there who don’t love their cars and speed. It’s an aphrodisiac for most. Speed is not limited to testosterone levels.
The downside is the Speeding Ticket. Those flashing red lights in the rear view mirror are a major buzz kill. Anymore you don’t just get a costly ticket, there are places that if you’re going fast enough they’ll take your car away from you on the spot. And a few more that will destroy the car at a wrecking yard and make you watch. Doesn’t seem to stop us much though. The automakers don’t help our addiction much either. They’re like the pushers, the car lords. And the dealers are like, well, the dealers.
Speed kills, that for sure. Last they checked, which was 2004, the international grand total for deaths related to vehicle collision totaled to a whopping 1.2 million people. That is a whole lot of people in one year. That is the population of Dallas Texas. How’s that for some sobering perspective?
Have fun. Drive safe.
