Why do you love cars?

[ScottyB]

i love the embodyment of speed and power that cars take on. some are like missles, others have huge flares, arches, and blunt creases like sinewy muscle. others still take on features of predators, with gills, fins and peircing eyes.

i love the noise. hearing a raw, unabated performance engine change from a snorting idle into a crushing, high rpm blast. the fighter-jet turbine whine from a huge turbo waking up. tires wailing at the very edge of their hold on the earth, gears sounding a cressendo up the scale as the car hurls down the straight.

i love the speed. gear after gear of total hell-bent, no joke acceleration. i love seeing a car slam to it's hauches under the commanding fury of a high rpm launch. i love feeling the wind come through open windows with more and more turbulence until it deafens you from even hearing the engine. i love being forced to hold on to the steering wheel because i've unleashed a furious animal only to find that i have the reigns in my sweaty hands.

i love the precision. exact tolerances and perfect harmony, like a living, breathing metallic organism. feeling one change affecting another, and being part of an Order in the complexity of the experience. i love the way modifications must be thought out and executed with fine care and loving attention in order to extract maximum performance.

i love the connection. a human being, never meant to deal with data pouring through the windshield at 200 mph, can perform a visceral dance with the most primal emotions from the driver's seat. taking control of a wild creature and skillfully manipulating every movement with the precision of a surgeon, if the skill is there.

i love the commaraderie. the culture that exists because people of every walk of life find common ground under the hood of a car. stories can be told about experiences that only an obsessed person can relate to, and find joy in sharing. there are few bonds like those shared by people that pour their free time into creating something that moves, reacts, and sounds as what they see in their dreams.