I have always loved GT cars and have maintained that if I won the lotto it would be as Aston Martin DB9 or V8, GTR or Ferrari 599 that I would buy (without even have driven one!). I love the beautiful elegant (or brutish) body styles of GTs, the ability to throw a suit case in the boot, your missus in the front seat, optional nippers in the back and set off across country to anywhere you want. And then on the 4 or 6 times a year horse her around a race track shredding tyres and grinning ear to ear.
Four years ago during the bad freeze I picked up an old Volvo 940 to smash through the snow and ice. The plan was to keep “The Hulk” for 3 months, but four years later I still have the old girl. So now she does all the donkey work now- from carting my family around, bringing the dog to the beach, transporting multiple bags of coal or a load of breeze blocks, as well as the daily grind to work. She silently trundles along with such comfort that you forget that she has wheels at all. Thick lounge like chairs which are heated, electric everything all add to the snooze like driving style that she instils. Where are my slippers and pipe?!
This means that for the last four years the heavy work has been taken off the SX and she only get wheeled out for each track day or the odd blast. She has probably only covered about 6k miles in the last four years. So with all the talk of dedicated track day cars or full on no compromise sports cars it makes me wonder is it worth the tax and insurance having her sitting there week in and week out? To be honest if I had the money and space I would love a dedicated track day car, but I don’t, and probably never will. So what about a full on no compromise sports car then?.......hmmmm……
Come last week I said to the missus lets feck off down to Dingle. So the SX was filled to the top with juice and our bags in the boot and off we went. And it reminded me why I love GT Coupes, why after 8 years of owning Big Red I still have her. I want a car that can eat up the motorway miles in comfort and yet give thrills on the twisty tight country roads. Something that has effortless power to overtake artics and slower lines of traffic without fuss or stress. A car that keeps you smiling as the suspension is put through it’s paces on the undulating and rippled small Kerry roads as each sweeping corner is dispatched behind you. And four hours later we arrived in Dingle unstressed after listening to the radio, CD changer and even the cassette deck! (this was the first time in 8 years that I have used a cassette adaptor to listen to an iPod and it worked a treat).
I love driving. I love driving on track but I suppose my true love is driving on the open road on such road trips. Like 60% of my enjoyment of going to the Nurburgring is the actual driving there myself and the adventure that it brings. Don’t get me wrong, the end point is the Ring but slicing through country after country to get there is why I drive there. This was the longest drive that I have done in over a year in her. Over 1000km in four days. And it has been years since I was in Kerry. So this not only reminded me of my love of Big Red but also what a beautiful part of the world that Kerry is.
Dublin to Dingle, then over the Connor’s Pass, around the ring of the Dingle Peninsula and exploring a lot of the off shoot “grass in the middle” roads which sometimes proved stressful as they was a lot of reversing to allow locals to pass. At one point I had to reverse about half a km back down a road including blind corners in order to find a section to pull in to allow an oncoming van and cars to pass. A great adventure! Then onto the Ring of Kerry heading towards Waterville where the annual Charlie Chaplin Festival was being held. The Ring of Kerry is a mixture of sublime roads surfaces and extremely undulating badly surfaced bits. The suspension was working hard but soaked up all the bumps and “jumps” and the odd pot hole and only hit the bump stops twice. All with our bags and at this stage also a case of “Tom Crean’s” Dingle lager in the boot.
So a full on no compromise sports car?....... Maybe when I win the lotto one day but for now my love still remains with fast GTs. My SX is not the fastest car in the world, nor the prettiest, and not the best car ever. And definitely not to everyone’s tastes. But do I care? No I do not! . And so I will stick with what I have for the next 8 years and hopefully beyond. :-)
Nothing like a good road trip to renew your appreciation of something that you have let sit for a good while. Get out there and drive! And explore the corners of Ireland or whatever country that you live! A few quick snaps:
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Originally Posted by markcro
