And my car life is gray and bleak.
The beginning of the end came when I traded a kick-ass GDA for an off-the-shelf FRS. No dissing the FRS. It’s a great car, but my motivation at the time was to get away from the wrenches and into the driver’s seat.
Hmmm…
Then, the end really came when we bought our RAV4. I like our RAV4. It is perfectly sized, comfortable, performs better than you would think. However, it inspires nothing. And so, in 2019 I find myself extremely comfortable. Extremely comfortable, and yearning for some intrigue.
In the last two months, I have examined (with serious consideration of purchasing) a GC8 2.5RS, a LHD ST185 and a Zenkei AW11 hardtop. In each case, I ended up asking myself – why!?
Why would I step back into one of these vehicles?
What is actually better about them?
They certainly aren’t any more comfortable, or safe, or efficient. You might be surprised to hear that I also don’t think they perform any better either. That’s even comparing them to the RAV4, not the FRS!
The turbocharged ST185 felt nothing better than on par with the RAV4 in terms of acceleration. It was also just as soft and squishy. The GC8 was slightly better but was a lengthy list of modifications away from generating real emotion.
The best thing about these vehicles is that they remind me of a time when I didn’t feel buried in bills and obligations – a time when changing a sway bar or tweaking an alignment could actually be fun.
With that in mind, I think that my car life has evolved to a point where it needs to change drastically. Progress or die! I’m not sure what that really means… but I’m pretty certain that the SW11 in the garage is not going to see any attention soon.
The fact that our local driving venues are in jeopardy for 2019 also weighs on me. It might be time for a serious change. A van? A bike? A Porsche?
Gray and bleak AF.
Kind of funny, but I found myself in a similar position. I had a CA18DET swapped S13, a very modded Mazdaspeed3, a slightly modded GR sedan STi, a QX56, and a Montero. And the silly Montero was the thing that gave me the most joy to drive. But obviously not an autocross or track car. I ended up selling my GR sedan and got a 987 Porsche Cayman S. It reignited my passion for cars. Unfortunately, it did not reignite my love of updating my blog 🙂
Overall, I felt I had experienced a broad range of cars and I didn’t know what was suppressing my fire. But I am happy to say, trying something totally different by going Porsche got rid of my doldrums. I can’t even really explain why the Porsche fixed me. But it did. Good luck…