I often hear people say "this car is dull to drive, that car is thrilling, that road is boring" etc.
Then I started to wonder, what exactly makes driving enjoyable?
Driving pleasure often associtated with psychology of driver. Same road in same car, one might find interesting while others may find it boring. Once mind must be in a state of good mood to enjoy driving. Seldom people enjoy their daily drive to work!
I think driving pleasure is a combination of following parameters
1. The state of mind of driver
2. The road
3. The car
Let's talk about roads. Nobody, as I am aware of, enjoys driving on a congested stop-start traffic in large town. But nearly everyone enjoys a scenic drive along country side. People tend to like twisty country roads more than straight motorways.
So, we can rank roads like this - town (worst), motorways (excl M25)/long straight roads (medium) and twisty country roads (best)
However, I get panicked if I have to drive thru a single track road, with bushes both sides. So, just a sceneic route is not enough. The road itself should encourage relaxed drive.
Next the car, probably the most important bit. Same route, driven in an expensive and luxurious car will feel different (at least for first time). As soon as you start to drive a better (in your mind) car, your mind automatically climbs up a higher level of achievement.
But you can have fun in same car which you drive daily. I noticed that body and mind feel thrilled when the car producing high power, which happens at lower gears with high RPM. The sound of engine roaring and feel of power along the road gives rise to thrill in mind. That is why it is often said a drive in sports car is thrilling.
Comments?
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... 'pride of ownership' and the exercise of a cluster of skills resulting in rapid or anyway agreeable movement, analogous to a fondness for horses...
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I work mainly night shifts saying this sat here at work on days!, But driving at night when 98% are in bed the road is clear & in summer with the windows open it's a pleasure.
Now wind the clock forward 12hrs it's nightmare having to follow someone, stuck in traffic jams, road rage etc.
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I like situations that challenge my abilities.
Off road is one such challenge. Although I don't drive off road much at all I do use the D2 for towing a trailer onto a smallholding with farm tracks. I do enjoy that sort of thing.
Oh, and driving the Discovery 200TDI in the snow earlier this year was great fun - especially when I was faced with a hill of compacted snow and was able to simply drive up it. I think I was the only person who dared go on that road that day!
Actually, driving the 200TDI was good fun in itself. It's a shame I had to part with it. Had it been able to get through another MOT without a HUGE bill I would have probably kept it.
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Sharp steering = 80%
I can get fun anywhere, on any road.
Power = 10%
There comes a point where it's a waste, you can't use it, you'd never admit this to yourself but it's most definitely true.
Getting it right = 5%
Trying for perfect driving, no faults, no inconveniencing others, it's good fun and it's challenging
Hooning around = 5%
driving like a hooligan when noone else can see you
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I get pleasure in driving in a spirited manner on the twisty and undulating road over the Lincolnshire Wolds on a Sunday evening when the road is deserted.
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My most enjoyable experience (motor related!) has been on two wheels,
I used to just luv riding my Honda CX500 Custom around the lanes on Bodmin Moor,
helmet-less with a cool wind in my hair :)
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Too many years in the saddle earning a living one way or another.
Apart from the bike and the classic, my greatest pleasure is getting to wherever I'm going and taking the keys out !
Ted
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>> . . . . my greatest pleasure is getting to wherever I'm
>> going and taking the keys out !
>>
Not for the first time, I find myself in full agreement with Ted.
I really, really, really dislike driving. . . but I love cars as objects of engineering. (Figure that one out, any amateur psychologists!)
I only drive so that I can get from A to B. At weekends and holidays, that means going into the countryside - National Trust mostly.
On a good day, being at the destination is perfect bliss, and worth the unpleasantness of the driving.
RHS Wisley and Waddesdon Manor are particular favourites.
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I love driving as a rule, under nearly all conditions. I don't think that is usual though. I only know one person who is remotely similar. I am nearly always in the mood to drive but I get irritated when I drive badly, as we all do sometimes.
At present I am greatly enjoying wafting along smooth French A roads at 58 on cruise in relative peace and quiet, and wondering whether the journey is long enough to bump the fuel consumption on this tank up over 35 or 36 mpg. Cold running is the bane of petrol engines. Ten-mile journeys from cold increase consumption to almost SE England levels. Long stints with no dual carriageway are best.
Overtaking guzzles juice too.
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Drving pleasue is an absence of hassle from other drivers, road car and passengers...
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I find the most pleasing aspect of it, on a quiet afternoon, nobody about, crusing along, the feeling of freedom - I know its not real but it feels good still.
I was talking to a customer who was thinking of buying a Boxster. It reminded me of when I drove one a few years back and I thought it was absolutely the dullest car id ever come across - efficient at the task absolutely, but it had about as much character as a german accountant. I have never in my life been so disappointed in a car.
I also remember driving a '72 Rolls Corniche FHC and it was everything id hoped for and more. I still want one today. Theres something very amusing about driving around in an extremely comfortable drawing room that happens to be pretty swift aswell. It just made me grin like the idiot I am :-)
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How do you find typing when doing 58 on cruise ? I think it's OK until you have to use the shift key...
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I love driving. I love cruising in my Merc on a warm day with the sunroof open and the windows down. I love driving my company car to a client at Bodensee first thing in the morning when the sun is rising over the alps.
The only things that can really ruin my fun are traffic jams, especially at the end of a long day when I've still got 300km ahead of me, and the rubbish cars the rental companies periodically dish out. Rubbish is a bit strong actually, as there are no really rubbish cars made these days, but I just don't get on with some cars. I once drove 400km in a rental Peugeot 207. I spent the whole journey trying to find a single reason why anyone would buy one. Ruined the journey, but still a far cry from those Escorts in the mid 90s that I dreaded driving as I always felt they were trying to understeer me off the road.
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How do you find typing when doing 58 on cruise ? I think it's OK until you have to use the shift key...
It's a doddle compared to texting Humph. And I don't do that predictive malarkey either.
:o}
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For me it's leaving the yard on a summers Monday morning at 3am when the road ahead belongs to me and the wildlife.
The owls who are late to bed, the fox running over the road with his supper in his mouth, the Badger ambling along wondering why he's struggling to see and the cows just waking up.
The early morning mist hanging low in the fields with the eeerie looking trees poking out of the top.
Some Bob Segar on the CD player, a full trailer and my bed behind me.
A new day, a new week and no idea where I'll be going but I do know that the lorry and I are as one, and know each other inside out.
Pat
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My most enjoyable experience in a car occurred many years ago and the car wasn't even moving (forward).
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...and the car wasn't even moving...
I blame BBD for lowering the tone of this place.
We'll be having strippers on a Sunday dinnertime next.
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"We'll be having strippers on a Sunday dinnertime next."
I received a cv this morning from a pretty young graduate who included "all forms of dancing" amongst her interests. I was thinking of installing a pole and offering her a job.
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"installing a pole"
Shouldn't be too hard where you are Dave ?
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...I was thinking of installing a pole and offering her a job...
I believe there is a form of pole dancing which the lasses do clothed as gym exercise, so you might be disappointed.
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To diverge for a moment from BBD's engorged organ, we did about 20 miles this evening amid grand but benevolent sunbeams through clouds on a vast, beautiful, actually quite English-looking but for the scale, landscape. Herself navigated us along back roads with a green line on them denoting special beauty or interest. She's good at that stuff. We were often in 4th gear at 30 or 40, and when white vans with trailers came up behind we got out of their way. We were looking at the view, they were going about their business.
We really went out to find an open tabac. On the way back we passed a pleasant small country bar on a crossroads. But I had been there before. It is frequented by the local British, surprisingly numerous round here. We decided not to stop. Not out of snobbery but because we were happy and didn't want the social effort of talking to hearty strangers without seeming snooty. We came back here for a drink instead.
I don't often feel the need to get out of the way of following vehicles. Perhaps I should have revived the mimsing thread.
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It's only four years since Tesco Direct made the rather odd decision to sell the Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit in their Toys and Games section, which seems like a commercially unsound move. Almost as odd a decision as Birds Eye made, who in the seventies actually had a product on the shelves before someone noticed it wasn't the best named item ever produced. A million boxes of Birds Eye Juicy Cod Pieces were withdrawn.
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What is driving pleasure? - Armel Coussine
