Welcome to the land of the open road! A cool breeze tussles your hair as verdant hillsides rush on by. The mountain pass ahead is lit by a resplendent scarlet sky. And yet, with the approach of each hairpin turn, your tires stay firmly planted on the ground. Total confidence, total control. With a vintage sports car, every mile means another smile.
“Wow, I didn’t realize that in this day and age it is still legal for new street cars to have exhausts even louder than my old MG’s,” I thought as a bright yellow Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder positively roared down a busy street in downtown Montréal on a Friday night.
I could get used to seeing all the eye candy here in Montréal. In this city where seemingly everyone is impeccably dressed and the women are (in the words of several friends who were right!) “totally hot,” it comes as no surprise that many of the cars people drive are gorgeous too. Continue reading »
When the young woman at the Budget rental car agency at the Manchester International Airport handed me the keys to this 2008 Mustang (for the same cost as the economy car I had reserved!), I was absolutely ecstatic that this time I’d be driving something a lot more exciting than, say, the plain Jane Mitsubishi Lancer I had rented last. Nevertheless, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. Continue reading »
I had just finished eating a scrumptious salad at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Maine, when I consulted Gary McKenchnie’s book, Great American Motorcycle Tours, about the next leg of the White Mountains to Blue Seas drive.
“Hey, what’s this?” I mused after reading a paragraph. “A ‘transportation museum’ just southeast of Camden.” Reading on, I noted something about planes, some vintage Harleys, and even a prototype 1963 Mustang. I think the latter just about did it for me since I was driving (and enthralled with) a 2008 Mustang on this trip. Continue reading »
“Since ‘The Kank’ has no gas stations, stores, or hamburger clowns on its 34-mile stretch to Conway,” wrote Gary McKechnie in his book, Great American Motorcycle Tours, “the town of Lincoln has thoughtfully added a flood of ugly stores and smelly things. Race past these and into some of the most mind-boggling alpine scenery and rideable roads you’ll encounter. Goose it to 60 and get into the rhythm of the road, but be prepared to brake when you reach some 20 mph hairpin turns that deliver you to scenic viewing areas such as the Hancock Overlook.”
These words came to mind as I followed a Suzuki GSX-R rider, not nearly able to match his speed or corner-carving prowess and bemoaning the fact that my rental car had an automatic slushbox instead of a proper stick. But that was the only complaint I had, and it was a minor one. After all, here I was in the White Mountains in a Ford Mustang convertible — much better than, say, a Ford Focus I thought I was going to get from the rental car agency — and the weather was gorgeous enough to have to top down all day. And the alpine scenery was, well, mind-boggling all right. Continue reading »
One could probably say that my northeastern U.S. trip started sub-optimally. After sleeping only one hour, I was blasted out of bed by my 100-decibel alarm clock at 3:30am and due to my grogginess, driving down towards the Denver International Airport was quite a chore. (Should’ve taken the Shamrock shuttle instead.) Then, on my Southwest flight to Manchester, NH, I was completely enveloped by the Texan Congregation of Fatsos which made sitting (much less sleeping) quite uncomfortable.
The woes of the morning were suddenly erased when I arrived at the Manchester airport, with just one sentence from the girl at the rental car agency (Budget) that I had a reservation with. Continue reading »
 side “scoops” that look so much like the 1965 Mustang’s.&title=Ode to the Pony Car "It may be unnecessarily large on the outside and smallish on the inside, but you gotta love the lines of the latest version of America's original pony car. Note the classic (but fake) side “scoops” that look so much like the 1965 Mustang’s.")
