Group driving holidays seem like good fun, but great cars work best in solitude
The summer holidays seem to be drawing to a close. I know this because my local Co-op has just started stocking mince pies and because the number of pictures on social media from friends and acquaintances showing their nice cars in nice places and in obligatory Eurotunnel photos is beginning its pre-autumnal decline.
This summer, see, I’ve been reminded of a thing people do: they go on driving holidays together. They take a whole bunch o’ nice cars and drive them, or have them trailered, to good roads near good hotels and there they enjoy them. There are even classy tour companies who’ll look after the whole darned caboodle.
As somebody who enjoys driving or riding, and for whom a few days behind the wheel or the handlebars making up a plan as I go along is just my kind of decadence, I think this is a great thing. Cars for fun. Cars as not just transport, but entertainment. Cars where the journey is just as important, if not more so, than the destination. Sign me right up. Except for one small detail.
Other people.
“The best thing is driving with friends,” said a friend of mine. Ah. No, no, no. Not for me. Here’s where we differ. For me, the best thing is driving without friends.
Not because I’m antisocial. Although, y’know, it has been said. But no. Holidays with friends are excellent: it’s just that I’ve spent enough time driving with friends and colleagues to prefer to do it alone.
For one, if you’ve got friends in the car with you, only one of you can be driving. So your passenger has to be a particular fan of either (a) you or (b) looking at things through glass to get the same kind of enjoyment as you.
But it’s several cars travelling together that I find too stressful to want to make it a holiday.
For one thing, only one person can set the pace. If this is too slow, you might as well just be in a queue of traffic. If it’s too fast, you don’t want to be there at all. And some people’s pace is, well… ludicrous. To be overtaken by one Aston Martin or Ferrari is a novelty, perhaps even a small point of excitement, on a journey. To be overtaken by seven can bring other people to the point of rage.
And this is my main point of contention. Modern sports cars and supercars are fast, noisy, wide, low and extremely obvious. If you want to enjoy an iota of their performance, it is better to do it alone, where you know it’s safe. Then, if there is an onlooker, it’s just one minor brap of throttle, one flash of colour, in their day, easily forgotten. When there’s a whole gang of you, it’s a plethora of infuriation.
Then, when you get to where you’re going, the whole rigmarole of parking one exotic car – slowly edging over speed ramps or up driveways without cracking carbonfibre splitters – is mildly embarrassing on your own, but excruciating when there is a group of you.
That’s why, in this job, a colleague of mine has the right idea when on a big road trip to a location. Don’t have the stress of travelling together, but: “See you there.”
That’s how it works best for me, too. Friends when you get there. Driving in solitude. The only drawback is that you can’t swap into each other’s cars to try. So choose wisely.
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Source: Autocar
