Interesting. I didn't know that. Before the accident, I would have taken bigger windows over the side-impact bars if I'd been presented with the choice. And now I'm thankful to the regulators for taking away that freedom of choice. Odd.
Post covid, I drive a midsize suv, and am no longer comfortable riding my motorcycle.
What has changed? Simple - the other drivers. I now often witness an accident almost daily. I had a car wipe out in front of me last week. I constantly have drivers blindly merging into my lane.
I don’t know what the long term effects of covid are, but I’m pretty sure they include the removal of awareness that other drivers exist on the road, as well as basic human decency.
I used to joke that when I was driving on the west coast, I’d have to remove my turn signal as I’d have the car behind immediately speed up to cut me off.
Sadly, this has now become the reality here on the east coast also.
This was pre-pandemic response, but for a few years I drove a Toyota MR2 and had a couple motorcycles. I feel pretty damn lucky to never have seen what would have happened to me wrecking any of those vehicles.
I never had issues with it spinning around on my, though I was always very aware of how centered the weight balance was so it was clear when I was getting close to the edge.
I'd take a car like that over a true high performance vehicle any day. Taking a fast turn on public street at legal speeds was more engaging than doing 110 in a Corvette on a track in my opinion.
Thanks for the impression. I'll make sure to test drive one if the opportunity comes up.
RIP Miata/del Sol/Elise/MR2/S2000/CRX era
Crashed it once, bought the exact same model cash the following week.
Oh those were the days. Miatas too cheap to meter.
My personal favorite was a beat-up manual C5 vette. Clutch drops at 6k all day long. Seat sliders were broken so it would wobble around rather alarmingly. Mufflers stolen by some hoodlums.
Incredibly fun.
Really gave me an appreciation for that powertrain...my mom was less appreciative.
Come to think of it, that's probably part of why I loved the thrill of an MR2 when technically driving at legal speeds
I like considering the extreme first, but mostly as a gutted check to see which ends of that spectrum I'd favor when finding the right balance