How Not To Enjoy Your New Whip
So, you just went out and bought the car of your dreams? Cool! I guess you are offering to take all your friends out, or the first to say “I’ll head to the store” and you probably already have the ultimate summer road trip pinned to a map on your bedroom wall, right?
The relationship that us petrolheads have with our rides cannot be described to a person who sees a car as a means to propel themselves to work and back. The freedom we get from hitting a strip of tarmac and putting the pedal to the metal is one that any car fan will understand. You don’t want to be sitting in the house, or relaxing in the garden. You can be found tinkering with the engine, lathering her up in soap or out at the nearest quarter stretch.
It’s pretty easy to get carried away but you need to give yourself a bit of a chatting too, as tempting as it is to open her up you don’t want to end up sitting in the office of your DUI lawyer with the realisation that you are about to say goodbye to your licence. Instead of driving like a bat out of hell on the roads, get to grips with your new found power by hitting the track. There are loads of tracks in America, with some awesome ones in Northern states, which hold open pit track days. This is the only place you should be ripping it up!
Drink driving laws are pretty confusing. All states define driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at or above .08 as a crime however the penalties following this are rather varied. What you might not realise is that if you are below the BAC and pulled over, you can still lose your licence or face a conviction under the law. If the officer believes that the alcohol in your system has impeded your ability to drive. So, the best way to enjoy a few beers with your mates is to leave the ride at home. Or, better still, invite them all over for a party in your garage. Drinking when driving is never worth the risk.
Have you got yourself an awesome sound system yet? Why you’d want to drown out the incredible sound of your new girls purr, it seems that more and more of us want connectivity to our ipods and mobile devices. Yes, you may look even more awesome driving past the beach with your hip hop album blaring out, but just be sure not to get distracted by manually changing songs. It’s fairly obvious that taking your eyes off the road should only be done in emergencies and is pretty goddam dangerous, yet we all still do it. Your new ride is not going to look cool when it’s nose deep in some other guy’s rear lights is it?
We know you are excited and that’s great. But before you get behind the wheel just think a little harder and be a little wiser. Then enjoy!