I like autumn. I like the piquette produced under the covers and the smell of roasted chestnuts in the air. I like pastel colors, I like landscapes, I like the wet smell. But what I really like to do in the fall is to drive. Damn if I like it!
In my opinion, autumn is the season for petrolheads par excellence. The road takes on new colors and contrasts — more beautiful and discreet than in the exuberant spring — two spices that transform driving into an even more sensory and intimate experience.
The car? Does not matter. But it can be a classic convertible or a state-of-the-art sports car. I'm not weird (note…).
Autumn isn't for everyone, it's just for those willing to play with the elements. Autumn requires attention, dexterity and maturity. The summer? Summer is for kids.
I like to feel that the man/machine movement is the only one to counteract the shutdown of a nature clearly in the stage for a harsh winter. All quiet. All silent. Only the scream of the engine and the screeching of tires interrupt this millenary process. Even the dry leaves that rest on the asphalt regain movement as I pass. I play with the elements.
I'm one of those people who argue that driving pleasure is more dependent on the road and landscape than often on the car or the destination — I sometimes lost track of my tired old Volvo V40 being my partner on these stress-relieving journeys.
And then there is a whole challenge provided by the asphalt, which presents itself with different shades and different levels of grip with each meter that passes, as a result of the humidity and greater or lesser exposure to the sun. A game of leftovers and a challenge to the senses, only recommended 'for adults'.
Autumn is not for everyone, it's only for those willing to play with the elements. Autumn requires attention, dexterity and maturity. The summer? Summer is for kids. The grip is always high. There is no 'salt' of that unexpected humidity in our trajectory, which makes us dilate our eyelids and think “please don't go ahead on this curve”.
As for spring, I think it's a season with too much 'strain', it's all very colorful and it's easy for our attention to be dispersed in an infinite number of events (flowers being born, bees breeding, that mini-skirt passing by...) . Winter is too wet, uncomfortable and unpredictable. To forget. So come one more autumn from there!
Driving dream cars like I do, almost daily, is without a doubt a privilege. But driving on beautiful roads during the fall is within anyone's reach. So, if you can, do me a favor: do the bends — if I can, believe me, by this time I'll be doing the same. Then stop by and tell me how it was...
note: Special thanks to Gonçalo Maccario, photographer at Razão Automóvel and responsible for the gorgeous drop photographs that accompany this article. A hero who every week stoically puts up with these and other car philosophies out loud, coming from a kind of journalist with pilot manias and philosopher's tics in his pocket. Anyway, a guy of the worst kind!