Losing IT... The joy of driving that is.

Since getting my license to drive back in '73 and actually before that, I have loved to drive. Traffic, rain, country roads, cross country trips on back roads and so on. Loved it. Didn't matter what I drove, but of course fun cars were always preferred. I grew up building, racing, and driving Bugs then much later the Wife and I had an '84 turbo Sunbird (good car bad engine design), Maximas, first generation Pathfinder, and then kids which eventually brought a minivan but also a '98 v70 T5 to haul the first born.

Recently though I find driving more of a chore than anything. I am more than happy to let the wife drive when we run errands and have not jumped at the thought of taking a driving trip. Perhaps it is due to my daily drive which is not that long (70+ miles round trip) and is mostly confined to a tollway (the Bush for DFW locals). Perhaps it is due to what I drive ('08 Ridgeline which has good road manners but is an appliance for all practical purposes) though I cannot perceive letting it go right now. We also have a '10 Forester (replaced the Ody) and a '15 hybrid Avalon for the Wife since she drives the kids to school and has Clients all over the metroplex. All good driving vehicles that do what they do very well.

I try not to say much about it at home because I want the kids to start driving. I worry that my perception of driving as a chore may have a negative impact on them. I want them to drive to take the pressure off their Mom. Especially since the daughter heads to college next year. What is up with kids not wanting to drive these days - Freedom and independence!

So the easy button is to get something fun to drive. I can't justify a fourth vehicle right now unless I get at least one of the kids driving and preferably both (well, ya know the insurance companies are in dire straights right now due to all the damage claims they are paying and I really should help them out by adding two teens to my policy right???). So has anyone else gone thru similar? Did you do the obvious and just get something to drive that perked you up? I would change my route if I could but any other route would extend the drive and not add any interesting driving unfortunately. I will say when we do get snow and ice here driving does become fun since the Ridgeline keeps going when others are struggling (I am not dumb enough to get on the road when I should not though).

So advice? (and I know what is coming so who will be the first to say it?) Thanks for any and all comments even if just jibber jabber!

My guess is that traffic is probably at the root of this. Advice:

1. Get a fun car (snow and ice? STi?)
2. Take it out to a twisty road early in the morning when there's no traffic. If that doesn't do it for you then, well, yeah, time to hang it up!

Last year I found myself less than thrilled with the idea of preparing my race car for another season. I figured I had built it, won with it and I was finished... needed a new project car to race. So, I sold it.

When it came time to go out and instruct last season... I skipped the comp'd track time and paid for open track so I didn't have to deal with students while I baked in a new race car. That wasn't the problem either. The spark was gone.

My 2nd race car... I sold 2/3 to friends and planned to campaign it as a team in an endurance series (AER) for 2016. Surely just focusing on racing would fix me. I made it to 4 of the races and it just didn't click. I wasn't having fun - I was just trying to do well so I didn't disappoint my friends. I wasn't in a slump either - the lap timer said I was having a banner year. It didn't help that the car was unreliable but that wasn't it. EVen when I was hauling the mail I was going thru the motions waiting to get out of the car.

After Summit Point in Sept, I sold my tow vehicle, enclosed trailer, gave my 1/3 of the car/team to the guys free and clear and walked away.

I've put 31k miles on a motorcycle since October of 2014 and it has taken the fun and excitement out of driving a car for me. To quote a terrible song... I don't want a pickle, I just wanna ride my motorsickle. And so I will.

So... long/short, I hear where you are coming from. When the spark is gone don't spend to much effort trying to light it. Let it go and find something else that makes you really burn.

We all need a change every once in a while. Buy a bike. Pedal. It'll clear your head.

Why do you need the Forester?

kb58 wrote: My guess is that traffic is probably at the root of this. Advice: 1. Get a fun car (snow and ice? STi?) 2. Take it out to a twisty road early in the morning when there's no traffic. If that doesn't do it for you then, well, yeah, time to hang it up!

Well considering he's in the Dallas area, snow and ice only occur on a blue moon, and that also means curvy roads don't exist.

I haven't been driving for as long as you have but I know the feeling. I went from driving all over as a field tech back when I was 19, like 150 miles a day sometimes more. I loved it, lots of backroad driving on twisty lanes.

Now though, after my stint in Florida with all its flat roads and meh scenery, I just wanted to drive as little as possible. Hell I even ended up moving from being 20 miles from work to only 2 miles from work.

I don't know that there's a cure, I still don't like driving more than 5 miles (those 800 miles trips back and forth from TN to FL are still haunting me) so we'll see how I feel after I get this Vette rebuilt.

For myself, I got burned out trying to keep everything perfect. The most fun I've had recently is letting go. It's what the guys at roadkill have done, and look at the fun they have! Who cares if that fender has a dent?!? Rust? More like free weight reduction! Buy a machine you can afford to TRASH and then go out and do that. Drive it into the desert. Go off-road! Take it to a dirt track some night, and if it makes it, drag strip. Finally, when that little engine is about to tucker out, lay a brick on the gas pedal in neutral. Pour a beer out on it when it's consploded.

Thank you for all the thoughts and comments. I do appreciate it all.

Last question first - we have kept the Forester around because we just knew the daughter would drive it when she got her license. Not happened yet, but she will soon be forced because we are not driving her to college! Super bright, organized, artistic, analytic kid that can be quite lazy when every hour of her day is not needed for school, dance, or some project she has gotten herself into!

On the kind of bike you pedal - still have one I should get down and ride. Have been toying with doing a longboard again since the boy has discovered skateboarding. Takes me back though I don't want to tread on what he does.

No motorcyle - too many idiots on the road around here unfortunately. Loved riding dirt bikes back in the day though.

Fun car - this is my thought. I've thought about something like the STI and others similar. Really snow and ice in DFW (dallas/ft worth) is limited to maybe a week out of the year. The rest of the time we deal with dry and sometimes rain. I wasn't very clear in my smarty pants comment on snow/ice. I've gotten quite interested in the Mazda5 though since it can be had with manual and suspension mods could make it a fun car to drive in some ways.

Thanks!

When I get to drive for me, I still love it. Waking up at 4:00am to go instruct or just hang out at the track is awesome. A road trip somewhere I want to see is fun. Just taking one of the 'fun' cars around the block. I love those things.
What I've grown to hate is the driving I have to do. For me that's running the kids too and from school and the orthodontist, to the store to buy groceries, just the things I have to do and keep a schedule for. I have to leave at the right time and build in 5-10 minutes so I'm not late which means I'm early and wasting time 98% of the time.
I want to explore the world but I end up driving in tiny circles around my house over and over.

I found myself in the same boat as Huckleberry a couple of years ago. About half way through a 2.5 hour stint at a Lemons race I realised I wasn't having fun. I skipped the rest of my drives that weekend and just crewed. I haven't driven a track since. I hit one or two autocrosses a year, that's it.

As far as day to day driving, I still really enjoy it, except for one thing. Idiots that refuse to pay attention to what they are doing, when behind the wheel of a car. A missile launcher sure would bring back a lot of the fun to driving.

I think if we think of driving as sex (kids this is where you hit the back button, this is where the grown ups talk), then you just need to stop the mundane. Don't do the same things over and over. Change it up. Be adventurous, try something you wouldn't normally be interested in, but be willing to say "no" for the sake of safety. Lol. Hope that helps.

I hit that a while back and stopped racing. What I found was I went back to what I really like and that is building and fabing car performance things.

Also I recommend getting your self a nice car. A luxury car. For me that makes driving enjoyably. My most recent was a jag. Making driving easy and comfortable went a long way to liking it again.

I can see that happening to me eventually. I have so much money and sweat in my ground-up car it makes me more and more nervous (and slow) taking it out to trackday events. Eventually it'll just be used for cruising, and so what.

Didn't realize you lived where there were few to no curvy roads. For a while I entertained moving to AZ, but in that area all the roads were dead-straight for miles - I would quickly tire of driving that.

Yeah, tastes change and there's nothing wrong with following your passions - so you don't have a sports car, big effing deal. My wife's currently trying to get me to redo our koi pond and I'm fine with that. As long as I'm building stuff I'm happy, it doesn't always have to be car-related.

When I got bored of pavement, I went to dirt. Employment took me back to pavement and wheel to wheel on track, lap times were solid, got put into some fantastic world class machinery at some amazing tracks, but dirt is what makes me click. A beater going 60 on an ever changing surface does the same for me as driving an RSR at Sebring, with a lot less stress involved and for less than the cost of 45 minutes worth of tires on the RSR.

Step away for a while and try something else that interests you. I dirt bike, mountain bike, like to build stuff in my SOB. Not just automotive stuff, but things for the house (just built my wife a stand-alone wine hutch, and am working on a sliding barn door.) If you get the itch to drive you can always come back.

As for kids not wanting to drive I think it comes back to cell phones and social media. They are so hooked into everything around them they have no want to get out and discover the world. If they want to see something they just google it.

I'm not even 50 yet, but I have noticed a sharp dropoff in my skill level over the past few years.

And I really don't like to drive at night anymore.

In reply to Woody:

This x1000. My hands and arms have slowed to the point that I wouldn't dare go on track again. Nerve damage has caused situations where a mental response doesn't fire a muscular response. Wheel to wheel is a no-no for me, enough though I've been medical cleared, and I don't think that I'd subject a cod river to the risk of me driving on a rally stage. So cone chasing it is. I may venture into hpde again if the nerve response returns, but I'm not holding my breathe.

And I haven't hit 40 yet.

At least I now know that I am not the only one that has or is dealing with such a thing.

Lots of good thoughts and the comment on the beater hits home. We do get caught up in the need to keep 'em looking right (ok, so I don't spend an inordinate amount of time washing and cleaning mine) and it is of course important in some aspects to be sure it is in good mechanical condition. I do all my own oil changes and tire rotations so I can keep track of stuff and it gives me something to work on in regards to the truck. I think I have finally convinced the Wife to let me do the others for the same reason. She has always taken the other two in since they were under the dealer offered free oil and rotation plans and she could work such things into her schedule.

I think having something I could comfortably toss into corners on occasion yet still be a good DD would help a lot. There are a few places near me with some curves that could be more fun even at the posted limits and a couple of them have traffic circles. Perhaps it is a matter of getting something to DD that would provide the driving feedback that I grew up with. Something that will go when I want it too and turn corners and stop on a dime yet that I can work on and fairly comfortably keep up with DD duties.

In regards to just having projects - while I am not apt to build a Koi pond I did build the shelf stand you see below. Angle iron, wire welder, and some wood just to prove I could still build something. May build a book shelf for the Wife but make it a bit nicer.

In reply to jjreyn:

I find myself doing more functional woodwork, Tai chi, distance swimming and now that I have a space to work on the rallycross project/challenge car, that'll start getting some much needed attention.

Remember what got you into driving as a hobby was enjoying the journey. There's nothing wrong with finding a different journey to travel down.

I used to hate body work and loved mechanical work. Now I'm not able to physically do 90% of mechanical work, but I love the rythem, pace and detail of body work. It's an outlet for me now, where as before I wanted to race through it to check it off as done on a list.

As time moves on I have given up any competitive driving. I have a full spectrum of memories.

I still enjoy going out and driving to no place in particular.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to jjreyn: I find myself doing more functional woodwork, Tai chi, distance swimming and now that I have a space to work on the rallycross project/challenge car, that'll start getting some much needed attention. Remember what got you into driving as a hobby was enjoying the journey. There's nothing wrong with finding a different journey to travel down. I used to hate body work and loved mechanical work. Now I'm not able to physically do 90% of mechanical work, but I love the rythem, pace and detail of body work. It's an outlet for me now, where as before I wanted to race through it to check it off as done on a list.

What kind of dirty driving fun did you find to get into? Its always been somewhat inaccessible compared to tracks/autocross for me

Rallycross, unimproved roads, fire trails and at trails with permission and preapproval. Availability varies greatly by region and location. I pay an annual fee to be able to utilize unimproved roads within state parks of Maryland that are generally only used by ATVs and snow mobiles.

Go out for a test drive in an FRS. If you like to drive, you are well aware of the maxim that says slow cars driven fast are more fun than fast cars driven slow. It's almost like that was the design philosophy for the FRS design team.

The car is not a slug by any means, but its superpower, by dint of weighing only 2700 lbs, is to be a very engaging chassis regardless of what you are doing at a given time. It is that good of a chassis.

What I am finding is I want more comfort and convenience. Dare I say luxury? As my DD. Somthing that I can close the door and be in a very nice environment that is quite. Set the temp and let the car deal with it keeping I there. A nice stereo designed for the space is also very nice. Also important to me is a balance of form and function. I also want some performance. Not zo6 performance but I if I want to get by someone the car has to have the get up and go as well as poise at speed and some cornering ability. Most any mid size executive sedan can provide this. Ford has the sho. Gm has the ss or various Cadillacs to chose from. 5 or 7 series BMWs are an option as are various Mercedes And as I found out Jaguar is also an option. All of these cars are very pleasant places to spend time behind the wheel. All you have to do I get out there and try some of them. You may want to pay your local car max a visit and take a couple on test drives.

One thing I found is I really don't like cars with cheap interior's. It is just kind of a downer to be sitting in a cheap environment. It sets a tone for the drive. I use to not care but as I have got older I really hate a cheap feeling interior. Or for that matter a cheap feeling car.

http://www.dfw-tx4wd.org/