Our Favorite Roads

What’s your favorite road? I have several. The rest of our esteemed editorial staff have many stories to share as well. August is “Our Favorite Roads” month.  

We chose this profession as automotive scribes unanimously because we love the drive. That feeling you get when man and machine become one and we enter that zone of perfect awareness. The cars are great, but the roads make the difference.

You can be behind the wheel of a Ferrari 250 GTO SWB, but if you are going stop and go on the 405 in Los Angeles, there is little pleasure in that. That same car would be an absolute riot on twisty mountain roads. Roads matter.

We do this in August so you the reader may benefit with a nice drive to one of these many places, perhaps in the autumn. Since moving to Southern California, then Phoenix, one aspect that I miss most of my midwestern roots is the fall colors. I will talk at length about that in a future “favorite roads” feature.

In a conversation a while ago with good friend and Last Open Road author, Burt Levy. He likened the roads to be more important than the car itself. “The real romance is not with the car at all… It’s with the road. The road is the piece of music and the car is the instrument with which you play it.”

That said, I encourage you to get out of the house, “fire up the willing engine, responding with a roar,” and go find your road. We will have suggestions of roads in as many regions as we have found favorites – and good advice in adhering to the current world situation.

We really look forward to “Our Favorite Roads” month, because it is the passion that binds all of us in car culture – no matter our ethnic, political, creed backgrounds or beliefs. We are united in the pursuit of what makes us happy.

Enjoy the drive!