Dan Gurney, a championship driver from Le Mans to Indianapolis who now builds winning race cars in Santa Ana, thinks every time capsule should include an ignition key. French essayist Jean-Francis Held has taken that thought deeper, writing in a UNESCO study that from its indelible position in literature, movies, art, business, social progress and national decay, the automobile exemplifies man--and vice versa. Rattletrap East German Trabants were a symbol of totalitarianism, then of German reunification.
Rebels without causes favored hot-rod coupes, and later cruisers flexed their Dodge and Mustang muscle cars. The Americans, for instance. Americans give their cars names, religiously wash them on weekends and, say the sociologists, generally treat their Toyotas like pets. Baby shoes and St. Christopher medals dangling from rearview mirrors are talismans to keep us, and our cars, safe. Vanity license plates are a form of jewelry, psychologists say.
We all have our favorites. Los Angeles, with its freeways, was made for cars. Some of us were conceived in cars, born in cars, eat in them, work in them and cover about 2 trillion miles a year in them. Each year, more than 40, Americans die in them.
The relationship is intense and not without a downside. Psychologists say cars are steel bubbles obviating contact with other humans. Freeways avoid town centers, polarize cities and erode our sense of community. Without cars, we might hear the birds again, there could be air without particles and no drive-by shootings. Always, a car offers the possibility of endless adventures in distant places. The passion is no weaker in Germany, where the recent recession has seen some purists moving to less expensive houses rather than selling their precious cars.
For citizens born to the mechanical precision of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche and Audi, driving and not the destination is the thrill of car travel. There are no speed limits on the autobahns, and German motorists typically cruise in excess of m.
