The Crittenden Automotive Library

I’m Not Paranoid

Topics: Peugeot 508

I’m Not Paranoid

Geoff Maxted
DriveWrite
August 5, 2014

Most weeks I drive a different car, says Geoff Maxted. Some weeks I go to events or launches and drive several cars on the day. For the most part these cars are great. Even the lowliest offering will have some redeeming feature or other – usually price – thus affording real value for money.

As I’ve said before, if all you can afford is the slowest, least expensive car on the market then that is the best car for you and one that will probably give you pleasure. It’s horses for courses. Life doesn’t always have to be driven at high speed. In fact, I’ve come to believe that the cheap, slow car is the way forward and I’ll tell you why.

I’ve had a bit of an epiphany. Recently I drove a tremendously fast car at an unmentionably fast speed (on a track BTW) and, you know, the whole business left me a bit cold. You see, I’ve driven around motor racing circuits and private tracks and estates both here and abroad; I’ve driven magnificent motors over some of the best roads this country has to offer and I’m beginning to sense that I have had my fill of speed for speed’s sake. How can this be? It’s a bit of a worry. What has prompted this curious state of mind? Is it just maturity creeping up on me, I pondered?

But then a thought occurred to me and I realised what was happening. I am being subconsciously bludgeoned by a constant unremitting stream of purblind sanctimony; the holier-than-thou, namby-pamby, nosey-parkering, nanny-knows-best, eco-centric, wacko-council sponsored, vested interest, joyless, fun-deficient claptrap that bombards us from our screens and pages and politicians both local and national. Manipulation by way of a form of intimidation. It is beginning to seem that the only satisfactory answer is for me to go dwell in an organic yurt, using a pony and trap as my sole transport and live like some demented form of Amish reject to make it all stop.

I don‘t think I‘m paranoid but I do believe that ‘they’ have got it in for me. It feels like I have to spend all my driving time with my eyes revolving around my head like marbles looking out for, not just for cameras, but all sorts of spying devices designed to catch us out for almost any transgression, no matter how innocent. What is it that happens to ‘officials’? They seek our vote to elect them to serve us and when we do they instantly begin bossing us around. They lose all common sense and fair play.

DriveWrite is all for road safety on our busy roads. To not have rules is a recipe for chaos – but there’s a limit and I’ve reached it. Most of us accept that speed, for the most part, simply doesn’t fit in with our modern transport system and we don’t need a bunch of ill-fitting suits to state the bleeding obvious. If ‘they’ took a reasoned view ‘they’ might just find that drivers can sort it out for themselves without interference. As a nation, we are slowing down. We hear that youth is eschewing the car because of the prohibitive cost of ownership and most of us can’t afford the sort of fast cars I get to drive anyway. So it turns out that I haven’t fallen out of love with the car after all. I’ve just lost that loving feeling for society’s fat controllers.