If we meet somewhere to go somewhere else together and if you ask "Who's driving?", I'll most likely prefer to be the passenger whether the car is mine or yours. If it's mine (and I always make it clear that it can be), I'll hand you the keys. I would say, have said, and maybe even thought that it's because I don't like to drive. But that's not entirely true. I don't really like driving if there's someone in the car with me.
Unlike most people where I grew up, I didn't learn how to drive when I was 11. I could operate a vehicle when I was 15, but I wasn't a very smooth or even confident driver (fulfilled prophecy of self and others). I didn't get my license until I was almost 18. I think my younger brother got his license before I did. He's also the one who finally succeeded in teaching me to drive stick. I also like to be the passenger so that I can listen to you more attentively if we're talking and so I can better see how it is out the window if we're not.
However, I did have what might have been a secret...
If I'm alone I like driving. A lot. Almost any car and almost anywhere. And I have become a fairly competent driver. It's not such a secret that I drive too fast, and I think I do that because I like to see and feel what the car can do and I like to feel the road. I'd often wished I were I driving something that could "keep up" - not necessarily with me or my cat-like reflexes, but with what I wanted to do.
The new Subaru more than surpasses me and I still don't feel like I can keep up with it. I think it's the most powerful car I've driven. I know there are cars wayway more powerful on the road with me every day, but the WRX is a lot for me. It has a 2.5L DOHC intercooled turbo engine. Out of all of those words, the only one I sort of understand is "turbo", and even then only minimally. It's the thing that makes the sound and that puts you back up against seat when you accelerate. The little station wagon is dark grey and other than the hood scoop, it's pretty non-assuming. Not as fierce as the black, it still gets attention from tuner car drivers and others of the cognoscenti. Sometimes those dudes look at the driver and if that's me, I want to explain, "Yes, I know what I have, I just don't quite know what to do with it yet."
I've driven it quite a lot, but haven't quite bonded with it yet. Putting the special iPod hook-up helped make it feel more like mine, but the way the short-throw shifter moves hasn't quite become they way I move. Its suspension and other performance aspects also require some adjustments in movement and perception. For example, the RPM dial (rather than the speedometer) is in the center of the display, but I'm trying to continue to rely more on sound and feel rather than on numbers to tell me when to shift. Getting up to speeds is no problem, tempering it in town is taking some work. But on what passes for open road here, it's an absolute pleasure to drive. It's not really like one of those comfy cars that creep to 90mph without the driver realizing. I can feel and see and hear it go faster.
And I can feel the road under the tires. I've always preferred that, to feel the car interact and connect with the road and then I connect with both. Since moving to California I've often craved driving on the type of long, straight roads that traverse Eastern Montana, the ones where you don't see another car for miles or hours. When I drive the Subaru, though, I crave more curves. A few weeks ago, I found a good one upon exiting Highway 4 to take Cummings Skyway or maybe it's the other way around ... (I'd never make it as one of those mystery writers who sprinkle their text with landmarks and street/road names to give it local legitimacy!) I took the corner about 15 mph over the posted limit and the car didn't complain at all. And it let me keep up.
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