If you grew up as I did, you probably had a number of car posters on your wall. We used to have these book fair events at our school a couple of times a year. My father would give me extra scratch so I could pick out different car and truck books. Those books usually had a tear-out poster or two in them of something I wanted to drive when I grew up.

Eclipses & Tornadoes

My coming of age was in an automotive era where cars like the Dodge Viper, BMW M Roadster, and the Acura Integra Type R were headliners. At the same time, eyes were also on these “new” Lexus and Infiniti cars, which seemed like something out of the future. As a kid, I loved the Mazda Miata and still do at almost 40. In high school, I wanted a Mitsubishi Eclipse something fierce.
In our rural Iowa community, and amongst us kids at the lunch table, the battle was always between Chevy and Ford trucks. Although after seeing Twister over summer vacation in 1996, none of us could deny the awesomeness of the Dodge Ram. When the father of one of my classmates purchased a red Ram that September, all bets were off. Dodge was “in the club.” 

Growing up, we used to talk about what it might be like to drive the vehicles we loved. It was a pipe dream then, considering we didn’t have gainful employment or even a driver’s license! Now that I am older, though, I keep thinking about the exact same thing. I wonder what it would be like to drive some of these v...