Need for speed

This month, Toni Marshall shares how she got to drive very, very, very fast and found herself wanting to sell her 'drivers' car as a result of it.


Speed, much like wealth, is a very relative concept. Just as no matter how much money you have, there will always be someone who has more wealth than you can ever imagine. Likewise, while travelling in a car at 240km may seem ridiculously quick, a triple-seven airliner can cruise at around nine hundred kilometres an hour.

As a lover of 'drivers' cars, I love to drive fast. Now this doesn't mean I spend all my time driving illegally. Driving as fast as I dare through a winding and narrow piece of road is so much more of a thrill than travelling twice the legal road limit on a straight piece of tarmac - well for me it is any way - see, it is all relative.

Not all the cars I own are fast cars. The 'project' still lives in pampered luxury under a cover in the garage. She cannot be driven fast, in fact, she often doesn't start at all! My fast car sits under cover just outside the front door. She baits me each time I leave home. "Come on Toni, let's go somewhere fast!" Given my work commitments, most days, I just have to pat her curvaceous flanks and hop in a sensible car and get on fulfilling those tedious obligations we all have. Just occasionally though I answer her call.

Such a day happened a few Fridays ago when the fast 'drivers' car and I spent the entire day at Taupo's Motor Sport Park together - driving fast!. Hell it was fun!