 A
Racy Habit
by Amanda
Virtanen
Clutch pushed to
the floor, I stare at the light and wait for
the green.
Bumpers aligned
perfectly, I give one last "whatever" glance
to the girl piloting the Jetta beside me. She
revs her engine once more - and the light
changes. I slam into first, bang into second,
hop into third and I'm gone. Just for the hell
of it, I keep pushing it in fourth only too
see the Jetta fading in the background behind
me.
This is my life:
Internet employee by day, racerchick by night.
I have an
addiction, an addiction to speed and the
feeling I get right after I have beaten out
the other driver. I feed my addiction anywhere
I get the chance, quite frankly. On the way
home from work, on a leisure ride, on the way
to the grocery store - but the opportunity is
always there. There is always one willing car
that gives my Acura a stare. I have taken the
phrase “Lady Driven” to a whole new level.
Where does this
need for speed stem from? I'm going to have to
blame that on my father. From the earliest day
I can recall in my 23 years of life, speed has
always been a factor in my house. Questions
like: How fast is that car? How fast is that
motorcycle? Can we soup up our boat?
frequently echoed off the walls of my house as
a child. I learned to identify just about any
car on the road from 1955 on - and I just
loved going to car shows with my Dad and
learning as much as I could. Even though he
sometimes rambled on at a technical rate that
I could barely keep up with, amazingly - I
seem to have retained much of what I once
thought of as "useless" information.
So, here I am,
years later, with an addiction to racing and a
new found love of Hondas. Which brings me to
me reason for writing this piece: To tell the
world that racing is not only for men. Racing
is not only for people in Porsches. Racing is
for the girl in the Acura. Be brave. Drive
your car to it's full potential, name it (mine
is Ellie), wash it, tune it up yourself, and
install a whopping stereo system and strobe
lights - cause having a car and making it your
own is what being a car lover is all about.
In my upcoming
features, I plan on talking about the import
car market - giving it the attention it
deserves. I just wanted to give you all a
sense of who I am and how I know the things
that will be discussed in future columns.
Amanda Virtanen is
a 23 year old Web Producer and an automotive
enthusiast. She owns a jazzed-up 1999 Acura EL
named Ellie.
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