When you grow up with a father who loves horsepower, you learn to love horsepower too. Dixie Gillaspie, on cars, life, and a cool new contest from the Enterprise Exotic Collection.
—
Written in partnership with Enterprise Exotic Collection
I learned to drive from a professional. No, not a professional race car driver. A professional truck driver. My dad, who loved to drive. The bigger the vehicle the more he loved to drive it.
When he took a vacation, we traveled. Which is to say Dad drove. From coast to coast. In a station wagon (which he considered much too small and too low to the ground) an RV, or a truck pulling a camper. When I say I’ve seen this country, I mean I’ve seen it moving by the window at 55 mph.
But me, I loved the little cars. The cute convertibles that would turn on a thought and a dime while the summer breeze lifted the hair off your shoulders and the care off your mind. When we chose my first car, Dad compromised – if you can call it that. The car was a Datsun 110. Grass green. With black racing stripes on the hood. This was no convertible, the breeze had to come through the open windows, but she would turn on a thought and a dime if you asked her to, and the radio worked.
Dad had a rule. You didn’t get to drive anything you couldn’t do basic maintenance on. No exception for a girl-child. So I learned to change the oil and the tires. I learned how to connect the battery cables and set the points. I loved that little car (and my freedom) so much that I learned all that and how to change the spark plugs too.
But one thing she didn’t have. Power. A few years after I left home I had the chance to buy a Stingray. She was a brilliant blue convertible and she came off the line the year I graduated High School. (No, we are not going to talk about what year that was.) Dad was not for it. It was a complicated car, he said. A precision car. And he didn’t see me becoming a precision mechanic.
“But,” he added wistfully, “It is nice to have the horses.” Oh yeah, the horses. The under-the-hood horses. We had that in common, he and I, that love of the responsive burst of power, the smooth purr to roar that a “precision” car gives you when you let her know, ever so gently, that you would like to go.
Now. I didn’t buy the Stingray, she’s as pristine in my memory as she was when I first laid eyes on her. I drove that little Datsun until she had about 200,000 miles on her, then upgraded to a practical, but fun, Ford Probe (not a convertible, but I insisted on a power sun roof.)
As a consultant and speaker I’ve traveled to a lot of cities. And I’ve driven a lot of cars. Most of them rentals. Sometimes I changed vehicles so often I had to walk out to the parking lot and press the unlock button just to see which car winked its lights at me in answer, because otherwise I couldn’t remember what kind of car I was driving that week. But some cars are unforgettable. And every now and then a client would love me enough, or I would love myself enough, to upgrade to something you could not miss in any parking lot. Something that was so much fun to drive I almost hated to go home. Vacations for me are definitely not about driving, not cross-country anyway. But I’m happy to fly into a sunny spot, rent a convertible, and tool around cobbled streets or fly up the turns of a hill-side country road.
♦◊♦
What about you? What was your first car? Your dream car? Do you like to drive the highways, or the byways? The tight turns, or the long straightaways? If your next vacation allowed you to drive ANY car in ANY place in the United States what would it be, and where?
Those aren’t rhetorical questions my friend. You could win the Enterprise Exotics’ Luxury Prize Pack worth $570 including a $150 Brooks Brothers Gift Certificate, the Le Donne Leather Expandable Messenger Bag, Ray Ban Sunglasses, Gearshift Cufflinks and a Gearshift Tie for showing off your good taste. (Because if you’re going to harness the horses under the hood, you want to look good doing it!)
Why am I telling you this? Because Enterprise is celebrating the launch of their “Exotic Collection” and they want to include you. Their lineup will have you booking your next vacation. How about LA or San Fran? Naples or Palm Springs? Las Vegas, Dallas, Atlanta or San Jose? Not only will Enterprise put you behind the wheel of one of their luxury dream cars, you’ll experience true white glove service from reservation to return. And about that Prize Pack so that you can take that vacation in style? Here’s how to enter:
1) Start by drooling over the Enterprise Exotic selection, here.
2) You don’t have to choose just one, I know I’m debating whether I’d rather drive the Jag F-type (the phrase “point and shoot handling” makes me crave a winding road) or the Jag XKR (because it seats four and the supercharged 5.0L, 510 hp V8 just screams HORSES!)
3) Then jump over to twitter and make sure you’re following @Enterprise.
4) Track down a photo of you and your old car, you and your dream car, or just the first car you ever fell in love with and share it on twitter.
5) Add a caption telling us which Enterprise Exotic car you’d choose (this time) and why it’s the car for you.
6) Make sure you use both @Enterprise and #EnterpriseExotics in your tweet so we know you want that Luxury Prize Pack. And tag @GoodMenProject so we can RT and share it with our community!
7) The chance to get the giveaway ends June 25, so tweet now! You can enter from our Facebook page, here.
I can’t win the Prize Pack (‘cause that would be cheating!)—but you can! And I’m sure thinking about that next vacation.
Enterprise has taken care of me for a lot of years, and the company was founded right here in my home town of St. Louis, Missouri, so renting one of these beauties would be almost as righteous as cheering for the Cardinals! And even though my father passed away more than 25 years ago, I know he’d smile to see that I still love the cute little convertibles, so long as they have power. For old times sake, I’d have to start with the Corvette Stingray convertible. Still sleek, still sexy, and described as “the most powerful standard Corvette in history.”
Yup, she’s got the horses, along with all the luxury appointments a girl could want. And of course, no maintenance. Dad would approve of that.
You can enter right from our Facebook page, here — or just tweet your photo and tag #enterpriseexotics!
I remember that Datsun! My first car was a bright red Buick La Sabre; all of my classmates called me “Fire Chief” when I drove it. Then I drove a bright orange Bobcat during my college years until I literally drove it into the ground. My sisters joke that I spent more time under it or under the hood than driving it, but my goodness that car had character! The first car I bought and paid for myself, when I got my first teaching job, was a 1990 Ford Escort, midnight blue. It was a stick shift, something I had… Read more »
Still prefer the horses that take a bridle, Dad taught me that too. But they just aren’t practical for my present life! But I’ll forgive a car a lot when she’s red. LOL
My wife is the gearhead in the family. She changes the oil and performs the routine maintenance on our cars. Although, she’s not into the precision cars as you are, she’s a fan of the sheer brute force of the 70s American muscle car. In fact, her dream when we move out of our townhouse, and into a house with a garage, is to restore a ’76 Camaro. It’s odd my wife sometimes hangs out with what I call the neighborhood car club. It’s a group of guys who hang out around whoever is tinkering on their car that day… Read more »
Not odd at all! Glad the guys value a gal who loves cars!