Peters mourns the passing of the late, lamented passing gear.

The average new family car has more power and potential performance capability than the average performance car of the ’90s. A 1995 Mustang GT’s 5.0 liter V8 made 215 horsepower; the car could do zero to 60 in about 7 seconds. A 2021 Camry with the standard 2.5 liter four cylinder engine has 203 horsepower and gets to 60 in just over 7 seconds. With its optional 301 horsepower 3.5 liter V6, the Camry can make that run 5.6 seconds, easily blowing the doors off the ’90s V8 GT. Which was one of the top three fastest American cars available back in the mid-’90s.

But back in the ’90s, people who drove Mustang GTs used the performance they were capable of. In the today, people who drive family cars like the Camry with more performance capability seem afraid to use it. The new Camry looks really angry, though – much more so than the ’90s Mustang. Probably because it is so frustrated by its driver.

Anyone who still drives will affirm this observation.

One can be driving a vehicle with very little performance capability; for example, my Old Steady pick-up, a nearly twenty-year-old truck with a four cylinder engine that does not get to 60 in either 5.6 or 7.9 seconds, regardless of my best efforts. In fact,my ’02 Nissan Frontier has about the same performance potential as a new Prius. But I use every bit of potential it does have and that makes me faster than most new car “drivers” who are behind the wheel (sort of) of vehicles with twice the performance potential.

It’s like a guy in a wheelchair winning the Boston Marathon.

A natural consequence of the Risk-Averse Society they’ve foisted off on an effeminized, no-ball nation. Eric is way off with the next part, though.

When these gimps-behind-the-wheel “pass” another car – if they even make the attempt to pass another car – it is done with excruciating lethargy,  kind of slow-motion Safety Dance on four wheels.

First, the wait. These non-driving people have to think about it a bit before they initiate any action.

Then they signal. Always the signal. This having been bored into their minds as the Most Important Thing to do when passing, rather than competently executing the actual maneuver.

Waitaminnitwaitaminnitwaitaminnit. They DO? You mean to say you’ve seen drivers actually bothering to activate a turn signal, not just before passing somebody, but EVER? At ALL?!? Things must be quite different up Roanoke way than they are ’round these parts, because I can assure you that signaling a turn, lane change, or pass is something that just doesn’t happen here, unless I’m the one doing it. In fact, I’ve been wondering if they’d made moving the turn-stick illegal in NC or something.

Then again, just about the only people you see slingshotting around Ma and Pa Kettle on a two-lane road these days are teenagers in Charger Hellcats or 5.0 Mustangs, so there’s that. Most everyone else limits the indulgence of their more adventurous sides to constant tailgating, posting selfies on Facebook the whole time.

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