Link to the story:
These cars really have an edge
These cars really have an edge
I’m racking my brain as I walk to the corner store for a carton of milk. I need a topic for my column this week.
At a traffic light near our house, about 20 lanes of traffic stop and go through the busy intersection. As I wait for my turn to cross, I play a quick game of which-car-stands-out-the-most. People often say that all cars look alike these days. But obviously there are vehicles out there today with a certain ‘edge.’ An attitude. Bingo. Column topic.
Some standouts in my mind:
The jaunty 2012 Fiat 500. Every time I see one, I feel inexplicably happy. One lives a few blocks away and sometimes I detour up that street just to have a look. Not as creepy as it sounds.
There is no doubt that my 1999 Volkswagen GTI VR6 maintains its edge. Some may disagree but not to my face. Spotting a new GTI on the road gives me whiplash every time.
Dodge Charger police cars send a thrill through me, especially when they are mid-chase, hunkered down, lights swirling, sirens screaming (hopefully not in my rear view mirror).
The spry Scion xB often gets a second look from me, and the rear end of the funky Ford Focus grabs the eye. The Cadillac CTS V coupe? Oh yes. Any Porsche 911. Double yes. And a good old GMC Sierra pickup truck with ‘big boots’ and a great set of roof lights still gets my blood pumping. Edgy.
Vehicles with an edge add an interesting dimension to long-distance road trips.
Before the sizzling Audi R8 was even in dealerships and not one had been on the road anywhere in Canada, my husband and business partner, Garry Sowerby, and I got to drive not just one, but two, across Canada. Any stop we made meant a time-consuming process of extricating ourselves from the crowds of people that would gather to gaze and gawk. It was like travelling with Brangelina.
Another road trip in a standout vehicle comes to mind. We were doing the historic ‘Quoddy Loop’, circling Passamaquoddy Bay by road. The Bay sits between Maine and New Brunswick and contains the island of St. Croix, that was, for one inhospitable winter over 400 years ago, one of the first European settlements in North America.
Today the story of St. Croix Island is interpreted at two unique sites, one on the U.S. side of the border, 13 kilometres south of Calais, Maine, and the other near St. Andrews, New Brunswick in Canada.
To drive the Quoddy Loop requires about 80 km of driving in Maine so we were ‘stateside’ for 30 minutes before returning to Canada. The centuries-old story of the Acadian settlement on Saint Croix Island was in sharp contrast to our ride.
The stunning ‘aqua-blur metallic’ Chevy SSR caused heads to turn almost painfully. Whether the top was up or down, people reacted most expressively as we cruised through the small towns on our island-hopping summer jaunt.
The striking design of the Chevy SSR always stands out, but especially in the cozy fishing villages along the New Brunswick coast.
Photograph by: Lisa Calvi
We got thumbs-up, open-window comments, kids gasping and pointing and genteel elderly women running up to us at traffic lights wondering “what the heck is it?!!?”
We had viewed the fog-shrouded coastline from the road then from the ferry that transported us from the mainland at Letete to our first hop onto Deer Island. The heavy brume, veiled the craggy bluffs and brought to mind rum-runners and fishermen lost at sea.
The roads twisted and turned, the roar of the 390-horsepower SSR echoed across the silent coves and harbours.
(kw: music to my/OUR ears!)
Deer Island is where, if you’ve timed the tides right, you can witness ‘The Old Sow,’ the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere. Since the Old Sow wouldn’t be in the least visible that day, we opted for a tour of the mysterious island then hopped on the small ferry to Campobello Island.
As we drove up the lineup waiting to get on the ferry, a young man leaned out the open window of his truck and growled
“light ‘er up!”
On Campobello Island, we found former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 34-room summer ‘cottage’ in a tranquil, woodsy setting overlooking Eastport, Maine. Since 1881, vacationers from Canada and the U.S. have come here by train, steamship and yacht to experience land and sea excursions, relief from hay fever and the ‘excessive heats of summer’.
That night, back at our home base, in charming St-Andrews-by-the-Sea, we parked the attention-grabbing SSR and donned bibs at the Lobster Bay restaurant. We tucked in to the Mucket Bucket — a gargantuan pot of steamed seafood delights, mussels, oysters, clams, and hefty lobsters. Good thing no one was watching us then, with butter dripping from our chins and elbows.
Next morning, alas, we headed back to Real Life. Real Life is not 390-horsepower. Neither is Real Life handling the racy 6-speed manual transmission in a gorgeous aqua-coloured
Chevy SSR convertible that makes everyone smile as you pass. Real Life is not friendly perfect strangers waving because they like your ride.
This standing-out-from-the-crowd thing is a lot of work.
There's one in every crowd.
Photograph by: Lisa Calvi
Follow Lisa on Twitter:ch value="226 128 168"/>Lady and email her at
lisa.calvi@gmail.com
© Copyright (c) The Province
SSR Praise!!! Canadians get it!!!
You have that right!!! 
I wanted to talk to them and hear some of their stories but they were not around. Ended up overwhelmed by the "canyon" experience and wasn't till later that we went back to find them...only to see the car had gone...sigh. I still have a picture of that map on the volvo somewhere around here and thougt it was just an awesome experience of a lifetime. 
nice find and read !!
SANDY
Linear Mode
