Why I want Q to outfit my next car

Driving in Europe has ruined me for handling American freeways. In Italy , say, the main autostrada between Florence and Rome is mostly two lanes in either direction. If you stay in the right lane, you have to deal with slower traffic (buses, trucks, tourists) and with vehicles that enter the flow almost immediately (unlike the hundreds of yards that American vehicles get to play with).

The alternative is to brave the left lane, which puts you directly in the path of every Mercedes, BMW or Mercedes driver who thinks that he’s Michael Schumacher . Even if you choose to drive faster than 160 kph (roughly 100 mph), you’re likely every couple of minutes or to see cars in your rear-view mirror coming up on you, left blinkers on full, high beams flashing ever brighter as they come closer and closer until they are literally five feet FROM YOUR REAR BUMPER, forcing you finally to give way.

So, you can see, driving in Europe is like something out of a “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” video game. In the U.S., in contrast, we have self-appointed monitors of the road. You know, monitors are those people who think that it is up to them to uphold the rule of law by staying in the left lane and driving NOT ONE MILE faster than the law allows. So it’s not unusual to see five, six cars lined up behind these high-minded people, jockeying to get around as soon as they can, cutting off those unfortunates in the right lane and threatening to cause accidents.

I encountered a few of those kinds of drivers over the weekend on a road trip to Seattle. Several times I found myself wishing that “Lara Croft” were real and that my car had been equipped with missiles. As it was, I had fun employing all the cool Italian hand gestures that I’ve learned.