Heading Out On The Highway

     
by Zana Bell

Get your motor running
Head out on highway,
Looking for adventure,
Or whatever comes our way.

But in what car? What does your car say about you?

However much we might deny it, our choice of vehicle speaks volumes about our character. My car is a Subaru station wagon. I got it because I wanted something big and safe for my son to learn to drive in. It still bears the scars of his first six months but I look on these as well-earned war wounds. It’s Japanese because I want a car that starts every day, first go. I love my work horse, my trusty steed. No skittish filly for me.


My husband now, he’s different. He has an ongoing love affair with sports cars. In theory, I like convertibles, too. They are sexy, racy, fun. Think Monti Carlo and the French Riviera. Think Route 66.

Then think of NZ in rain. Our first convertible was a 1963 MG midget and many was the time we’d have to suddenly pull over, leap out and begin pulling the soft top up by hand. The clips were old and rusty and those truculent little demons used to resist all my efforts while the rain strummed down.


The next car, an MG TC replica was beautiful. Classic. And a nightmare. It was so noisy, it was impossible to talk. We’d go on drives and just nod at each other like this was the most fun in the world. The soft top leaked only on the passenger side. Those were the good days when it went. Most of the time it was content to sit in the garden, deigning to be taken on the road at all.


Since then, numerous sports cars have joined and left our family. Currently we have a Porsche boxter. Finally, a convertible I love. First of all, it goes. The soft-top goes on and off automatically. It’s a beautiful jade colour. Women look at it and say, “How pretty.” Men fold their arms and say, “Well, you can always paint it, mate.” I suspect its days with us are numbered.

However much I sigh about cars in real life, I love choosing them for characters. In A Risk Worth Taking, both characters are bikers.  Right from the start, even before I had much idea of character or plot, I knew they’d both be motorcycle enthusiasts. Wonderful Anita Joy, herself a bikie, was a huge help in choosing appropriate models for them.

Why bikers? Because motorbikes are the most fun I’ve ever had on a road. First of all, they spell freedom. As Steppenwolf put it in Born to Be Wild

Fire all your guns at once and
Explode into space. 

 They are also sexy.

Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims
And strap your arms round my engine
I want to know if love I wild girl, I want to know if love I real
(Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run)

I wrote my book with those two songs running constantly through my head.

Tell me about your favourite mode of transport or travelling song and be in to win a copy of A Risk Worth Taking.