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Originally Posted by GeeTee TSI I would say India is appealing from the terrain and diversity and lately, the quality of highways. However, not from convenience (even hygiene factors like restrooms), or safety (inadequate, inconsistent signages).
From my limited visits overseas, I have been impressed with UK's driving (and car) culture and has been the most relatable to me after India. |
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Originally Posted by Amrik Singh I would not vote for India where adding mere Bull bar is an offence compared to USA where a variety of modifications are permitted. Again, your Car and driving habits may be safe, but an ill maintained vehicle having a break down in the middle of the road can prove harmful. Driving in India is no more a pleasure now, but more of a stress. |
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Originally Posted by GTO Call me biased, but my top choice is still India ![Big Grin](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png) .
- It's one of the rare countries in the world where you can have a lot of fun with a mere 80 to 100 BHP car.
- Excellent straights now (thanks to expressways), but more importantly, we have amazing mountain roads & curvy highways.
- Road-tripping is so much more fun with the vast greens & sceneries, unique dhabas etc. compared to say, USA where freeways are a snooze-fest with the same road feel and same McDonalds & Taco Bells at rest stops. No prizes for guessing that cruise control was invented & popularized by Americans. |
I spent 15+ years odd years as a licensed driver North America, about twenty here in India, and I've had a bit of time behind the wheel (or handlebar) in the islands, Central/ South America, Thailand, and ridden by bike/ car from the Netherlands down to Southern France... There are people here with considerably more experience than me, but agree with much of what's been expressed already.
I do feel it could be useful to distinguish between "car enthusiasm" and
travel enthusiasm, which are quite different things for many, and are combined for only a smaller percentage of people. Many love travelling and the attendant joys
without cars, and many who love cars never really travel anywhere far from home in them!
I was a total car nut my growing-up years through post-college when employed in a U.S. metro, in thise years built/ restored/ raced a number of cars, everything from Mazda rotaries to MG Midget to 7.5L V-8 classic musclecars to higher-tech Mitsu and Nissan turbos... My enthusiasm in those years totally consumed me
despite the fact that I'd seldom travelled very far in them, and when I did (even thousands of miles), it was honestly not for pleasure but conveyance.
In terms of strict "car culture" the U.S. may indeed be hard to beat: As some have already noted you can buy and build serious performance on a shoestring budget and quite legally in most places - which is what I always did (I feel continually "shackled" in India in terms of the "ban" culture): You can moreover commission any number of custom builders to create and build your dream car there; And you can go to cruise nights and drive-ins and dragstrips and swap-meets and car shows and parades all over the place, in small towns and metros alike. The nation was pretty much built up on automobiles and in earlier times was rife with virtually empty state/national highways, not to mention more obscure hill roads such as those I learned to drive on. A lot of car lore there, and in my youth I knew old-timers who had quite a few thrilling tales to tell of their old flathesd Ford builds and local speed-records and (unsanctioned/ impromptu) racing and etc, etc.
You can, btw, also buy new most of the best the world has to offer if you've got the money (or credit!).
However, Montana and in some states country two-lanes aside, speed limits are usually modest there, and unless going offroad (Moab comes to mind), you can get yourself into a lot of trouble with the law pretty quickly if you crave speed. Maybe that's where Germany comes in.
All that said, if we want to speak of vehicular TRAVEL culture, then granted U.S. Interstates are mostly boring (I loved travel there only after leaving, and upon committing myself on visits to longer-timeframe trips on smaller local roads).
And really, if we're talking TRAVEL, then there are just so many places in the world to fascinate and delight. India is amazing culturally / historically and diverse in terms of landscape and people(s), but then, I've driven to / through amazing and I'd say equally satisfying (and less hectic) places in the Andes mountains, in Mexico, in Puerto Rico, etc, etc... Saw some great vintage motorsport racing in the Swiss Alps, for that matter. Never been to Africa but there are some wonders there, and biking in SE Asia seems to be picking up, as well. Not sure most of us can comment here in unbiased manner without having visited and travelled by car and checked out the overall enthusiast scene in every country...
@GTO: Our 1969 MG Midget MkIII put out a measly 65hp, my 1971 Datsun 510 put out about 100, and believe me, the U.S. (and probably most other countries) still has myriad well-paved rural roads on which it is still pure joy to drive something like this or other low-powered vehicles on. Many visitors to many lands never get far beyond the metros / high-speed NH's... and thus miss out on witnessing what is really the larger overall scene - namely everything in-between.
-Eric