Nomads and Racers on Two-Lane Blacktop

⌚ 03 Nov 2013 🔖 Movies

[![Two-Lane Blacktop]({{site.image_url}}/{{page.id | replace: ‘/’,'-’ | remove_first: ‘-'}}/girlanddriver-small.png “Two-Lane Blacktop Still”)]({{site.image_url}}/{{page.id | replace: ‘/’,'-’ | remove_first: ‘-'}}/girlanddriver.png)

I remember sliding into the passenger side of my good friend Michael Smelser’s 1973 Chevy Nova in Albany, Oregon. The first thing I noticed was there wasn’t much car - at least not much in the way of cupholders or GPS units. Instead I was sitting on a lightly padded bucket seat surrounded by a bare metal frame and unsafe looking glass. To my left was a shift nob, an extremely minimal steering column and what I hoped to be a competent driver.

The Nova roared to life and I suddenly found myself in a world of deafening, explosive sound and a vibration so violent I thought my organs were going to shift places.

The smell of exhaust all of a sudden became overpowering and immediately I understood that I loved the car.