What do you do to feel alive, to hear the rhythm of your heart and feel it beating in your chest? For me there are few pleasures more intoxicatingly liberating as driving my car on an open road with the roof down. The high I find in these moments makes this my drug of choice.

There’s something just irresistibly seductive about a clear star filled night sky and the empty roads. As most people are heading to bed and I’m heading home from a friends house a night like this is like a written invitation to me. It’s cold, but I crank up the heater, put the roof down then turn up the music as I make my way to the countryside back roads.

Once I’m far enough away from the street lights, under a blanket of darkness it’s time to unleash the horses trapped inside the engine and allow them to gallop. The bushes and trees flash past me in a white illuminated blur. My heart rate races as the blood surges through my viens like the fuel burning as I bury my right foot to the floor.

Simon Jones and his MGFNot that I was in any doubt, but I am alive! I feel exuberant and the rush of speed driven elation as the car writhes underneath me like a beast wildly snarling to attack the road ahead. Every bump amplified, every curve a dance, and every corner a dare.

Yes it was cold tonight, and yes I burned through a painful amount of fuel in no time at all, but you’ll never convince me it’s not worth it. Fast or slow, the smile upon my face doesn’t get much broader than it is at moments like this.

I love these roads, I love my car, I love my life!

Going topless
The long way home
VW Jetta ‘Pink Moon’ commercial