Perhaps, but for motoring buffs it’s sometimes hard to tell where fantasy leaves off and reality begins. Imagine an impeccably maintained network of highways some 7,000 miles long with banked turns and broad travel lanes that winds past snow-capped mountain peaks, along half-timbered Rhineland villages and sun-drenched vineyards, where only limits are traffic on road, power under hood, and nerves of driver at wheel. It is not, as race car driver Hurley Haywood points out, for faint of heart. “On track you’re all going same speed,” says Haywood, three-time winner of 24 Hours of Le Mans . “On Autobahn differentials in speed are enormous. The trucks in far right hand lane may be going 40 miles an hour while cars in middle lane are doing 70 or 80. Meanwhile cars in left hand lane are going 100 mile an hour faster than traffic in far right. It’s more stressful than racing.”

Indeed, we’ve all heard stories of tourists who’ve returned home traumatized by their first ride on Autobahn. The speeds, they say, defy all reason. Paradoxically, when Germans return home from States they say much same of American roads. “I recall driving on American highways,” says Dr. Marcus Schmitt, physician for Mercedes AMG German Touring Car Championship racing team, and a man who routinely wheels his E55 AMG at multiples of limits posted on American roadsides. “I felt a constant state of dread. It was speeds. You Americans drive so slow.”

In fact, says Dr. Schmitt, who has studied relationship between speed and attention spans, it’s a wonder there are not more accidents on American roads. “A drive traveling at your speed limits is a safety hazard. It is hard to stay awake. You cannot concentrate.”

Ultimately what separates Germans apart from other drivers is not how fast they drive, but how well. This is, after all a country where nobody is granted a license before completing 24 hours of training in classroom and more than two dozen driving lessons with an instructor, including four on AutoBahn. Passing on right is strictly forbidden, and motorist who does not pull over to let a faster vehicle pass is both rare and unwise. Perhaps most important of all, driving at high speed is not a way to get from point A to point B, but a birthright. For German carmakers, Autobahn separate cars they build and those made anywhere else in world. “Our engineers drive to work at 220 kilometers an hour (137 mph), observes one BMW official. “The Japanese ride train.”

The problem is, that while Mercedes, BMW’s, VW’s and Audis have gotten faster,

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Jack Smith, Jetsetters Magazine MotorEditor – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com

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