We drove for miles and miles. Here are some of our favorite adventures of the year.
Some might say that all we do here is road-trip. Not true! Sometimes we do testing, and if it just so happens that there are some good roads between the offices and the proving grounds, well, it would be a crime not to explore them. It is true that inherent in driving cars for review is the traveling of many miles, but even so, some trips and cars feel more special than others. In 2022, we racked up miles and turned ‘em into wordcount. Some trips became travel guides to cool car destinations like Palm Springs and Colorado. Others were ways of testing gear like radar detectors—not that any of us would ever require such a thing—or long-term cars. Our favorites though were trips that made us rethink a road, or a car; trips that introduced us to new places and new people, adventures we’re still thinking about.
1 Chase the Rainbow
Road trips can be solo or group activities, but there’s something extra fun about hitting the tarmac with a buddy. In June, associate newes editor, Caleb Miller and social media editor Michael Aaron got behind the wheel of a 2022 Porsche 911 GT3 Touring and drove to Toronto to attend Rare Shades 6, an annual car show for Paint to Sample and other unusually colored Porsches. When asked for comment, Aaron simply replied, “Check the Car and Driver Instagram.”
2 Driving Queen
When driving a 420-hp ’64 Volvo P1800 is only the second-greatest part of your journey, you know you’ve won the road-trip lottery. We drove the Cyan Racing restomod Volvo through the golden hills of California to find . . . Sweden? In the 1900s, Kingsburg, California, went from a Wild West hideout to the largest concentration of Swedish immigrants in the state. Today it still highlights its cultural heritage, and the townspeople were thrilled to host the Volvo and send us home full of Swedish pancakes.
3 The Luxury Liner
Sometimes we just had to move a car, and ourselves, from one place to another—not for a story, just for efficiency. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be enjoyable, as when senior editor, Drew Dorian traversed Florida in a Bentley Continental GT. “Things don’t get scenic until you’re south of Homestead, where Miami’s suburban sprawl ends and swampy marshland begins. Here, you become acquainted with the area’s only major road: Highway 1. This band of pavement runs through almost all of the Florida Keys, and along its roadside, you’ll see a mix of high-end resorts sharing property lines with charming 1950s-era roadside motels. The late summer sun was scorching and prevented us from dropping the Bentley’s top. But at night it was cool enough to enjoy open-top motoring and the area’s dark skies were a vision of stars, especially when crossing the famed Seven Mile Bridge, which connects Knights Key and Little Duck Key with nothing but ocean on either side. The trip would have been as easy had we been in a Chevy, but the natural beauty of the Florida Keys and the ultimate luxury of a Bentley convertible was a far better match.” Indeed, we suffer for the work.
4 Brother, Can You Spare a Charge?
All good road trips involve making friends along the way, stopping in roadside cafés, or just chatting at fuel stops. We had a bunch of chances to do the latter when we took a BMW i4 M50 on a lakeside adventure in search of people who share their home charging networks. We met many generous souls, and enjoyed the beauty of Michigan in the late summer. One detail that didn’t make it into the final story is that both driver, Scherr (that’s me) and photographer, Michael Simari, got food poisoning, and Simari ended up puking in the parking lot of an Applebees. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled as we made a quick escape. “Don’t worry, bud, “ I told him. “This is not the first time someone has vomited in an Applebees parking lot, nor will it be the last.” Thankfully it was the last of the emergency barfing in this story.
5 Fantasy Trip
If you don’t have the vacation time to take a trip, have you considered just fantasy-shopping for the perfect car to take on one? You can do it during work hours, as we did during a special road-trip-themed episode of our semi-weekly videocast, Window Shop.
6 This vs. That vs. Highway 33
Speaking of fantasies, Ezra Dyer took two of the year’s prettiest road huggers on one of California’s prettiest roads. He matched up the Maserati MC20 against Porsche’’ 911 Turbo S on the California coast north of Los Angeles and headed up into the hills and high desert for a few days of Route 33’s blind corners, big climbs, and long, desolate straights. Who cares which car wins when you’re on a road like this?
7 Falling in Love
What better way to learn the charms of a classic line-up than on a multi-state run. From hanging Spanish moss to the Florida coast, we got a delicious tasting of BMW’s M cars.
8 Do Right
Our best road trip of the year though wasn’t in the sexiest car, and it certainly wasn’t offering the best scenery. Contributor Jonathon Ramsey reminded us all that a life best lived is one that gives back to others when he loaded a Dacia minivan and spent a night in Poland moving supplies for Ukraine refugees. Here’s to a peaceful 2023, and many more road trips.
Keyword: Car and Driver's Best Road Trips of 2022