Warren Brown, Contributor
WASHINGTON:
SOMETIMES, YOU change the music. I did. I found a castaway compact disc in my bedroom library, an album of reworked jazz, blues and swing classics called 'The Supper Club' - all performed and arranged by saxophonist Sonya Jason.
It was a beautiful collection of warm melodies and hot tunes, including Don't Get Around Much Anymore by Duke Ellington and Bob Russell, Summertime by George Gershwin and Dubose Heyward, and When Sunny Gets Blue by Jack Segal and Marvin Fisher.
It was the music I listened to in my childhood home in New Orleans. It stirred happy
memories. I resolved to substitute it for the 1960s Motown songs I had planned to take on my drive
of the 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse
GT V6 coupe.
Music can change your
perception of a car. I think it's because everything has an
inherent rhythm. That's especially true of sports cars, which are designed to make bold, emotional statements and which exist
primarily to get the senses
jumping, the juices flowing.
Sports cars done well are
poetry, music and dance. They exude feeling. They demand
drivers who want to feel them. Passengers are a secondary
consideration in sports cars, which is why sports cars seldom have comfortable accommodations for more than one extra body.
TRUE SPORTS CAR
The new Eclipse GT V6, although larger than its pre-decessor models - dating to the inception of the Eclipse line in 1990 - holds true to the sports car dynamic. It has four seats. But the two in the rear are
useless, and that is as it should be. Sports cars are selfish and built to stay that way.
Thus, the right music is important in a sports car because music is deeply personal. It's how 'a song' becomes 'my song' or 'our song'.
I was going to drive with Motown dance music because
the Eclipse GT's tightly stretched, yet sumptuously curved body reminded me of all of those prep school girls in New Orleans who looked so good in their Saturday night dance dresses after a week
of hiding their beauty beneath those awfully ugly parochial school uniforms.
But then I stumbled across Sonya Jason's album ... and fell in love. That was lucky for me and for the Eclipse GT V6, because love changes things. It helps you see beauty where you might have missed it, because it demands that you pay attention to what you're doing and who you are doing it with.
Had I stayed in my retro-Motown mood, I would have
been looking for a hot ride in the front-wheel-drive Eclipse GT
V6, and I would have been
disappointed. The car moved
well. But in factory dress with
its standard 3.8-litre, 263-horsepower V-6 and six-speed manual transmission, it did not move as fast as rivals on the road. Drivers of V6 Ford Mustangs and Mazda RX-8 cars, for example, had no trouble overtaking me.
But I was mellow. I thoroughly enjoyed the car and the ride, because the Eclipse GT has many virtues - beautiful styling inside and out, a comfortable interior that also allows you to carry more than an overnight bag and a spectacular Rockford Fosgate audio system equipped to play compact discs and MP3 files.
You won't win any races in the factory edition of the Eclipse GT V6. But if you accept the car as offered and you choose the right music, a good partner and a scenic road, you may win a heart, and that's a good thing.
Washingston Post
