The Zero isn't finished but it's good enough to drive. I've got it registered and road legal. I've put a couple of hundred miles under the wheels. I think I'm in a place where I can ruminate on The Experience.
The experience of driving a Seven style roadster is not for everyone. It's not an experience that I crave every single day. It is an experience that I do enjoy. When I want to have that experience, my GBS Zero delivers.
Experiences--and the quality of them--are subjective. What I write here is entirely personal to me. Your experience of a Seven will almost certainly be completely different.
When you're in the Zero--as with almost all Seven style roadsters--you're exposed. (We're not going to talk about the Donkervoort here, yet.) You're sitting in a tub barely big enough for two average sized adults a few inches above the ground. You've got not roof. You've got no doors. You can touch the freeway with your fingers while belted in without really straining. You might have a windscreen. You feel everything. You hear everything. You smell everything. If shit goes seriously pear-shaped you're probably going to die.
It's kind of like riding a motorcycle in that regard. You get real aware of how small you are compared to everybody else on the road. You drive with your head a swivel. You work to keep extra space around you. In traffic you have to drive it like nobody will see you. On a busy freeway, it's fucking stressful and exhausting.
That's not where you should be driving any Seven if you can avoid it. Freeways are misery. Unfortunately freeways are often the sucky gateway to the good stuff; the experiences that bring smiles.
Present In The World
Much like a motorcycle, when you're driving a Seven you're not moving through the environment, you're moving in the environment. If you don't understand this distinction, the next paragraph will mean nothing to you.
You feel it all. You hear it all. You smell it all. As you dive in and out of shadows cast across the road you feel the air get colder, denser, and wetter. When you crest out onto a stretch of open road under the sun you feel immediately feel the warmth and lightness of life. The sensations you feel driving a Seven are directly influenced by environment you're driving in. That's an exhilarating feel. This is one of the experience that the the Zero has given me.
Joy
This car is happiness.
This car makes happy when I drive it, regardless of my mood.
This car makes other people happy when they see it.
