After about six months of driving on the autobahn I am officially in the "who wants to drive on the interstate system anymore" band-wagon. This doesn't seem like a big thing, but never forget I still call myself a Transportation Engineer. This is a major step for me. On our trip to Poland back a few months I posted on Facebook that I was blowing out the carbs, in my fuel-injected, turbo-charged diesel. Car guys will get the fact that there is neither a need to blow out the carburetor nor a carburetor in my Jetta TDLie. Real car guys can probably correct me and tell me my Smokeswagon Diesel isn't fuel-injected but as I said in the Facebook post: don't harsh my mellow.

During that trip there were times I had the cruise set on 190 kph. With a family of four and luggage to boot in the vehicle. No, I'm not setting any land speed records, but come on, a four door sedan cruising at almost 120 mph. Not shabby by any measuring rod.

Mind you, my self-professed love of the original roadway is not all based on speed. There is a certain joy in humming along at 150 kph (about 90 mph) and just hitting the pedal on the right because you can. But it isn't all love of speed. The fact that people will actually pass police cars is nice. Not shitting in your shorts when you see a police car on the side of the road while you're doing 90 is ranking on the list, too.

Today I was popping down to Munich, about a 200 km drive that we made in 2 hours avoiding a 30 minute traffic jam, and I began to finalize my Autobahn Priority listing. All Mercedes want to be in front of the BMWs. All Beamers want to be in front of the Audis, and the Audis want to be in front of the VWs. I have yet to exactly place the Skodas, Fiats, and Alpha Romeos, and I left the American vehicles where they belong--off the list. Also not classified is who the VW wants to be in front of because as a VW driver myself, I would be polluting my statistical data set. I want to be in front of everybody, I'm just not driving there all the time.

Noticeably absent from the list is my favorite of all cars, the Porsche. Where do they fall in the traffic lanes of the autobahn? In the exact same spot the 500 pound gorilla sits: Wherever they want.