Pretend you own a Lexus IS350 F Sport. Obsidian black. It sleeps in your garage at night. The engine shakes you awake through the engine start button every morning. You don't need coffee to prepare you for your day because a quick full-throttle blast onto the on-ramp is all you need. You roll the windows down so you can better hear the hearty note of the exhaust — it's your theme song, and you like it loud.
Pride is commonly regarded as the ultimate vice — that which leads to all others, like envy, wrath, and worse. But pride has many faces, doesn't it? Isn't it possible that virtue could also be born of pride?
By the time I could read, I could name every single car on the road. A few years after that, I could also name their displacement and horsepower ratings. I got my driver's license the moment I was eligible, and I wanted a car of my own so bad my teeth hurt.
When I finally got my first car I felt a pride greater than any I had ever known. Pride wasn't a gateway to vice, but a means of empowerment — I was suddenly free to do things I'd never done before and go places I couldn't go before. Even the clank of the keys in my hand gave me a little thrill.
As you get older, that sense of empowerment only grows, and your first performance car will get that first-car-feeling flowing through your veins once again. You don't drive a car like the IS350 F Sport because you think you're better than your neighbor, you drive it because it's an extension of your body. The 8-speed sport-direct transmission completely changes everything you thought you knew about an automatic transmission — you're actually driving the future. The available variable gear-ratio steering (IS350 RWD only) offers you unmatched control. The pride you feel when you drive your first performance car is magnificent, and the satisfaction (another positive side-effect of pride) you get when you finish applying a fresh coat of wax and then admire your car gleaming in the sunlight is unmatched. You should be proud — you've worked hard for this feeling. You've come so far since your first car, and you deserve it.
See, pride isn't all that bad. It's actually kinda great.
Matthew Davis graduated from BYU-Idaho in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in communication and a minor in automotive technology. His two sons are named after cars. He works for NAPA Auto Parts as a District Sales Manager.
This post is part of a sponsored collaboration between Lexus and Studio@Gawker.