Many times the best drives come completely unplanned. There are no cameras rolling, nothing even remotely contrived. Often times the reason for the drive is even purely functional.

Last night was one of those awesome spur of the moment car experiences for me and my buddy Shane. That’s why the pics are crap, and this article, written in immediate hindsight, may be a little wonky. But it was one of those great drives I know I’ll remember long into the future.

Shane asked me if I was free around lunch time yesterday, but the way he phrased it told me he was going to buy a car. Sure enough, he was finally going to pull the trigger on a C4 Corvette. He’d been talking about it as an idea for a little while, so it wasn’t a total surprise.

The car itself is a manual LT1-equipped 1994 Chevrolet C4 Corvette Coupe, complete with an awesome targa hard top. It needs a few little things, but overall it’s in great shape, and I think Shane got it for a great price.

The way things went, Shane had picked up the Vette and left his other car, a spritely Ford Fiesta ST, at the dealer on the other side of Philly. He came by after dinner with the car, and we kicked tires for a bit. Then we took the targa roof off, and set off.

We had a nice blast through Philadelphia. Shane couldn’t get enough of the LT1’s torquey performance, and he even had a pretty close call with a cop on 95. The Vette was fantastic, quite fast, and actually very comfortable to cruise around in.

So, we get to the dealer, and I hop in the Fiesta. We decided to take the non-highway route home, via Route 202 through Doylestown, PA, because that would be a lot more fun. The route was about 40 minutes longer, but it would be time well spent.

As it turns out, much of Route 202 between Philly and Doylestown is made up of wonderful sweeping curves, draping over some lovely elevation changes. The roads were wide open for much of the drive, and we had an absolute blast. Shane got to know his new (to him) Corvette, and I got to have some quality seat time in his batshit Fiesta ST. Thankfully, we didn’t pass any speed traps.

The Fiesta ST just oozes fun on winding roads. It’s powerband is so wide that it’s performance is always right there when you want it. The ST’s handling is lively too, and it’s steering is razor sharp. The car is so eager to give all of the performance it has, and it’s a total riot.

Maybe it was the scenario of Shane realizing his childhood dream of owning a Corvette, or maybe it was the cars themselves, two very different American road rockets with two very different approaches to driving excitement. It all added up to one very fun spontaneous evening of automotive shenanigans, and that’s what our passion for cars is all about.

-Nick Walker