5/16/2008

My chit-chat with the one and only Rob Marciano

Revving up the horsepower makes Rob’s engine tick.


How more lucky could a girl be than to spend a little time chit chatting about cars with the hottest Weatherman in the industry…Rob Marciano. I got this lucky!

Having owned a Subaru Hatchback as his first car which made his dad raise an eyebrow by bringing home something other than a domestic car Rob has owned a vast assortment of vehicles every since.
But surprisingly enough when Rob came home one day to break the news of his first car accident by rear ending someone in the family owned 1974 Impala that they all referred to as “The Tank” his dad remained completely calm.

His first scary moment behind the wheel that comes to mind was in his Subaru when he rolled upon some pesky and dangerous black ice that forced him into spinning a series of 360’s on a New Hampshire highway but he obviously made it out of that spin all intact.

Rob seems to enjoy the need for speed and was fortunate enough to take a spin in the pace car at the Daytona 500 this past spring piloted by retired NASCAR driver Brett Bodine.
Even though Brett seemed calm behind the wheel Rob felt thrilled and at the same time felt a bit nervous as they hugged the turns clocking out around 140, but without a doubt left there with NASCAR fever running through his veins. I loved his passionate explanation of going to a race in person and summing it up with the 3 S’s…
Speed
Sound
Spectacle
Oh how true this is.

Like the rest of us Rob likes the thrill of the raw testosterone that old NASCAR used to demonstrate back in the day when it was more of a sport than a business.
There is nothing like watching the drivers get heated at one another after the inevitable mishaps occur on the track making helmets fly, tempers roar and a good ole in your face hollering competition.

On his own he has revved up the speedometers needle to reach 120 and is a firm believer in buying a car a couple years old by letting someone else eat up the new car depreciation that is absorbed by the first owner that rolls that spankin new car right off the show room floor.

Rob thinks he is a pretty simple guy when it comes to vehicles as he currently owns and drives a Chevy Tahoe that gets him from point A to point B. He has his eye on a gun metal grey Maserati but hasn’t had that extra push yet in order to pull the trigger.

We seemed to agree on the fact that when owing a black on black vehicle you need not to spend the extra money on a seat warmer when living in the south. Black interior owners know how hot that interior can get in the summer time and the special dance your body has to perform when first sitting in the driver’s seat on a hot steamy day.

Rob has an addicting sense of humor and at the blink of an eye can break out his impersonation of a true southern twang of an accent which he seems to have mastered, all of which made me chuckle a lot more than I usually do.

My goal is to get Rob into my Baja Buggy and not only have him as my co-driver but throw him in the drivers seat-behind the wheel which I feel that he could more than handle the horsepower and probably take me for a serious ride that I would not be expecting.
This way I will get to see how good he is at driving a stick and have him demonstrate to me what Hopping and Bopping is all about!


Barbara Terry
May 12th 2008