Being There

“…new cars require so little of the driver that you almost don’t need to be there at all.”

I climb into the front cockpit of the prewar de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane, put on my leather cap, roll up my collar and snap it, and pull my goggles into place. My friend Brian steps in front of the plane and flips the prop. After a couple of turns, the air-cooled, inline-four-cylinder 145-horsepower engine catches and coughs to life.

Following the warm up, we take