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Steve Chupnick

Day job: Reporter and Producer, MotorWeek (on PBS)

Flight hours: about 25 minutes, thanks to AOPA. Can’t wait to enjoy more time up in the air on this journey.

Dream vehicle: Dodge Grand Caravan (it’s so practical… c’mon—you know you all want one). But, I guess as a kid I always wanted a yellow Lamborghini, so that’d be pretty cool if that came true one day.

First car: 1987 Ford Escort—it was a thing of beauty.

Memorable experiences on wheels or wings: It would have to be a drive I made from Baltimore to Cleveland to pick up my then-girlfriend’s (now wife’s) engagement ring from her mom. That will always remain as a significant time in the car. On a lighter note, the first time I sat on a snowmobile, I drove it straight into a barb wire fence (but once I got the hang of it, it’s 100 mph of pure awesomeness). One of the most memorable drives had to be taking a newly rebuilt DeLorean for a spin—I felt just like Marty McFly, except there is no way I was taking that thing up to 88 mph.

Farthest flight and drive: a solo drove from Maryland to California—took me 11 days, but got to see parts of the United States hardly anyone gets to appreciate. The farthest flight I took was a trip to Australia—20 hours of flying just to get there (six across the U.S. and then 14 to reach Sydney).

Favorite aircraft: no doubt, the Concorde—my grandfather used to dream about taking a trip in that thing and he passed that on to me; guess that’ll never happen, but if I ever hit the big lottery, I’d try and re-launch it.

Weirdest road trip and/or flight: I drove an original Model T across a football field at the 100th anniversary celebration of the car—it’s not that much of a ‘road trip’ but if you’ve ever been behind the wheel of one of those, you’ll know it’s an adventure to just figure out how to get it in gear, and keep it from stalling out.

 

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