LOL....Marc! Now that's funny! It seems when you went fast in your youth, you have some how gained the fear that plays out in your mind of what would happen... <snip>
If you're saying I'm not as "brave" as I was years ago, you're 100% correct. I've been a fast driver all my life with plenty of speeding tickets to prove it. I love speed, which is probably why I got my pilot licenses many years ago. At one point some years back I almost took a job as a full time charter pilot working for Aviation One (John Fudge owned it at the time, but I don't know if it's still there or not) which was at Lunken Airport (Historical Note: Lunken was the first airport in Cincinnati way back when). Something else happened and I ended up in business.
I am smart enough to know my reaction time, my eye sight and other age factors come into play more and more so the probability of a miscalculation or slow reaction is significantly higher than when I was young.
I'd get into the "fear of death" aspect, but I think that's pretty standard. Typically - When you're young you feel invincible. As one ages one realizes one isn't.
My fear isn't about dying though. My fear is being seriously injured and having to live with injuries the rest of my life. I'm too old to take risks like I used to. My sister Pam was in a bad car wreck on I-75 in Atlanta at about the Peach Street exit when she was 22. She's almost 70 now. She was comatose for a few months, if I remember correctly, (at the time the doctors were not optimistic that she would ever regain consciousness) and spent years in physical therapy. She gets around OK these days with special shoes, a leg brace and some other "appliances". She also had severe brain damage which - Well, she has a lot of needs, so to speak. Technically she's been legally blind since the accident which didn't help, either.
That's my worst nightmare. I've made it through 61 years without so much as a broken bone. I'd like to finish life out in a similar fashion.
Yeah - I still like to "step on it" from time to time, but these days I pretty much stay near the speed limit and drive more like what people expect an old man to drive like (Ouch! It hurts to say that!).
I do keep my cars in good shape. Always was a freak about oil changes, good brakes and all that. My 2004 GXP is in the shop right now for it's yearly "checkup". They called about 10.30 this morning and a bearing in the right front wheel is "loose" and worn. Not making noises or anything (I'd not have known it is going bad), but I'm having it replaced. Pirelli high speed tires with only 2K miles on them and ceramic brake pads (they said they're still well in spec as are the rotors). Keeping a car in primo shape mechanically (especially brakes and tires) is my best defense against an accident. Not much one can do about failing eye sight, slower reflexes and such, though, so it's all the more important to have a safe vehicle.
But no matter what, I guess that's life - You can't eliminate the potential of being in an accident:
Rear Ended - 2009 - That guy plowed into me (he admitted to the cop that he was doing about 35 MPH) without so much as stepping on the brakes. I know what he was doing - There is a school right there and he was looking at the young girls who were outside instead of watching the road. I was at a complete stop, the last car in a line of traffic, and my eyes were focused on the car in front of me. Luckily one of my habits is to "leave plenty of space" between me and a car in front of me so my car didn't ram the car in front of me. Talk about a WTF just happened moment. It was several seconds before I even had any idea what happened.