"He chanted as he flew, and the car responded with a sonorous drone; The miles were eaten up under him as he sped he knew not whither, fulfilling his instincts, living his hour, reckless of what might come to him." So wrote Kenneth Graham of Mr. Toad stealing a car in the 1908 classic "The Wind in the Willows." Of course, that kind of exhilaration is not unique to amphibians. Michael Keyser experienced a similar high when he drove his father's brand-new green Porsche 911 from Stuttgart to Siena, in 1968. Other thrill rides followed. As Keyser writes in the newly reissued SPEED MERCHANTS (Bentley), within a year he was fielding his own motor-racing team and travelling around the world to photograph races.
?Nicole LaPorte