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Those times were good times.
And not only that, but the cars of the time all seemed built with the tourer in mind, designed for sweeping curves at respectable speeds, and designed with a personality and flair that just urged you to take them out on the open road.
Air travel dealt a devastating blow to all that.
Nowadays, instead of loading up the car and setting off for distant horizons, we tend to fly somewhere remote, then set about trying recreate the experiences that make us feel at home -- is there not something ironic about an English Pub full of Englishmen on the Costa del Sol? The times may have conspired to make the driving tour less common, but the actual truth is that the joys of driving tours are better than ever.
First of all, we can take advantage of the developments in air travel by availing ourselves of the incredibly diverse array of places we can now choose to tour.
Whereas once our destination might have been an uncle's place a few hundred miles away, we can now explore the remote, untouched byways and country roads of all variety of foreign and unique lands.
Instead of family trips to Uncle Joe's, people are now renting cars and driving over the high alpine passes of France and Switzerland, through captivating villages and highlights of Moorish architecture in Andalucia and down the wild western coast of Ireland.
All of this is not only possible, but it is easier than ever, with rental car services becoming standardised, driving licences becoming universally accepted, driving regulations becoming increasingly consistent.
And nothing has aided developments more than the advent of GPS.
Whereas previously, a driving holiday in a foreign country may have meant all variety of twisting and folding of maps in attempts to have them better aid in navigation, getting from A to B is now as simple as plugging in your next waypoint, and having your GPS direct you, in simple clear English, to your destination.
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