You know that feeling you get. The one that makes your heart race. The one that elicits a huge grin. The one that you want to experience again. The average person might be thinking of something else, but car people know what we are talking about — driving fast feels great. Now scientists have proven what we already knew. That quick burst of speed is actually good for you.

“A roller coaster may be good for a quick thrill, but it’s not great for getting you to work every day,” said Dr Harry Witchel, Discipline Leader in Physiology. “This study shows how driving a performance car does much more than get you from A to B – it could be a valuable part of your daily well-being routine.”

Ford partnered with researchers to build a “Buzz Car,” based on a Focus RS, which used wearable monitoring and artificial intelligence to measure the driver’s emotions behind the wheel. In concert with Designworks, the company spent 1,400 hours creating an AI system — based on a Zotac VR GO gaming PC, 10 x 500-lumen daylight-bright light strips, and 82 display panels with 188,416 individually addressable LEDs —that provided real-time analysis using technology from Sensum.

Researchers found that driving a fast car is actually good for your well-being.

The study revealed that pilots of Ford’s Focus RS, Focus ST, or Mustang experienced an average of 2.1 high-intensity “buzz moments,” during a commute, which stacked up nicely against other comparable fun experiences. Riding a roller coaster edged the fast car with 3 buzz moments, while watching a football game only scored 1.5 such bursts of happiness. But driving really wins because you get to do it more often.

“We think driving should be an enjoyable, emotional experience,” said Dr Marcel Mathissen, research scientist at Ford of Europe. “The driver-state research Ford and its partners are undertaking is helping to lead us towards safer roads and – importantly – healthier driving.”

Since performance driving is good for us, maybe those self-driving cars won’t take over just yet…