It isn't just speed that drives fast food anymore; it's how it handles.
Today, you not only need it quick, you need to be able to get it down while tooling along the highway talking on a cell phone.
"Burger King makes a great burger," says Janet Willits, a regional wine manager who dines before the dashboard often enough to keep a towel in her car. "But that mayo-ketchup glop leaks all over you. One of the reasons I go to certain places is because the food is easy to eat."
According to the National Restaurant Association, Americans will devour more than $103 billion worth of fast food in 1997, an increase of 2.5 percent from 1996.
And although no one knows how much of this food will be munched in motion, the indications are it will be considerable.
"We estimate that 60 percent of our business is drive-through," says Laurie Gannon, a spokesperson for Taco Bell, "and what we have done with our product and packaging is try to make it easy for our customers to eat and drive, because we know that's what they are doing."
Sandelman and Associates, a West Coast fast-food marketing firm, reports that drive-through business now accounts for 40 percent to 50 percent of fast-food sales in Southern California.
Glen Mayo, owner of Mayo's Auto and Truck Reconditioning in South Windsor, Conn., said, "Cars are a lot dirtier now than when I first started in this business 32 years ago. Cars come in now with food everywhere, under the seats, between the seats, on the windshield. And you find everything - burgers, fries, ketchup stains, chicken bones. Some cars are rolling fast-food markets. It's like no one eats at home anymore."
Because of the trend toward eating the to-go as you go, many traditional fast-food favorites may soon have to be adapted to motorized munching.
Consider Subway's 12-inch meatball grinder. It's a quick order. It's tasty. It's priced right. But to eat this sauce-oozing torpedo while driving requires special clothing, something in the order of a full-body napkin with run-off gutters.