Sometimes the joy is in the hunt. I had a talk with a new friend today and we skimmed this topic. Old cars are fun, new cars are boring. Traction control...? Mash the gas and you squirt ahead: no chirp, no climactic 4bbl opening. My SC just goes...and stops. heck, it doesnt even make much noise doing either. No wheel spin, no screeching brakes..its all drive by wire now. No feel , no feedback, no engine noises telling you to keep it in or let off. I dont even like rev limiters. Driving should be a two way conversation between you and your car. If it gets boring, yeah, it is just dull. Friend had a newer mustang. He hit the gas hard, and we took off. Linear acceleration, no spikes or bog. Wow, fun. We did it again...and again...and again. Same experience. Boring. But it did get us there, what else can we ask of a car, right? Wrong. How about a man/machine relationship? Where you hold the power to blow the motor under your foot at any time, where you can punish the tires in a dead skid, where you walk a fine line of control over chaos. Where you hold you and your cars fate in the palm of your hands and sole of your shoe? you want the opposite? Ride in a Tesla, yeah, I said ride in one becasue you really dont think your driving one of those do you? I would not be suprised if it would not let you drive it into a wall..Oh yeah, it wont. Save your memories when the autonomous car becomes law and you just summon one when you want to go somewhere. It will come driverless to your house and pick you up, then it will merge seemlessly onto a controlled freeway where the other driverless cars will magically make room for it and then tighten up again. Youll merge into faster lanes depending on how long you will be on that particular freeway with the center lanes exceeding 120 mph, and the outer lanes getting progressively slower until making an offramp will just be a gentle turn. Youll get out and and car will depart to pick up another passenger and start the process again. This will be mandated in large cities, with trucks getting the same autopilot when they enter city limits. Hey, Walt Disney saw this coming back in 1955.
