It appears the forum likes a debate at the moment so I thought I'd pose a question, well several questions around a theme.
This inspired partly by me having a Saturday morning blast in my own car (see my mm thread for thoughts) and partly by a thread appearing on piston heads yesterday.
We all know modern cars are scientifically better than old ones in every measurable way. Fiats no longer dissolve after 3 years, Ford finally stopped using the Anglia engine in the early 00s. In most cases you no longer have to get up earlier on a wet morning in case your car decides it's gonna be a dick today. You can have a reasonably large shunt and not die, you have a much better chance of not being involved in the shunt to begin with.
So why is a driving no longer the event it once was? Partly I suspect because I'm now the wrong side of 30...but I also suspect it's due to cars being so capable everything is a none event. Back in my MK1 days going round a roundabout at speed (well 35 ish) in the wet was epic battle between man and machine, whereas now I can see it's wet but the car doesn't really seem to notice.
In my opinion 2.0 TDI will decimate a hot hatch from the 80s or 90s on a back road, even of it doesn't have the outright speed the advances in brakes, suspension and tyres would make the difference, which makes me a little sad.
This brings me to Modern hot hatches and performance cars...I was at one point looking at getting an MPS in a few years, but I don't see the point any more. If the bottom of the range has limits so high you need to actively provoke the car with stupid driving to get a reaction then the limits at the top range must be ridiculous. Yes they have huge amounts of speed but how often can you use it without risking your license? How fast would you have to be going to get near the limits of Golf R on public roads? You may like that, in the same way as people like roller coasters, just sitting back in amazement while the car summons untold G force and speed at your command, if so put your case forward!
I'm not saying "weren't things better in the old days?" I had a Carby 4 speed Uno as my first car, you could not pay me enough to use that daily again (sorry uno/panda owners)
So when you come to power would you go back to the old days? Or are you happy with measurably brilliant if a bit dull? Am I talking drivel? If not what was the sweet spot between modernism and the old days?
This inspired partly by me having a Saturday morning blast in my own car (see my mm thread for thoughts) and partly by a thread appearing on piston heads yesterday.
We all know modern cars are scientifically better than old ones in every measurable way. Fiats no longer dissolve after 3 years, Ford finally stopped using the Anglia engine in the early 00s. In most cases you no longer have to get up earlier on a wet morning in case your car decides it's gonna be a dick today. You can have a reasonably large shunt and not die, you have a much better chance of not being involved in the shunt to begin with.
So why is a driving no longer the event it once was? Partly I suspect because I'm now the wrong side of 30...but I also suspect it's due to cars being so capable everything is a none event. Back in my MK1 days going round a roundabout at speed (well 35 ish) in the wet was epic battle between man and machine, whereas now I can see it's wet but the car doesn't really seem to notice.
In my opinion 2.0 TDI will decimate a hot hatch from the 80s or 90s on a back road, even of it doesn't have the outright speed the advances in brakes, suspension and tyres would make the difference, which makes me a little sad.
This brings me to Modern hot hatches and performance cars...I was at one point looking at getting an MPS in a few years, but I don't see the point any more. If the bottom of the range has limits so high you need to actively provoke the car with stupid driving to get a reaction then the limits at the top range must be ridiculous. Yes they have huge amounts of speed but how often can you use it without risking your license? How fast would you have to be going to get near the limits of Golf R on public roads? You may like that, in the same way as people like roller coasters, just sitting back in amazement while the car summons untold G force and speed at your command, if so put your case forward!
I'm not saying "weren't things better in the old days?" I had a Carby 4 speed Uno as my first car, you could not pay me enough to use that daily again (sorry uno/panda owners)
So when you come to power would you go back to the old days? Or are you happy with measurably brilliant if a bit dull? Am I talking drivel? If not what was the sweet spot between modernism and the old days?