The Future - The Car

[Biz]

Most of you probably have seen it or heard about it, JC's ending on Top Gear.

As a car enthusiasts, how does it make you feel?

My view is, sad.
Sad that no matter how hard i work it may seem like i might not be able to own a V12 engined car like the Aston Martin with the current direction of the world.

I look at the Bugatti Veyrons, Pagani Zonda F's, Ferrari Enzo's and of course the McLaren F1 along with the BIG turbo'd Supra, Cosworth, Skylines, EVO's, Integrales and alike with a smile, just smiling at the fact that if i was in it i'd be just care free and to share that with loved ones and mates is the point of it im my view.

I can see that the future needs to be considerd greatly, as a young engineering student i'd be stupid to dis-miss it but also i'm thinking of the time when a hard day is done and all you want to do it go for a drive and meet up with your mates! (Some people dont understand that idea of relaxing)

As the internal combustion engine go's, the idea has revolutionised society and the way we live/work, Just look on here, we are all togeather with a love of Fiats! :hug:

I know the words of JC are ringing in some peoples ears but he is right.

I'm finding it hard not to go into an essay but i know im not the only one so please post your thoughts!

 

[ThisBitterPill]

I think JC's lament was a bit over-dramatic tbh....

At the height of the American Muscle Car wars of the 1960s / 70s, you could walk into a dealer, and order a 400hp 7-Litre family saloon that would turn 1/4 miles in 12 seconds....

Then came the Oil crisis and the Muscle Cars died out....

But just look how fast cars are now?....Exotic cars will always be there for those that can afford it....

I just doubt that I'll ever be in a position to worry about whether a V12 Aston is still available or not....

 

[Dan89]

Here's what I put in another thread but it's relevant here:

I had the feeling Clarkson was talking about the state of motoring rather than the series itself. I think his point was that soon it won't matter how good a car is as it won't make any difference to the motoring experience. He's always banging on about the Concorde moment and I think that's what they were trying to show with the pictures of the various cars, from the iconic GT40 and DB5 through to the Gallardo and Veyron. We've come all this way with development and progression over the last 50 years and it's all going to come to an end.

So it makes me feel sad. Sad because countless engineers and countless designers have spent their entire working lives for over a century dedicated to advancing automobiles and their performance, reliability, handling, safety, comfort and many other variables. The reason why the Aston Martin Vantage V12 is relevant is because it's an example of what are the limits of our technical and engineering ability in a mass production road car are, due to this. My point is the benefits of high performance cars rub off at all levels, this has been true for many years. My second point is it also represents what most of us love about our cars: the joy of an open road and having your foot planted, the revs climbing and not having a care in the world, even just for a few brief moments.

I'm also sad because I've just spent the past 6 years of my life earning the right to call myself an Automotive Engineer and I have the sense that in this generation we have reached our Concorde moment, everything else from here on out is a step backwards and with the way things look now it seems to be more and more the case. I don't want to work in an industry that produces something that is going to cause people constant misery and heartache to use for its intended purpose. I don't think it's overly dramatic to lament because of the continual attacks on what is one of mankinds greatest inventions and personal liberties. Speed cameras, congestion zones, low emission zones, bus lanes, cycle lanes, one way systems, bottlenecking, fuel tax, road tax, emissions tax, parking zones, parking charges and so on. I'm sure JC feels stretched to breaking point and it's completely relatable.

The problem with America and the crux of the matter here is that the average car there does about 25mpg and there are over 250,000,000 of them. That's half of the cars in the world. The problem was never 'gas guzzlers' as they have a completely biased view of what constitutes one. This is coming from a nation that 'needs cars' because of the 'huge distances we drive to work everyday', 'everything's more spaced out in America' etc.

Here we scoff at the BMW 750 driver who gets a similar mpg figure while we pootle about in our econo-boxes. Imagine if every car on the road did 25mpg and you can see why we might have a just cause to bring about a seething rage of hatred aimed at the modern car driver in this country. The fact is we're just normal people trying to go about our business while achieving reasonable mpg figures so I can completely understand where JC is coming from. He isn't worried about the Vantage but cars as a whole. They are ruining it for everybody, not just the affluent few who can afford a V12 supercar and it's this that he's trying to get across.

I found it impossible not to go into an essay, it's kind of a big thing for me

 

[dpr59]

I had the pleasure of driving an Aston Martin Vantage on track for a short time.

It doesn't get any better, believe me.

 

[JFL]

meet the jetsons.... there dog astro

 

[arseofbox]

I think powerplants will change and cars will get bigger. But the concept of driving will not.

Luckily, IC, GT and Nuclear systems are all a bit long in the tooth now. I think the fuel cell will be developed further and cars will run on water-derived hydrogen

 

[Ulpian]

The world consumes 1.3 cubic miles of oil a year. All the easy to extract stuff has been found, now we are left with deep sea and tar sands and shale. And every day we drink more, even with economic slowdown!

Nearly all the world's fertilizer and pesticide is made from oil and gas, which for the past fifty years has been cheap and contributed to the doubling of the world's population. Notwithstanding the collapse of western economies oil is still twice the price it was ten years ago.

Nobody has yet come up with a substitute for the very dense and versatile energy that oil provides.

I won't go on.

There will, before too long, be an oil crunch which will be really serious. When that happens we will be lucky to drive any car, let alone a V8 that does 15mpg.