"and 100 more" (nth256)
01/14/2015 at 19:35 • Filed to: None
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"and 100 more" (nth256)
01/14/2015 at 19:35 • Filed to: None | 3
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I've been giving this some serious thought.
Electric cars are coming. Sure, we play around with hybrids now; first the Prii and Insights for the early adopters and those looking to green-wash everything, and now the 918s and NSXs are taking the performance of hybrids to new levels. But hybrids are just a nuance of a larger trend at play, and I think we all know it. Electric cars are coming, and there's not a damn thing that can stop them. So, we might as well get on board now, at least conceptually.
I mean, it only makes sense. He we are, fellow Opponauts - we represent but a fraction of the driving populace. The fact that we even have automotive preferences sets us apart from the rest of the flock, who care more about utility and price point, or who simply care only that they can arrive at Point B with a modicum of drama and hassle. These folks would benefit from mass adoption of all-electric drivetrains. Give them toasters, I say.
Tesla's P85D even goes to prove that we can cater to a more adrenaline-minded group by rocketing them from naught to 60 in the span of a couple precious heart-beats, besting the vast majority of dinosaur-burners on the road today, and for a fraction of the cost, assuming of course that your pockets run deep enough to buy into that experience.
As I sit here, I contemplate my own hypocrisy; I'm one decent doxxing session from being called out as an automotive fraud. In fact, I'll save you the trouble: I'm an armchair enthusiast. I own and operate - and have only ever owned and operated - econoboxes of less than stellar reputation. While I'm able-bodied enough to perform the vast majority of repairs on my car, I'm also lazy and have a penchant for procrastinating until problems can no longer be ignored, nor handled any longer by simple maintenance. While I dream of one day finding a mid-80s Celica Supra or '72 Datsun 240Z in need of some TLC, it's not something I can accomplish today, nor in the near future, as my priorities were established to care for other things. I will likely never drive on a race track. In fact, I rarely drive anymore at all. I commute , which tastes like a four-letter word in my mouth, and while I used to enjoy driving, I simply fail to make the time for it anymore. There , Oppo, is my guilt, laid bare.
Just... ugh, just give me a fucking toaster already.
Give me an appliance. Give me an electric car. I'm tired of oil change reminders. I'm sick of my bank account fluctuating at the whims of a Persian Prince. I want to be done with worrying about every new little sound I hear from the whirring, buzzing, box full of explosions that i keep under the hood. I want consistency, and reliability, and I just want to get to Point B with a modicum of drama and hassle - yes, I'm one of them. I hate it, and I hate that its come to this, but god damnit, the writing is on the wall.
The reason we haven't adopted electric cars as the new default yet has nothing to do with range anxiety, it has nothing to do with coal-fired power plants supplying you less-sustainable electricity... It has to do with the thought that the ritual of owning a petrol-powered conveyance may come to an end altogether. It's exactly because we listen for new clicks and clacks when the mileage creeps up. It's exactly because we stand there at the gas pump, watching the steam rise from our breathing. Its exactly because we are required to routinely poke around in a hot engine bay and relive the cast-iron block of its lifeblood. The hardest part of quitting a life-long smoking habit isn't the nicotine; it's re-writing all the rituals that surround it.
We're afraid that our hobby is dying, and that by letting electric cars come to pass, that we're simply giving up and watching it happen. That all our muscle cars will be tossed away, compacted in scrap yards and sold off by the pound. What was once a priceless Studebaker concept or a family's beloved Country Squire will become worth no more or less than a '93 Toyota Paseo, and all of which will be pressed into a shape more resembling an amorphous, impersonal, uninspired egg, capable of ferrying around seven bored and boring passengers at an undetermined and undeterminable, computer-controlled speed, with nary a whisper save for the sounds of tread on asphalt.
Some of us may accept electricity as our new fuel, but stand firm on the shape in which its used. These galant souls will hollow out a cavity in their whip, likely by removing that heavy, oil-filled machine of explosions and dreams, and replacing it with one of Nikola Tesla's inhuman offspring (I say this with all due respect to Mr. Tesla, of course). These folks will proudly show that they are willing to play ball, but even they must know, that the rules of the game will change the field out from under them before long, as these old shells of automotive history are deemed unfit for the road, and eventually join their brethren in the body of another egg-like contraption.
I wish it weren't so. But as was sung so eloquently by Green Day, " wish in one hand, shit in the other, and see which one gets filled first."
But I'm slowly making peace with it. I am approaching Zen, and I'm beginning to accept my/our fate. I look forward to commuting (ugh) without worry. I'm looking forward to saving money on fuel and operating costs. I'm looking forward to auto insurance looking more like home insurance - something you never need, except in only rare cases.
I'm approaching oneness with my electric future...
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Until one day when I find myself on a back road, away from the automated highway control grids and operating under a brief moment of manual override, alone at dusk, and a sweeping right-handed reducing-radius turn falls beneath my tires, and a tear forms in the corner of my eye as I remember a time when a quick throttle stab and the sound of dinosaurs gasping their very last, is all it would take to wake my soul...
Brian, The Life of
> and 100 more
01/14/2015 at 19:59 |
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BOOM! Good Oppo, right here.
ETA: I agree, my next new car will be electric but I just don't think the going away of the ICE means the end of fun.
deekster_caddy
> and 100 more
01/14/2015 at 20:18 |
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Well, I have a 1973 Buick I've had since 1990, a 1954 MG that my mother bought in '68, both unique cars with their own personalities. I love drag racing. I love the smell of pig rich, high octane burnouts and nitrous oxide. I had tire smoke pouring in through the vents of my mother's 1986 Buick Century when I first got my license... I'm a gearhead through and through. But I LOVE electric driving. I bought a Volt as my commuter car two years ago and shout loudly from my teeny podium "I LOVE ELECTRIC DRIVING". This thing IS the future of drivetrains. It's amazing. Two years and 30,000 miles into it, I still feel the same way. I've been waiting for "real world" electric range since I wanted to convert my 5hp briggs and stratton go-cart we bought from the back of Boy's Life magazine to electric. Never did it, but I wanted to and thought about it a lot. I've seen other electric cars, the idea of the EV-1 was cool, but battery tech wasn't there yet. Now it's coming, and coming fast. The Volt is really the best of both worlds, electric driving with the range, freedom and refueling speed of gas.
If that costs me my Oppo cards, so be it, but I'm going to continue to drive what makes me happy. All of my cars make me happy. If only I could make them all into one car!
The Magic Rev Matching 4Runner
> and 100 more
01/14/2015 at 20:30 |
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The way I see it is that hybrid/electric cars are just another advancement in automotive technology. I love older, involving vehicles. I drive an old first gen 4Runner and have a project 240z, and they aren't going anywhere really. We still have old relics for the enthusiasts to enjoy, and what's being produced now is designed to cater to those who are in the market for what's current and new. I hear so many people talk down on new cars and say they'd never but this or that, because they aren't like a 240z or a spitfire or an E type, but that's why we HAD those cars. They still exist and you can still have your manual driving experience. Sure, they are getting harder to find, but so are those enthusiasts that really care for them and want them in their garage. The fact is, the majority of people now lusting over any given classic car are seeing whatever time period and saying "wow, those cars were so basic and "raw"", because that's the time period that influenced them in whatever way. I don't see tons of people lusting over the visceral and exciting experience that is offered by a model T or what have you. My bet is that as today's young gearheads grow up and start looking for their dreams, they are going to look for something newer than what's considered golden right now and might see a 240z as being just as ridiculous as a Model T.
If you want an older car, go buy an older car. They're uncomfortable, unreliable, inefficient, uncommon and all of them have issues. But that's all part of it. Wouldn't it be weird to have a car that's trying to be a classic, but with all the modern niceties and doo dads? Besides, for the price of a brand new car, you could buy yourself a pretty nice antique.
Fun cars are for having fun, boring cars are for doing boring things in. Twisty roads carving through canyons are exhilarating, but the I-15 at 7:30am in bumper to bumper traffic with a coffee in your hand? I don't think I'd feel entirely defeated in a "blank". I'd have more gas money to spend on my other car, or still be saving up to buy one.
I'm in college and I've personally saved money and tailored how I live so that I can drive and keep my two dream cars. And the fact is I'd buy a nice comfy gas saver tomorrow if could.
Sir FR-S (Formally CR-Z)
> and 100 more
01/14/2015 at 20:51 |
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Though people shit all over CR-Z's they are a really. Small gas bills, 6 speed manual, instant torque from the electric motors. It wont win a race but it will put a smile on your face.