A slow car driven fast

"Corkscrew'd" (corkscrewd)
05/24/2019 at 16:29 • Filed to: AUTOMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY, BLOG, BLOGGING, COOL STUFF, IMPORT, MAZDA, MIATA, PHOTOGRAPHY, SPORTS CARS, VINTAGE CARS

I posted this on my personal blog earlier today, but until I can find out how to cross-post between WordPress and Kinja, I’m going to have to basically copy/paste the entire thing. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Enjoy!

“A slow car driven fast is much more fun than a fast car driven fast. You feel much more; the car is more alive.”

- Michael J

Like any other car enthusiast, Michael places his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on a pedestal, and for good reason. The “NA” is the go-to car for any enthusiast born after 1990, simply because it has that rare combination of fun and affordability. You can usually find them on Craigslist for as low $2,000, and its production numbers and abundance of parts means that the NA will be cherished by enthusiasts for a long time.

There is another quality about the NA that makes it memorable: it’s lack of speed, and how it copes with it. Michael said it best; it’s not a fast car. It has a 1.6-liter inline-four, which on a good day makes about a hundred horsepower and some change. But its five-speed transmission with short gearing and low body weight makes the car feel faster than it actually is. Even with bald tires, the car was happily gripping the pavement along the s-curves and hairpins on CA Route 9. This is where we see the NA shine. This car was designed for feeling the curves. A slow car driven fast was indeed fun.

Take the interior for example. There’s nothing in it to distract the driver. Everything is simple and straightforward. Even opening the convertible top isn’t a spectacle like on modern cars. The convertible top is just a means to an end in the quest to make a car focused on the feeling of driving. In this regard, the NA positively eccentric.

Michael is also an eccentric, in that he cares more about how the car feels to drive rather than if it can sync with this phone’s music library. Michael also believes that the simpler and lighter the car is, the better it is overall. Colin Chapman certainly would agree. However, a simple and light car does not necessarily make a car fun to drive. There’s much more to it than that. It has to feel good to drive. Michael’s other car, a Hyundai Veloster Turbo Rally Edition manages to achieve this despite its abundance of “distractions” as Michael liked to put it.

In a way, the NA flies in the face of what car companies today believe a millennial would want to drive. There are no gadgets or mood lighting; no backup cameras or parking sensors. There are barely any cup holders. It’s just you, the car, and the open road. As far as cars go, it’s the equivalent of an old pocket knife versus a really nice German multi-tool.

The thing is, that old pocket knife is all you really need.

DISCUSSION (8)

Chariotoflove > Corkscrew'd
05/24/2019 at 17:50

Like the car. Like the color. Like the view.

Corkscrew'd > Chariotoflove
05/24/2019 at 18:00

Yeah, it’s one of my favorites from when I first started photography!

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Corkscrew'd
05/24/2019 at 18:21

Dammit I guess I can no longer enjoy my miata, being that I was born before 1990. It was a good run.

Corkscrew'd > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
05/24/2019 at 18:51

Wait, DAMMIT THAT MEANS I CAN’T EITHER!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Corkscrew'd
05/24/2019 at 18:52

You know, I have thought about it and really its all relative. A slow car fast (meaning the car is going at a high percentage of its capability) is kind of the same thing as a fast car going really really fast (the same percentage of its capability). Its just that the slow car is going to be more usable day to day. But just objectively, the fast car going really fast is certainly going to be better given a closed course and unlimited resources.

I still love my Miata but I also love stupidly fast cars for entirely different reasons. I think its less “slow car fast” and more “whatever uses highest percentage of capability”. So as long as I am on the edge of whatever limit we are talking about, I am having equal fun. The Miata is just a lot less likely to kill me while doing so!

Corkscrew'd > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/24/2019 at 19:28

Yeah, I think if you graph the threshold where a slow car feels sketchy driving fast, and a fast car feels sketchy going really fast, then it would probably be an exponential increase.

The thing is, you hit the nail on the head when it comes to relativity. The truth is that there’s an intersect between the threshold curve and the driver’s capabilities, and if we were to graph that, that curve would have to meet the threshold curve.

This is the theory behind why I think Mustangs eat people.

/jk

Corkscrew'd > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/24/2019 at 19:30

...I just got an idea about a new article thanks to you lol

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Corkscrew'd
05/24/2019 at 20:49

Oh well :/