graeme wrote:I like Gordon Murray. He has a passion for lightweight cars, and that is far too rare in designers these days. He loves tiny little cars too. Sure, the Veyron is just bloody magnificent, but its hardly light... It's a sledgehammer in a world of nuts!
I had the misfortune to hire a new-shape Vectra not long ago, and it was simply mahoosive! A complete and utter waste of our planet's resources from the moment it was built. Anyone caught driving a car over 1.2 tons should be shot. Instantly. In the face. What the hell is the point in the advancement of engine technology if all the designers think, "Great, more power. We can use it to pull another 400kg of heated dual-zone satnavs!"
It's just spiraling out of control. 4x4s get all the stick from the hippies, but what does your average Golf weigh these days? More than my house, that's for sure! Then what about a 300C? Each one comes with its own postcode! It's getting crazy, and unless the world all hold hands and agrees to stop trying to out-luxury and out-safety each other by driving a bigger car than the one which
might crash into them, we're all doomed to sit back and watch the forecourts collapse under the weight of the next supermini.
Head for Italy and observe with pleasure how many teeny-weeny cars are buzzing about the cities. They're everywhere. Some make the Smart ForTwo look big. It's brilliant, and it works because they don't have to worry about being smacked into by a Land Cruiser. Everyone has a small car, and it's not just acceptable, it's cool! It's only a city solution, but we don't even try in the UK, because the first man to try to set the trend will be laughed at and questioned in-depth about his sexual preferences. Well, personally I'd take style advice from Gucci over BHS any day. If Italy says the micro car can be cool, I shall continue live in hope for us Brits. Sure, I could just move to Italy, but I enjoy my job. If I moved, I'd have to resign, become lazy and sit around all day in about £900 worth of shoes, smoking bad cigarettes and slowly turning to leather.
So, small cars it is then. "But I have to drive on the motorway", they cry. Don't even begin to tell me weight in a car is necessary because safety equipment is heavy. And don't try to tell me it's progress. Take it out. All of it. Airbags, SIPS, the lot. Stop decreasing the standards of driving on our roads by adding a 2-ton safety cocoon of perceived invincibility around every moron who can demonstate his ability to reverse round a corner! Replace it all with a proper L-test followed by real driver training. Driver training works!
Smart, with your clever cars and you fab little 3-pot engines, I salute you, and all those like you. As for Gordon Murray, he's a modern-day Colin Chapman, and if I was a blonde Swede called Elizabeth, I'd have his babies!
Apologies for the threadjack. Rant over.
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Have a lot of respect for Gordon Murray, but I also find his journalistic witterings a bit tiresome. The F1 was an all time great car, but then so it should be, as it was designed regardless of cost and McLaren lost money on every one sold. Murray seems to conveniently forget that he had a major part in the Macca SLR, which in my book is an overweight, vulgar waste of road space suitable only for premier league footballers with more money than taste. In some ways I think what Lotus did with the original Elise was even more impressive than the F1. Designing a lightweight sportscar with very limited resources, with truly innovative construction, AND making it affordable is almost more of an achievement than the to-hell-with-the-cost approach of the F1
