True. I don’t know whether I’m getting to that age where I am inherently uninspired by the new (a bit like my dad just won’t have it that Messi is better than Pele), but I’m totally underwhelmed by current cars. Hence, I drive a 2005 R53 Mini Cooper S.
I like the flattery but truth be told I know little about the car trade and any facts I referred to are easily available just two clicks away on the interweb. In fact a little more digging today showed the Capri's peak market share was 3% in 1970 and from here on declined. The large numbers sold only indicate for how long it was in production and the majority of the later ones were the 1300 & 1600s. Hardly exciting or desirable. Entirely agree middle money cars are dull, profoundly so, but I reckon the same thing could be said about the vast majority of the people who they are aimed at... a 40 year with middle money plus wife & kids is only ever going to go for (or pressured into) the convenient, ease of use, suit all occasions solution. Perhaps the sexy cool bodies may come later but that would probably just amount to a bit of faux chromed plastic trim and a couple of red stripes down the side. For the few who are looking for summat a little more exciting then they may well be catered for by existing sexy/sporty mid to high £40K cars that fulfil a similar role e.g. BM M estate, Audi A6 Avant & no doubt they'll also be some vastly over priced Merc estate but these aren't exactly massive sellers. This is why I quite like some of the sheds on this thread... at least they are trying their damndest not to be dull.
I guess it depends on your idea of dull, my company car is an MG4 ER. Looks wise it is very much middle of the road but it does 0-60 in 6 seconds and feels quicker due to the instant torque of the electric motor. Thats is half a second slower than a Testarossa and 2 seconds quicker than the original 308. They also do an X-power which is sub 4 seconds to 60 and would see you close to a Lambo aventador. Both are very much mid range price wise.
Performance-wise, EVs are a bit of a one trick pony as there’s much more to driving excitement than a decent 0-60 time on a spec sheet, especially when it simply involves pressing the accelerator to the floor and sitting there in silence, with no gear changes.
The lack of gear changes is a minor thing, you can chuck them around pretty hard as the weight is all low down. The combination of normal and regen braking also allows you to brake later and with instant torque you can power out of corners like nothing else I have owned. I have had all sorts of ‘drivers’ cars from a 911, 944 turbo, various messed about jap stuff, couple of M’s. I can say 100% that a good EV is far from a one trick pony. Sadly muppets like Clarkson have convinced people they are ‘milkfloats’ as it fits their own agenda/ bias but I would suggest to anyone to have a go and properly chuck it about and see what you think. You may be pleasantly surprised. I also don’t get the noise thing. From when I was born whatever sports car mag/ TV program you saw it was always about speed and handling with an odd mention of sound here and there, suddenly unless a car goes Brum Brum some people aren’t interested even if it completely destroys the opposition, very strange. I love my MG and for a ‘cheap’ car it regularly embarrasses some exotic stuff, especially on good twisty roads. Would I buy one? Not new as for that money I would buy an old Volvo and a load more bikes, but that’s a different thing.
I don’t think absence of gear changes is a minor thing. In fact, I think that’s one of the worst things about EVs. I also don’t like heavy cars, regardless of how they carry it. I’ve driven a couple of Teslas and a big Merc saloon and while they offered a good shove in the back, they bored me stiff after the novelty of the first few traffic light drag races had worn off.
There is a big difference between heavy and discussing how any car carry that weight, if you read my post you will see I say the weight is low down, not that they are heavy. Having weight low down is absolutely critical to making cars drive well. Mine has an almost identical weight to an M3 wet weight, not sure I would see that as heavy, unless compared to an original mini or very small modern cars. In my experience Mercs tend to either be wallowy of tooth looseningly harsh. I wouldn’t consider any the ones I have driven as a drivers car, a million miles from things like my old 944 turbo. Whereas the MG4 can be really chucked around the lanes almost go-kart like. For me, performance is everything, for others it’s all about looks, image etc etc are more important. In the latter cases something like the MG will never appeal.
Thanks for the lecture on vehicle dynamics but you’re not going to convert me. Comparing the MG4’s weight to a new M3 is merely to damn it with faint praise as they’re also too heavy, as are almost all current cars. IMO, the last proper M3 was the E46.
Not trying to convert anyone, just pointing out how things are. It’s like gearing in ICE cars, it only exists due to the poor way that ICE engines develop power and torque. Since they were invented engineers have tried to produce engines with flat power and torque curves, electric motors do this by their very nature so you don’t need a wide range of gears as the power and torque are there instantly. If an ICE engine could do the same they would be seen as a borderline miracle. For whatever reasons you don’t like the EV power and torque delivery, that’s fine, each to their own. For me I love my ICE motorbikes but can’t see me getting another performance ICE car as the money I would need to spend to get similar performance would be crazy. EVs are massively upping the game performance wise with even mid priced examples delivering performance that was the domain of super cars only a few years ago. At the moment there are only a few niche truly sports orientated EVs out there but that is changing. MG have a two seater about to be released with amazing stats and other manufacturers have cars in development. A very exciting time for people who want hyper performance cars at reasonable costs. What I would love to see would be someone like Lotus chuck out an EV with sensible sports car range but massive power to weight ratio. That would be something to look forward to if it was ever made.
Hoping they will do something more Elise/ Exige style but the stats for that are bonkers. As I said EV stuff is shifting what is considered as high performance so fast. I hope manufacturers don’t get cold feet and start limiting performance but I bet some will.
Yep, worry is performance can be remotely altered, Teslas can have updates applied remotely and certain features ( and performance?) unlocked for a fee? Can see in time manufacturers being told to limit performance of cars already sold
