The future of the sports car?
08/24/2019
An article in "Autocar" got me thinking. It was about the joy of driving and whether high-powered electric cars would ever convey such a feeling. The author explained that it is perfectly possible to make an electric car sound like a V12 and that even gearshift jerks could be programmed in. You could take this even further and install unnecessary pedals and a gear stick in the future electric car. Similar to a computer game, these controls could then influence the behavior and the (interior) noise.
An (almost) perfect simulation of a car from the past would be conceivable. When you get into the car in the morning, you could choose whether the car should feel like a Lamborghini Countach, BMW M1, Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC or VW Beetle, similar to a computer game. Even the dashboard could change accordingly, as we know from the racing games from Sony and co. And thanks to "force feedback", even the haptics could be (somewhat) correct.
And would that be fun? Who knows! Future generations might not see this as narrowly as we traditionalists do. And the practical benefits would possibly be greater, because of course you can switch the car back to modern mode at any time. And then it drives itself, so to speak.
Sports car manufacturers in particular are known to find electrification more difficult than those selling pure transportation solutions. People expect a sports car to have character, and until now this has been strongly rooted in the engine and transmission. It will be much more difficult to differentiate electrically. That's why the sports car manufacturers will perhaps be the ones who have to resort to these drivable computer games ...
And what does all this have to do with old cars? Well, as always, the question arises as to how and whether the drivers of these future cars can/will deal with the vehicles of today and yesterday. Perhaps they will learn this better than expected in their drivable computer games?
