Thoughts on the next decade
01/01/2020
It is pretty much guaranteed that we will see a lot of new things in the next decade, i.e. in the years 2020 to 2029, the second twenties that the automobile is experiencing. We are currently in the midst of a period of upheaval in which we will see the emergence of new drive technologies alongside the combustion engine car, which has dominated the scene for around 100 years. Whether battery-powered, hydrogen-powered or other technologies will win the race can hardly be predicted today. The uncertainty has rarely been so great. Somehow, the whole "awakening" is reminiscent of the late 1960s, when all car manufacturers were looking at the Wankel engine and at least saw it as an important addition to the reciprocating engine. Things turned out differently back then, as we know. It is difficult to predict how the "race" will end in the next decade, but it is fairly certain that the reciprocating piston engine as we know it will not disappear completely in the short term.
It is just as difficult to predict what role the classic automobile will play in this upheaval and the increasing concerns about the earth's climate. What is certain is that classic cars will not simply disappear and that, from a historical perspective, they have an important place in the cultural development of our world. And because modern cars are becoming increasingly autonomous and the joy of driving is in danger of becoming less and less important, there will always be some "petrolheads" or people with gasoline in their blood who will hold on to the old automobile. And who still enjoy shifting gears (and working) by hand.
The new decade, or rather the year 2020, also has a special significance for zwischengas.com. We will be ten years old, which makes us almost a senior citizen in terms of internet technology, but certainly a mature information provider.
In fact, we have achieved a lot since we went online in 2010: since 2010, we have had almost 13 million visitors who have viewed around 100 million pages. A journal archive with over 550,000 digitized pages has been created, around 300,000 photos have been published and provided with metadata, and over 10,000 articles and reports have been written. In addition, our auction database has been available for almost two years, with around 60,000 cars already traded. We also have technical data on over 24,000 cars, thousands of market valuations, and so on.
You might think that we would soon run out of topics, but the opposite is the case. Of course, there are already carefully researched articles on countless cars on zwischengas.com, but without giving it much thought, we can immediately think of a whole host of other vehicles that we would like to write a report on, e.g. Bugatti 35, Nissan Skyline, Bristol 406 (and other models), Aston Martin DBS, Ferrari 275 GTB, BMW M1, Maserati Mexico, Ligier JS2, Opel Kadett C GT/E, DKW Monza, Matra Djet 5/6, Matra MX530, Pontiac Fiero, Chevrolet Corvette C4, Opel Laubfrosch, Ford Model T, Audi 80 GTE, Fiat 600, BMW 1600 GT, MG J2, and many others.
As in the past, we are just as interested in earlier bread-and-butter cars as we are in exotic cars from the past, and we are also open-minded when it comes to eras. Almost every car from the past has interesting aspects and it is precisely these that we want to highlight with our work in the new decade.
We are confident that the new decade will bring many good things, and we are full of zest for action. In keeping with the motto "if you rest, you rust", we will once again be going full throttle in 2020 and wish all our readers a good start to the new decade!
