Less would be more!
04/11/2021
Why are people so enthusiastic about skiing and motorcycling? Because you are exposed to wind and weather and are in harmony with nature.
Modern cars destroy the fun with their perfection, which also has a really heavy impact on weight.
The perfect air conditioning system steals all reality from the outside world. You could easily cruise along country roads in thermal clothing at 30 degrees in the shade. In a car without a roof, however, you're still sweating profusely and sometimes dripping in the rain.
The sound system in the interior, which is completely sealed off from the outside world, ensures that no noise reaches your ears. With Brian Johnson on the "Highway to hell", not even the sound of your own engine reaches your ears, regardless of whether the exhaust flap is open or closed.
The suspension also swallows up any bumps and creates a living room atmosphere.
It is nothing short of a miracle that the cars still have transparent windows at all, but presumably they too will disappear as soon as autonomous driving is introduced in the near future.
The Lotus Eleven was built as a racing car from 1956, but was also sold as a road sports car with a weaker engine in the "Club" and "Sports" variants. The roof was only available as a hardtop to order. At just under 450 kg, the Eleven was a very fast, four-wheeled motorcycle.
Renault was the last manufacturer to follow on from the Lotus in 1997 and sold the Spider completely without a roof and without any frills; even the windshield could be dispensed with with the help of a wind deflector.
At the very end of the list, Mazda presented a study of the MX5 as a pure driving machine to German-speaking journalists in Kitzbühel (A). Unfortunately, this variant never made it to the showrooms. How nice driving could still be today, with oh so much less fuss and without all the useless frippery... such as steering wheel heating, fully automatic tailgates, heavy, glass sliding sunroofs, automatic parking aids, right through to completely user-unfriendly cruise control systems, which take all competence away from the driver.
