I have a family member who lost her voice temporarily to laryngitis and it makes me think of the wonderful sounds that an engine makes. The sound from the exhaust of a Ferrari or a Harley Davidson are very different but they are like looking at a painting, both are beautiful sounds with different qualities and texture. I believe muscle cars and their melodious V8s still sound the best to me but you may prefer the sound of a European V12. All big bore engines sound amazing but what about an electric car? I rented a hybrid Lexus and at start up you can’t tell that thing is running. It’s a little unnerving to a person who can appreciate the sound of an internal combustion engine. This got me wondering about all electric powered cars.
All electric powered vehicles don’t make a sound and, I’ll say it, that’s creepy. Silence is golden, they say, but not when it comes to cars and motorcycles. There is a Ron Howard film called The Dilemma, staring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James(two of the best modern day comedic actors), and in the film they are working on a sound emitter for an all electric car. There invention would bring muscle car sounds to an all electric Mustang that would otherwise be silent. Although this was fictional it would not be a bad idea to explore this idea. If we are all going to go green than you have to have something for the car guys to hang on to, Dig?
Everyone wants to talk about the amazing torque of an electric motor and its lack of lag. That all well an good if the only stimulation you get from driving is speed. I like to feel the motor and anticipate the necessity for my input to the transmission. This is why I still prefer a manual “three pedal and a stick” shifter to a paddle shift set up. Yes a double clutch set up is much quicker in responsiveness and acceleration but I don’t drive and F1 car and if I get a track day a month I consider myself lucky. So I need a transmission that feels good through the twisties and is responsive on the back roads.
For example, there is a road in the mountains of North Carolina near the Tennessee boarder, they call it The Tail of the Dragon. This road is in Deals Gap North Carolina and it has 318 turns in 11 miles. Would you want a paddle shift set up on this road? Certainly not, motorcyclists love this road and, that would be like a motorcyclist riding a scooter or a Honda DN-01(an automatic motorcycle with the ability to “paddle” shift ) down the Tail of the Dragon.
Part of the fun is the requirement of driver input. It gives me and many of you a greater connection to the road and, consequently, a better interface with the world around us.
In short, a stick shift and a flowmaster muffler should never go out of style. At lease until I’m gone, then you guys can do the “minority report, judge dread” boring, lifeless driving thing. Dig it?
Maybe not totally lifeless...this car was in Minority Report...
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