Category: Drive Time

Generally speaking, I treat the subject of power the same way as I treat pretty much any aspect of personal ownership, e.g. with guns:

“Why do you need such a powerful gun?” — Because I want it, and because MYOFB.

However, I am somewhat at a loss when it comes to modern cars, which to me seem terribly over-powered relative to the average driver’s ability to pilot the thing, e.g. the 1,000hp Bugatti Veyron:

An awful lot of Veyrons have been crashed relative to the actual number found on the roads (i.e. excluding the “investment” Bugattis, the motoring equivalent of the gun world’s “safe queens”), and the same is true of all the hypercars.  Even Rowan Atkinson, who is an excellent driver, managed to write off his Pagani Zonda.

I don’t even want to think of the accident rate among redneck hypercars, e.g. the Dodge SRT or the Camaro ZL1, both with plus-600hp engines.

Now I’m not saying that cars like this should be banned or restricted in any way (see my thoughts on powerful guns, above), but the question I want to throw out to you, O My Readers, is:  what do you think is the engine (cylinder number, size, horsepower, whatever) that best serves the average driver?  For the sake of discussion, let’s ignore trucks and SUVs, which may have different needs and uses, and concentrate on cars.

And to make it more interesting, let’s split it into four-door saloons and two-door sports cars.

My thoughts will appear below the fold, but avoid going there until you’ve worked out your own two examples.

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Imagine that Great-Uncle Silas died and left you a luxury motorhome — one so big it has storage room underneath for a “spare” car, thus:

You want to take it on a long journey (e.g, around the U.S.A., all over Europe, etc.) but unfortunately Elmer’s largesse ended at the RV, but did include (say) $40,000 to buy a spare which you could use to drive into and around town, or to the grocery store, once parked at a decent RV park or hotel.

The “mini-garage” has dimensions of 190″ (length) 84″ (width) and 60″ (height).  (For example, a Kia Rio has dimensions of 160″ x 68″ x 57″.)  So it has to be a small car, but not that small.

Which car would you select, and why?  (My choice is below the fold.)

For a shortcut to cars’ sizes, use Edmunds — select a car, and scroll down the page to determine your car’s dimensions. Read more

It being the weekend, take an hour and a half to watch the story of how Porsche became a force in top-end “prototype” endurance racing once again (as opposed to just racing 911s in lower classifications).

Even though the video has been produced with all the pizazz of a corporate PR release, note the passion and dedication.

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This is probably the best and most honest look at why we buy stuff — in this case specifically, Porsche cars — and it’s only a little over 20 minutes long.

I like everything about this video:  the maker’s almost child-like curiosity, the lack of humbug and the dawning realization of what, exactly, Porsche is all about.

There’ll be a longer video appearing here tomorrow, on a more specific Porsche, but this is an excellent starter pack.

Enjoy.

Oh, and for a bonus in the video: Jay Leno absolutely skewers Ferrari.