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Lexus magazine article.
17 years ago
General
It's a work in progress!
This is for a Japanese car tuning magazine, and is an article as part of a larger feature on the pros and cons of electronic driver aids in modern cars. My focus is largely on the Lexus car company, with regard to the leisure drivers and drift pilots. The piece opens with a set of images of Lexus cars powersliding and drifting.
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The cars seem so graceful, so composed, so effortless, so boring. An old school car would be on the ragged edge, screaming and struggling for grip. You'd need skill to be able to contain its blind fury, without relying on the sophisticated electronics of the modern cars. You would need to drive.
I thought off-roading was boring until I tried it in a Rover Metro. Off-roaders have so much kit on them to make off-roading civilised, comfortable, easy, like driving around town. Technology takes away almost all the fun. Collision mitigation systems take the danger, the reason to pay attention, out of motorway driving. Satellite navigation takes the sense of adventure out of a journey. This is particularly so in the cars where turning the traction control off doesn't turn the system completely off.
Cars like the BMW E92 M3 and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ360 are packed with different ride, drive and operational settings to make them quicker, or to make them more fun. This is fine. But they're not quicker if you spend 10 minutes setting them up, and they're not more fun if you can only drive to the limits of whatever mode you've set the computer to.
This makes me wonder, what new cars are there today that can serve up some old school thrills? Something that turns street drift into something more like a street fight? Something that was designed to handle instead of just grip?
A modern-day Toyota Sprinter.
The trouble is that cars without the drive management computer systems are cheap, and cheap means front wheel drive. Rear wheel drive means expensive, and expensive means you get a computer system. There are of course exceptions. The Mazda MX-5, the Honda S2000, the Porsche 987, to name a few. But even these show clear signs of facing in the same direction as the industry, all with some form of drive management system.
Sadly, I think the answer is in America. In technology terms, they've caught up to the European standard of the early 1980s now. Front engined, rear wheel drive, not afraid of some inexpensive power, and (possibly owing to drag-racing heritage) just bad enough ride, handling and build to get you to the point of merry terror.
As for the future, for those that still thrill the old way, unless a manufacturer is willing to take a risk on making a car for driving, rather than big selling, then the advancement of computer co-drivers, and the popularity of front wheel drive especially in America, will render the simple pleasure of real driving
...history.
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This is for a Japanese car tuning magazine, and is an article as part of a larger feature on the pros and cons of electronic driver aids in modern cars. My focus is largely on the Lexus car company, with regard to the leisure drivers and drift pilots. The piece opens with a set of images of Lexus cars powersliding and drifting.
*
The cars seem so graceful, so composed, so effortless, so boring. An old school car would be on the ragged edge, screaming and struggling for grip. You'd need skill to be able to contain its blind fury, without relying on the sophisticated electronics of the modern cars. You would need to drive.
I thought off-roading was boring until I tried it in a Rover Metro. Off-roaders have so much kit on them to make off-roading civilised, comfortable, easy, like driving around town. Technology takes away almost all the fun. Collision mitigation systems take the danger, the reason to pay attention, out of motorway driving. Satellite navigation takes the sense of adventure out of a journey. This is particularly so in the cars where turning the traction control off doesn't turn the system completely off.
Cars like the BMW E92 M3 and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X FQ360 are packed with different ride, drive and operational settings to make them quicker, or to make them more fun. This is fine. But they're not quicker if you spend 10 minutes setting them up, and they're not more fun if you can only drive to the limits of whatever mode you've set the computer to.
This makes me wonder, what new cars are there today that can serve up some old school thrills? Something that turns street drift into something more like a street fight? Something that was designed to handle instead of just grip?
A modern-day Toyota Sprinter.
The trouble is that cars without the drive management computer systems are cheap, and cheap means front wheel drive. Rear wheel drive means expensive, and expensive means you get a computer system. There are of course exceptions. The Mazda MX-5, the Honda S2000, the Porsche 987, to name a few. But even these show clear signs of facing in the same direction as the industry, all with some form of drive management system.
Sadly, I think the answer is in America. In technology terms, they've caught up to the European standard of the early 1980s now. Front engined, rear wheel drive, not afraid of some inexpensive power, and (possibly owing to drag-racing heritage) just bad enough ride, handling and build to get you to the point of merry terror.
As for the future, for those that still thrill the old way, unless a manufacturer is willing to take a risk on making a car for driving, rather than big selling, then the advancement of computer co-drivers, and the popularity of front wheel drive especially in America, will render the simple pleasure of real driving
...history.
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it's all nice for a normal driver, especially in winter conditions to have a TCS, ABS and all(try to lose control of a chrylser 300C with all systems on, it's pretty much hard) for the performance, it's pretty much gaving a chance to bad driver...
I started to think it was too much when I 1st heard about 4 wheel steer system(4WS for honda prelude, Super HICAS for 240sx/silvia, HICAS on skyline GTS-t and 300zx/fairlady z...) that could be usefull, but I don't like it...