A love letter to the car

Or maybe a more sad and tragic note.

With the release of Forza Horizon 6 this week, the highly anticipated Japanese setting a home for many aficionados of four wheels and devotees of drifting and driving, it got me thinking about one of my greatest passions and why we (still) love cars so much…or do we? The slow death of the motoring enthusiast has been on my mind for some time now, and while it’s very easy to find justifications for such thinking, I do wonder if it’s a bit of a myth and it’s actually never been a better time to be one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uc1n4ng9Nk

I stole a line from James May’s review of the original Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer so 15+ years ago for the title of this article because I felt that is what I was most trying to do. No doubt Jeremy Clarkson’s previous videos for the Forza series also ring true along with what non-car people don’t get, and I can’t help but feel that the virtual worlds of video gaming and social media are becoming the prominent place to indulge in the passion – and for a number of reasons.

An interest in motoring has become largely a significant cost and a barrier to entry in forming and maintaining the passion. The average to poor person has been for the most part priced out of the market. Cars are so expensive, even second-hand ones, and car makers are not making fun or desirable cars at an affordable level in the amount they used to. “Investors” are driving prices through the roof and have been doing so for at least a decade with those effects passing on to even the less sort after models. Events are fewer and/or more expensive. Racetracks are getting closed down or there are so many hurdles and such opposition to get them up and running in the first place.

I wanted this to be more positive than negative, but I can’t ignore what I see, read and experience. We have the supposed EV takeover – which I will elaborate on in a future article. There is no denying there has been a cultural shift by the masses towards the motorcar. The car as an entity used to be a positive thing, now not so much. What was once a sign of freedom, individual expression, and optimism, full of fond memories and journeys, has been replaced by constant antagonism by various groups of people and that it’s largely an inconvenience or at worst, a cancer on this planet. Poor road quality, a multitude of direct and indirect pressures to give up or go without a car (e.g. rego, insurance, price of fuel and maintenance, parking, road congestion, moral disgust at the car and praise for public transport and cycling etc.). According to the government, media or environmental activists, we’re both a menace to society and killing the planet at the same time, and we most definitely shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy ourselves driving on the public roads.

I know a number of you are probably thinking that I’m overexaggerating or making shit up or flat out laugh in my face (perhaps no one cares!), but I draw a lot of energy for life from my passions – like we all do – and to see it getting systematically poisoned off is soul destroying to me.

Setting the scene - Image courtesy of Martyn Foster.

I just want to enjoy cars – this isn’t about politics or oil industry propaganda. I like their aesthetics, beauty, sound, what they can do, the engineering and stories behind them, the feelings I get while using and being at one with them. The pleasure of clipping an apex or nailing the perfect downshift. The breeze in your hair and the sun on your face as you drive a convertible along the coast on a spring or summer’s day. Kicking up the autumnal leaves on a country road spirited drive. Parking next to a beautiful lake and seeing your car in its reflection. Going up and down the gears on a lovely and breathtaking mountain pass. Being mesmerised by the stars or white lines on freeways/highways while driving at night, listening to great music or the loud pedal. Now, I hold down the R2 button on my PlayStation controller, but it’s not the same.

It can’t all be gloom and doom.

The attendances and TV ratings for F1, MotoGP, WEC etc. are at record highs, the sales for games like Gran Turismo and Forza are doing phenomenally well, the various successful automotive photographers, magazines, journalists, YouTube/social media etc. illustrate the value and strong desire for such an interest. Technology has enabled both mainstream and niche interests to flourish, particularly the latter. The continued rise of restomods, not a fad that has burned out, if anything it has gotten stronger, and it still shows there’s an immense passion and aspiration in cars – both in building and engineering and in owning and driving. Obviously, some will write-off this as rich boys and their toys, and focus on wealth disparity, but the cars themselves are works of art.

Thankfully Larry is a better photography than me - Photo courtesy Martyn Foster.

A couple of examples of motoring enthusiasm done right are The Car Podcast with Chris Harris and Friends, and automotive photographer Larry Chen. I’ve followed Larry for years now and recently bought his book (see above) containing a large sample of his life’s work. He’s a good dude and such is his prominence and how well-regarded in the industry he is, he was involved in a pre-launch marketing series for the latest Forza Horizon game (and he actually features in it). Larry also does a lot of exploring car culture videos for the Hagerty YouTube channel, where another of my favourite motoring journalists, Henry Catchpole, is located.

Chris Harris has been in the top echelon of motoring journalism for a while now and his weekly podcast with his mates is a great source of car-related discussion and banter. It honestly has been a lifeline for me and I very much look forward to it every week. The fellas are not unaware of the growing importance they’re playing in the mental wellbeing of many fellas around the world with their weekly chats, however innocuous it may appear. Even his book, Variable Valve Timings: Memoirs of a Car Tragic (which I have on my shelf), really sums it up – we are car tragics!  

Now, whether or not cars, and us with a passion for them, go the way of the horse – from transport to leisure (by the wealthy only) – I do not know, but that future is imaginable, sadly. For the meantime, I mainly live vicariously through the lives of other people as a substitute which is better than nothing and maybe the only way going forward…at least in the immediate future.

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