Why modern cars are, in fact, miracles
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Published: April 20, 2009
Why modern cars are, in fact, miracles
The automotive industry spends billions every year on development. Speak to any engineer, in any division, and they’ll tell you how he or she is just one of thousands. This is happening across the globe with one aim in mind; to make cars better.
Bearing the above in mind, Kahn news.com attempts to put in plain words: just why those modern cars are, in fact, miracles.
They don’t make your ears bleed
Family holidays commenced with the trip to the coast. And, even in the ‘80’s, we all knew that, for four hours, we wouldn’t be able to talk to each other. And our heads would hurt at the end. The roar of the wind, road noise and a screaming block of Triumph’s finest curtailed all but the most committed shouts from mothers to turn left/right/around again.
Company reps, of course, had to endure the motorway daily; how did the economy not grind to a halt, with all these harassed sales people questioning their entire existence as they were tortured for another eight hours on the M1 and M6.
They’ve progressed as our lives have
Technology abounds in our lives and if you’re the sort who would buy a remote-control light dimmer, you’ll delight in being able to get radar-assisted cruise control. The mind boggles at such technology even today – but reality it is, just like HD TV, just like DAB. As homes fill with Tomorrow’s World tech, it’s only right that cars do, too.
Gadgets aren’t for everyone, and that’s the reason why car makers don’t impose them on all (at least not until filter-down tech means they suddenly become the norm). But only by pushing boundaries do things move on. Manufacturers are certainly doing that.
Steer where your brain says
There are exceptions here, but by and large, mainstream car steering used to be pants. Steer a best-selling family saloon from way back when, and, compared to its modern equivalent, it’s like guiding a ship using rubbery ropes lashed to a tiller half a mile away. More than four turns lock-to-lock? Power assistance a rarity?
You’d be lucky if you hit your side of the road with any sort of accuracy, never mind the individual pebbles the modern car can pick out. Ok, true ‘feel’ may be reduced on modern systems (though, despite claims, many oldies hardly excelled here) but actually steering the car is so much easier nowadays.
They help with personal hygiene
Was it just that we were all smellier back in the day? Think about it: polyester shirts, frequent heat waves, dodgy deodorant and a total lack of mainstream air con; the eye – watering power of brut suddenly makes sense. Today, there’s none of that. We can all enjoy a 210c climate whatever the weather, and emerge fresh and a sigh of relief.
But, even if that’s not enough to dry the calm of a sweaty back – then praise be for air-conditioned seats. And keep some of that cool feel as you leave, with a bottle of water (or a splash of Old Spice) chilled by the air-conditioned glove box.
They try to save you, rather than the opposite
Sitting in a 1960s family saloon is horrifying. The steering wheel, unyielding Bakelite, is connected to a column directly linking the entire mass of the front angle to a spear that’s angled straight towards your heart. You feel even glancing at a windscreen pillar will bend it, and as for thinking about impact protection – well, it’s probably best you don’t. All that’s no more, thanks to Euro NCAP.
And how has it changed things? Well, just compare the crash results for the Rover Metro, tested back in 1997, to those for the very latest Fiat 500. Same class of car, same price; scary differences – and that can only be a good thing.
They shrink speed
Controversial one, this, but, by and large, cars that are less dramatic, less skittish and less nervous at speed are, I reckon, a good thing. We still have rules. We still can’t go faster than the traffic dictates.
The law will punish us if we do something wrong.
So what’s wrong with cars that feel relaxed and ‘slow’ at 70mph, rather than ones that feel, at 60mph, as if they’re doing twice that?
For surprising numbers, driving is a chore, not a pleasure. The safer car for them can only be the one that reduces brain load, rather than bombarding it. It may even speed up the nonagenarians.
The helped keep yon on the road
I remember watching, slack-jawed, a Ford Cortina under steer off the road once.
Then, right at the very end, over steer its bum into a brick pillar. This was a wet road. The middle-aged guy who got out had the baffled look that most drivers used to have- what on earth had just happened?
Nowadays, I drive that same corner half as fast again, with utter confidence. Not only have modern cars’ limits raised, what they do in corners has also eliminated illogicality. New cars with vices are the exception, and with mass-market stability programmes, now it’s idiocy that will see you lose control, rather than vicious flaws with the car.
They’re not torture
Car driving was once the preserve of Men. And as we know, real men don’t let a bit of discomfort bother them, what?
So seats were made of vinyl slung over some bent metal, and positioned to fit around the controls, rather than the human being using them.
Those controls, of course, had been positioned by the engineer – a man, who certainly wouldn’t let any of his mechanical purity be lost for the piffling reason of a steering wheel sitting, vertically, four feet away from the person using it. He was a man he could cope.
They’re far, far greener
Every so often, a manufacturer releases a stat along the lines of ‘one modern car emits the same emissions as 42 three-decade-old ones.’
That’s green, but a more impressive green fact is one released by Saab, years ago – one of the Swedish firm’s cars, driven in Central London, emitted exhaust fumes cleaner, in some measurements, than the air around it.
Ok, so modern cars aren’t quite mobile air filters, but they’re still green enough to make Swampy seem like some sort of coal-burning monster who lights his un-insulated house by 100w light bulbs and always leaves the tap running as he brushes his teeth.
They last, if you want them to
Nowadays, cars are very different. When was the last time you saw a rusty Vectra or Focus? The oldest are now 13 and 10 years old respectively, yet I bet you the next one you see will be perfectly serviceable and, if you don’t abuse it, have that much life left in it again. The old egg timer has been stopped; cars really can be for life.
To view some impeccably modern vehicles visit:
http://www.kahndesign.com/automotive/projectkahn/
Tagged with: Driving
