Other hobbies/Obsessions?

***** Does not compute ***** Unless you're a 1950's American car designer? 😁 They made some cool cars then. Great looking space age futuristic monsters with all mod cons, big power, air conditioning that actually worked, wafting along in comfort at speeds European car makers could mostly only dream off. And then promptly fell over in corners, or become unwilling off roaders. Though with their incredible freeway system they were rarely enough upset by corners at speed. Even their motor racing heritage reflects that. Either straight line drag racing, or just one endless corner on oval tracks like Roman chariot racing. The economics of advertising played as much of a part in that too. A drag or oval race means the paying audience can see all the action and the advertising and when telly took off...

Meanwhile in Europe where motor racing started on twisting narrow public roads originally designed for horses and feet between well heeled types the audience and advertising was much less a thing and oval racing never really took off. Neither did drag racing as European race cars were generally smaller engined and lighter and designed to get up twisty roads carrying as much momentum as possible through the bendy bits. A European audience was pretty badly served. Usually only a grandstand at the start finishing line, where you'd sit there listening in the distance to unseen sound and fury until the cars came back around again. The Nurburgring an extreme example of that. Twenty miles in old money of track where there are few places you can actually see the cars.

Still, it meant European(and Japanese for similar reasons) cars were very good at roadholding(going around corners faster) when compared to American cars and because they were lighter, better at stopping too and because of smaller engines they had to become much more efficient. EG some US V8's at five litres had less power than some European two litres. Old style Porsche 911's are a great example of making the best out of a bad lot. Pretty small capacity engines and the engine was in the worst place it could be for going around corners well, behind the rear wheels. Yet they made that work bloody well. Well, until they stuck turbos into them in the 80's. I've driven an 80's 911 turbo and I swear it's a road traffic accident with a steering wheel. Scary at any sort of speed. Though the scary crown for me was an early 80's Renault 5 Turbo. rear engined, rear wheel drive, turbo, in a car that feels eight foot wide and two foot long with either bugger all grip, or none, depending... Unpredictable isn't in it. You could carefully park one in your driveway for the night only to awaken the next morning to find it upside down in your neighbour's hedge with a lit Gauloises hanging from its radiator grill.

I've sometimes wondered would Tesla have taken off so quickly if they'd started off as a European based brand? Their big selling point for many in the US was their incredible drag racing acceleration in a straight line and American media focused on that a lot because that is so much part of their culture. In Europe it's not, so I suspect it would have been more of a sideshow. For car enthusiasts anyway. It's only pretty recently where Tesla's were even able to finish a run around the Nurburgring without going into limp mode, the brakes would fade and they were appallingly bad in the corners(huge weight doesn't help there). Then again Tesla took that to heart and improved massively in the last two years. Though I personally think the Nurburgring is not a great judge and too many manufacturers(and people) use it as a standard.

Well actually, in 1977.... 😁

Interior is very important alright. For me as a driver it's my body's points of contact with the car that are most important. How my hands, feet and arse fit and feel the car. Cars have improved immeasurably in comfort, power and safety, but on the other hand feel has dropped off too. I just can't get on with electric power steering for example. It always feels dead to me. McLaren agree and use leccy to drive an hydraulic system to get that feel back.

IMHO Audi make about the best as a general thing. Germans usually get it very right,Japanese brands rarely do. American vary a lot, but tend towards cheap feeling(that can be simple local sales economics too. For a long while the interiors of US sold cars and European could be chalk and cheese in quality). I see your point about the Tesla, but again I'd say it's because it's American IT/"clean"/California style and deliberately so to appeal to that set where it finds many of its fans(fart noises, Mars GPS and silly names for modes ditto). Plus it makes for fewer points of squeaking and noise. That's much easier to hide in an ICE car. It's overall cheaper to produce with it. The huge ipad on the dash is much cheaper to test and build and update than old style knobs and buttons, while looking more expensive and "futuristic" at the same time. But yeah it can look bland.

The giant ipad in the centre thing is a bit mad. I can rightfully get done for looking at my phone while driving yet if it did strike me driving the Tesla that it could be equally or more of a distraction for some. I myself was taken a little too much by looking at it on a motorway section as the guidance stuff was showing the cars around me. You'd get over that soon enough I suppose.

Our relationships with cars as individuals and societies is so much more complex than our relationships to watches(or many other things), and what they say about us or what we are trying to say to the world, or not. It's like a different planet. Cars are so many more things to so many more people. From basic A-B transport, all the way to obsessions in some, even a mix of all in the same car. The 20th century was many things and many thing vy for the title of most important, but cars are high on the list of the thing of the 20th century. It changed society and cities and country and attitudes. It cartainly spilled into the 21st, but I suspect they'll not be nearly so important to society or individuals as they once were. I was reading an interview with James May and he noted that in the UK the number of teens applying to get driving licences has followed a strong downward trend over the last decade. I can see that being repeated in many places worldwide, especially in smaller or high density living areas. Increasing regulations and autonomous systems will add to the decline. If cars were invented today the regs around them would likely be so tight that there would be far fewer people allowed to drive. As it happened historically they became ubiquitous before they became regulated so the horse had long bolted(aircraft very nearly went the same way, but they never became as cheap or ubiquitous so remained the preserve of the very wealthy and professionals and regs got in first). The car may very well go the way of the horse, a hobby played out by a minority on closed roads at the weekend.