Automotive Outlier

What I like in a car, or motorcycle for that matter, is different from the vast majority out there and not what usually sells. At times in my past, that has provided challenges to me professionally. For example, when asked to tune a pick up truck. I don't even like pick up trucks, much less understand what drives people who buy them or what the character of a truck should be. It makes it hard to put yourself in the customers shoes and do a good job.

The thing is, I like to be actively involved in the process of driving. When done well, driving is like a dance between two partners, a tango if you will, with both partners communicating through their hands, feet, and body position to form a whole that is greater than the parts.

I want the car to respond to me as I control, hopefully with a little finesse, the throttle, the shifter, and the clutch. I want to feel the feedback from the clutch as it takes a bite and transfers torque. I want to hear and feel the engine respond to my change in throttle pressure and feel the gears engage as I slip them into position.

Even more important, I want the steering and the chassis to give me feedback about the traction at the road surface as I corner or make a correction to our path. And I want the brakes to tell me about the tire grip on the road and give me feedback on our stopping progress.

I am not alone in these desires. There is a group of vehicle dynamics engineers, racers, and other car enthusiasts that also value these things. But we are a small group and don't influence the market. After all, my desires are the antithesis of the self-driving car that is all the rage right now.

I also have a special weirdness in that I drive alone most of the time and don't think I need a big, heavy vehicle, just for me. Of course, little cars get better gas mileage, but its more than that.

If you think about it, a bicycle is the most efficient method of transportation for a single person. It weighs 30 pounds or less and can cost as little as a few hundred dollars. Ok, that's not a practical solution for most Americans, including myself, that don't live where a bicycle is practical for the distances we travel or the weather conditions, much less the lower safety of a bicycle in traffic with cars.

 

But do I really need a huge behemoth that barely fits on the road and weighs 5000 pounds or more just to carry me? My little Fiat does that job just fine in less than 3000 pounds and a lot less space. I wish it were the old days when a car that size weighed less than 2000 pounds. When the weather works, my motorcycle does much better at about 330 pounds.

The other thing about a small car is it's fun to drive all the time. You don't need a twisty road or anything. It becomes an extension of me which is fun on its own. Not to mention the tiny parking spaces or the ability to cut and weave through traffic in the little holes that only cars my size will fit.

An now comes the conundrum. The Fiat is getting old and will need to be replaced in a few years. You can't buy a new one and there aren't very many options out there that match what the Fiat offers me. The Mini might have been one, but they went automatic transmission across the board in 2020. For now, you can still buy a VW Golf, a Subaru Impreza, and maybe one model of Mazda 3 with a manual transmission, but those are imperfect solutions bigger, heavier, and much thirstier than the Fiat. Plus they don't fit my too tall body very well. And, in the past, I wouldn't have said the Impreza is great at the tango mentioned above. I would have to drive current versions of each, but at least there is a chance of a nice tango with the VW and Mazda offerings.

All of this shifting to fat, heavy and automatic transmission cars got me wondering how to stay involved as a driver? In truth, I hate automatic transmissions as much as anything because the computer never does what I want, and the whole connection to the engine is just sloppy. My utter dislike of automatic transmissions led me to an unusual place. What about an electric car?

Most electric cars are one speed, direct connection between the wheels and the motor. More than that, to get good range, the driver needs to be very involved with throttle control and managing the traffic opportunities for least energy usage. Some electric cars even give you control over the amount of regenerative braking available. I have enjoyed my electric car driving experience, in part because the management of energy is very involving. It is something similar to controlling the lean angle of a motorcycle, even in normal riding.

Electric vehicle range is improving and recharging opportunities are growing in availability to the point that an electric vehicle could, in theory, become a primary vehicle. There is even one EV available with 4000 pounds towing capacity. That is something I am thinking about as I suspect towing a motorcycle to a place to ride will be more attractive as I get into my 70's.

At the moment, the barriers are the up front cost and the rest of the driver involvement equation (steering, handling, brakes). And one philosophical question that got me started thinking about this in the first place.

Although there have been small EV, including the Fiat 500e, they have been too small for acceptable range. I have a friend that drove his little Mitsubishi EV from Michigan to Minnesota for an EV convention. It took him 3 days each way because he could only go 60 miles before recharging.

A practical EV would need 200+ mile range, preferably closer to 300 mile range. That's a lot of batteries, battery volume, and mass. All of the proposed or currently available EV with a range of 200 or more mile range are 4000 pounds or more and much bigger than a Fiat. From a fuel economy standpoint, they get an equivalent of 70 to 90 mpg, but what do I do about the idea of such a huge vehicle carrying around just little old me?

Maybe if I have to drive something bigger, and if VW does a good job with the intangibles, maybe a production version of something like this would be funky and fun. Lots to think about.  This photo was borrowed from carscoop.com.  It is the concept car, so you can imagine it would look a little different.  As for other photo credits, the suspension system photo came from guideautoweb.com, man with a car on his back came from iconfinder.com, and the twisty road photo from BHM photo.

.