No Engine No Heart

by Petrol Mum

With almost every car manufacturer now a part the electric vehicle revolution I wanted to reflect on what this means for the future of car lovers. I genuinely love cars and if you are a fan of Driven Women Magazine, I’m guessing you do as well. So what is the one part of a car that you love the most?

It could be the looks or how you feel when you drive your car, but I’m also guessing that the engine is a big part of the attraction. This is certainly true for me; I appreciate all engines whether it is a plucky four cylinder or the snap crackle and pop of a manic V8. But the one engine I love above all others is the glorious Ferrari V12 and after spending some quality time with the Ferrari GTC4Lusso earlier this year, I can tell you that this true love and it will last forever.

The greatest engine of them all! The Ferrari V12.

So what then happens when car manufacturers stop building cars with these engines that we love? It’s already starting to happen with the need for turbocharging in order to meet better fuel efficiency standards and hybridisation that has even made its way even to Ferrari with the SF90 Stradale.

I think the loss of the internal combustion engine (ICE) will be the end of the motoring era as we know it for many reasons apart from the obvious. When that turning point occurs and we won’t be able to buy a new car with an ICE engine, how will it impact future petrol heads?

I grew up around cars and it’s where my passion was born, so if children of the future don’t get to experience that feeling and sound from an engine will they actually grow up to love cars? It’s not just the sound of the engine, but also the smell and the fact that you can work on them with your parents; it’s a complete sensory experience.

Modern engines are increasingly more complicated and in many you can’t even manually check the oil level. It is checked by the computer like on the Bentley Bentayga.

I have only driven a couple of Teslas, so my electric car experience pool is not deep. But although these cars are technically amazing and offer hypercar worthy acceleration figures I feel nothing for them, no passion, and no love. So I think the answer to this question is, no the next generation will not grow up to love cars as we do today and like for previous generations.

And it’s not just Tesla, when I see that such and such car company has released the latest and greatest electric hypercar I just think ‘ho-hum’. Because for me all electric cars are the same regardless of what manufacturer produces them; they are just dressed in a different costume. An electric car is missing a vital piece of hardware, an engine or more importantly a heart.

As humans we fall in love with our hearts and connect with our hearts, when we lose someone or something we deeply love we suffer heartbreak. And if a car is missing its heart, that part that we fall in love with every time we turn the key or push the start button then, how can we fall in love with the car at all?

The Jaguar F-PACE SVR is an assault on all of your senses.

This is part of a greater movement in the automotive industry away from the idea that we will personally own a car in the future. It is predicted in the future that cars will be shared so that they are used at a greater efficiency than what they are now. The notion of one person driving their car to work, parking it and then driving it home will be history.

If future generations don’t love cars and just think of them as a transportation device then this also means they will be less likely to love one car manufacturer over another. Car choice will simply come down the best device at the best price with no emotion involved in the car buying experience at all. If this is the case then why will we need so many car manufacturers? I don’t think we will and I foresee that less profitable manufacturers will continue to be swallowed up by larger companies and eventually there will only be a couple of car manufacturers in the world.

I can see the time when we will tell our grandchildren about those glory days of cars and all we will have to share with them is videos and photos. They will never experience what it’s like to pin the throttle and listen to a Ferrari V12 engine sing to your soul and sweep you off your feet.

Don’t get me wrong I am an environmentalist and I will happily debate electric vehicles, mass transportation and other greenhouse gas emitting sectors of our modern lifestyle. But as I have told many people we can’t help who or what we fall in love with and for me that ‘what’ is cars, gloriously powered by the internal combustion engine with a spirit and a soul that grips my heart tightly.

Do you agree or disagree with me? Let’s discuss! Tag @drivenwomenmag on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.

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