because not race car

A McLaren P1 spitting fire mid-drift around the Bahrain circuit at night is mesmerizing. It borders on automotive nirvana. It’s also totally removed from reality, just as it should be. While supercars may scream to be measured objectively, it is ultimately a misguided exercise. If anything, it destroys the mystique of the car. Quantifying a car’s performance is effectively embracing its obsolescence.

I want to be there.

There is this perceived correlation between performance and driving enjoyment. Newer = faster = better. It’s a form of planned obsolescence through technical advancement. Road cars are built to manufacturer’s individual objectives, not the rulebook of a race series. There is nothing stopping them from adding wider tires, more downforce, more power and more aggressive gearing. The lap times that people obsess over have no real context. Any legitimate race series takes these performance imbalances into account, separating cars into classes and further leveling the playing field by limiting power, grip and weight discrepancies.

Road cars are not race cars, even in light of how fast and powerful some have become. This relentless increase in performance neglects the fact that road cars are experienced in subjective isolation. Back roads and track events are about the driving experience, not the performance of one car/driver relative to another. Road cars should not share the same priorities as race cars.

The Nissan GTR, a turbo’d double clutch AWD sled, may keep 14 year olds up at night with its gaudy performance numbers, but I’ve never heard anyone with a driver’s license commend the car for its driver engagement. Do you think a Ferrari 250 GTO’s value is pegged to where it sits in the pecking order of Nurburgring lap times? The lasting appeal of a car is tied to everything but its outright performance.

cold war syndrome

More interested in the intangibles and driving experience than raw performance numbers, Chris Harris always has compelling insight on the cars he drives. His recent test of the newest GT3 raises some interesting points. My thoughts after the video.

Forget the GT3 badge, is it even a 911?

While the lack of a manual transmission gets all the attention, the change in the general behavior of the car, with a more willing and predictable front end, really deserves the most scrutiny. The driving experience quintessential to a rear-engine layout is slowly being engineered out of the car. Cars undoubtedly evolve with each iteration but when does a 911 cease to be a 911 in terms of anything but aesthetics?

Absolute performance has superseded the driving experience. 

Cars keep getting faster, while roads stay the same.  Manufacturers are caught in an endless cycle of escalating performance that amounts to little more than a shouting match for short-lived bragging rights. The new GT3 is faster and more capable but to what end? I’ve mentioned it before but it’s worth repeating that easily accessible performance is a novelty. When anyone can get in the new GT3 and go 9/10ths, it’s unequivocally an accomplishment for the car’s engineers but a shallow victory for the driver.