FROM PETROL … TO THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE
I’ve loved petrol and dieselpowered cars since I was a little boy back in the 1970s. Back then, my older brother and I used to compete on our level of knowledge of cars by listening to oncoming cars and guessing what would drive by. Common vehicles at the time would have been a Peugeot 1,8 504 or 404, maybe a
1,2 VW Beetle or Datsun. I also knew the Land Rover Defender, Citroën DS20, BMW and Jaguar engines very well, as well as the number of gears each had.
I had the privilege of growing up on a farm along a major highway. Opposite our farm was a famous drinking hole every passing car would stop at. When the cars and big trucks pulled off, we would count the number of gears until it reached its top gear. As a result, we ended up knowing how many gears each car had, including the Oshkosh, Peterbilt and DAF trucks.
The iconic cars of the time were the Alfa Romeo Giulia, BMW “Cheetah” and Mercedesbenz E-class. The popular car was the Datsun 120Y that anybody from school teacher to the taxi driver of the time could reasonably afford. The sound of engines was, and still is, music to my ears.
Getting to the point of my letter, with the advent of electrification, we are going to lose the meaningful aspect of sound. At present, the manufacturers seem focused on electrifying their expensive models only with little or no electrification of cheaper cars. I want to see bottom of the range, cheap cars become fully electric such as the Polo and Yaris. I do not understand why producers of lower-end cars are not moving fast enough so that there is real saving by drivers because the maintenance and running costs of fully electric cars are much lower than Icepowered cars. I hope the end is near for fossil-fuelled cars.
I assume you can find out from various manufacturers of economy cars what their stance is on electrification and when they will be changing over to batteries. I will remain one of those who stick to petrol or diesel for a long time, at least as long as the support infrastructure exists. Once again, thank you for the incisive magazine.
MARTIN DZVITI Midrand
[Hi Martin. Thank you for sharing your story. Wow, with knowledge like that on all the drivetrains of the era, you could’ve easily become a top-class motoring journalist. I live just above Chapman’s Peak and my wife and I love nothing more than hearing an internal combustion engine – preferably a high-powered, highrevving one – way off in the distance and debating what it may be before it hoves into view. There’s no denying the naturally aspirated engines still make the best sound: Porsche flat-six, Lambo/audi V10, older BMW inline-six engines, Mercedes-amg, Ford and Ferrari V8s. Another excellent qualifier, as you mention, is the transmission. Very rarely do you hear the tell-tale sound of a manual in a high-performance car nowadays. Instead, seamless-shift dual-clutches – waa-waa-waaaa. I could go on for days about the aural delights of ICES, I’m sure you can tell, but I’ll end off by saying thank you for your letter and offer you a 12-month subscription to CAR with our compliments – editor.]