“GET SET, ZZZZ!”

Like Editor Inwood, I also missed Goodwood FOS this year. I had to fly home midway through my holiday in the UK as my brother died and his funeral was on the day I had scheduled to go to Goodwood.

I liked the August issue’s Editor’s letter touching on the electric Volkswagen ID R at Goodwood and noting the role noise plays in high-performance vehicles. Though I have never driven an EV, let alone an EV track car, a few thoughts occurred to me.

I’m the owner and somewhat slow driver of a Subaru WRX tarmac rally car. Track cars are a pain to drive on the road – climbing over the roll cage, the crashing suspension, the jerky and whining drivetrain, the loud exhaust, squeaking brakes, on/off clutch and the clatter of road debris being flung into the arches by the sticky semi-slicks.

However, when you’re at a sprint and the starter shouts ‘Go!’, all that disappears. You become focused on the gutwrenching launch, the line for the next corner, the braking points, trying not to lock the brakes, feeling for understeer or oversteer, trying to figure out which way to go if it’s a new course, or listening to panicky shouted instructions from your co-driver. Sensory overload, basically. The engine and exhaust noise become irrelevant except to tell you when to change gears.

So, my guess is that once you get an EV on a track, the experience will be just as exhilarating, but not so much for the spectators.

You make a good point, Ken. EV racers and track cars will still be thrillers... for the driver. But the

“Your decision to belt the Vantage through NZ couldn’t have been a hard one”

soundtrack is a key missing visceral element in EV road cars