Fighting the systems

The car industry has gone mad. We are supposed to be using less energy and are sacrificing the joy of naturally aspirated ICES to achieve this, yet at the same time we are building ever heavier and more powerful cars.

They are filled with useless features and fakery. Who wants soggy steering and throttle-response settings, especially if they are mandatory with the comfortable damping mode? Why the embarrassment and irritation of fake vents, diffusers and exhaust sounds?

We are drowning in electronics that are supposed to increase convenience and safety yet make everything more complex and obscure, and infuriate with their interference,

vibrations and beeping. They are also potentially deadly.

I recently bought a Civic Type R, my first new car in ten years. The Type R has superb controls and dynamics, but recently, upon attempting to overtake a slower car, the Honda’s witless brain decided I was going to rear-end said car and applied the brakes. There I was, on the wrong side of the road, being braked instead of accelerating, until the electronics finally realised there was no longer a car in front and released the brakes. Thankfully there were no other cars around to get tangled up in the confusion, but it’s easy to see how such an unexpected interruption could escalate into a more serious situation.

Perhaps there is a place for such technology in nannying drivers even less sentient than their cars, but you should at least be able to switch it off. This is not possible in the Type R despite it being a focused driver’s car.

I also own a 997 GT3 RS 4.0 and

I will never buy a newer supercar, because with the clinical pursuit of technological superiority none will be as visceral and involving.

Unless I can find a company that can decommission electronic ‘safety’ systems I will now look to the past for practical cars too. There is no room for two drivers in one car. Hal Walter