Automobile Obsession

Father forgive me for I have sinned.

I have an obsession with cars.

I love the environment, but for some dumbo reason, I cannot do without looking up the side-skirt of a healthy looking machine.
My obsession started with I was a young boy. I had a framed Porsche 911 Carrera certificate hanging on my wall. I didn’t even know if I loved the Porsche then, but I respected its elegance.

I also recalled at an early age the screaming red of Ferraris and the sunkissed yellow of Lamborghinis. British cars like Jaguars always had their distinct deep Green. The Germans always black. There were identities of national pride on the line of a paint colour. And then these machines could race. Actually race, with real drivers, but I never got into them because they were too long.

Need for Speed was a videogame (and movie which I have not watched). You could race cars and each car had it’s own personality. Everyone still knows the Lamborghini Diablo from that age. We all picked it in yellow. We all had fun overtaking absolutely everyone.
So I was conditioned as a child. I also had an attraction to these things. When I was 17 my parents were gracious, and I felt it an obligation to have a car. A beautiful maroon 1993 Toyota Celica. It cost $8000 at the time. It had one of the slickest short throw manual shifters I have ever used. Ultimately what I did not like about the car was cruising at 100km/h raised the revs to 3000 in 5th. Too high, too loud, not enjoyable.

So ultimately I got rid of it for a $23,500 Nissan Stagea. I then bought a $20,000 WRX STI(A bargain at the time I know), and then finally a $40,000 Honda Civic Type-R. All great in their own right. All have their own personality.

A car has three dimensions to their personalities. The interior, the performance, the exterior. All three need to be enjoyable and to your taste in order to bond with your stallion. The Stagea was automatic, the Sti was too barron and the Civic Type-R was the best fit. Technology inside and attention to detail on each piece of equipment, sharp space looks which carry on 20 years later and a lovely 2L engine which revved and loved every second. It was not the fastest car in the world, but who cares?

For my future decisions I need to take these factors into place. Just looking at fuel economy and safety and then buying the most monotonous monochromatic interior will kill your soul. What I mean by this is that most people drive the same car to work everyday. They drive the same route everyday. They listen to similar music everyday. You know what you like. I would guess that you like colour. You like organic shapes. So your lovely ride should indeed have these things in front of you so that you can be in a great happy mood to your working day.

I know automakers have it hard enough, but customer life enjoyment should always be at the forefront of a companies mind. Profits come as a result of and not at the cost of. So what does the customer want? They want to have a smile from ear to ear, be creative at work and expect to have your product as part of their best life.

I was having my best life with that Porsche 911 in my mind, with smooth manual gearboxes and on-boost turbo gear-changes. I’d like to tip my hat to one of my obsessions. One that was made me financially rather poor in my 20’s. A tip to their fundamental role in our human evolution, until we (if ever) unlock teleportation.