The engine is the heart of a car

[Skeptisk]

Mentioned on another thread. That rings true to me. A lot of the fascination with the mechanical side of cars (and bikes) is the engine. It is perhaps the key reason that I find it difficult to warm to EVs , despite their many advantages, and why I often find old cars are more interesting.

[MDT]

"The engine is the heart of a car"

I think you mean

"A good engine is the heart of a car"

but yes a good engine is very nice and makes up a good part of the experience.

[Piston Ted]

I like all engines . . . Big normally aspirated V12s down to a tiny .10 2 stroke model aero engine. I absolutely loved the 1.8VVC 4 cylinder k series in my MG I had years ago. I quite like the rattle that the 1.3 diesel in my shed of a Corsa makes. Love going to a steam rally and seeing stationary engines ‘put put put putting’ away!

Love em all!

(And yes EV’s leaving me feeling numb - hateful things)

[Zero Fuchs]

MDT said:

"The engine is the heart of a car"

I think you mean

"A good engine is the heart of a car"

but yes a good engine is very nice and makes up a good part of the experience.

Definitely, but won't make up for a st car. Case in point was my M140i. Lovely engine but the rest of the car was terrible. Shortest I've ever owned a car. I'm not lying when I say I enjoy my i3s far more. I've had that for 5 years now, which says a lot.

The 1.8 in my MR2 is a bit 'meh' but the handling and ride is superb. IMO it's not so much the engine but the exhaust. The TTE on mine makes a huge difference to the experience, as did the MPE on my old M140i.

Edited by Zero Fuchs on Saturday 30th December 08:40

[aproctor1]

Zero Fuchs said:

MDT said:

"The engine is the heart of a car"

I think you mean

"A good engine is the heart of a car"

but yes a good engine is very nice and makes up a good part of the experience.

Definitely, but won't make up for a st car. Case in point was my M140i. Lovely engine but the rest of the car was terrible. Shortest I've ever owned a car.

Terrible is a bit over the top, the whole point of the car is that it's a cheap £25k hatch, with a stupid engine.

Have you ever been in a R5 GTT, Clio (V7/182), insert and hot hatch legend here?

[dontlookdown]

Agreed that a great engine doesn't save a terrible car, but OTOH It's hard to really love a car if it has a dud engine. Not sure if that helps the op or not;)

[mk1coopers]

To me, the engine is the ‘voice’ of what it is powering, which forms part of the process of, on some level, bonding with the inanimate object we are interacting with, take that away and the item takes on a ‘soulless’ nature and becomes just a tool to do a job with,

As others have said, this is probably why I also don’t find EV’s interesting, despite how fast they are, I find it strange especially after the decades of ‘speed kills’ as a message, that we are now quite happy for the masses, who mostly have no interest in cars, to have electrically powered vehicles that have supercar levels of acceleration to use as everyday transport.

This isn’t an anti EV post, personally I feel that the future of transport needs a combination of fossil, synthetic, and electrical power being used in different scenarios for it to be sustainable across all sectors.

Edited by mk1coopers on Saturday 30th December 08:48

[Zero Fuchs]

aproctor1 said:

Zero Fuchs said:

MDT said:

"The engine is the heart of a car"

I think you mean

"A good engine is the heart of a car"

but yes a good engine is very nice and makes up a good part of the experience.

Definitely, but won't make up for a st car. Case in point was my M140i. Lovely engine but the rest of the car was terrible. Shortest I've ever owned a car.

Terrible is a bit over the top, the whole point of the car is that it's a cheap £25k hatch, with a stupid engine.

Have you ever been in a R5 GTT, Clio (V7/182), insert and hot hatch legend here?

Not OTT at all IME. The suspension and chassis was shocking. Dangerous over certain roads.

I've not driven those but have owned an EP3, 2 MR2's and spent a fair amount of time in an E36 M3. Not a huge amount of performance cars but enough, and also other more ordinary cars to know the M140i was a huge disappointment.

It wasn't a £25k hot hatch. The M135i may have been initially but ended up like the i30N has.

[Stick Legs]

Unless it’s a Lotus, in which case it’s the chassis.

But in 99% of cases you are right.

EV’s will have to dazzle in all other areas to make up for the charisma they lack from not having an engine to provide a soundtrack & character.

[AmyRichardson]

Sure, and it's something we all understand and we all understand the nuances and diversity of ICEs.

Give it a couple of decades and there'll be a generation of aftermarket EV enthusiasts who understand their systems how to optimise them and what a good/rum one sounds and feels like. Doubtless there were similar conversations in the 1890s, "no boilers, no furnace, just pistons going up and down, albeit with no low speed torque - leaves me cold..."

[tamore]

EVs……. grrrrrrrrr. bad.

[survivalist]

dontlookdown said:

Agreed that a great engine doesn't save a terrible car, but OTOH It's hard to really love a car if it has a dud engine. Not sure if that helps the op or not;)

Indeed. GT86/BRZ as a perfect example of this. Such a shame.

[SFTWend]

I agree with you OP, but believe with current ICE cars it's mostly fake noise.

Many years ago I adored my Alfa GTV because of it's busso engine. I test drove a Nissan 350Z, which was all about big bore exhaust noise. No comparison.

[Baldchap]

EVs aren't necessarily bad. They have an engine, it just doesn't go brum. They make up for it in many cases by being utterly ballistic off the line!

Personally, I find enjoyment in most cars and bikes, regardless of power source. It's happening anyway, might as well ditch the pipe and slippers and embrace it. It's not like there's any such thing as a soul anyway... It's just blind refusal to embrace progress.

[NDNDNDND]

dontlookdown said:

Agreed that a great engine doesn't save a terrible car, but OTOH It's hard to really love a car if it has a dud engine. Not sure if that helps the op or not;)

I'm not so sure - my Camaro's a pretty terrible car by any reasonable metric, but twisting the key to fire-up a barely-silenced carb-fed V8 compensates for quite a lot...

[dontlookdown]

survivalist said:

dontlookdown said:

Agreed that a great engine doesn't save a terrible car, but OTOH It's hard to really love a car if it has a dud engine. Not sure if that helps the op or not;)

Indeed. GT86/BRZ as a perfect example of this. Such a shame.

Had that in mind when I posted!

Also (whisper it) the much vaunted MX5. A bit more sparkle from the engine and it would be a delightful - rather than merely good - car.

[zarjaz1991]

A car is not going to be something you are going to be allowed to “enjoy”. It is going to be functional, like a washing machine.

I would not be surprised to see driving for pleasure outlawed at some point….the 15 minute city concept is the very early start of that.

As I always say. It’s not about safety. It’s not about the environment. It’s about control.

[Funny username]

I bought an engine and got a free car with it.

[Nomme de Plum]

One of the best cars I ever owned was the Peugeot 205Gti 1.6 i drove mid 80s. The engine was good but not spectacular, however the engine gearbox, suspension and overall package was quite superb as a hot hatch. It was a delight to drive.

I therefore think it is way too simplistic to say the engine is the heart of a car. A good engine will not make an otherwise poorly designed car good.

I'm not at all into the fake noise that manufactures now put in their ICEs so I'm content with the relative silence of an EV and it's much less unpleasant for the neighbours.

[GT9]

zarjaz1991 said:

As I always say. It’s not about safety. It’s not about the environment. It’s about control.

Any thoughts on air quality, or is that also bks?

If I wanted to control a large population the last thing I'd do is 'transition away' from a highly refined hydrocarbon product that is only available through an easily controllable supply chain and mostly sourced from a foreign regime.

But that's just me.