The other week I went directly from a weekend watching livestreamed Goodwood Revival racing with my four-year-old to attending the Frankfurt motor show. Two more contrasting visions of modern attitudes to motor cars you couldn't really imagine but I know which one says more about their future, at least for the likes of us. And it wasn't Frankfurt.
How can carefully-packaged nostalgia really be more relevant than an expo with all the latest cars and tech? Put simply I reckon it's because events like Goodwood represent how we will get to use and enjoy our cars in the future, given we're the last generation likely to have an appreciation of driving internal combustion powered vehicles. And the freedom to drive them when, where and how we want.
Sure, there were plenty of cars to get excited about at Frankfurt. A new Renaultsport Megane, Hyundai's entry to the hot hatch market, a wingless 911 GT3, a 600hp BMW M5 and rear-wheel drive Audi R8 all indicate a steady supply of exciting petrol-powered cars for the near future. And those of the last 20 years or so will doubtless keep the PH classifieds humming for a good time yet. Nor do I think we'll be stuck for conversation about them in the forums.
But I was at the show with Mercedes and throughout the various press conferences, interviews and other presentations it's clear we have officially entered the age of managed decline for the internal combustion engine. Nothing new here of course, it's tacitly been going on for a while. But the sense of massive brands like Mercedes-Benz finally acknowledging it was clear. Even the
Project One hypercar - an F1 engined road car for crying out loud! - was on-message with the electrically powered future. The whoops and cheers when it arrived on stage were heartfelt but the real corporate fuss was directed at the Smart Vision EQ ForTwo concept, which was basically Tinder and Uber combined in one autonomously driven package. I think the musical theatre used to present it was inspired by La La Land's sense of joyous escapism but, for me, it looked more like something out of Black Mirror's terrifying near-future dystopia. I doubt Charlie Brooker is lacking inspiration for the next series. But he might want to check out the press presentation anyway.
Bringing me back to the Revival. My dad saw the steam engines he spotted as a kid steadily phased out and replaced by diesels and electrics. The love of steam has stayed with him and one of his retirement 'jobs' is volunteering on the North York Moors Railway. Like many of his generation he will of course have realised that steam trains were noisy, polluting, outdated and inefficient compared with the modern replacements. And even at the time their days were numbered. They've since disappeared from mainstream life but his passion for them remains as strong as it always was.
And I reckon we're there, or thereabouts, with cars. By the time my lad grows up the likes of us will appear like those oily, coal-dust stained chaps who drive old trains up and down branch lines, our only chance to really enjoy our cars likely to be Goodwood style events run like the air shows at which we now glimpse Spitfires, Hurricanes and the odd Cold War jet strutting their stuff.
Am I right though? Or do I just need to stop moping and go for a drive? Before it's too late and all that.
Dan
[Goodwood Revival photos by Goodwood]
