Julian Edgar, 47, has been writing about car modification and automotive
technology for 20 years. He has owned cars with two, three, four, five, six
and eight cylinders; single turbo, twin turbo, supercharged, diesel and
hybrid electric drivelines. He lists his automotive interests as
turbocharging, aerodynamics, suspension design and human powered vehicles.
A genuine breakthrough family car…
A bit over a year ago I wrote a story that decried the direction new cars were taking.
On important aspects like vision, weight, ride quality and real road handling (the ‘real’ takes into account the width of the car), many new cars are abysmal.
However, in safety, performance and emissions, new cars are undeniably excellent.
But of course the point is that there’s nothing to stop new cars being safe, performing well and having good fuel economy – and having good vision, ride quality and doing it all at a lower weight.
In the list of deficiencies I should also have mentioned load space and flexibility – there’s been little change for decades. In fact, considering the external dimensions, whenever I get into a big four-wheel drive wagon like (say) a Pajero, I am astonished at how little interior space there actually is.
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