Dear Car Manufacturers, Please don't EVER Abolish the Gasoline Engine.

Dear Automotive manufacturers,

Firstly, I just want to thank you for everything you do and everything that you’ve done. You guys have been working day in and day out everyday for over 100 years to create something magical. Not only do you create some kickass cars, you’ve also created a by-product through the cars that you’ve made over the many years. This by-product is the car community, and within it, car culture. You’ve created a lifestyle for these like-minded individuals who are obsessed with the products you’ve created. Not only do we get to enjoy your creations with ourselves, we also get to enjoy them with our family, our friends, and you’ve even caused us to form relationships with others purely based around your creation. Relationships that’ll last a lifetime. On behalf of all of us enthusiasts I would just like to say thank you for everything that you’ve done, past and present.

However, it’s the future that leaves us a little concerned.

With the ongoing consumer demand to make cars more fuel efficient, a trend has started among automotive manufacturers to improve fuel economy. Manufacturers are doing whatever they can to keep up with public demand and keep the consumers satisfied. Mazda’s Skyactiv , Ford’s Ecoboost and Toyota’s Prius are all results of this ongoing trend and consumer demand. Over the past few years, there’s been such a high demand for fuel savings. You guys (the manufacturers) are exploring alternative forms of power to keep the wheels rotating. You’ve created some massive breakthroughs in technology, and we are all happy about that! We love new technology! But what does it mean for the traditional gas engine that we’ve all come to know and love?

Let me show you this chart. With the ongoing trend to make vehicles more efficient, all car manufacturers everywhere are working hard to decrease the fuel consumption on their vehicles. On the chart, the Miles per Gallon (MPG) figure has shot through the roof due to this higher demand for fuel efficiency, and it’s projected to increase every year at an alarming rate. Eventually, the high demand for those extra MPG’s is going to be unattainable by gasoline engines. This means that you will strictly invest in alternative power sources in order to sell to a larger audience of your consumers who are looking for lower fuel consumption. This may result in a total cut out of traditional gas engines.

This makes me worried for us enthusiasts in the car community…

If this keeps up, no longer will we be able to spend the weekend working on our cars on our driveway with family and friends. The future tech involving batteries and wires will be too difficult to understand for anyone with anything less than a degree from M.I.T.

No longer will we be able to listen to the unbelievable sound of a V12 engine, the low-down rumble of a Subaru Boxer, or the eBay fart can. No longer will we be able to make jokes about V-TEC, show our disapproval for the Prius, or complain about people LS swapping RX-7’s. Y’know, all things that the car community loves to do!

The sounds, the smells, the turbos, the forged internals, the nitrous, the tuning, the E85, everything that made the car community great. Will all be gone.

Cars will become boring. People will lose interest. The community will die out.

Car manufacturers, if you keep going along with this, you’ll eventually kill off an already endangered species. That species is all car enthusiasts across the world.

To the head executives that are running the major manufacturers today:
A long time ago, your ancestors and distant relatives built the foundation for designing, engineering and producing the very first automobiles. They built cars to make them the best they they could. The hard work, heart and soul they put into creating their first car from nothing created an aura of passion and beauty about the car everywhere it went. Others noticed this aura and instantly fell in love with the machine. This created the very first car enthusiasts.

As the years went on, automotive manufacturers have been passed down generation to generation and the automobile has turned into nothing more than a means of transportation to a large percentage of the population. These newer generations of manufacturer heads have become greedy and have their eyes set on profits, revenue (ahem Volkswagen ahem) and creating the cars for people that simply “want to get from point A to B.” That original passion and soul that sparked the car enthusiasts for generations has been lost and we seem to be losing it more and more each day. I can’t help but feel that you guys are neglecting the car enthusiasts to make cars appealing to the everyday consumer, but what it mean for us enthusiasts?

I’m a petrol head, and I want to pass my love for cars on to my future children as well, but if this continues, I’m afraid that my son/daughter isn’t ever going to have the same love for cars that I do now. I won’t ever to be able to teach them about engines, what a transmission is, and I’ll never ever get the chance to build a car with them. And unfortunately, this might lead them to take up a different hobby, something like golf. Vomits in mouth

Car manufacturers, think about the children… don’t you want them to love cars just like we all did?

But wait, not all hope is lost!
In today’s time, there is still a glimmer of that spark that brought the first enthusiasts into this world.
Some manufacturers today still build gas engine powered cars that still appeal to our community. Not only that, but some these cars aren’t the super expensive, wallet eating supercars.
Cars like the Subaru BRZ, Mazda Miata, BMW M3, and Focus RS are all enthusiast cars that have yet to transform into Hybrid or other power.

You could argue that you will to make electric sports cars like Mercedes did with the electric SLS, and I think that they will. But a car like that just doesn’t have the same appeal as the thunderous 6.2L V8 version. The sound is half the experience in a supercar, it’s so important that you, as manufacturers, hire sound specialists to fine tune the exhaust notes before moving the cars to the showroom floor.

So my message to car manufacturers all over the world is this. You can keep making all the high fuel economy commuter cars you want. Fit with them with batteries, fuel cells, power them with wind for all I care. After all these cars are great! They’re saving the environment, helping people reduce their fuel expenses and conserving a limited resource. All we ask is that you keep putting out your gas engine sports cars for us enthusiasts, the ones that have so much appreciation for cars and the love of driving.

Mazda, make the RX-9!
Ford, keep making the Focus RS!
Nissan, keep making the GT-R!
Mitsubishi, for god sakes, come back to making the EVO! We miss it already!

Eventually, all of the Supras, Skylines, RX-7’s are going to fade away with time. Eventually us enthusiasts and future generations are going to need something new and more modern to obsess over. And I hope for my own and my children’s sake, it isn’t an electric powered SLS.

Wires and batteries don’t look as good as a clean engine. And they certainly don’t sound as good either.

Sincerely,

Bennett Cook (PerformanceandLuxury)

Automotive Student. Automotive Enthusiast.