by Robert Mcmartin

Created on: August 05, 2008

The question is not do men have a fascination with cars?

It should be do men have a fascination with machines?

Well, alright the answer is yes to both, but it is not really cars so much as the machines that power them.

The car bodies are just clothing for the machine, certainly it can look streamlined, with strong curves and balance, but underneath it all, we are really more interested in the cars.

It is the complexity and the simplicity of the machine, how each individual part works together to make the whole perform exactly as it was designed to do. This also explains the reasons why some men have a fascination with wrist watches, complex little machines.

Men like to tinker, they like to understand how something works, how did someone come up with that idea to use this component to perform that function.

It its said that form follows function, not in the case of the car. Often in the case of a number of coach bodied cars, Dusenberg, Auburn, Rolls Royce and any number of bespoke coach builders, the form was created first and the function was added later.

How many times, have you seen a man come to a complete stop at a car and examine it from every angle, looking at how the coach builders have blended in fenders, doors, or other openings. Look at the DB1, where the entire front end lifts up from the components to allow the mechanic access to the various bits under the engine. Look at how the entire front of an E Type Jaguar lifts forward to allow the same access. This is where function has followed form.

No a man's fascination is not with the car it is with the entirety, it is with the way the metal skin is folded over the chassis, it is the way each component is mad to fit to the car, that each item that has a purpose, works with the other in a simple, but also intricate way.

It is said (mainly by women, or maybe just my wife), that men are simple creatures. We probably are, but just maybe, we have complex thoughts and often we are looking beyond the simple obvious package at the entirety of the car and how it alls works together.

Machines are fascinating, the way each component, from the pistons and crankshafts turn and in turn cause a series of gears to move delivering power way in excess to what was there originally. Look at a wrist watch, a small spring moves a little and causes a complex reaction resulting in the movement of a hand on a dial and one second has passed.

Men do have a fascination with cars, but we have a greater fascination with machines.

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