by Robert Mcmartin

Created on: February 25, 2009   Last Updated: February 26, 2009

Cars are about passion. Certainly there is room in the world for people who don't care what a car looks like, that a cars only purpose if to go from point A to Point B as quickly economically and as safely as possible. Not for them the joy of looking at a car, driving it into corners (for those who like American Muscle cars, please convert any mention of corners, or cornering into straight line performance only), of just enjoying the car and being in the moment.

I love cars, I love driving them, I love the look of them, I am passionate about cars.

What I'm not passionate about are the idiots who have taken over the Automotive world and produce shoe boxes on wheels, all the same little shoe boxes with minor tweaks and variations, but still the same shoe box. Build a car for the masses and throw on a few add ons for those poor desperate people who want their car to look different.

Thanks goodness that there are still car makers that are willing to make cars that look good to stir the blood of the passionate. Cars that look good, drive well, handle and steer and are fun to own and drive.

Yes, there is an ego boost in sitting in a car that has been hand crafted and hand built, it shows that you care and are passionate about something in life. You like to own something that is made well and is fit for purpose. Something that stirs something inside, and not to mention a little lower in the trouser department, as well. There is something visceral about a high powered engine, and a car that can take you for a drive and leave you shaken and stirred.

Passion in cars is easily summed up by an Alfa Romeo, not always the best car, often very dodgy construction and occasionally hopeless mechanically, but they look brilliant.

Same can be said for any car, where the designer puts their heart and soul into the car. Each car is an extension of the designer's skill, ability, experience, heart and soul.

That is the difference between say an Aston Martin DB9 and a GM/Ford/Dodge tin box. There is one Designer responsible for the car, that person looks at the car and designs the car for them, or at least people like them.

Big manufacturers have a team of people working on the design, they use focus groups and marketing teams and committees. All to ensure that the car they build is made to sell and sell lots. There is no heart and soul in a committee, a committee by its nature removes passion.

Designer = Passion, Committee = Consensus.

Which do you prefer, I know what I do.

I would rather have the most dangerous, unsafe, uneconomical car in the world designed with passion and love, than all the safe, economical, practical and useful car in the world.

You can put a price on passion, but you can't market it.
Someone once said that Art must have no function (somes up Alfa Romeos and most British cars, ever had one that worked properly) and that Art is also the residue of Passion (ok, darling you can sleep in the art spot).
Based on that then an Alfa Romeo is not just Passion on wheels, but also Art.

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