Car UK May 2019

MAY 2019 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 9

We l c o m e

‘Ridiculous. One

does not simply

“get over ”

combustion

engines’

It’s not often that, in the course of a casual

Saturday morning drive and a chat, you find

yourself facing an unpleasant truth you’ve been

avoiding for years. I had planned to sit in the

passenger seat of ‘my’ BMW M850i and simply

ask reader Andy Cole what he thought of the

car. (The story’s in Our Cars, on p126.)

But then things got a bit heavy. Like us,

Andy’s an enthusiast. Like me, he’s moved by a

good Bavarian straight-six; they do something

to him. Or rather, they did something to him.

‘I think I’m over internal combustion engines,’

Andy told me, matter of factly. Ridiculous,

I thought to myself. One does not simply ‘get

over’ combustion engines.

But over the next couple of days it dawned

on me that, like or not, I’ll have no choice but

to get over engines. This ushered in a feeling of

profound sadness, so last night I cracked open

a beer, wandered into my garage and sat a while

contemplating my little shrine to the engine.

Having replaced a popped bulb in its

instrument cluster and fixed its silent horn,

I replaced the fairing on my 1991 Honda

VFR400, with its 399cc V4: 15,000rpm redline

and 55bhp (138bhp per litre to the Ferrari 812

Superfast’s 121bhp...). Then I glanced up, at

the vast print of the single most impressive

Formula 1 car yet conceived, the McLaren

Mp4/4: a holy – and almost perfect – combi-

nation of Gordon Murray free-thinking and

another superb Honda engine, the turbo V6 (a

pretty punchy 433bhp per litre).

What a waste. A century of hard-won

expertise, gleaned and proven in competition,

Ben

Miller

Editor

Star

contributors

CHINA SPAIN INDIA BRAZIL I TA LY TURKEY KOREA GREECE

WE’RE ALSO PUBLISHED IN:

apparently now redundant. The electric future

resets everything, and so I find myself grieving

for an age that, while not behind us, is surely on

borrowed time.

Does Honda feel the same? Secretly, I think

it does. A couple of years ago I visited its

Collection Halls in Japan. Ostensibly Honda’s

museum, it’s also a shrine to the wonder of the

internal combustion engine and one compa-

ny’s passionate love affair with it. And at the

recent Geneva motor show, at which Honda

shouted about its battery-electric e Prototype

city car, I spoke with the car’s project leader,

Kohei Hitomi. I told him that for me Honda

was synonymous with great engines. Did it

plan to build the same reputation with motors?

‘When comparing engines with electric

motors, the differences in characteristics

and performance will be smaller,’ he told me,

looking a little sad. ‘In the past Honda made

a difference; with an engine’s characteristics,

its performance and its reliability. This will

change with the move to electrification. We

will probably have to look elsewhere to make

this Honda difference.’

I could have hugged him. Don’t worry, Kohei,

together we can get through this. My garage –

and my beer fridge – are always open.

Another month, another couple of awards.

This month we’ve cleared space in the trophy

cabinet for further recognition of CAR’s

standout writing: Ben Oliver for feature writer

and James Taylor for road tester, at the recent

Newspress awards. You’ll find irrefutable

evidence of their greatness on pages 118

and 110.

Enjoy the issue.

John Wycherley is a wizard, albeit with a

camera rather than a wand. The proof of this

is his BMW 3-series shoot on p64.

Ben Oliver, CAR’s highly decorated feature

writer, meets Goodwood’s irrepressible

Duke of Richmond on p82.

There are some emotions you expect to

experience reading a magazine. Gavin

Green’s story (p118) breaks all the rules.