Ever heard that phrase? It’s really starting to annoy me now!
If cars are built without compromise then how come so many other companies spend so much time tuning them?
Cars are, in fact, one of the most compromised pieces if engineering in existence. Compromised for comfort, convenience, economy, emissions, crash, recyclability and many other complex parameters. But above all they are compromised on cost. They have to be; otherwise the car companies would be doing something else instead. Or in the case of Rover, simply going bust.
There are of course some amazing cars that were built with very little compromise, built with a single minded purpose and driven by singularly rich people. The Mclaren F1 road car is one. The Mclaren SLR is not. The Ultima is also one. The Bugatti Veyron is not.
Oh do stop howling, the Veyron is deeply compromised, and don’t believe all that spin about them costing more to make than they sell for (parts cost is less than a fifth of the price I would guess). If an engineer went out to make a 1001 bhp road car engine then they would not start with 16 bloody cylinders! For heavens sake tweaked Skylines chuck that out from only six! There is of course a whole lot more to it than that such as durability, reliability, consistency and many other compromises. Though possibly the biggest compromise in this example is the commercial need to use glorified VW group engine parts. It has been well documented that the VW W12 started out as two Golf VR6 engines welded together, nail a couple more cylinders on each bank and there's your 16 with no need to develop totally new valves, pistons, con rods…..
Ok ok I know it’s a whole lot more complicated than that, but you get my drift. Certainly a V10 would have done the job with a lot less complexity and better thermal efficiency *. The reason VW used 16 cylinders is that they already had them lying about, so to speak.
Cheap as chips.
Then stick about 100 quid's worth of titanium in the switch gear the customer is happy as a rich boy with a new toy.
Wonderful thing, compromise.
Compromise has brought us some iconic motors such as the Mini (the real one), the 2CV, the Porsche 911 and the Countach! I always feel that car name should have an exclamation mark after it, look it up in an Italian dictionary and you will understand.
Even formula 1 race cars are compromised by the very formula itself. I propose an ultimate formula, wheel driven, overall size no greater than a Bentley, one driver, any engine, and any wheels/tyres. Any aerodynamic aids (with the proviso that it must not inherently damage the track!), any driver aids. Just make the fastest cars possible and try to hang on!
But even that is compromised by the very existence of its own formula.
I love cars, and bikes, and trucks, and…. Oh there's a lot of stuff to love. When I look for a car it must be beautiful and fast, but I want to be able to actually use it too! I want to be able to afford to run it occasionally. I even want it to not cripple me after a thrash round the lanes. It’s a compromise. A balance of many complex engineering and commercial elements. The balance can always be changed to better suit individual needs by those willing to tweak and tune (ie: us) but essentially there is never a perfect balance for all. The compromises make cars affordable, practical, safe and accessible to most of us.
This balance of compromise is vital to producing cars but it should be realised by the government quangoids that’s ‘manufacturers original specification’ is not some holy gospel that must never be changed, its just one way out of many possibilities. And good people like us may want it another with a more performance based compromise. Nothing wrong with that. (I also defend the right of those who like silly spoilers and stereos in their Saxos, but I also defend my right to point and laugh at them).
A toast then, to our very good friend – compromise, and our right to tip the balance!
Ralph Hosier