A LONG time ago, when having only a few real friends counted for way more than having 10 000 followers on Facebook, guys, when they got together, talked about cars.
I mean they really talked cars, and not just swap YouTube clips of 1000 horse power GTRs with the odd camel toe in between.
They stood around their cars and actually flipped open the bonnets.
‘That there my friend is a four barrel Holly carburettor’, was often how it went down and was met by a few long wolf whistles.
Today you cannot do that anymore; pop the bonnet and show them something impressive.
Even if you might happen to have something starting with a V under there, it’s pointless trying to show them, because all they will see is black plastic.
You might as well take them inside the kitchen and show them your wife’s Tupperware collection.
Those are also plastic and probably of better quality.
No shiny heat treated metal bits and spark plugs with wires that go to a polished distributor, or perhaps a turbo in the mix.
Just a flat black plastic cover with whatever you drive’s logo on it.
How incredibly boring…
Covering the engine with plastic must be the biggest insult to petrolheads after the Toyota Prius.
You cover books in plastic.
Leftover food gets wrapped in plastic.
Your wife can probably do with some soft touch plastics to give her a bit of lift but why, why completely cover the most important part of a car with what made the Chinese famous?
Popping the bonnet, to show what you run, used to be half the satisfaction of owning a car, but now it’s gone.
There’s no point in standing there, a few friends with their cars, admiring the size of each other’s engine covers.
Those under 40 will not understand what I’m talking about.
They are the Facebook generation and for them showing off means comparing the size of each other’s touch screens.
But that’s not what the automobile is about.
A car is about what’s under the bonnet or else it’s just another appliance, like the Prius.
