In Defence of the Motorist

I tried not to write about it, I tried not to laugh about it and I tried not to be upset about it, but I have so got to write about the huge crash involving a poor Toyota Prius and some fancy motors.

A 14 car smash is news however you look at it but the interesting cringe-worthy thing here is that the crash involved the super car wish list of the century including 8 Ferraris, 1 Lamborghini, 3 Mercedes and possibly a Nissan GTR (though some sources say it was a Toyota).

The convoy of cars were thought to be on their way to Hiroshima for a ‘gathering of super cars’ which could maybe mean it was a car show or meet of some description, but to be honest it doesn’t really matter does it?

The point I’m trying to make is that, yeah I did have a bit of a smirk, guffaw, giggle and even a chortle to myself but that was more like a nervous laugh. After all, if I had just totalled my Mk2 Scirocco Storm I would be near suicidal, never mind if it had been my McLaren F1.

The Guardian reported ‘The automobile enthusiasts, aged between 37 and 60, were condemned by Japanese police. "It was a gathering of narcissists," Mitsuyoshi Isejima of the Yamaguchi prefecture expressway traffic unit told Bloomberg.’

How very dare people have such powerful and expensive cars and possibly break the speed limit. How dare a self employed business man spend his cash on a car? I mean really!

Now to me that says it all, because someone likes cars and saves up to buy nice cars and enjoy them it doesn’t actually make them the devil or one of his associates. Though in the everyday world it appears that may well be the case.


Yes, the 60 year old Ferrari driver admitted he that he had been speeding and happened to have an error of judgement, but that can happen anywhere with any driver of any car. The car accident didn’t happen because these people had fast, powerful, expensive cars!

PHAT CAR - FAT BEHIND

Any excuse for a Scirocco picture 

We know that people are getting bigger in size, that news isn’t new.

What may not be more obvious is that cars are getting bigger and heavier as well. An example the Mk1 VW Scirocco is 1625mm wide and 3880mm long, theMk3 VW Scirocco is 1810mm wide and 4256mm long.

Certainly, some of this can be attributed to how much space you need to house all the electrical gadgets from ABS to Air Con and everything in between. The public now demand safety and luxury features in their cars in the bucket load so, they have to go somewhere.

The other reason for this is people. Yeah that’s right, people are getting bigger too, and therefore the amount of space they require in their cars will have to be bigger as well.

So what are car manufacturers doing about this?

Well, BMW for example have now got some 800 volunteers helping them work out how to design cars for obese people. Mercedes are planning to strengthen grab handles, Honda have widened their seats by approx 50mm and Porsches now have steering columns that retract and lift when the car is switched off, much like the top of the range Japanese cars.

It’s the small things that make all the difference, from the size of the doors to how far apart the pedals are. Reverse cameras and blind spot warning systems have all been added too which are designed to help the larger person manoeuvre their vehicle.

Is this really such a good idea? Or should we as a society not be concentrating on improving people’s health instead?