my name is mwd

This weekend my old school friend David and I repeated our 2016 outing to Goodwood Festival of Speed. I feel a bit funny about attending FoS: I am very concerned about climate impacts, a key driver of which is fossil fuel use, but at the same time I enjoy track driving (the rare time I’ve been able to do it) and as someone who builds physical products I love the engineering and design aspects of cars.

I still particularly appreciate the engineering ethos of Colin Chapman at the previous incarnation of Lotus: “simplify, and add lightness” - an ethos lost of the current crop of Lotus EVs, but still clinging on in the Lotus Emira, an evolution of the old Evora, and in which I can be seen sitting here. The new Emira is definitely a nicer place to sit than the Evora was (not that I’ve had the chance to drive either, but I been fortunate to have done a bunch of track training in the old Lotus Elise).

I guess one small recompense to that is that from 2016 to 2024 there’s now a lot more in the way of electric vehicles at FoS. From the impossible exotica of the Rimac Nevera, down to the somewhat more accessible MG Cyberster, there was a still small but growing foot print of EVs at FoS. The provide less of a spectacle for the audience, but the engineer and climate scientist in me is happy to see this shift. Though I still appreciate the drive to have yet more vehicles isn’t really that environmentally sustainable, but as I say, this is the head/heart conflict I have come to live with.

One sight that amused me was the scene in the second photo: the 7 figure priced Lotus Evija electric hypercar, for all its finery and fidelity, had a traditional e-stop button familiar to anyone who’s spent time in a workshop. I’ve no idea if this is a feature of just some prototype, but as a workshop nerd it made me smile.