I used to watch the TV show Monster Garage. In it, Jesse James, a mechanic who founded the company West Coast Choppers, would assemble a different crew of people each episode to modify a vehicle. The modifications were always extensive, resulting in the completed vehicles being pretty over-the-top designs.
I don’t remember if it was James who said today’s quote, or if it was the show’s narrator. But as a bit of a petrol head who always hoped to own a car with a nice rumble when you hit the gas, it’s no surprise that the line spoke to me.
If you can’t hear it before you see it, what’s the point?
Like every reality TV show I’ve ever seen, it didn’t take long for the focus of Monster Garage to stop being about the work, and become entirely about interpersonal drama instead – lots of arguments and name calling and deliberate destruction of each others’ work. I find that sort of thing annoying as hell, so I stopped watching.
The show’s focus isn’t the only one that changed, though. Mine did, as well. I mean, yeah, I still love the sound of a rumbly engine. But I no longer want one for myself.
Nope, my next (and likely final) vehicle will be an electric one.
For a long time, I considered giving up engine noise as a sacrifice for making a responsible purchase, another box ticked in my quest to be green. But now that EV car styles no longer look like something out of a b-grade science fiction movie and, more importantly, the technology has improved to the point that electric vehicles can blow the doors off of gas powered ones, I don’t think that way anymore.
Now I’ll happily continue to enjoy the rumble from a distance, instead.
To see previous posts in my Quotes series, click here.
The View From the Handbasket 