ONE of the undoubted joys of being a petrolhead is the sound associated with the car that you drive, especially if you have a big throaty engine.
It’s what has turned my head for more than five decades. A big block V8 has an unmistakable burble when idling and a growl when the loud pedal is pressed hard, and, frankly, it is my drug of choice.
As a younger man, before everything became available to watch on YouTube, I used to find sound files on the internet of Formula 1 cars and various road cars and sit and listen, in the dark, through headphones, to the most wonderful chorus of pistons and exhausts.
I learned to be able to distinguish between cars based purely on their engine sounds. I suspect I am not alone in being that sad.
These days, I spend a great deal of my life like an owl, swivelling my head as the next box of gorgeousness accelerates past me, trying to guess what it might be before I see it.
What really messes with my head, though, are the boy racers who put a big bore exhaust on a supermini. I expect Ferrari and am sorely disappointed by what can best be described as a dancing donkey rather than a prancing horse.
The bottom line is that I need counselling. Not because of the state I have become but because engine noise will soon become a thing of distant memory.
As cleaner, greener and quieter transport becomes the norm, the familiar sounds of traffic and cars will be a thing of much less significance.
Old timers like me will need to visit race tracks and classic car rallies in order to indulge our love of engine noise as the electric vehicle replaces the internal combustion engine.
I am content with that. Despite my lifelong love affair with the engine, I know that change is happening for the greater good.
Cleaner air and reduced transport noise are just two of the benefits we will experience. I can breathe easier and sleep better knowing the EV revolution has truly started.
