INTERVIEW
‘My other car’s a Panda’
32
Top Gear’s James May, one of the three best-known drivers in the UK, believes real engineering
innovation is to be found in ‘People’s Cars’ rather than supercars. Stuart Nathan reports
CARS are for driving. It might be stating
the obvious but it is surprisingly easy for
an engineering magazine to lose sight of
this simple fact. With all the ingenuity
and expertise that goes into designing the
modern car, the debate about environ-
mental impact and the innovations in
fuel economy and performance, the most
important thing about a car is that a
person can get behind the wheel, point
the bonnet where they want, and take off.
So, with the thought that we might
have neglected that part of the
automotive experience, for this special
issue, we decided to even up the balance.
Who could we talk to who had
experience of driving lots of different cars?
Who had an enthusiasm for the more
classic vehicle, yet knew what it was like
to sit behind the wheel of the most
extravagant supercar? Who could talk to
us about whether engineering innovations
have improved the experience of driving,
or just made it dull?
Fortunately, there is just such a
person. Possibly one of the three
best-known drivers in the UK, along with
Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond,
James May, co-presenter of the BBC’s cult
motoring programme Top Gear, has come
a long way since his days as a sub-editor
on The Engineer in the early 1980s.
He has been to the North Pole in a
Toyota Hilux for a start — an experience
made all the more arduous by having to
share a tent with Clarkson. He has driven
over the Alps in the least-comfortable
Aston Martin ever built. He has sunk in
Dover harbour in a home-made
amphibious Triumph Herald. And, in
accordance with his nickname of
‘Captain Slow’, he’s an aficionado of a
more relaxed style of driving, in less
performance-oriented cars.
May thinks that we are now in ‘a
golden age of the car’ but we are a long
way from the golden age of motoring.
Automotive engineering and production
techniques have improved so much that
cars are now more efficient, better
designed and better made than at any
time in their history, he said. ‘But the
adventure of motoring has palled a bit.
We embrace the idea that it’s a daily
grind and we just trudge up and down
the motorway and stop at a service
station and eat a manky pasty.’
He added: ‘I’m not sure it’s entirely
the fault of manufacturers; it may be
our fault for having too much of a good
thing. But the vast majority of cars on
sale at the moment are pretty tedious,
to be honest.’
While many drivers argue it is the
emphasis on environmental
performance and safety that has
rendered cars dull, May is not so sure.
In fact, he said, the environmental
drive has led to better engineered cars.
‘When it was decided that cars had
to have catalytic converters, it meant
that everything had to have fuel
injection. Actually, that was a good
challenge — the real point of fuel
injection on an engine is to increase
efficiency, which is another way of
saying increasing power, and that
improves reliability. Given a challenge
like that, the industry actually
responds in the end with a better car.’
So why does May think cars are
dull? ‘The thing about a consumer
manufacturing industry, which the
motor industry is, is that they will be
inclined to complacency.’
But it does not have to be that way
and often isn’t, he added. Japanese
kei-cars were designed in response to
regulations limiting the length, height
and engine capacity of cars so that they
could manoeuvre in crowded cities.
‘Propose that now in Europe and we’d
say it would lead to very boring, very
slow, very rudimentary cars that are
nasty to drive and no fun to own. But
the Japanese embraced it and produced
absolutely fantastic little cars like the
Honda Beat and the Suzuki Cappuccino
— miniaturised sports cars with
fantastic supercharger technology.’
This, May insists, is where real
engineering innovation is to be found
— in ‘People’s Cars’, not supercars.
‘The world of motoring is moved on by
simple cars. Making an interesting
small car that costs £8,000 is more
difficult than making something
exciting that costs over £50,000. Some of
the greatest cars in history, and
certainly some of the most significant,
have been People’s Cars — the Austin
Seven, the Beetle, the Mini, the
Cinquecento. Not the Bugatti Veyron
or the Ferrari 599.’
As any Top Gear viewer will know,
May puts his ideals into practice with
his choice of everyday car, a Fiat
the EnGIneeR 21 APRIL–4 MAY 2008
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.