There is more to life than increasing speed.
Gandhi
Mercedes has just put me over the top with one of its commercials. It illustrates how its SUV has been tested to scale the vertical rock face of Yosemite, churn out of desert sands, and squeal, spin and skid 180's like police officer driver school. This is to reassure the buying public that the vehicle is field-ready for calm and safe family driving. The ending fade shows the SUV driving quietly and comfortably down a country road into the sunset. (Updates @ end of this post)
The supposed intent of the commercial? "We build strong and safe vehicles." The requisite sales message? "Wait till you see what this baby can really do!!"
Think acceleration.
Along with many other facets of life, we are obsessed with getting there faster. The destination; the unobstructed endpoint.
But, the thing that gets in our way is the stopping en route. Stopping messes up our trips. It interrupts the momentum of getting there. There might be repeated stopping during a series of errands. There might be stopping to drop off one passenger at a soccer field before picking up another at school before the end of the game at the soccer field. Construction, pedestrians, dropping off the video, Johnny has to pee, need to get gas, school bus has its red lights flashing. And, the most frustrating enemy of momentum seems to be the legally regulated stops, like octagonal signs and red lights and toll boothes. (Got EZPass?) Honestly, stopping becomes a holy irritant in the journey to destination. Witness road rage on clogged freeways.
Slow down. Not your velocity: Your life.
How do we handle this annoyance of loss of momentum?? We accelerate quickly. In an attempt to make up for said stop(s), there is this need to recover time and regain speed. (Acceleration, of course can mean either the increase in velocity or the decrease in velocity.)
Quick acceleration is a large fossil fuel issue because more gasoline is used in a shorter amount of time and distance. To begin forward momentum of a vehicle from a standing stop takes lots of work/energy; hence fuel to power the engine. (It can take 20 percent more fuel to accelerate from a full stop than from 5 miles per hour.)*
Advocates of fuel-efficient driving have always taught that you anticipate traffic lights ahead of you to decrease the amount of accelerating from a full stop. Ride the "green wave," not the jack rabbit. If you let up and slow down to arrive at an intersection as the light is turning green, you have a better chance of simply cruising into lesser acceleration while consuming less fuel. Driving easy. Driving with energy in mind.
"Turn it on, wind it up, blow it out,
GTO!"
"GTO" Ronny and the Daytonas
"My fuel-injected Stingray and an XKE,
Revving up their engines and it sounds real mean."
“Shutdown” Beach Boys
"We both popped the clutch when the light turned green,
You shoulda heard the whine from my screamin' machine."
"Deadman’s Curve" Jan and Dean
"When the flag went down, you could hear rubber burn,
The Stingray pulled me going into the turn."
“Hey Little Cobra" Rip Chords
"Burn up that quarter mile…"
"Drag City" Jan and Dean
It was an age of drag racing on tracks and off. Fuel injection. Drag slicks. Hurst shifters. I was enamoured as a kid and that power and noise has stuck with me to a certain degree. How fast can that thing get off the line? And dragging wasn't new at that time. There was James Dean and small town races after sundown in the 1950's.
We still obsess with over-acceleration as an act of strength, superiority, unquestioned testosterone. Admit it, there are moments of acceleration angst when waiting for a green with a dozen other cars. How will I respond in the rush of the green? Are the others in distain of my Prius? Will someone use their vehicle to vent a frustration at the intersection?
Racing and acceleration are not taboos, of course. It's a natural human activity to race. A key to racing is the acceleration off the blocks. Run, swim, ride a horse, ski, paddle, bike. But racing with fossil fuels needs to be harnessed relative to the rationing of oil. (I won't even reference oil rigs in the Gulf.) Constricted vehicular usage will be a norm in the future. The earlier we consciously change small habits, the sooner we model for future drivers. The ones watching us.
Slowing down the lifestyle, BTW, can't hurt…
~ ~ ~ ~
I'm tracking television car commercials that reinforce unnecessary and wasteful acceleration…they're on the increase; a sick paradox. (This is a tough assignment, as I don't watch much TV)
6/9/10: Lexus
6/10/10 Cadillac
6/12/10 Jeep Grand Cherokee
6/21/10 the reincarnation of the muscle car (?): Mustang
7/31/10 Chevrolet Corvette
10/31/10 Nissan JUKE "Sport Cross"
11/8/10 Mazda 3i Sport
11/9/10 Hyundai Sonata Turbo
11/18/10 Cadillac CTX
2/6/11 Chevy Camero, Mercedes, BMW
2/10/11 Dodge Journey, Caddy CTSV Coupe
2/11/11 Range Rover Sport, Infinity QX
2/12/11 Saab 95, Kia Optima
2/21/11 Dodge Journey and Dodge Charger (major emphasis)
2/21/11 Mustang continuation
3/2/11 CT Lexus Hybrid
3/3/11 Dodge Durango
5/20/11 Mercedes (major)
6/9/11 Cadillac; Mazda
6/17/11 BMW 6 Series
6/21/11 Buick Regal Turbo
7/20/11 Cadillac; Mercedes
7/24/11 Nissan; Range Rover
7/28/11 Infiniti
8/11/11 Dodge Durango
9/15/11 Dodge Ram 1500
9/22/11 BMW
9/25/11 Mazda Speed-3
10/2/11 Cadillac CTSV (new MANUAL trans to improve acceleration- Seriously?)
10/5/11 KIA Optima - (the high speed/braking sideways routine)
10/31/11 Toyota Camry
12/22/11 Cadillac
12/22/11 BMW ("Drive Intelligence"?)
12/27/11 Mazda
1/12/12 BMW 5 Series Sedan
1/15/12 Lexus IS
1/20/12 KIA Optima again
2/1/12 Cadillac SRX
2/2/12 Jaguar
2/10/12 Infinity
2/15/12 Mazda - obsene
2/23/12 Lexus - extreme obsene
2/27/12 Accura TC
2/29/12 BMW
3/1/12 Do you wonder why we increasingly jeopardize the climate? Corporate irresponsibilities to fossil fuels, like these…
3/2/12 Chrysler 200
3/2/12 Mazda - dredging up speed from the good 'ole 50's & 60's
3/3/12 2013 Lexus - flaming/screaming acceleration
8/18/13 Cadillac SRX ("North America's Car of the Year")
9/25/13 (these have shown up as a pack in the past couple weeks!)
Mercedes CLA
Dodge Dart II (?!?)
Lexus
Range Rover (still slicing up and dominating nature…)
BMW X1
Volvo
8/14/14 Still at it!
Ford Pick-up (obscene)
