Chuckie invited me to the Motor Show on Sunday. The crowd was full of tools, as you'd expect, but there were two highlights:

Elfin Clubman

Beautifully designed cars, with an outstanding power to weight ratio. I want one. Also in the hall, this work of beauty:

Holden Efigy

It is clear I am still a revhead at heart. One sour note though was the design of the Smart, Fourtwo coupe. I am a big fan of getting smaller cars on the road, so the Fourtwo is off to a good start. A miserly engine is also a plus. A suitable urban car, it would satisfy 90% of my (ex)driving requirements.

The problem lies with the unsprung weight. WTF?!? A car can be crudely split into two sections, sprung weight and unsprung weight. The sprung components of the car are basically everything except suspension and wheels; The stuff that is rigidly bolted to the vehicle. When the unsprung weight, the suspension and the wheels, are relatively heavy compared with the rest of the car, you (can) get handling problems. With a small car like the Fourtwo, the ratio is already going to be a problem. To make matters worse, the whole rear suspension is a single piece, a trailing arm arrangement. No independent suspension. That's bad. To make it worse again, the engine and entire transmission is bolted to the rear trailing arm; much more unsprung weight. It really goes from really bad to totally shit when you consider that all the drivetrain of the vehicle will be subject to unnecessary vibration for the (forced) short duration of its life.

Smart Fourtwo

I hope they have some success, it would be nice to see smaller vehicles about. I'll look carefully at the latest release when I get back.