motoring

Dr. Kellen Silverthorn is an automotive writer. He tries to keep one convertible and/or one track-day car in the family fleet.

Resurrection and renewal

Besides that other big story, 2020 saw another seismic shift to the automotive industry

knowing there’s another issue of this more time was liberated as my ward- discussing cars. and car fans love to conmagazine after a year’s pause offers robe and personal hygiene were cOViD template changes to their family fleet. in some semblance of a nod towards rationalized. maintaining my mental 2020, i had wanted to sell my race car but normalcy. Our individual paths to the new health dictated filling the time vacated by that market was understandably flat. i did normal will be long, with many twists and those many activities. mostly i ramped up sell a roadster that wasn’t getting much turns. like many, i’m impatient for this col- passions already present (better than the use either. acura kindly rebuilt the engine lective return journey to gather speed. alternative of Netflix soma). in my 10-year-old daily-driver SuV. That

Thinking back to those early cOViD-19 i could watch professional racing on TV acura should now stay in the fleet until its days of 2020, i was cluelessly optimistic on while working out in the home gym. my 15th birthday. what public-space access sim racing rig i had fortuitously upgraded One of the big global auto stories of i’d lose, and how just weeks before the pandemic onset, 2020 affects my family fleet. During cOViD, long restrictions and the resultant racing against ai many OEcD (Organisation for Economic would last. i Another big or my fellow sim-racing enthusi- co-operation and Development) nations (positive!) story that asts across the globe flirted with legislated a go-forward end to internal has come out of 2020: addictive behaviour. combustion engine (icE) powered new car Norway is the first nation to The pandemic was as good sales. Norway is the earliest with its ban ban the ICE-powered car (by a time as any to dive deeper commencing in 2025. more than half of 2025). Here, a map of Tesla into science fiction novels. Norway’s car sales in 2020 were electricEV charging stations across Thank God for amazon, as our powered. many other OEcD nations (and the country, including this local library system seemed california) are in the 2030–35 year range “supercharger” in inexplicably paralyzed for for regulations that end icE new car sales. Mosjøen fjord six months. (ironically, in North america, electric vehicles (EV) liquor stores and can- are presently ~5% of sales, so the end of nabis retailers didn’t icE sales here is farther out on the timemiss a beat.) line. Yet it does give car fanatics pause Sudoku was an- to contemplate the icE-powered icons other time-occupier i they’ve never owned but still could before resurrected. after ex- it’s too late. hausting the airport my “car of the week” fixation for sevalso remember softcover editions i eral months now has been the upcoming trying to train had lying around, i tran- mark 8 2022 VW Golf GTi. That model myself against sitioned to websudoku. has epitomized the “hot hatch” segment touching my face. com, where i could get an globally since its 1976 debut (yes, 45 years it didn’t work. unlimited supply of Goldilocks ago). arguably, a new GTi would be as as the days of restric- “just right” difficulty puzzles. and practical for my daily driver needs as a tion became weeks, then with copious solo time, i re-doubled my small SuV, yet lighter, cheaper and more months and then whole seasons, the stone-sculpting efforts. Yes, i sculpt stone fun to drive (six-speed manual transmisdreary reality of life with the pandemic cars (kellensilverthornsculptures.com), a prac- sion is standard in the immersive GTi). came into focus. One’s social life on hold. tice that’s made me aware of how ah, so many worthy icE icons, so little Non-essential travel embargoed. Non- different are the mindsets and compensa- time. it’s fun to dream. essential shopping blacklisted. Dine-in tion of the arts and medicine/dentistry. This past year didn’t countenance a lot restaurants closed. libraries shuttered. Serendipity added a new dimension of dreaming. Nevertheless, as dispiriting Gyms padlocked. hair stylists incommu- to my weekly activities. chance linkages as the past year of cOViD has been, 2020 nicado. Even non-emergent health and between my virtual racing network and isn’t on my personal hit parade of worst dental care on furlough. my sculpting connections found me years. Still, 2020 will be easily recalled

Specific to my situation as an automo- working one day per week at a local auto because pandemics are infrequent and tive writer, my auto industry media events restoration shop. The cross-pollination of they shoehorn all of us into similar shared also ceased. my driving instructor gig at tools and techniques between stone- experiences. i plan to relish (and will cherthe local track faded to black. annual rac- sculpted cars and full-size metal versions ish) the approaching normalcy because ing pilgrimages to Targa New Zealand and has been a revelation. of that collective challenge (profession, south of the 49th for endurance racing The restoration shop and sculpting city, country) that’s been faced and vanwere deep-sixed. gigs have kept me thinking about and quished. Now, let’s gather speed aSap.