Learning to love the new performance specs
Learning to love the new performance specs is going to take some doing. Horsepower has always conjured up an image of dozens of stampeding Mustangs (the four legged kind) and Torque reminds me of a giant wrench levered by one of those muscular laborers you see in statues at the Commerce Department. Now we need to consider Cells! Makes me think of an Amoeba! Voltage? How about a flashlight.
Road and Track recently reviewed a handful of “Eclectic Electrics” and introduced a bunch of new categories in their Specifications box. Things like Number of Cells, Voltage, Recharge time, and Energy capacity now appear along with the more traditional items like Cooling, Weight, Brakes, etc. But even these familiar terms sometimes take on new meaning when they refer to battery care and feeding rather than internal combustion.
Somehow I am having difficulty picturing a garage collection of vintage battery packs and electric motors, volt meters, and recharging stations as something that will invite “Garage Envy”. On the other hand there are already individuals who collect old Macintosh computers; so who knows? For now, I think I will do my best to OD on existing collections of vintage cars and memorabilia and hope that the era of electrics brings an as yet unrevealed charm to the car collector world.
Dodge EV
