Oh, I have (Taycan 4). The Taycan is, IMO, the best electric “sports” car, hands-down. I absolutely lust after a Taycan Cross Turismo. Besides a Taycan not fitting into any of my current or foreseeable use cases, it weighs 4700 pounds at the low end. It’s just not that tossable when compared to other ICE sports cars. You feel every one of those 4700+ pounds in hard corners. Now, I would bet that the Turbo/Turbo S/GTS/et al models are about five levels of whoopass above the 4, so there’s that. Porsches, also like most modern cars, have been lacking soul (in contrast to being completely soulless) for a long time. Fun to drive? Absolutely, but there’s just something missing, especially in EVs.
For example, for about 20 years, I owned a modded, but still daily-drivable E30 328i. Even with all the upgrades, nobody would call it fast. One really had to know what they were doing when driving that car, and it demanded full attention when things got spirited. Sure, that’s a huge disadvantage when starting out. Two of my friends promptly launched my car off the pavement on the first turn they hit. But once aware of the handling, it was much easier to get that car to sing and dance just right. Plus, the sound of that straight six, keeping the revs in the right range… no production electric vehicle can touch that experience.
The demand and ridiculous pricing on old sports cars shows that I’m not alone in missing that holistic, noisy, stinky experience. Okay, I don’t miss the noise, stink, fuel, maintenance… but pure numbers just can’t capture the qualitative experience of driving one of the classic, seething, fire-spitting beasts. Are modern cars better? Categorically so. But we lost something along the way.
Oh, I have (Taycan 4). The Taycan is, IMO, the best electric “sports” car, hands-down. I absolutely lust after a Taycan Cross Turismo. Besides a Taycan not fitting into any of my current or foreseeable use cases, it weighs 4700 pounds at the low end. It’s just not that tossable when compared to other ICE sports cars. You feel every one of those 4700+ pounds in hard corners. Now, I would bet that the Turbo/Turbo S/GTS/et al models are about five levels of whoopass above the 4, so there’s that. Porsches, also like most modern cars, have been lacking soul (in contrast to being completely soulless) for a long time. Fun to drive? Absolutely, but there’s just something missing, especially in EVs.
For example, for about 20 years, I owned a modded, but still daily-drivable E30 328i. Even with all the upgrades, nobody would call it fast. One really had to know what they were doing when driving that car, and it demanded full attention when things got spirited. Sure, that’s a huge disadvantage when starting out. Two of my friends promptly launched my car off the pavement on the first turn they hit. But once aware of the handling, it was much easier to get that car to sing and dance just right. Plus, the sound of that straight six, keeping the revs in the right range… no production electric vehicle can touch that experience.
The demand and ridiculous pricing on old sports cars shows that I’m not alone in missing that holistic, noisy, stinky experience. Okay, I don’t miss the noise, stink, fuel, maintenance… but pure numbers just can’t capture the qualitative experience of driving one of the classic, seething, fire-spitting beasts. Are modern cars better? Categorically so. But we lost something along the way.