Sean Thomas

The end of the car is now

A better alternative is already here – if we’re brave enough

  • From Spectator Life

I love driving. When I say ‘driving’, I obviously don’t mean crawling along the North Circular at 2.7 miles per hour, in a state of zombified inertia, mutinously wondering why Keir Starmer’s voice is so weirdly soul-sapping. And when I say I love driving, I don’t want to claim I’m any kind of petrolhead. I have no idea what a carburettor is, and the same goes for crankshaft, torque, drift, and understeer. In fact, I’m not totally sure what a petrolhead is.

I wonder if we are overlooking a much smarter solution, which can be found in Phnom Penh

No, when I say I love driving, I mean what I am doing now: speeding across majestic British Columbia in a massive great motor, eating up the North American miles on a proper North American road trip. The automobile may have been born in Germany, nursed in France, Italy and Britain, but its spiritual home is here, in the New World, particularly anywhere west of Chicago.

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