Classic Cars With Bob Gelber

Cars are just too big. New houses in the Hamptons, and most everywhere else, are too big. Big Macs are too big. Military spending is too big. New French jetliners are too big. Why is it that everything in America has been supersized?

All the blame can't be placed on the car manufacturers for the overly rotund and heavy automobiles that are cluttering our highways. The blame must be shared by the people who have been buying these things for the last several decades. Sure, gas has been cheap, and just a few years ago it didn't cost that much to fill up the ol' family truckster and take a road trip across country. However, the key phrase here is "has been" because gas isn't inexpensive any more. In fact, you can bet your bottom dollar it will soon be five dollars a gallon. Soon you will be using your bottom dollar to fill the old crate up. Crude oil is eighty-five dollars a barrel and rising because of the weak dollar.

Instead of getting better mileage over the years, cars have actually gotten worse. Certainly, automobiles have improved. By improved I mean that most vehicles have performance and handling that was unimaginable just two decades ago. All this wonderful handling and braking has also led to much safer automobiles. But this technology has led to much heavier automobiles. This is one of the main reasons cars generally get less gasoline mileage than the cars of the past.

Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, the most prolific race car designer of the twentieth century and the originator of the Lotus Car Company, had a credo regarding his world class racing cars. His credo was "add lightness." In his world, lightness meant more speed. In the current world of street cars, lightness will translate to better fuel economy.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the lighter a vehicle, the less fuel it would take to propel it. Actually, when you really think about it, that's one of the things rocket scientists actually do! Whenever I see a petite blonde driving alone in a 5,500 pound SUV I always think what great waste of metal and fuel just to move that 110 pound woman down the road. Yes, I know many of you will take the position that she is safer in that giant beast of burden, but I contend that if we all drove smaller and much lighter cars, everyone would be equally as safe.

That above commentary is really the main problem with cars today, and probably the main reason people are not driving smaller vehicles. It is simply not a level playing field. Drivers feel unsafe in a smaller car on the highway when they are surrounded by giant SUVs and even more gargantuan trucks of all shapes and sizes. The not so simple solution is to mandate that cars be of a certain size and weight. But that is certainly not free enterprise, and would not work either, in the marketplace. What will work is mandating much better fuel economy standards for all vehicles, including trucks. By doing so, cars will have to be built smaller and lighter. Gasoline has always been expensive in Europe, and that's the main reason all of their cars are much smaller and lighter than comparative models here in America. I might add that in most cases the European cars not only get better fuel mileage, but are usually faster, as safe, and much more fun to drive.

It's pretty obvious to me that Detroit will soon have to change or there will no longer be a Detroit. Their days of hawking overly large vehicles are numbered. Maybe, just maybe, you, the stubborn public, are starting to see the light at the end of the Queens Midtown tunnel. What happened to the time just a few decades ago when thousands of little Volkswagen Beatles shared the great American road with full sized cars of all shapes and sizes?

Think small. Think smart and don't be a gas hog. The next time you're shopping for a new or even used car, question yourself about whether you really need a big car with a big engine. It's kinda silly that most of us are driving high horsepower cars that are capable of speeds of well over one hundred miles per hour. Gas prices are going up, and to paraphrase the genius car designer Colin Chapman, don't add lightness to your wallet.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com

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