Traction Inc.

Grassroots Motorsports Magazine Interviews Bob Lutz

“I’ve always been more interested in the emotion and the psychology of cars than I am the technology. To me it’s about the aesthetics, the emotions that the car triggers.”

“Cars like the Viper or the Pontiac Solstice or the BMW 2002 turbo and the lightweight coupes at BMW and so forth—these were reflections of my personal passion. And they were cars that I essentially did for myself, knowing that there were many thousands of nuts out there who would appreciate what I had served up for them.”

“Every automobile company does cars by the numbers. They’ve all got the same MBAs, the same product planners, the same finance guys. And if you don’t have somebody like me, who is infusing the passion and is fighting for cars that are out of the ordinary and really bring something new to the party, you’re not going to be successful in today’s competitive environment.”

“I think that the E46 M3 will be remembered as one of the great performance cars. Of the top 50 performance cars of the past 50 years, the E46 may be the most complete package of all.”

“I think that the move toward technology in cars is going to mean that cars having celebrated not having technology in the past will become more collectable… I think that an M3 with a manual gearbox will be worth twice an SMG car.”

— Chris Harris, Is Technology Making Cars Worse?

“We are becoming ever more obsessed with outright power figures – mere meaningless statistics – and losing sight of what makes a car actually feel fast…

“I still believe that the pleasure of driving comes not from the absolutes of performance, but from the nature of its delivery. I would argue that Mazda’s MX-5, although not especially fast in outright terms, is a high-performance car because it heightens the sensations relayed during driving.”

– From Why are we so obsessed with meaningless performance figures? by Top Gear’s James May  (photo via fukyeamiatas)