Spine-tingling is so often a throw-away description. But when a sound or sight or smell genuinely fires up the synapses in the centre of your back, it is a magical moment. Usually the tingling warmth spreads from somewhere in the middle up towards the shoulders and base of the neck, sometimes even continuing on to prickle the scalp. And then it’s gone. A fleeting charge of stimulating energy that heightens your awareness of and connection to the world around you.
Except on this drive in the new GMA T.50, I swear it has been one long, continuous spine-tingling trip. Even in the comparative moments of calm, the sheer anticipation of the next chance to hear the revs flare into five figures seems enough to prolong the euphoric shivers indefinitely.
And it’s that ability to affect you on a strangely interconnected physical and emotional level that makes this car a success. I’m sure you’ve all pored over the numbers and read the quotes from Gordon Murray about how no detail was left unattended in its design, how it bucks trends, rewrites rules, celebrates the analogue and more. Tantalising, exciting promises. But what was its actual aim? Not to be the fastest or quickest, but something more nebulous. The ultimate goal, the reason for the manual gearbox, the weight saving, the natural aspiration and myriad other facets was, I think, to achieve a feeling.
