You are what you drive

So just like birdwatchers, trainspotters and stamp collectors gathering in some village hall, Phil’s operation brings these various tribes together. And as a car designer – a petrol-sniffing David Attenborough – my job is to study them, understand them, and ultimately imagine what they’ll be hankering after next. We live and breathe this car culture and, depending on what we are designing, must put ourselves in the mindset of all sorts of potential customers: the young and the old, male and female, rational, irrational, head or heart for people all over the globe.

So purely in the interests of research (honest…) me and my team go to all sorts of events, trying to work out what will make people click with something we’re scribbling back in the studio.

I helped design the original Lotus Elise. I’ve got one now, so I’m invited to go along when these enthusiastic owners come together. Recently I met a group of Elise fans at Caffeine & Machine who had travelled in their cars all the way from Sweden, so I felt I couldn’t really complain about my sore back having arrived in my own car after a 20-minute drive from Leamington. They’re a very jolly bunch, clinging on to youth, and would think nothing of subjecting themselves to hours of aching limbs and sunburn just to experience the historic turns of the Stelvio Pass on the other side of Europe. So they happily produce marker pens and ask me to scrawl on their dashboards, and listen transfixed as I explain how they’re lucky to have doors, because that wasn’t our original intention.

Meeting with Ferrari fans in the exact same location later was a very different affair. Plenty of noise and beautiful sculpture announce their arrival but after some very cautious parking and a bleeping of keys, these proud owners scuttle away and vanish. It would probably have been different in Italy or California, but even in Phil’s democratised space, Ferrari ownership can still carry a stigma in cynical Britain, so owners prefer to gather together and observe their cars from a safe distance. Can’t help thinking it would be a different story in Modena where everyone young or old celebrates these cars religiously.

Working through my garage, the next subject is my ‘chavved up’ Honda Civic Type R, an EP3 or ‘breadvan’ as it’s better known. Now this is where I’m sure Caffeine & Machine will not be making much profit on the food and beverage offering, because we Type R owners never stray more than two metres from our pride and joy, and then only to look at another EP3. Bonnets up, crawling around to spot exotic sway bars, exhausts popping and banging, a very different scene.

Here I met charming super fan Olly Ross who, when he heard that I worked on the original design, insisted I make a special YouTube video for his Honda Civic channel, and now promises to be a lifelong buddy. Just as Attenborough studies everything from lions to penguins, as a car zoologist I have to study all species.

I thought it was only right that as a Jaguar Design Director I have some sort of Jaguar, so I imported a beautiful and imposing black hardtop XK120 from North Carolina. To cut a long story short, shipping delays caused by Covid meant that by the time I actually got my hands on the car several months later, I no longer was in the employ of Jaguar…

Still, with the best intentions of immersing myself into Jaguar culture and because it was only three miles away, we found ourselves parking up in said XK outside the former home of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons at an annual gathering of Jaguar aficionados. This was a rather different crowd to the Civic crew, sporting lots of folding chairs and hats.

I can’t really say we gelled with the crowd either. I was explaining to a friend how the XJS looked rather peculiar because originally the car was meant to be mid-engined, hence the rear flying buttresses, when its nearby owner said I was talking rubbish and additionally he didn’t like my car because the roof on the XK140 was much better. And so on and on. And on. There was some stunning machinery on display including an impressive shed built C-Type replica, but despite the beautiful location of Wappenbury Hall, the Jaguar meeting didn’t sit with me quite like my Honda friends, so regrettably, I won’t be going back. It just isn’t really my tribe, and the car is now sadly up for sale to find a more appreciative owner.

So what have I learnt from all these gatherings? And what does the future hold for car people and their associated car culture?

Some of the signs don’t look too promising. All the time we hear that cars are anti-social; that young people don’t drive anymore; that electric makes all cars the same.

Don’t you believe it. For car designers, this is a golden era, with an unprecedented breadth of tastes, trends and different views flourishing all over the world. So expect more character, more diversity and more disruption than ever before. Working with my design team we try hard to write irresistible scenarios for future vehicles.

Cars tell a story, maybe one of a rich legacy, or of an unbeatable pursuit of speed, perhaps one of adventure across vast continents. And just like the clothes you wear, they tell people who you are and what you aspire to. Like it or not, if you’re driving a car you’ve been fashioned in some small way by a car designer.