Ben wrote:
My only disagreement is that soul isn't always high
performance. Thus, some trucks have soul. So does my Harley.
I didn't mean to imply that performance equates to soul in any given
machine. My point was that *Alfa's* soul equates to
performance--performance achieved through a certain finesse and grace.
Indeed, Harleys have a definite soul also, and it's embodied in the styling
and sensual experience that they provide. The Harley 45 degree V-twin is an
awful design. But a technically beautiful design isn't what Harley owners
are looking for. They're looking for the experience that only that design
can provide--the loping idle and thrumming note that come from
hundred-year-old radial aircraft engine technology.
Likewise, the Dodge V-10 has its own brand of soul. It equates back to the
426 Hemi and the 440, all brutes delivering their product through force
rather than finesse or grace. And thus, they don't have the same soul as an
Alfa. The TZ2 weighed only 1,364 pounds and its 1,600 cc engine produced
165 hp at 7,000 rpm. The engine could be run to well over 9,000 rpm every
shift--producing nearly 200 hp in that state of tune--and would last race
after race. Is the TZ3 the same kind of car? No, it only *looks* like the
same kind of car.
Dr. Erazio Sata wrote: "The Alfa is a way of living, a very special way of
perceiving the motor vehicle. Its elements are sensations, passions, things
that have much more to do with a man's heart than with his brain."
Beatle asks:
Do they teach 'soul' in Engineering? I think not :-) Even if you wanted
to, where would you start?
You're right, they don't. And that's a big part of the problem. Soul has
been handed down from generation to generation of engineering talent in
organizations that do that kind of work. I was lucky enough to work with
fantastic engineers who knew that machines and systems embodied a soul, and
they taught it to me. One of them wrote:
"The simple solution has elegance. It is the result of exacting effort to
understand the real problem, and is recognized by its compelling sense of
rightness. I stress this point because it contradicts the conventional view
that power increases with complexity. Simplicity provides confidence,
reliability, compactness and speed."
Grace. This is very much the philosophy I find in the designs of Alfa and
Honda. Like the Tao, it is a Way, and is understood once followed.
Accomplished, professional engineers understand it. Those of us who have
designed weapons that men trust with their lives in battle *really*
understand it.
Accomplished engineers know that every machine has a soul. It is the soul
of those who designed and built it.
Rich Wagner
Montrose, CO
Mojave, CA
Tehachapi, CA
And points elsewhere...
'82 GTV6
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