In the wake of rough times for the global car industry, gearheads are left wondering if the transformations in the industry will leave us with a vast sea of dull econoboxes. I think it's somewhere between inevitable and avoidable. Honda, for example, has already axed plans for successors to their performance-oriented S2000 and NSX models, leaving the automaker with a brilliantly efficient lineup primed and ready for fast-approaching deadlines for government limitations on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Fair enough, but now the global flagship for Honda is what we here in the U.S. know as the Acura RL. And let's be honest here - it isn't much fun to drive and comes fresh out of the factory looking like it's already been wrecked. Mercedes has brought the Smart stateside, and hordes of idiots have bought them...probably hoping the moniker will fool people. Alas, the Smart is not a car; it's a piece of crap. I've driven one. I know. Tata may bring the godawful Nano here, giving Americans the opportunity to buy glorified garbage for cheaper than the cheapest real car on the market. But isn't there some good news...like the new BMW M tanks, the M-ified X5 and X6? Those have hyperdrive and can beat the M3 around the Nurburgring despite weighing more than a Death Star, right? Well, yes. But real gearheads don't buy those - posers do. Same goes for the facelifted-but-still-hideous Porsche Cayenne Turbo GTS7XQ$! or whatever they call it. And the Lexus LF-A? It's a $250,000 Lexus with a stupid name. Unless it's the best car ever made - and it won't be, I promise - it will also be for posers. And while GM assures us that the Corvette and Camaro will stick around despite the impending carpocalypse, it's not too difficult to remember a time when GM assured us it wouldn't go bankrupt. So it's not looking good. All the fast stuff will be for the rich and tasteless, and real human beings won't have anything left that's fit to take on a drive just for the sheer pleasure and hell of it. Well...no. There is another shift at works in the world. To adapt to leaner, greener times, some companies are changing the way good, soulful performance is engineered. The Mini Cooper S has just over 170 horses underhood, but is a riot to drive because it weighs nothing and has been set up by the magicians at BMW. And speaking of the Bavarians, they've rediscovered the turbo and have started sticking it on everything...to great effect, too. Power is up, consumption and pollution are down. The owls are happy in Alaska, and the polar bears won't all drown. A select few companies like BMW are still loyal to the car and the driving experience as a beautiful and soulful thing instead of an engineering jigsaw puzzle that can whisk you from A to B. Even Bentleys are going to start chugging ethanol, and Porsches will start sporting battery packs. Newcomers like Tesla and Fisker aim to make electric cars look good and feel exciting, though admittedly I'm not a fan of anything they make. So take heart. Yes, the car world is changing, and performance with it. But there are companies that understand the heart of the gearhead and choose to take the engineering road less traveled to meet new challenges with technical sorcery. As long as there are these companies loyal to the heart of the car, there will always be truly great cars leaving factories and hitting great roads.
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