Loss of bearings and latent frustrations. For some sports car enthusiasts, the transition to electric is painful. So, to make the abandonment of the internal combustion engine developed for almost a century and a half more acceptable, engineers (and marketing departments) have devised artificial processes. Proust madeleines created from scratch to soften the transition.
In the United States, the Dodge brand (Stellantis group), is faced with a serious dilemma. Its emblematic model, the Charger (star of the “muscle car” and archetypal cinematographic figure of ” villain car »), must convert to electric. A mutation that deprives her of part of her aura; the hoarse growl of its V-shaped six-cylinder engine. The designers of the Charger Daytona SRT expected in 2024 have decided; the future electric Dodge will continue to make a hell of a noise thanks to the diffusion, in its wake, of a din baptized not without humor “electric car exhaust noise”. With its slight echo, the sound emitted by a loudspeaker lacks naturalness and there is nothing consensual about it, but it has something to impress and makes aesthetes talk a lot. Which was probably the first desired effect.
Lexus, the luxury brand of the Toyota group, will offer a regressive gimmick to its next high-end coupe, presented in the form of the Electrified Sport concept, which will succeed the very exclusive LFA. The Japanese manufacturer will equip it with an old-fashioned transmission, with manual gear lever and clutch pedal. Determined to safeguard the driving sensations linked to the presence of a petrol engine – the marketing of which will have to cease in Europe from 2030 – the engineers have programmed a break in torque at each gear change and even integrated the possibility of stalling during a hill start.
Nostalgic for the “vroom vroom”
The posture appears paradoxical. The great advantage of an electric motor is to deliver a constant torque which makes it possible to dispense with a gearbox, a characteristic which also makes it capable of delivering linear accelerations, more vigorous than a gasoline engine. Result ; by frantically handling the gear lever of the next Lexus, we will put much less rubber than by letting the one and only gear ratio of the electric motor do its job.
The important thing is elsewhere: the nostalgic driver of the “vroom vroom” will have the satisfaction of feeling a chain of gears and seeing the needle of a perfectly artificial tachometer leap before his eyes. Lexus, owner of a group whose conversion to the electric car is not done lightly, did not offer a manual transmission on the LFA. Just as Ferrari or Porsche have imposed automatic gearboxes on board their sports cars for ages…
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