This sub-$7,000 sportscar might be just what the future needs
This sub-$7,000 sportscar might be just what the future needs
这款售价不到 7,000 美元的跑车，或许正是未来所需要的
This past weekend saw Monterey Car Week at perhaps its most excessive ever. The auctions set records, including $42.9 million for one of six Shelby Daytona Coupes and $40 million for Ferrari’s first Luce electric vehicle to reach private hands. Hypercars and restomods with seven-figure price tags filled the California peninsula, and yet I know I’m not alone in mustering little enthusiasm for this kind of thing.
上周末，蒙特雷汽车周（Monterey Car Week）举办，其奢华程度或许达到了史无前例的巅峰。拍卖会屡创纪录，包括以 4,290 万美元成交的六辆 Shelby Daytona Coupe 之一，以及以 4,000 万美元成交的法拉利首款进入私人手中的 Luce 电动车。加州半岛上挤满了价格高达七位数的超级跑车和改装车，但我知道，对这类事物提不起兴趣的人绝不止我一个。
Which is why today I’m writing about the antithesis of all that: a hand-built, low-cost, efficient, and remarkably cheap car that suggests one possible future for driving enthusiasts, should we choose to take it. This is because the answer cannot just be “add more power and go even faster.” Forget hypercars; even regular sports cars like a Porsche 718 Boxster or Toyota Supra have more performance than you can comfortably use on the road, and each version gets more power and costs more than the last. Add the cost of tires, consumables, a thirsty engine, and the fact that cars are all so ludicrously expensive to begin with these days, and soon the whole thing starts to look unsustainable.
正因如此，我今天想写的是这一切的对立面：一辆手工打造、低成本、高效且价格极其低廉的汽车。它为驾驶爱好者提供了一种可能的未来，前提是我们愿意选择这条路。因为答案不能仅仅是“增加马力，跑得更快”。忘掉超级跑车吧；即便是保时捷 718 Boxster 或丰田 Supra 这样的普通跑车，其性能也远超你在公路上所能舒适驾驭的范畴，而且每一代新车都在不断增加马力和售价。再加上轮胎、耗材、油老虎引擎的成本，以及如今汽车本身就贵得离谱的事实，这一切很快就会变得难以为继。
Robert Ely’s Gasolini AR1, as featured on Jonny Smith’s “The Late Brake Show” yesterday, is none of those things. The UK has a long history of being more permissive than most when it comes to allowing cars hand-built in sheds to be registered for road use, and the AR1 is true to tradition and makes use of plenty of existing parts. The engine, gearbox, wiring loom, and dash all come from a 2017 Honda CBR500 motorbike, with the two-cylinder inline engine mounted behind the single-seat cockpit and driving the rear wheels via a prop.
罗伯特·伊利（Robert Ely）的 Gasolini AR1（昨天在 Jonny Smith 的《The Late Brake Show》节目中亮相）则完全不同。英国在允许车库手工打造的汽车注册上路方面，向来比大多数国家更为宽容。AR1 延续了这一传统，并大量利用了现成的零部件。其引擎、变速箱、线束和仪表盘均来自 2017 款本田 CBR500 摩托车，双缸直列引擎安装在单座驾驶舱后方，通过传动轴驱动后轮。
Forget about a crazy tune on the engine; it still generates just 47 hp (35 kW) and 32 lb-ft (43 Nm). But it also weighs less than 1,000 lbs (454 kg). And the point here is to have fun, not go fast. So the wheels and tires are skinny, courtesy of a Ford Ka. The shape is certainly unique; Ely told Smith he wanted to make something using 2D shapes with ’90s sci-fi vibes, a design brief that appears to have been well met. A pair of small holes in the nose suck air into the AR1’s radiator, with NACA ducts along the side allowing the warm air to escape. In addition to the aerodynamic pods that house each wheel, the exposed suspension elements also wear teardrop-section covers to cut drag.
别指望引擎会有什么疯狂的调校；它依然只产生 47 马力（35 千瓦）和 32 磅-英尺（43 牛·米）的扭矩。但它的重量也不到 1,000 磅（454 公斤）。这里的重点是享受驾驶乐趣，而不是追求速度。因此，它采用了福特 Ka 的窄轮毂和轮胎。它的造型确实独特；伊利告诉史密斯，他想用 90 年代科幻风格的二维形状来打造这款车，这一设计理念似乎完成得非常出色。车头的一对小孔将空气吸入 AR1 的散热器，侧面的 NACA 进气口则让热空气排出。除了包裹每个车轮的空气动力学罩外，外露的悬挂部件也采用了水滴形截面罩以减少阻力。
The result is a car that looks extremely fun to drive at legal speeds, and even when driven hard, it should return about 41 mpg (5.7 L/100 km). Ely is also working on AR2, which swaps the CBR500 powertrain for a HyPer 9 electric motor and some battery cells from a Jaguar I-Pace. Still under construction, the AR2 might be a little bit hairier, with double the horsepower and four times the torque.
最终的成品是一辆在合法限速内驾驶起来极其有趣的汽车，即使在激烈驾驶时，其油耗也能保持在约 41 mpg（5.7 升/100 公里）。伊利目前还在研发 AR2，它将 CBR500 的动力系统换成了 HyPer 9 电机和来自捷豹 I-Pace 的电池组。AR2 尚在制造中，可能会更狂野一些，其马力将翻倍，扭矩则是原来的四倍。
Ely isn’t going to build any more AR1s, but he reckons you can make one yourself for less than $7,000, and he will happily sell you the plans and instructions to make your own. His Gasolini YouTube channel also has a whole build series you can watch, which reminded me of Mark Evans’ “A Car Is Born” series, but with less talking and more ASMR. If only I had a shed, I could eventually find out what Washington, DC’s DMV is like when it comes to trying to register a homemade car.
伊利不再打算制造更多的 AR1，但他认为你自己花不到 7,000 美元就能造出一辆，而且他很乐意向你出售制造图纸和说明书。他的 Gasolini YouTube 频道还有完整的制造系列视频可供观看，这让我想起了马克·埃文斯（Mark Evans）的《A Car Is Born》系列，只不过他的视频话更少，ASMR 感更强。要是能有个车库就好了，我最终就能去体验一下华盛顿特区的车管所（DMV）在处理自制车辆注册时是什么样子了。