CustomCarCult 
Most people use cars to get from point A to point B. But for car enthusiasts, the journey is often more important and joyful than the destination. Nothing excites them more than being in control of a piece of machinery. To understand why car enthusiasts feel that way, you have to understand the joy of driving and the magic of the internal combustion engine.
A combustion engine needs the right amounts of air, fuel and sparks to turn the energy stored in fuel into power and motion. It’s very similar to how the human body works. We eat food and breathe air to power our muscles. If you take a look in an engine bay, you might actually see the similarities between the air intake and lungs, the oil pump and the heart, the oil/cooling system and the bloodstream, the fuel tank and the stomach, the axles and bones, the wiring loom and the nervous system and the ECU and the brain. Of all pieces of machinery, the internal combustion engine might be the closest thing to human life. And to someone who doesn’t fully understand how it all these parts work together, mechanics appear to be wizards who mastered the magic of the internal combustion engine.
Cars with combustion engines can be customized in many different ways too. Besides internal parts of the engine, different kinds of forced induction can be added, each influencing the power band of the car in its own way. Gearboxes with different gear ratios or upgraded differentials are also crucial for how the car behaves on the road.
Stimulating senses
Electric vehicles lack many of the character-defining elements enthusiasts connect with. Their efficiency and performance are impressive, but to many car enthusiasts they feel more like appliances than machines – excellent at their job, yet emotionally distant. Some would say they’re soulless. And they have their reasons for that, as internal combustion engined cars stimulate all their senses:
They feel the vibrations of the engine/gearbox and the heat they generate in the process;
They see the beauty in a whole bunch of parts working together to create motion, flames and smoke;
They hear the fuel being pumped, the air intake sucking in and the engine/exhaust roar;
They smell the fumes of fuel, exhaust gases, burned tires, clutches and brakes;
Heck, they even taste to identify leaking liquids under their car.
Violence
I went multiple times to Santa Pod Raceway in the United Kingdom. And at the drag strip, I felt the power of combustion in every fiber of my body, when vehicles with thousands of horsepower went full throttle right next to me. And yes, I know accelerating in a straight line is one of the strengths of EVs. So there are probably EVs that can do quicker runs than most ICE vehicles. But I’m not excited to witness that. The violence of internal combustion chills to the bone, which is something I’ll never be able to say about an EV.
The EV also appears to be an important tool in a bigger trend that kills the joy of driving. It eliminates the manual gearbox, which was already slowly disappearing, but still is an essential part for the driver who wants to manually control wheel speed. Annoying ‘mandatory’ driving assistance systems (on all modern cars, ICE included) try to choke him even more. Automated and autonomous driving systems – coincidentally almost always applied to EVs – put the final nail in the coffin the car driver who enjoys being in control. He must surrender to technology that takes over the steering wheel.
On top of that, car manufacturers are making it harder and harder to let people work on their own cars. Diagnosing tools and equipment are more and more often specific for each brand and necessary repair/maintenance information gets locked behind paywalls and subscription models. I’m not surprised young and good mechanics are hard to find; thery’re simply not excited for a future where they cannot be ‘magicians’ anymore.
A spark of hope
Some people think car enthusiasts hate EVs. But the opposite is true: if the mass doesn’t enjoy the power of petrol, that’s okay with them. Most of them understand that carbondioxide emissions are out of balance and something needs to happen to avoid escalation in climate change. Most of them are even ready to use an EV as a daily, as long as they can enjoy their internal combustion engines in the weekends. The greatest thing about the current car market, is that we all have freedom of choice. So go buy your EV already, and leave some petrol for those who actually enjoy it!
If you feel angry about the European Union delaying the effective ban on the internal combustion engine by 2035, you’re probably someone who doesn’t enjoy the journey – you only care about the destination. For car enthusiasts, it’s a spark of hope.