My friend borrowed an old Porsche 911 (old enough to have manually controlled cable actuated heater boxes) the other day and took his girlfriend out to dinner. She complained about how hard it rode, how low it was, and how noisy it was (this one has no soundproofing on the rear firewall and SSI’s with a dual outlet muffler). As you might guess, she’s not a car person.
After dinner, it was cold, so to turn on the heat, he simply pulled up the two levers between the seats to divert the flow of warmed air from the heat exchangers into the cabin. Immediately, their feet were warmed. Of all the features of the hotrodded 911, this was the one that elicited the comment from her: “wow, that’s really cool…it’s so direct!” She did not comment on the color-coded fixed back Recaro seat with aluminum side mount brackets, she did not comment on the ducktail or Carrera scripts, she commented on the operation of the heater.
Even if she did not appreciate the appeal of not having ABS, power steering, soundproofing, or AC, this part she got. “Less is more” is such a trite and overused phrase, but there is something very appealing about a car that only has what you need. The idea is a combination of the words “simplicity”, “purity”, and “directness” that is rare, if not impossible (or illegal) to find in new cars. I think I’ll go for a drive now.