[RacinNinja]

Originally Posted by adouglas

Just saw an ad for the Labor Day vintage races at Lime Rock. I think I'll go this year. Got me thinking about machinery and the perspective that age has granted me.

I love stuff like carburetors. When FI is so much more efficient and easy, one might wonder why. It has to do with the inherent beauty of elegant solutions.

You can go down to the corner store, and for a few cents buy a digital quartz timepiece that's more accurate and reliable than the chronometers that helped explorers in the Age of Discovery circumnavigate the planet for the first time.

Or, you can invest thousands in a Rolex... an analog machine of exquisite craftsmanship and precision. A thing of intrinsic beauty, designed to solve the same problem as that cheap quartz timepiece.

From a purely functional point of view, the cheap quartz watch wins every time.

But the Rolex has soul. It has personality. It inspires passion. It is worthy of respect and admiration because it is elegant.

I feel that way about carburetors. This is a machine finely tuned and designed to precisely meter fuel, balancing it against airflow and engine demand, using nothing but aerodynamics as a modulator. There are no electronics involved.

Think about that for a moment. It is a minor miracle. It is beautiful precisely because it is an elegant, subtle solution, rather than than the cold, brute-force answer of digital technology.

An EFI system is, without doubt, better in every way from a functional standpoint. But it's BORING. It's too easy. There is no coaxing, no negotiating, no art, no development of a relationship with the machine that is rocketing you down the road at 100 mph.

Indeed! It's part of the reason I race the old beasts. Raw, mechanical beauty.