Scott Newman

I’VE BELATEDLY COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE CAR WORLD HAS NOW PASSED PEAK DIALS.

IN GENERAL, PRODUCTS INEXORABLY improve over time. Regardless of how good or bad the original concept was, incremental development tends to pay dividends. Practice makes perfect and all that. The Porsche 911 is the perfect example. Slinging a six-cylinder engine behind the rear axle of a sports car flew in the face of conventional engineering wisdom in 1963 and doesn’t make any more sense today, but almost six decades of development has turned the 911 into one of the finest driving experiences you’ll ever have.

This isn’t always the case, however. Now and then a product or concept reaches its zenith. Occasionally gold is struck immediately, other times it’s at the end of the rainbow where the journey ends, but at this point it doesn’t matter how much time, money or effort is spent. Any further progress will be a regression, a descent from the peak.