that is excellent sunsurfer.....

^ Agreed.

Good stuff, sunsurfer. For me a car has soul when you make any excuse to drive it and always take the long way home.

Soul is wrongly interpreted, but then it's a personal thing. Soul should not be an excuse for badly made Italian cars, i.e., Alfa Romeo or Fiat to be considered on the same level of emotion as a Ferrari. In fact so called soul destroys cars, the reason why I;d buy a 911 Turbo over an F430, why I'd have a Phaeton over a 166 and an Accord over a 159. The Porsche 911 was Ferdinand POrsches car, which his company have improved and refined over the years, amidst collecting over 23,000 racing victories, producing cars of immense quality and capability, without need for unnecessary drama. The 996 Turbo could beat a 360 and I presume it will be the same with the 997 and F430.
The 911 has a character which is beacuse it is a mans dream, engineered to perfection.
That's soul.

Once again the mods deleted the link and my message. Thats over modding for you

quote:

Originally posted by ProfJC:
an Accord over a 159

Pervert

An Accord over a 159? oh dear i think you must be ill. Back to the thread though and this is my input -

A car with soul is one which you feel you connect with and makes you want to drive. Not only that but feels like its part of you as you drive it and when you put your foot down it says to you "come on lets play" and off it goes. Unfortunately I have driven a few cars recently which say "do i have to?" when asked to perform. A soulful car to me does not have to be perfect hence why i can see many people here saying Italian cars are soulful. However i do think there is a difference between soul and character. Its an individual thing really as we all like different traits and its no different when we choose a human partner - at least your car doesnt moan or row with you! lol

quote:

Originally posted by sunsurfer:
Soul is imbued both in the design and in the ownership and use. It is a creative act by the creators of the car and the users of the car. Soul in its creation will inspire soul in its use. It is always difficult to define 'soul' in a car but a lot of cars can have soul in design and use. As someone said you can't cynically style it in - Nissan amongst others tried this with the Primera to have a certain dolphin like look.

I sort of agree but I think theres something in a car's design that lets you know it has soul. A spark.

For example, I've never driven a Ferrari 250 GTO and probably never will but somehow I know it has soul. It's pretty but not exactly the most beautiful car in the world but it has a certain glow about it.

For me, soul is in the styling. It's what we see first. It's what lets us know that it will inspire soul in everyday driving. Theres no easy way to define it and theres probably no way at all but theres something in the design of a car if the designer put their own soul into it. As I've said, when we see soul in a car we see the soul of the designer. A car's soul doesn't come from anywhere.

yes but a car does not have to be beautiful to have soul...like many people, the uglibugs have personality oozing out of them....original beetle, 2cv, willys jeep, series landy....most find em ugly, i think their styling is absolutely beautiful...less is more...and they all got soul/character dripping from em....

True. Remember the MK2 Supra and Ferrari 550 Maranello? I know there's a difference in price, but they look fantastic.

The 550 Maranello is not one of Pininfarina's better efforts, and the Supra looks crass.

I know that this conversation has probably gone else where, but I found this site when researching just this: do cars have souls?
I'm actually writing an essay on it for... I guess you could say personal reasons. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I am an aspiring stunt driver and cars have been in my life sinceI was far too young to even know what they were.
If I could get some imput it would be wonderful.

'Soul' is something you perceive a car to have, hence why i thought my 2CV had lots of it and we3r1/biggbn agreed, yet many others see it as a heap of junk and nothing more.

Our family W124 Mercedes E280 Estate has more than any car I've ever owned. It's indefinable, almost magical. Smooth straight-six, walnut dash, light-grey leather, a proper oil pressure gauge - it's just very special. The air-con makes this faint breathing noise which is very soothing.

'Soul' shouldnt be confused with 'quirky' or 'idiosyncratic'. My old Honda Insight would fall into the latter category.

Ford's aren't entirely soulless. Id say they were onto something with the Puma.

So would you say that the 'soul' of a car is more based on what it's made of? Like what someone said before about the soul of the desiner? or is it something personal, something you put into the car?
Personaly, I think that it's something deeper than that. I know a car can have a 'glow' about it, but when we talk about the 'glow' of a Ferrari I think it could be the fact that it is almost unobtainable.
Also, isn't there a difference between the soul of a car and it's persoanlity

Beyond what a car can actually DO, the 'soul' and 'character' are wholly what we, as individuals, imagine them to have.

Hence why a 2CV has bucketfuls of soul to me and none at all to others.

Is it really what we imagine? I don't know if I agree with that. I think there's more to a car than just that. I had a friend tell me that they believed that a car was a living thing like us, simply because it has all the components that we do and that we complete them by adding a so called brain to it.
If people didn't already see something special in cars, why would we have so many things that have to do with (lol, I have to say it) them being 'more than meets the eye'.
When I was little I loved waching 'The Love Bug' as stupid as it sounds, but there was one quote in there that will always stay with me, which might be why I feel like writing my essay.
"There's a lot of gloop been written about, uh, the bond between a man and his automobile and... how he hates it sometimes, mostly how he loves it. He showers gifts on it... in the way of accessories and all that. He gets hysterical if somebody scratches the paint or... makes it lose face on the freeway. Maybe some of those feelings got into the machinery."

It can only be and is only what we imagine, because this 'soul' or 'character' can't be measured!

If it was set in stone, we'd all agree on what car is 'characterful' and otherwise!

Some say a Porsche 911 is full of soul, whilst others say it is too 'perfect' for that!
Etc.