The Garage 362

ONKAR CHAHAL
The future’s
electric!
As a very young and impressionable schoolboy
I bought my first car magazine at the age of
about 10/11. It was called Fast Lane and had
an Aston Martin Vantage on the cover which
looked absolutely amazing to me, so I bought
it. A few years later I bought another magazine
due to the cover picture, this time it was for a
road test of the new BMW E28 M5.
I’ve been buying car magazines ever since and there are four
manufacturers which have helped shape my journey more than
any other.
Aston Martin. Maserati. Jaguar. BMW. I am a huge Aston Martin
fan, they can’t do much wrong in my opinion (although the 80’s
Zagato came close!)
Maserati Quattroporte anyone?
Does anything ride as well as a Jaguar?
That M5 just made me respect the brand so much that I’ve been
working/involved with them for nearly thirty years now. I have
been extremely lucky enough to have owned all the M5’s from
the original E28 right up to the present F90. Same with the M3’s,
all of them from the E30, every version of the E36 right up to the
present G80. I even built the world’s first E46 M3 SMG touring, way
back in the day.
The reason I’m sharing this with you?
As I have stated many times, I am a true petrol head who loves
everything about the car. I became a mechanic in the first place
because of my fascination with the engine, how it works and how
it sounds. I especially love how the engine is the heart of any car,
being able to change the character of any model by changing the
engine.
Don’t believe me? Have you driven an X5 with a diesel engine?
Sounds okay and goes well, exactly like it should. But you need
to drive the V8 petrol version, that’s when it really makes sense.
That’s the engine it was developed with/for. That’s when they
sound and go how a BMW should.
I ran an E53 4.8iS back in the day as my daily, affectionately
known as the Thunder Bus. It couldn’t have been further from the
diesel versions you would see everywhere. Its performance was
as epic as the soundtrack that would accompany me wherever
we drove(stormed?) to. It was truly effortless in its ability to cover
ground at an indecent pace, with such little effort. The same
basic body, chassis, seats, interior etc yet it was a totally different
experience.
Why was that? The engine.
By Onkar Chahal
And now we have the Electric Vehicle.
It’s boring. It’s quiet. It’s very efficient, but it isn’t right. I describe
electric cars like having sex with a blow up doll. The end result is
achieved, you get where you need to be, but you just can’t help
but feel something is missing, that something isn’t quite right.
It’s efficient, but wrong. You miss the sounds, the smells, the
vibrations and interactions.
However, last year I spent about 6 weeks in the new BMW iX, in
different versions, driving around the country.
How bad was the experience? Good enough to make me see
the error of my ways, to change my opinion, to embrace them and
appreciate what they are and what they offer. It took the brand
that got me into cars in the first place, all those years ago, to make
me see the future.
Ah, but I love my Maserati, I hear you say. Yes, I do. But I sold
it just before Christmas to a man you can see on TV. What have I
replaced it with?
BMW i3.
If the electric car is good enough
for me, it’s good enough for you.
Trust me. I’m a mechanic. And a
petrolhead.
12 THE GARAGE
12 Opinion Onkar.indd 1 30/04/2024 13:37