With The Horizon In Sight For ICEs, Are We Experiencing The Final High-performance Hurrah?

Oh, don't sweat it, guys! Remember when fuel economy and lower emission regulations had people crying that would be the end of sports cars or muscle cars? What do we have today? Awesome, powerful, fun cars that get better fuel economy and pollute less! And everybody and their uncle is making them, including Honda, GM, Porsche, Ferrari, etc.

So don't sweat it. ICE cars will not turn crappy any time soon. They won't disappear this year, or the next, or the year after that. Stories of their demise have been greatly exaggerated ;-)

We went through the same hand wringing in the 1970s when emission controls were first introduced. Still doing fine. In fact, the greatest high performance cars of that era can't hold a candle to anything available today.

Besides, electric cars have some incredible performance possibilities. Just look at what a Tesla can do from a standing start.

Considering there are 500hp, 600hp, 700hp, 800hp, 900hp, 1100hp and 1,500hp cars now, it is funny we would still refer to the 1960's to early 70's as the muscle car era. Are we in the Hypercar era now?

In the 1970's we were told that by now we would be out of Crude oil in the world -and now we have more proven reserves than we did them. In fact - the USA now exports crude oil again - and could - if they were in the right place - fulfill their own crude requirements if needed.

THE end of the Internal combustion engine is now on the Horizon(NOPE) - but as I suspected - they to would evolve and we WILL get a lot of new technology that will keep them on the road for decades to come.

WE still do not have the Electricity available to charge all the cars that would be needed to replace personal cars here in the USA - and worse - they are closing ONE method of producing it - Atomic - rapidly. It can take years just to get permits to build new plants. ADD in - the fact that we do not have enough Lithium being mined to make all the batteries that would be needed for cars alone (ANd remember they are used in LOTS of other electronics too) and things will not change as quickly as predictors think.

Of course -there are these things - which will eliminate the need to actually go to a store to purchase things - you can order them right from your home - so not as many cars will be needed. What are those things? Mail order catalogs - the phone - the POST OFFICE(Both ordering and delivery) - UPS and FED EX also for delivery - and the internet - for purchasing as well. Believe it or not - you can even get consumable food delivered - I predict Pizza parlors will have kids delivering Pizza and other foods (As well as other types of restaurants) directly to consumers HOMES - replacing a lot of trips for different people to ONE by a delivery crew.

What's that you say - we have had all those things for Decades - even centuries! - I wonder when the need for using a car will diminish then? Apparently the END is not near!

The one certainty over the past 100+ years of the automobile has been "Build a great car and they (buyers) will come." Build a great car now or in the future and enthusiasts will buy it and thru word of mouth influence others. Its power plant, size, shape, etc may change but a great car should sell, except for the one big threat on the horizon. The greatest threat to performance cars and all cars in general is potential legislative actions to redefine them, limit them or ban them entirely. In this regard the future looks bleak but rarely does the future turnout as predicted. Time will tell.

Indeed you are correct and I also fully believe that in 15 years all of the downsides of an EV will be gone and the great cars will be EVs.