#MotoringMayhem: The converting challenge

As we seem to be slowly suffocating the Earth, I cannot help but think that hanging onto your old car is not enough.

We need to be more careful and thoughtful when choosing our next cars.

How often do we see a sparkling new Land Cruiser V8 waddling down the road in Ballito like an over-inflated ego, with only one passenger and no sign of having gone off road?

No matter what the owner may say, I reckon you could drive at least three hatchbacks next to the one Land Cruiser for the same petrol/diesel consumption.

Having said that, I have to admit that I have been this person on many occasions in my life.

To make matters worse, some of us then go and modify our cars beyond standard for performance reasons – a great idea as we have so many race tracks here, right?

What are you going to do with that car?

Illegally race your mates or tow your ski-boat that little bit faster?

The removal of the catalytic converter is a common performance upgrade, and it probably is one of the worst things you can do for the environment over and above actually driving the car itself.

The catalytic converter is a device in the exhaust system that reduces emissions by converting some of the gasses into less toxic emissions.

How could you possibly gain street-cred by removing this device? It has to come back to the same thing as the V8 cruiser – it has to be the “look at me go” syndrome.

I have been this person and currently drive a large bakkie with a big diesel engine.

There definitely was/is an element of ego involved in the purchase of the truck, and of course my mates all have similar hair-on-your-chest type of vehicles.

The expression, “it’s not the size that counts, it’s how you use it” could really be true in this case as most larger vehicles are used to carry soft and fragile egos around while the trees and plants wilt as you drive by.

My wife and I have seriously considered changing the Ranger for a hatchback with an engine that does a bit more than the almost R2 per kilometre we get now!

We just can’t quite work out how to tow the boat with the hatchback . . . and no, it’s not a motor boat!

Try we will, so if you see a hatchback with two, fat Labradors hanging out either side and a yacht behind it at the beach, you will know that it could be a big fat truck coughing on your face!

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