Stop looking backwards

I was disappointed in the responses in April’s Soundbites referring to the LaFerrari hypercar

I was profoundly disappointed in the responses in April’s Soundbites referring to the new LaFerrari hypercar. I’m sure the engineering team at Ferrari fully embrace that the car they’ve produced is a toy for extremely wealthy individuals, and would only count as ideal transport if you are 5 years old or in the grip of a mid-life crisis.

However I was disgusted by the curmudgeonly and dismissive attitude shown by many of the contributors. I would like to express my admiration to the team at Ferrari for creating such a bleeding edge achievement. I can not understand the hubris and nostalgia that would make people draw comparison to older vehicles. Do we not think that, given access to the modern design tools and facilities, the designers of the Lotus Elan would have produced something like this?

Have we, the engineering community of the UK, not gotten beyond the complacency which required overseas investment to restart our car manufacturing industry? We need to stop looking backwards to former products, such as the Rover 25, and embrace the best that is currently available such as a Golf Bluemotion. Then learn from them and do better.

What would I pick? Probably an Alpina D3 estate or Jaguar XF 2.2 Sport Brake to optimise usability with speed and efficiency.

Chris Elliott, Coventry

Next letter: Bite the bullet