If your commute to work includes a shortcut across the airport, you might want to consider driving a Lotus. If you are trying to avoid being hit by a 747 landing at 240 miles per hour, you can take comfort in the knowledge that the car you are driving, has already been proven on the runway. Lotus picked a location near Norwich England that had some abandoned World War II runaways. Today these runways are the test track for all Lotus vehicles If you are not driving your Lotus on the runways that it was made for, don’t be surprised if its spends a lot of time in the repair shop. A airport runway test track may not tell the designers of the vehicle whether it would operate reliably on the type of roads that you drive.
Your commute may include switchbacks like you find on the roads that lead into Monaco. They removed the guard rails after Grace Kelly died by going over the edge. The traffic actually drives more cautiously when the danger is clearly visible. The benefit is that you get to see the picture postcard views that are displayed in travel brochures.
If this were my commute, I would drive a German performance vehicle like a BMW or Mercedes. Not because these are yuppie status symbols. The real reason is because they are tested on the Nurburgring test track in the Alps of Bavaria. This is the only automotive test track that simulates the grades and twists that a Monaco commuter has to navigate. Monaco happens to be on the other side of the Alps. It is not surprising that most Alpine car purchasers want their cars to work on the type of roads that they drive.
It turns out that all vehicle purchasers want their vehicles to operate reliably. The difference between opinioneering and engineering is proper testing. ‘I think it is going to work ‘does not cut it in today’s marketplace. I selected any old test and it passed is not good enough either. Engineering is all about “I invented a representative test to simulate how the vehicle is used and my offering passed.”