Even though they may not have a word for
entrepreneur, the French have two words for the verb to know so I suppose that makes up for it.
What does this have to do with the
weight of your motor car, automobile or even voiture?
As the French recognise, there is a difference between knowing something because you've read it in a book and knowing something by bitter experience.
When cranes lift chunks of office block weighing several tons a few tens of feet in the air, onlookers scurry away against the remote chance that the cable will snap. And yet, walk down any street and 2 ton steel monsters career past pedestrians just inches away and at speeds equivalent to being dropped from several storeys up. No one scurries away.
What we ought to know about cars is that they're hard things that weigh a couple of tons, go at a hundred miles an hour and if you get hit by one you're mince.
What we actually know about cars is that it takes no effort to make them go fast, stop fast and corner fast. A big engine, servo brakes and power steering mean the physical effort required of the driver is almost nil.
Cars are therefore weightless.
From his strapped-in, air-conditioned, sound-deadened, calfskin lined, electrically adjustable throne Mr Wheeler can be forgiven for drawing several conclusions:
- It must be OK for me to do whatever speed I feel like in a 30mph limit as my lighter-than-air magic carpet obviously won't hurt a fly
- It shouldn't be that expensive to run as it weighs nothing so why does it cost so much
- My car responds instantly to my commands - I have total control of it
- It's a docile thing - like a family pet - who could dislike that?
- The world glides past my window so smoothly I feel I'm floating on a cloud - another lightweight thing
- It's obvious there's a conspiracy against the motorist
Mr Walker should conclude exactly the opposite.