As EVs make brutal acceleration increasingly normal, a Castrol study suggests speed may not be the bit that makes driving fun.
Being a passenger in a very fast car sounds exciting. Your nervous system may have other ideas.
Castrol wired 10 participants up with electroencephalography (EEG), heart, skin and eye-monitoring equipment, then put them through a series of tests at the PalmerSport facility in Bedfordshire, UK, to find out what produces driving thrill.
There is one caveat for an electrified-car audience: the study did not test EVs. Its findings concern the driving experience rather than a particular type of powertrain.
And the answer was not simply speed.
Behind the wheel of a McLaren Artura GT4, participants blinked just 2.5 times a minute, compared with a normal resting rate of around 15 to 20. They also recorded about 70 fixations on the racing line per minute while cornering.
Researchers identified the pattern as a “flow state”: highly alert and deeply focused, while still feeling in control.
Then came the passenger test.
With a professional driver doing the work at high speed, blink rate jumped to around 40 per minute and eye fixations during cornering climbed to 190. Brain activity also shifted towards patterns associated with stress and anxiety.
In other words, surrendering the steering wheel changed the mood rather quickly.
Speed was not essential either. Karting produced strong signs of focused engagement despite relatively modest speeds, while an off-road exercise averaging just 8kph still produced a measurable thrill response.
The study points instead to control, concentration and involvement as major ingredients in driving enjoyment.
So as ever-faster EVs turn eye-watering acceleration figures into increasingly familiar numbers, there may still be something to be said for what happens between the driver’s hands, feet and brain.
And the passenger seat? It still has some explaining to do.
