WHATEVER HAPPENED TO the good old ‘power to weight’ ratio? Easy to decipher and honest in its verdict, it’s as stalwart a measuring unit of a vehicle’s athletic prowess as the quarter mile dice and the zero to hundred sprint. Real ‘top trump’ stuff, emerging from a capable science of predicting a car’s performance and dynamic characteristics, all with a simple ratio that sets engine output to kerb weight.

Yet that hardy measure has been all but relegated to measuring the carbon composite-rich supercar elite. So it’s of shrinking worth when bellied up against some of the new staples of the industry – the likes of ‘litres per 100 kilometres’ and ‘grammes of carbon dioxide per kilometre’. Purer and purer fuel is required to make the most of the clever new engines, so we’ve even taken to rating our diesel. Sulphur content? 50 parts per million is good, 500ppm is now not good enough.

Just listen to the mental environmentalists whine in unison between sips of herbal tea about how evil the auto is and how it can be improved, all in the name of efficiency. How ironic, as the quest for optimum power to weight has exactly the same outcome. What the Earth really needs, I say, is a return to the old ways of thinking.

In pursuit of a purer driving experience, Lamborghini has just unveiled its ‘Sesto Elemento’ concept, meaning literally ‘Sixth Element’ – a reference to carbon – from which it has largely been constructed. It’s the anorexic twin to the Italian (cough, German, cough) firm’s Gallardo, but thanks to extensive usage of the light-but-strong weave, it weighs in at just 999kg. That’s 50 kilos less than a Ford Fiesta despite mechanical necessities such as a 10-cylinder engine, E-Gear transmission and drive to all four wheels. And to do this, Sant’Agata’s best consulted with no less than the boffins at Boeing, long-time specialists in the dark matter. Gone is the old supercar ethos of lashings of power and overwhelming visuals. Instead the technicians at McLaren, Ferrari and the like have traded flowing pen lines and aggressive vents for extensive aero testing. Have we ended up with cars that look like aeroplanes, themselves no friends of the green zeitgeist?

Mercifully, and thanks to Formula 1, with more than a nod to Colin Chapman and his ‘Simplify, and add lightness’ mantra, we still have cars that shock and awe, but now with clever tech that justifies a green conscience. The new science has embraced carbon (adding lightness) for more than concepts, and it’s filtering through to the mainstream if BMW’s super-efficient EV City Car is any indication. That said, if in the future I see a ‘Joy is E-fficiency’ poster, I’ll eat it.

Still, we at Topcar are real-world drivers with families, bonds, bicycles and school recitals to consider. And if the old light plus fast equals fun yardstick is truly obsolete, then we will throw up our hands and take on the quest for a new unit with which to measure the abilities of the new vehicles that grace our driveways. How about a ‘doors to cylinder’ ratio? The Subaru WRX STI sedan seems to generate a modest 1:1 ratio as it boasts four of each, but that offers up absolutely no clue to the fiery performance it delivers, compared, say, to the Suzuki Alto which boasts the same ratio. Perhaps ‘seats to boot capacity’ will do the trick, but then again single-cab bakkies might well be sharing top honours with some Italian exotica.

What if I need a big capacity engine with forced induction to drive the sheer bulk of my seven-seater sports activity vehicle, in the Q7, X5 and Cayenne tradition? Disturbingly, it’s the (high) kilowatt rather than the (low) carbon emissions figure that will excite the environ-Mentalists. They would fail to see any offset in the number of people being carried at any one time, and far prefer to see the job done slowly and buzzily by a 500cc three-cylinder. Better still, a veritable army of three-cylinder, 500cc Green Midgets doing the same job. Understand our fears and lament the dismal world that awaits the petrolhead then, if we cannot ditch our beloved but heavy cars in favour of featherlight carbon fibre monocoques.

Perhaps when all is said and done, it’s a combination of existing ratios that will ultimately solve our conundrum? Yes, ‘power divided by weight, multiplied by CO2 over litres per 100km’ might be the formula that will ultimately save the day. Or have us clamouring for the nearest hybrid, heaven helps us. Until then may the world continue as is because, while ‘great cars’ are usually efficient, ‘efficient cars’ are seldom great.