VW City Golf, Photo by Bull-Doser

Motoendemics are the coolest thing in motoring

Cars and motorbikes are something natural. So natural, that they seem to have replaced horses not only as means of transport but also as pets. As Walter Rohrl said “You can’t treat a car like a human being – a car needs love”.  Moreover, even if environmentalists would like to send us, gearheads for a psychiatric treatment, car and motorbike culture REALLY BEHAVES like nature.
Let’s remind ourselves that there are animals and plants that have one special place in the world. Koala, for example, lives only in Australia. Species like that are called endemic. Some cars, some motorbikes and even some forms of motorsport are also endemic, as their nature is the result of their environment. Only the US people could fall in love with racing on oval track. Only Japanese could invent kei cars. Only in Mexico and Brazil the original Volkswagen Beetle and its siblings could have been produced so long. Only in Brazil flex-fuel vehicles could have become so popular. Everybody knows that some people are fueled by ethylnene alcohol, but Brazilians use the precious liquid (alone or mixed with gasoline) to drive their vehicles. Why? Because they produce ethanol from sugarcane. A good example of motoendemic – the flex-fuel vehicles are ingrained in their habitat.
There are also some more Volkswagen curiosities, like the City Golf produced in Brazil and sold in Canada. The vehicle, like all the cars meant for US and Canadian market, had side-marker lights. A feature which is also motoendemic.
Volkswagen Gol (not Golf), which is produced in Brazil and sold in some countries of south and central America, may appear in dealerships next to the CrossFox. Yeah! They had supermini crossover before Europe got Peugeot 2008, Citroën C4 Cactus or Renault Captur!
Trabant and Polonez Caro that were outdated from the start, make the people in East Germany, Poland and some other places in central Europe feel the automotive versions of Ostalgie: Trabant-nostalgia, Polonez-nostalgia, Fiat 126p-nostalgia etc.
Fiat 126p is still popular in Poland as a race car. Just take a look at this event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmOCKZWvDZo

and this girl’s Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/petrolhead.girl/.

There are also some endemic things in the Motorcycle world. Only Italy with its love for scooters could have been such a good place for the idea of Mazdago to be reborn as Piaggio Ape. Events that resemble The Tourist Trophy are held in some more places in Great Britain, but the Isle of Man with its curvy roads and no-speed-limit-outside-towns culture is the greatest habitat for the greatest race.
Even the neutral Switzerland is very interesting as a place of work of the biggest eccentrics in the automotive world- Frank M. Rinderknecht from Rinspeed and Franco Sbarro. You may laugh at Rinspeed’s designs, yet the philosophy behind 2001’s concept Rone is very simmilar to what Ariel Atom and KTM X-Bow stand for.
And if you still aren’t convinced, that car spotters could hunt for rare motoendemics like Opel/Chevrolet Corsa B Wagon the same way as they hunt for supercars, then just look at a map of Italy and see where Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Paganis are manufactured. Ok, supercars are designed everywhere. From Great Britain (McLaren, Noble), through Sweden (Koenigsegg), Denmark (Zenvo), Poland (Arrinera) to Croatia (Rimac) and Lebanon (Lykan).

So, as the most important representatives of this segment are produced almost in the same place, maybe the supercars are also endemic somehow?

(C) by Andrzej Szczodrak