The 1977 Roger Donaldson (later of the ‘World’s Fastest Indian’ fame) film ‘Sleeping Dogs’ turned out to be move than just a unique NZ made movie. While it launched the career of Sam Neill, it was the first feature-length 35mm film produced entirely in New Zealand. It was during the time when movies were pushing the boundaries of society (and of the censors) with swearing, explicit sex and gratuitous violence. Yet, above all this, Sleeping Dogs turned out to be quite prophetic.
Change is all about us at the moment, more so than I have ever seen in over fifty years of living in New Zealand. Change is a ‘given’ in life, however, too much can bring about uncertainty which, in my opinion, doesn’t help the stability of a community (or a nation). People need certainty that they will have a roof over their head, a job to go to in the morning and food on the table at night. Although, we now live in a sophisticated society that we also need certainty that we can purchase good coffee, the car will start in the morning (or the bus will be on time), there is a cold drink at the end of the day with takeaways and that the All Blacks will win every time.
Sleeping Dogs was a political thriller in which Sam Neill plays the character of ‘Smith’ who gets caught between the special police and an underground resistance movement in a New Zealand that has plunged into a police state ruled by a fascist government.
I remember at the time that it was a good story line but a bit far-fetched with mass protests, police with riot helmets and long batons and increasing anarchy. Not the New Zealand that I was growing up in.
Move on four years to 1981 and the Springbok tour, a blotch on Kiwi landscape history. It was a time when the National government of the time, with Prime Minister Rob Muldoon, allowed a tour of ‘white’ South African Springbok rugby players throughout NZ. This was pre-MMP (mixed member proportional representation) during the time of the ‘first-past-the-post’ voting system which, effectively, allowed the party voted in to govern the country to get away with almost anything for three years.
The anti-apartheid movement in New Zealand was very strong and vocal at the time. Muldoon and his cabinet would not make a decision for or against the tour, that it was up to the New Zealand Rugby Union whether it would take place, and so it did.
We suddenly had two major special police units established (Red and Blue Squads) with riot shields, long batons and helmets, ready for the mass protests that were expected. Large protests did take place on the streets of many New Zealand cities and towns with outbursts of violence, quelled by the riot-squads. Life was interrupted, families became divided between those who supported the tour and those against.
It wasn’t about the tour anymore. It became about the rights of individuals (for teams to come and play sport and for spectators to choose to watch) vs the greater good of the community. What Muldoon’s government failed to do during the tour was to recognise that what was taking place was so divisional it would tarnish and scar the Kiwi society. People voted with their feet and it could have been halted and everyone should have gone home and started again. We very much saw what Sleeping Dogs was about.
It is not too dissimilar to what we have now with vaccinations. The right of the individual not to have something they don’t want vs the greater good of the community. While NZ is pretty rationale about this so far, across the ditch it appears that there is an element of anarchy and protest.
This week Dirtfish.com ran an article with Renault Sport declaring that it wants fully homologated electric rally cars by 2025. That the move to hybrid World Rally Championship cars in 2022 was not enough, merely transitional.
“Our long-term vision is clear,” said Benoit Nogier, Renault Sport racing director. “The future of rally cars is not even hybrid. It is clear that in the future all sport cars available will be electric. In 2025 we must be ready to homologate and to welcome full electric cars on the rallies.”
Well, let’s also be clear. Renault are more in the game of selling cars and as many as it can. Motorsport, for manufacturers, is about research and development and marketing.
What Nogier seems to forget, is that it will be the consumer that will ultimately decide this. Is there enough rally fans to get excited about electric rally cars?
The true litmus test of whether full electric cars will work in motorsport is Formula One. If F1 dropped their hybrid technology and went fully electric, would it carry on in its current (forgive the pun) form or be an even better experience for fans?
I think not, because today’s experiment is Formula E and I am yet to find a current motorsport fan who is passionate about this category, is prepared to go the extra mile and get out of bed in the middle of the night (like any true race fan) to watch a race live. Take away the manufacturers, pay the drivers the ‘going-rate’ (yes, it is reported that they are paid quite handsomely) and will this category stand on its own?
In the end, people will vote with their feet. Government and business may try and influence this but they do better by understanding what their voters/consumers really want. In saying that, people can be fickle, difficult to understand and predict.
I suggest that many European motor vehicle manufacturers have a dilemma. Regulation and policies of their governments’ are forcing them down a path towards using clean energy, which in essence is electric (at the moment). Hence the investment in electric vehicles and money spent on marketing and motorsport. Yet, they know that motorsport fans are not really interested and are likely to leave in droves.
Porsche have recently released their all-electric Mission R concept saying that it has ‘the performance level of the current Porsche 911 GT3 Cup‘, yet the battery will only last for 30 minutes. So why are Porsche and Audi (VW Group) with other manufacturers (including Renault) reported to be involved in discussions around the 2025 Formula One power units (which will not be fully electric).
Frankly, I think that more people will be interested in simulator racing because watching electric racing will not engage motorsport fans in the way any current high-powered category touches the soul. Esport means that everyone can have a go from the comfort of their own living room.
If an idea sounds like, looks like and smells like a dog, then it probably is one. Sometimes, its best to let sleeping dogs lie.
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