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Call to arms
The dislike of ‘feelsome’ expressed in Steve Cropley’s 21/28 December 2022 column caught my attention. I don’t share this particular phobia, but another word has made me increasingly uncomfortable over the past couple of years, that being describing cars as ‘weapons’. I would dearly love to see this stop.
Weapons are designed to injure or kill. A car in the hands of a drunk or drug driver could reasonably be called a weapon, but otherwise it’s horribly inappropriate to describe any (but usually exciting) vehicle.
Across your two December double issues, ‘weapon’ was used to describe the Audi TT RS, Audi RS3 Sportback, Lamborghini Huracán Tecnica, Porsche 911 Sport Classic and Ford Focus ST. My daily driver is a 450bhp 6.2-litre V8-powered coupé with awesome capability, but I would be mortified if anyone regarded it as a weapon, and I’ve no intention of using it as such.
Autocar isn’t the only offender in the use of this provocative noun in this context, but it would be terrific if it led the way in banishing it. After all, it does make those who deploy it seem a bit less than fully grown-up. Jamie Buchanan Via email