A Love Letter to Internal Combustion

One day the humans of the very distant future will inevitably discover the remains of an internal combustion engine.
One day that which lived by burning fossils will become a fossil itself. The archeologists of the very distant future will carefully dig the fossil up and they will place it in one of their museums.

And then museum guides of the future will tell the children of the future how this exhibit represents a remarkably well preserved part of an internal combustion engine. A quaint, inefficient and dirty device that relied on combustion in order to create propulsion. Such a silly concept.
But you see….I, as a human of the present, feel a bit sorry for the humans of the future. Because without experiencing internal combustion with all of their six senses they will only see a small part of the picture. They will only know a tiny fragment of the truth
They won’t hear the sounds………
Or get a whiff of the smells……….
Or feel the sensations………
They will never know the magic. The magic we made with nothing other than a few pieces of metal and some liquefied dinosaurs.

Just take a moment to think about the human genious behind internal combustion engines. We’ve been around it so long that we’re taking it for granted. But internal combustion engines are perhaps the greatest living testament to human ingenuity. Someone came onto the idea to seal away fire inside a metal box and then harness the energy of that fire……..thousands of times per minute. It is the ultimate form of fire taming. I’m sure that we made Prometheus proud by achieving so much with the gift he gave us.

Internal combustion engines are also one of the greatest living testaments to human perseverance. After we made the concept a reality, we decided to take our inherently complex and imperfect invention and strive for perfection with it.

We gave it our all to make it better in every way possible. More reliable. Longer lasting. More resilient. More efficient. More powerful. Cleaner.

And our efforts were rewarded generously. Internal combustion engines made our world smaller. They made it possible to move goods all around the world. To reshape and part continents. To reliably venture to the ends of the earth. To conquer land, sea and air. To travel faster than ever before. And to be where we want to be when we want or need to be.



But at some point internal combustion engines became so much more than just a utility. They became passion. A part of us and a reflection of ourselves. A canvas upon which we can express our creativity and desire for power, beauty and perfection. So much more than the sum of their parts. Boxes of metal became living entities with a spirit and character of their own.

Engines bonded families. Forged friendships. Built communities. We shaped them and they shaped us back.

They thought us about the strength needed to get up after a failure and about the importance of believing in our dreams and finding the resolve keep going. They also thought us about the joy and reward of building something with your own two hands and then using that something to propel yourself to wherever you want to go.

A bunch of metal parts and some liquefied dinosaurs were also the tool that allowed some of the greatest athletes of all time to demonstrate their skills and amaze the world as well as inspire many generations of future athletes to give it their all and reach for the stars. And I’m sure the liquefied dinosaurs are happy too. Wouldn’t you want your remains to serve a greater purpose millions of years after you’re dead. Imagine your fossil becoming the fuel which allows a racing machine to breathe fire and win races. Isn’t that greater than just rotting under the earth’s crust for all eternity?



We were able to do so much on the wings of internal combustion. Experience incredible highs and incredible joy. But after more than a century of friendship it seems that the beginning of the end for our faithful companion is here. The world is changing and facing great challenges and it seems that the sunset of internal combustion has begun and the time to say goodbye is here.


A special thank you to my patrons:
Daniel
Pepe
Brian Alvarez
Peter Della Flora
Dave Westwood
Joe C
Zwoa Meda Beda
Toma Marini
Cole Philips

#d4a #ice