The “Greatest” Debate

You know the eternal pub debate about who is the greatest driver ever, or which was the greatest drive? I’m up for that, provided it is a debate, in a pub, with friends. In the right atmosphere it’s great fun, but it’s best left in the pub. To really know the answer we’d need all the candidates in their prime in perfectly matched Maserati 250Fs, Ferrari F2004s etc. and run them on the Nordschleife, Monza, Spa and so on. Unless that could be arranged there can be no resolution and, besides, who would chose the candidates?

We live in an age obsessed by lists and I am getting bothered by the tendency for some automotive magazines to compile lists of the greatest this or that. They judge rather than celebrate. Rarely, if ever, do they stimulate debate and, worst of all, they lead writers to assume that certain opinions are universally held and are therefore virtually fact.