The anatomy of performance: can Oxford find a way to measure the thrill of driving?
The same car, on the same road, can feel very different depending on who’s driving. Which makes this a little more complicated than checking a stopwatch. Together with researchers from the SDG Impact Lab at the University of Oxford, we set out to better understand the thrill of driving and explore whether it can be measured. The anatomy of performance follows that work across four episodes.
Episode 1: can we put a number on the thrill of driving?
Before we head to the track, our host Babak takes us through what we mean by the thrill of driving and how we can study it. Over the series, he’ll take us from Gotland Ring to Portimão and Oxford, as we carry out tests, explore how drivers’ brains and bodies respond, and hear what the researchers find.
“We have to build a framework to do the measuring that can account for what's going on, not just in the body, not just in the brain, but in the mind as well.”
Max Klapow, Doctoral Researcher, Oxford SDG Impact Lab
Episode 2: what happens in your brain when you drive?
We turn Gotland Ring into our very own performance lab. More than 40 individual test runs, with sensors recording what happens in the drivers’ brains and bodies as they accelerate, brake, and corner. Let the experiment begin.
So, how do you go about measuring the thrill of driving? You start with a few quiet minutes. Before anyone heads out, the researchers take starting readings to compare with what happens on track. Then it’s time to drive.
Each participant drives two versions of Polestar 4: Rear motor and Dual motor with Performance pack. Both at a calm pace, then more dynamically, following a lead car. The cabin and controls stay the same.
Every decision about how a car accelerates, steers, or handles shapes how it feels to drive. We want to understand that connection.
There’s quite a lot going on in a single lap. Sensors measure heart rate, changes in sweating, eye movements, and brain activity. Meanwhile, the cars record acceleration, braking, steering, and the forces experienced through corners.
Between driving segments, participants rate how they feel. Afterwards, they describe the experience in interviews. A pounding heart tells us something, but it doesn’t tell us whether someone’s enjoying themselves.
That’s why researchers from the SDG Impact Lab at the University of Oxford bring these measurements together: to explore what contributes to the thrill of driving and test whether that experience can be meaningfully measured.
Episode 3: how does Ben Collins’ body react to Polestar 5?
Ben Collins has spent years showing the world what he can do with a car. Now, the racing and stunt-driving legend is back in the white suit, taking Polestar 5 onto the track at Portimão. This time, we’re finding out what the car does to him.
Ben can tell you a lot about a car while driving it. How it communicates through the steering wheel, how the suspension carries the forces through the seat, and how much he trusts it coming out of a corner. With sensors recording his brain activity and physiological responses, we can look at what’s happening in his body alongside that running commentary.
There is a dataset for some regular people. And me being irregular, we’ll see what happens when I drive.”
First, he drives Polestar 5 using its standard settings. Then he selects sharper throttle response, quicker power delivery, and firmer suspension. Same car, same circuit, same driver. A different experience. His favourite? The performance settings (of course). More playful, and more under his control.
For someone who describes himself as “irregular”, Ben has a fair amount in common with the drivers at Gotland Ring. His body responds along broadly similar lines, though changing the settings produces less variation in his physiological responses.
We came to find out what Polestar 5 does to Ben Collins. Watching what he can do with the car is a thrill of its own.
