A Morgan Plus4 GDI Story

Last week I found myself working on a small electronics project for a Morgan Plus 4 GDI.

The technical challenge wasn’t particularly remarkable. Over the years, I had developed a solution for a known immobilizer reliability issue that occasionally affects almost all of these cars. As so often a design fault of the original manufacturer turned out to be problematic in the long term. Our solution had already proven itself solving that in the real world for many years.

What made this project interesting was something else entirely.

As I was reviewing the software, I found myself thinking about Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus.

Chapman’s famous philosophy was simple:
“Simplify, then add lightness.”

Most people associate that quote with sports cars.
Lighter chassis.
Fewer components.
Better performance.

But the longer I work in engineering, the more I believe that Chapman wasn’t really talking about cars.

He was talking about thinking.

Because some engineers have a habit of adding things.
We add features.
We add code.
We add options.
We add safeguards.
We add complexity.

And sometimes, after years of modifications and improvements, we end up carrying around far more than we actually need.

Yet nobody ever gets promoted for removing code.
Nobody gets praise for making a system smaller.
Nobody proudly presents a feature that no longer exists.
And yet that is often where the best engineering happens.

The software I was looking at worked perfectly.
It had done so for years.

But as I reviewed it, I realised there were things that no longer served a purpose. Interrupts that could be removed. Tables that were no longer necessary. Additional layers that made the software harder to understand without making it any better.

So instead of adding something new, I started removing things.
One piece at a time.
Until only the essential behaviour remained.
The result wasn’t more powerful.
It wasn’t more sophisticated.
It simply became lighter.
The program became smaller.
Clearer.
Easier to maintain.
And easier for the next engineer to understand (my son? 😉 )

Exactly the same outcome.
Less complexity.
More elegance.
That’s when Chapman’s quote came back to me.
“Adding lightness” isn’t just about building faster cars.
It’s about removing everything that doesn’t contribute to the purpose.

The same principle applies to software.
To engineering.
To businesses.
And perhaps even to leadership.
After all, maturity is often the moment when you stop asking:

“What else can I add?”

And start asking:

“What can I remove without losing what matters?”

Because a complex solution may impress people.

A simple solution endures.