The guys at Ford have teamed up with neuroscientists and designers to complete a research exercise on members of the public. The aim of the study was to discover which activities in life provide the most ‘buzz-moments’ on average.
The study measured the emotional fulfilment of a number of activities. Participants experienced a night dining out, an intense lesson in salsa dancing, kissing a loved one, watching their favourite football team, sitting down for an episode of Game of Thrones, shopping, going for a drive and lastly, riding a rollercoaster.
The scores were as follows:
| Activity | Buzz Moments * |
| Roller Coaster | 3 |
| Driving | 2.1 |
| Shopping | 1.7 |
| Game of Thrones | 1.5 |
| Football Game | 1.5 |
| Kissing | 0 |
| Salsa Dancing | 0 |
| Dining | 0 |
Participants had their ‘buzz-moments’ measured while driving their daily commute, to keep the results relevant to real-life.
The experiment can be seen in this video:
As you might have been able to guess, the roller coaster ride came out on top. “A roller coaster may be good for a quick thrill, but it’s not great for getting you to work every day,” said Dr Harry Witchel, Discipline Leader in Physiology. “This study shows how driving a performance car does much more than get you from A to B – it could be a valuable part of your daily wellbeing routine.”
Ford decided to put their best foot forward for this experiment by giving the participants the keys to the Focus RS, Focus ST and Mustang models - 3 of the most exciting vehicles in their lineup. It’s no surprise that these models were enough to get pulses racing, which leads to the conclusion that owning a sports car can improve your quality of life on a day-to-day basis and boost your feeling of life fulfilment.
Ford brought these results to life with the creation of the Ford ‘Buzz Car’. This is a Ford Focus RS which has been given almost 200,000 LED lights and 110 x 500-lumen daylight-bright light strips to create a visual representation of the driver's emotions. This works because the driver is given wearable technology and artificial intelligence which taps into their brains, measuring every sense of enjoyment and fulfilment the driver feels.
These emotions are then transformed into a highly-responsive light show on the exterior of the car for everyone to see. The results were outstanding.
So to summarise, if you’re in need of a pick-me-up, then forget kissing, dancing or watching the footy, go and get yourself behind the wheel of a Ford performance car. The new Fiesta ST is the most accessible model and that starts from just £18,995, then there is the Focus ST from £25,760, followed by the Focus RS from £32,795. Of course, the Mustang is the most impressive Ford performance car on the market, and prices start from £36,645.
The only other option is to get down to your local theme park and spend the day on the roller coasters...