London 'Supercar scene'
Discussion
Shmee (who many have said is a thoroughly decent chap) is obviously now seen as very successfull because of his youtube channel.
Whilst he probably takes in some money from it, I understand he had business interests before and hasnt just made it based on his videos. A lot of people probably dont know this and just see a shiny new McLaren.
That being said, there is an absolute s
tload of money (several millions a year) to be made from youtube if you get enough followers so people with nothing better to do obviously see it as easy money. I dont think many understand how difficult it probably is though.
There is clearly a massive market for it though. To a lot of people, seeing a supercar on the road is not an everyday occurance whereas in London it very much is. There must be a huge level of excitement for people if its a once every few months kind of thing. The owners obviously play up to it as the only people who drive the cars in central London and play up to the cameras are massive attention seekers. As long as both sides exist, it will continue to grow. I was in Knightsbridge last weekend though and hardly saw any of either - the foreign supercars havent arrived for the summer yet...
They also do what looks like considerably more than 50mph too and I agree, it wont be long until someone gets killed.
Whilst he probably takes in some money from it, I understand he had business interests before and hasnt just made it based on his videos. A lot of people probably dont know this and just see a shiny new McLaren.
That being said, there is an absolute s
tload of money (several millions a year) to be made from youtube if you get enough followers so people with nothing better to do obviously see it as easy money. I dont think many understand how difficult it probably is though.There is clearly a massive market for it though. To a lot of people, seeing a supercar on the road is not an everyday occurance whereas in London it very much is. There must be a huge level of excitement for people if its a once every few months kind of thing. The owners obviously play up to it as the only people who drive the cars in central London and play up to the cameras are massive attention seekers. As long as both sides exist, it will continue to grow. I was in Knightsbridge last weekend though and hardly saw any of either - the foreign supercars havent arrived for the summer yet...
They also do what looks like considerably more than 50mph too and I agree, it wont be long until someone gets killed.
Edited by vescaegg on Thursday 24th April 16:46
Whats the point of watching these videos though. I mean, you watch a couple of exotics drive up and down a street or being revved. Its boring. Why not watch a GT3 race or something where you see the same kind of cars being ragged round a race track. Much more entertaining.
Maybe I am just getting old but to me its just a bit... well ... sad.
Maybe I am just getting old but to me its just a bit... well ... sad.
[quote=Sexual
Maybe I am just getting old but to me its just a bit... well ... sad.
[/quote]
This is what struck me. The owners apparently have little interest in enjoying the cars other than revving them hard in 30mph zones, what a shame. Mind you, the South is crap for driving so it's hardly a surprise they just sit in traffic bouncing off the limiter.
Maybe I am just getting old but to me its just a bit... well ... sad.
[/quote]
This is what struck me. The owners apparently have little interest in enjoying the cars other than revving them hard in 30mph zones, what a shame. Mind you, the South is crap for driving so it's hardly a surprise they just sit in traffic bouncing off the limiter.
Motorrad said:
Doesn't just happen in London. I've seen the same scenario occurring in Paris and Dusseldorf and to a lesser extent cities in the USA.
If young men want to show off to other young men who film them who am I to comment on their motives for doing so although I suspect it might be safer for the general population if they just cut to the chase and met each other in public toilets/gay bars.
If young men want to show off to other young men who film them who am I to comment on their motives for doing so although I suspect it might be safer for the general population if they just cut to the chase and met each other in public toilets/gay bars.
cayman-black said:
Well i was well pissed off when i was in Rome as i only saw one 458. London is miles better.
See this is the problem. Rome has a million other things to see rather than a bloody supercar you can see anywhere!BJG1 said:
It's videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXp7pZUoaZU and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynBpsvM-zg0 that piss me off. If I lived in one of those flats that camera would be going up the driver's arse.
And both those videos are from the same holier than thou, pretentious trainspotter! Who likes to pretend he doesn't encourage anti-social behaviour. Having met him myself, about a year or so back I dunno where people get this "He's a nice guy" schtick from... 
Baryonyx said:
Sexual said:
Maybe I am just getting old but to me its just a bit... well ... sad.
This is what struck me. The owners apparently have little interest in enjoying the cars other than revving them hard in 30mph zones, what a shame. Mind you, the South is crap for driving so it's hardly a surprise they just sit in traffic bouncing off the limiter.
storminnorman said:
I don't understand what there is to enjoy, yes, you're going to see something flash, and then you're going to see it again, and again, and again.
Have a look at the supercars spotted thread here - it's not long before you find yourself regularly scrolling past the 458s, aventadors et al. Even the chaps who post the same cars from Hong Kong and Tokyo are more interesting to look at than the London selections.
It is bizarre. For £10 you could find yourself in a county motorshow where you'll see all manner of cars, some of which you would never find out and about.
Plenty of people watch X-Factor so I don't really question why somebody enjoys something anymore.Have a look at the supercars spotted thread here - it's not long before you find yourself regularly scrolling past the 458s, aventadors et al. Even the chaps who post the same cars from Hong Kong and Tokyo are more interesting to look at than the London selections.
It is bizarre. For £10 you could find yourself in a county motorshow where you'll see all manner of cars, some of which you would never find out and about.
Rich_W said:
Indeed. But maybe not on the South being crap. My drive from South London to Goodwoods Breakfast meets is pretty good. Helps that it's early in the morning so very little traffic
Aye, still fairly dump compared to the North. But you take what you can get when you're stuck down there I suppose.It's a byproduct really of today's culture.
People want to be rich and famous, they don't want to have to have grafted or innovated with money and fame being a - perhaps embarrassing - consequence.
Writ large celebrity culture and apparently everyman-struck-gold examples like Shmee (I'm aware as said before his success is down to more than just the social media stuff) you're always going to get people incapable of an original thought following the bandwagon.
Look how many clones of Flappy Birds there was within days of it being in the zeitgeist.
Long story short - they do it because they think they'll get famous, and the supercar owners of that particular ilk love the attention. It's a perfect symbiotic relationship.
People want to be rich and famous, they don't want to have to have grafted or innovated with money and fame being a - perhaps embarrassing - consequence.
Writ large celebrity culture and apparently everyman-struck-gold examples like Shmee (I'm aware as said before his success is down to more than just the social media stuff) you're always going to get people incapable of an original thought following the bandwagon.
Look how many clones of Flappy Birds there was within days of it being in the zeitgeist.
Long story short - they do it because they think they'll get famous, and the supercar owners of that particular ilk love the attention. It's a perfect symbiotic relationship.
Durzel said:
It's a byproduct really of today's culture.
People want to be rich and famous, they don't want to have to have grafted or innovated with money and fame being a - perhaps embarrassing - consequence.
Writ large celebrity culture and apparently everyman-struck-gold examples like Shmee (I'm aware as said before his success is down to more than just the social media stuff) you're always going to get people incapable of an original thought following the bandwagon.
Look how many clones of Flappy Birds there was within days of it being in the zeitgeist.
Long story short - they do it because they think they'll get famous, and the supercar owners of that particular ilk love the attention. It's a perfect symbiotic relationship.
Just to add to this, as long as being famous equates with being rich/successful (and currently it does in a way that historically it wouldn't have - cf Jade Goody, Jordan et al), this is not an unreasonable thing to aspire to.People want to be rich and famous, they don't want to have to have grafted or innovated with money and fame being a - perhaps embarrassing - consequence.
Writ large celebrity culture and apparently everyman-struck-gold examples like Shmee (I'm aware as said before his success is down to more than just the social media stuff) you're always going to get people incapable of an original thought following the bandwagon.
Look how many clones of Flappy Birds there was within days of it being in the zeitgeist.
Long story short - they do it because they think they'll get famous, and the supercar owners of that particular ilk love the attention. It's a perfect symbiotic relationship.
The reasoning is quite alien to me (I am approaching 40, and have worked all my adult life after striving and getting an honours degree in my field of work) -- but that doesn't mean that I'm right and a 17 year old who thinks that being a famous WAG from TOWIE is the ultimate aspiration is wrong.
It's too easy to fall into that sort of reasoning because morally I was taught "hard work = success" whereas others weren't taught that at all, and for them "fame = success". Both strategies have possibilities of success at the top.
Back to the topic at hand, a fair number of middle eastern young and wealthy types spend summer in London to get away from summer back home. I wonder if they show off cars in Dubai/Bahrain/Abu Dhabi etc in the same way as London.
liller said:
Motorrad said:
Doesn't just happen in London. I've seen the same scenario occurring in Paris and Dusseldorf and to a lesser extent cities in the USA.
If young men want to show off to other young men who film them who am I to comment on their motives for doing so although I suspect it might be safer for the general population if they just cut to the chase and met each other in public toilets/gay bars.
this just made me do a genuine laugh out loud!If young men want to show off to other young men who film them who am I to comment on their motives for doing so although I suspect it might be safer for the general population if they just cut to the chase and met each other in public toilets/gay bars.
Sexual Chocolate said:
Whats the point of watching these videos though. I mean, you watch a couple of exotics drive up and down a street or being revved. Its boring. Why not watch a GT3 race or something where you see the same kind of cars being ragged round a race track. Much more entertaining.
Maybe I am just getting old but to me its just a bit... well ... sad.
I couldn't agree more, I find these videos utterly tiresome, and most of the presenters hugely annoying - in one of those linked above the presenter said that the revving-with-fire McLaren was 'mental'. Cringeworthy, and just a little sad.Maybe I am just getting old but to me its just a bit... well ... sad.
So people have come on here "a car forum" to slag off cars! 
If people don't like watching videos of "supercars" driving "slowly" & "revving" their engines, then don't as nobody is forcing you. Some people don't get to see these things in the flesh very often so to see some driving slowly on a "real" street is pleasing for alot of people. Watching cars racing around a track is completely different so I fully understand why so many people enjoy either filming these cars on our streets or watching the videos.
If people don't like watching videos of "supercars" driving "slowly" & "revving" their engines, then don't as nobody is forcing you. Some people don't get to see these things in the flesh very often so to see some driving slowly on a "real" street is pleasing for alot of people. Watching cars racing around a track is completely different so I fully understand why so many people enjoy either filming these cars on our streets or watching the videos.
Harji said:
It is boring, even in sunny Acton I saw to Gallardo's in the space of five mins. It's in central you get ppl taking the camera phones up and filming one. I actually find the whole current super/hyper/phallic car thing really boring, Mclaren bring out a super duper one, Ferrari bring out a super duper one, Lamborghini bring out a super duper one I tend to skip all the reviews of these things.
Give me a GTR, RX-7/8, Impreza STI , EVO then I may get my camera out, far more interesting to me.
You would rather take a picture of a Mazda Rx-8?Give me a GTR, RX-7/8, Impreza STI , EVO then I may get my camera out, far more interesting to me.
Having lived in the area (near Sloane Street) up until recently, this 'scene' did indeed get boring very quickly. Trying to pop out to the shops on a Saturday afternoon often meant running the gauntlet of swarming spotty children with DSLRs, double-parked exotica on foreign plates and noisy, badly-driven supercars.
Just exactly what is needed on an already busy and noisy stretch of road, in an area that is renowned for being a Mecca to rudderless tourists. As soon as one of the swarm gets hit, it will all sort itself out in some sort of delightful karmic fashion.
Just exactly what is needed on an already busy and noisy stretch of road, in an area that is renowned for being a Mecca to rudderless tourists. As soon as one of the swarm gets hit, it will all sort itself out in some sort of delightful karmic fashion.
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