RE: C&SC Supercars Poll
Discussion
ks I have ever seen.
As said , the term didn't exist until the advent of the Miura (not bloody MUIRA !!)and was coined by the legendary LJK Setright I think , in an article for Car in which he described co driving the first Miura to UK from Sant'Agata. It is the most beautiful car of its genre and a tasteful contrast to the horrors which followed from Lamborghini .
The Countach was hideous , but looked gorgeous compared to the Diablo. But neither was in the same league of tackiness as the XJ220, the supercar which sounds even worse than it looks and whose interior looks as though it was borrowed from a Vauxhall Carlton.But some people love the giant Jag and good luck to them - this car thing is and should be a broad church .
The best supercar ? No argument - McLaren F1. Light, brilliantly packaged, not weighed down with driver aids and with the best sounding engine of any road car(OK, a 911RSR and a 250GTO come close).
918/Lafezza/ P1 / Bugatti ? Amazing tech, but the reality is that most end up being daft toys for Arab kids and oligarchs .
The Countach was hideous , but looked gorgeous compared to the Diablo. But neither was in the same league of tackiness as the XJ220, the supercar which sounds even worse than it looks and whose interior looks as though it was borrowed from a Vauxhall Carlton.But some people love the giant Jag and good luck to them - this car thing is and should be a broad church .
The best supercar ? No argument - McLaren F1. Light, brilliantly packaged, not weighed down with driver aids and with the best sounding engine of any road car(OK, a 911RSR and a 250GTO come close).
918/Lafezza/ P1 / Bugatti ? Amazing tech, but the reality is that most end up being daft toys for Arab kids and oligarchs .
Cobras have never fitted the general definition of supercar and have never been generally regarded as one. And being essentially a bodged about Ace they are a 50s car and thus predate the definition. I love Cobras dearly - at least the proper ones(289s ideally - 427 can look ridiculous) -but even by the time of the Miura's debut they were very much old hat and old school . They are now a bit like the old joke about Lotus Cortinas- 'of the 15,000 made, only 35,000 survive' .
dinkel said:
To me supercars are:
1. outrageous looks
2. outrageous performance
3. outrageous sounds
Cobra fits the bill.
So... to you an XKSS and a Blower Bentley are not supercars?
By your definition of course - but by mine they don't . Because the term was coined in 1967 and these cars predate them - I am a pedant of course .1. outrageous looks
2. outrageous performance
3. outrageous sounds
Cobra fits the bill.
So... to you an XKSS and a Blower Bentley are not supercars?
Cobras...the original Ace design was derivative but pleasant enough and hence early Cobras were understated and easy on the eye- but no more striking than a big Healey or TR. The 427 did have 'outrageous' looks - but in a way only its mother could love . Pumped up parody of a car to my eyes - it's beyond me why most replicas ape the 427 when the 289 was so much prettier.
Personal thing but the XK SS also is no looker- the windscreen just wrecks those lovely lithe lines of the D Type - and the C Type is far prettier than either .
Blower Bentleys.... a bit cliched to me but that is its fans fault and not the cars. The real superstar(not in use then either- oops!) was the utterly sublime Bugatti T35 - the Kate Moss to the Blower's Kim Kardashian...
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