Has modern supercar ownership become NAFF and irrelevant?
Discussion
A bit of background, I live in central London, and have been lucky enough to have owned some nice cars in the past, everything from 996RS to Murcielago's. Further to that I've driven the lot - F50's, Enzo's and Carrera GT's too so I'd like to think I know what cars are really exciting and what are not.
Here are my thoughts in no particular order:
1. I find driving a supercar now, IN THE UK, excruciatingly embarrassing. I have the (mis)fortune to live in London, and cannot stand the revving, racing, "spotting"/videoing/ and general tw*tishness of other attention seeking idiots, and their "followers" with which you are invariably associated, if you just want to pop into your nice car for a drive down to the a nice meal in town. I avoid it as much as I can but I still need to head out of the city to do point 2. below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DswlvppbBmI
2. So what about going for a drive in the country? Waking up at 5am on summer Sunday and going for a hoon? Yes, good point and I used to do it. But there's a new problem. These new cars are now WILDLY fast in a way which wasn't a consideration in yesterday. Going for a burn in a Ferrari F355 is one thing. Going for a burn in a 488 and you're going at BALLISTIC speeds which are not funny anymore because, if you get it wrong, you're going to have a big problem - there's a monumental difference between doing 70mph vs 110mph....
3. .... because the police will give you a custodial sentence now for the latter. And the whole "speed camera" thing, SPECS, "average speed cameras", sleeping policemen, and the ever constant threat of flashing blue lights which didn't exit 10 years ago has made the whole thing incredibly nerve racking and pointless.
4. Related to this, newer stuff from any of the supercar makers is just not fun at anything other than completely ludicrous speeds. I cannot stand this new 991 RS or the 488 and these new generations of irrelevance. Believe me, drive an F50 at 30mph and it's involving, engaging and wild! Drive a LaFerrari (stupid name) at 30mph and it's a Honda Civic. Kinda misses the point. New tech, the F1 gearboxes, electric steering and blah blah blah just detach you from the driving experience. So you compensate by going faster and that's unacceptable. Oh and before people chime in with "go on track" - what's the point? I wanted a road car!
5. Also, when did every supercar owner in the world suddenly become such an attention w
e? The whole instagram thing, making videos as if you're Jeremy Clarkson is all a bit naff. I find it quite distasteful. Seriously, taking pictures of yourself driving or the "gold hublot watch with steering wheel" pic is just shameful status whoring. I love it when people share their ownership experience but a pic of you at the wheel of your "Lambo" with "ma new Gucci belt innit" is just toe-curlingly tacky and that's what's changed. Supercars were once glamorous.
Now the whole supercar thing is just a bit "Yiannimize" - a Ferrari 512TR was once, rare, exotic, sexy and a bit South of France. A Ferrari 488 Spider is "Chingford" with a satin purple wrap, a youtube channel documenting delivery, driving, your new watch, your girlfriends new Laboutins and your steroid cycle. It's all desperately naff, more to do with fake self promotion, vulgarity, and the supercar has become the de facto instagram and social media accessory.
If you've got it, flaunt it they used to say but this is ridiculous and worse than the worst of the 80's. You've got grown men taking pictures of their outfits and looking for "followers" and likes...dear oh dear.....
Anyway, I digress, in summary:
- they're ubiquitous (especially where i live)
- they're driven badly
- they're boring at slow speeds
- they're too fast to drive hard
- the police are stricter
- driving standards have got worse
- they're the hallmark of people desperate to demonstrate the most base and tacky form of status and I know I shouldn't care what other people think, but I don't want to be associated with "grime-music" superstars, and "rudeboys" or the young sons of Qatari billionaires. It's no different to not wanting a gold tooth or taking steroids to turn me in a musclebound freak.
I have thought of a solution. Go classic. I'm still thinking. But the title of my thread refers to "modern supercar" ownership and perhaps going classic would prove my point.
Thoughts?
Here are my thoughts in no particular order:
1. I find driving a supercar now, IN THE UK, excruciatingly embarrassing. I have the (mis)fortune to live in London, and cannot stand the revving, racing, "spotting"/videoing/ and general tw*tishness of other attention seeking idiots, and their "followers" with which you are invariably associated, if you just want to pop into your nice car for a drive down to the a nice meal in town. I avoid it as much as I can but I still need to head out of the city to do point 2. below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DswlvppbBmI
2. So what about going for a drive in the country? Waking up at 5am on summer Sunday and going for a hoon? Yes, good point and I used to do it. But there's a new problem. These new cars are now WILDLY fast in a way which wasn't a consideration in yesterday. Going for a burn in a Ferrari F355 is one thing. Going for a burn in a 488 and you're going at BALLISTIC speeds which are not funny anymore because, if you get it wrong, you're going to have a big problem - there's a monumental difference between doing 70mph vs 110mph....
3. .... because the police will give you a custodial sentence now for the latter. And the whole "speed camera" thing, SPECS, "average speed cameras", sleeping policemen, and the ever constant threat of flashing blue lights which didn't exit 10 years ago has made the whole thing incredibly nerve racking and pointless.
4. Related to this, newer stuff from any of the supercar makers is just not fun at anything other than completely ludicrous speeds. I cannot stand this new 991 RS or the 488 and these new generations of irrelevance. Believe me, drive an F50 at 30mph and it's involving, engaging and wild! Drive a LaFerrari (stupid name) at 30mph and it's a Honda Civic. Kinda misses the point. New tech, the F1 gearboxes, electric steering and blah blah blah just detach you from the driving experience. So you compensate by going faster and that's unacceptable. Oh and before people chime in with "go on track" - what's the point? I wanted a road car!
5. Also, when did every supercar owner in the world suddenly become such an attention w
e? The whole instagram thing, making videos as if you're Jeremy Clarkson is all a bit naff. I find it quite distasteful. Seriously, taking pictures of yourself driving or the "gold hublot watch with steering wheel" pic is just shameful status whoring. I love it when people share their ownership experience but a pic of you at the wheel of your "Lambo" with "ma new Gucci belt innit" is just toe-curlingly tacky and that's what's changed. Supercars were once glamorous.Now the whole supercar thing is just a bit "Yiannimize" - a Ferrari 512TR was once, rare, exotic, sexy and a bit South of France. A Ferrari 488 Spider is "Chingford" with a satin purple wrap, a youtube channel documenting delivery, driving, your new watch, your girlfriends new Laboutins and your steroid cycle. It's all desperately naff, more to do with fake self promotion, vulgarity, and the supercar has become the de facto instagram and social media accessory.
If you've got it, flaunt it they used to say but this is ridiculous and worse than the worst of the 80's. You've got grown men taking pictures of their outfits and looking for "followers" and likes...dear oh dear.....
Anyway, I digress, in summary:
- they're ubiquitous (especially where i live)
- they're driven badly
- they're boring at slow speeds
- they're too fast to drive hard
- the police are stricter
- driving standards have got worse
- they're the hallmark of people desperate to demonstrate the most base and tacky form of status and I know I shouldn't care what other people think, but I don't want to be associated with "grime-music" superstars, and "rudeboys" or the young sons of Qatari billionaires. It's no different to not wanting a gold tooth or taking steroids to turn me in a musclebound freak.
I have thought of a solution. Go classic. I'm still thinking. But the title of my thread refers to "modern supercar" ownership and perhaps going classic would prove my point.
Thoughts?
Edited by Murcielago_Boy on Monday 1st August 12:29
Swampy1982 said:
1st world problems....
Much of the population would have to save in order to afford to get a track day experience, let alone own a car from one of the more expensive marques.
I get the point, don't get me wrong, I just can't understand the moaning about it.
Want a supercar - get one
Think they are too brash - sell it
Want a classic - buy one
and in all these actions be grateful for the opportunity to be able to have and make the decision.
I'm sure you worked hard for your money, and the privileges it affords you, but many people work very hard for very much less.
Swampy, don't get me wrong, don't make this debate about £££££ because it's not about that AT ALL.Much of the population would have to save in order to afford to get a track day experience, let alone own a car from one of the more expensive marques.
I get the point, don't get me wrong, I just can't understand the moaning about it.
Want a supercar - get one
Think they are too brash - sell it
Want a classic - buy one
and in all these actions be grateful for the opportunity to be able to have and make the decision.
I'm sure you worked hard for your money, and the privileges it affords you, but many people work very hard for very much less.
Edited by Swampy1982 on Monday 1st August 13:10
This is about a disillusioned supercar enthusiast. I'm moaning because I'm almost "upset" (for want of a better word). I couldn't wait to save up, and buy my dream car. And now, having got there, I'm thinking "good grief, this is a load of tacky pointlessness."
Kinda disappointing really.
I suppose that supercars have always been irrelevant....
....But there was something strangely exciting, sexy and glamorous seeing an industrialist rumbling gently through Knightbridge in an impossibly expensive Diablo 6.0 back in 1999. It wasn't a hire car out for an Eid celebration, wrapped in a nice shade of satin matt "jizz," it wasn't being wheelspun and donuted and video-ed for youtube, the owner didn't have negative equity on the PCP. It was manual, hard to drive (by todays standards) difficult to access the performance, too expensive to buy, exciting, rare and sexy,and the owner wasn't driving it while taking a picture of his new "Louis V" shoes and gold teeth to show "goals" for his Instaface followers.
As a kid, that's what supercars meant to me. In the USA they're still called "exotics.
Today, here in the UK, that glamour, that schoolboy wonder, has been replaced with tacky vulgarity. Just watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62n-H6mo-eM
And this is NOT an age thing I think (I may be wrong). I think it's a PLACE thing.
....But there was something strangely exciting, sexy and glamorous seeing an industrialist rumbling gently through Knightbridge in an impossibly expensive Diablo 6.0 back in 1999. It wasn't a hire car out for an Eid celebration, wrapped in a nice shade of satin matt "jizz," it wasn't being wheelspun and donuted and video-ed for youtube, the owner didn't have negative equity on the PCP. It was manual, hard to drive (by todays standards) difficult to access the performance, too expensive to buy, exciting, rare and sexy,and the owner wasn't driving it while taking a picture of his new "Louis V" shoes and gold teeth to show "goals" for his Instaface followers.
As a kid, that's what supercars meant to me. In the USA they're still called "exotics.
Today, here in the UK, that glamour, that schoolboy wonder, has been replaced with tacky vulgarity. Just watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62n-H6mo-eM
And this is NOT an age thing I think (I may be wrong). I think it's a PLACE thing.
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