Supercars. Meh.
Discussion
I think you are missing the point, supercars are a compromise, They are built in very limited numbers and the investment spent on developing them is tiny compared to say a VW Golf.
To enjoy a McLaren, Ferrari, Lamborghini you have to embrace its shortfalls and learn to work with them, sometimes they can be seen as part of the character and charm. But polished VW Golf's they are not. If you come out of a mass produced car. like a golf, you will find faults, especially with quality and ergonomics.
If you spend proportionally the same amount of money per supercar on R&D as VW do on a golf you would have a Bugatti Chiron. Which is why an entry level supercar is £200k and a Chiron £3M.
I drive an NA MX5 and a 675LT, I enjoy both in equal measure but the 675LT is an astonishingly accomplished car and breathtakingly fast.
The McLaren would not have been a 670, they don't have glass panels and the steering is universally accepted as the best this side of an Elise S1. probably a 570GT or 720S. You need to drive all these cars in the correct mode, in normal mode they are set up for WLTP so they can pass emissions, MPG and noise tests. You also complain about the Lambo being too loud and the McLaren too quiet. This highlights the issue that I don't think supercars are for you, there just isn't the breadth of variety to choose from, as with a hot hatch, to meet your specific requirements, There are basically half a dozen choices and that's it.
To enjoy a McLaren, Ferrari, Lamborghini you have to embrace its shortfalls and learn to work with them, sometimes they can be seen as part of the character and charm. But polished VW Golf's they are not. If you come out of a mass produced car. like a golf, you will find faults, especially with quality and ergonomics.
If you spend proportionally the same amount of money per supercar on R&D as VW do on a golf you would have a Bugatti Chiron. Which is why an entry level supercar is £200k and a Chiron £3M.
I drive an NA MX5 and a 675LT, I enjoy both in equal measure but the 675LT is an astonishingly accomplished car and breathtakingly fast.
The McLaren would not have been a 670, they don't have glass panels and the steering is universally accepted as the best this side of an Elise S1. probably a 570GT or 720S. You need to drive all these cars in the correct mode, in normal mode they are set up for WLTP so they can pass emissions, MPG and noise tests. You also complain about the Lambo being too loud and the McLaren too quiet. This highlights the issue that I don't think supercars are for you, there just isn't the breadth of variety to choose from, as with a hot hatch, to meet your specific requirements, There are basically half a dozen choices and that's it.
lambo666 said:
Lost all credibility when driving in 'Auto'. Any supercar with a single clutch has to be driven like a manual with the paddles in it's correct setting.
Also sounds like most of the cars were knackered also, which is probably the case if all were rental vehicles.
I certainly agree with that other than the credibility bit. My car has the e-gear box and it was in auto mode for , oh, around 20 seconds, and since then never, ever. Paddles all the time. It's actually a manual box with electric actuation, and I drive it as such.Also sounds like most of the cars were knackered also, which is probably the case if all were rental vehicles.
Re credibility - I don't think he has to have any - it came across as a genuine "feedback" post. Well written and honest. Of course it's not the same as living with a car / owning it (actually having these toys at your disposal adds a whole dimension renting cannot).
The "supercars" are expected ot have flaws doesn't sit well with me. If I spent over £120k on a car, I'd expect perfection, not compromise (other than a harsh ride due to race suspension)
Griffith4ever said:
The "supercars" are expected ot have flaws doesn't sit well with me. If I spent over £120k on a car, I'd expect perfection, not compromise (other than a harsh ride due to race suspension)
Perfection ? Not a hope in a supercar.Most of them are quite literally a pain to just get in and out of. Have you seen the sill width on some of them? (Mclaren...ahem)
The vast majority of R&D money is spent on driving dynamics, engine development and so forth. Hence the ergonomics are often not optimised, the sound proofing, harshness etc can also be a little lacking but I think this is rhe point.
If you want superb panel gaps, latest tech, power and an ability to waft along in silence then get a Mercedes S class or similar but supercars should, surely, come with some theatre and some foibles?
On my own car, more a super GT than supercar, the paint is so thin you can see the weave under it, the font size on the dash displays is so small I can only see them with reading specs on, engaging first gear in Drive is slow to say the least (fine with the paddles) and so on . It is definitely not perfection but I love it and love the idiosyncrasies it comes with.
I had BMW cars older than this with far more advanced infotainment systems and stuff like Apps to go along side it. Stuff most supercars are only now just catching up with.
There is no rationale to owning a super car do just buy with the heart and accept its short comings
Griffith4ever said:
The "supercars" are expected ot have flaws doesn't sit well with me. If I spent over £120k on a car, I'd expect perfection, not compromise (other than a harsh ride due to race suspension)
Then you would need to buy a Chiron as that has had the same amount of investment as a VW Golf. Its just not possible to iron out every tiny detail when you only make a few thousand cars a year. Ferrari 11,000 and Lamborghini 8,000. VW spent £10.9 BILLION on R&D. Spread that across 11k Ferrari and it equates to £991k per car. Given a Ferrari is around £250k if you expect VW levels of perfection then each Ferrari would cost min £1.25M. I know £250k for a car is a lot of money but to achieve the level of sophistication of a Golf they would be much more expensive. And this is the issue many new supercar owners experience, They think spending 10 times more than a Golf will get them 10 times the quality, reliability & sophistication and the reality is they get 10 times less (not exact figures of course I'm making a point). Hence so many new supercar owners end up disappointed. .
Edited by Bispal on Tuesday 17th May 08:48
Griffith4ever said:
My car has the e-gear box and it was in auto mode for , oh, around 20 seconds, and since then never, ever. Paddles all the time. It's actually a manual box with electric actuation, and I drive it as such.
+1This is true of all single-clutch automated manuals from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, etc. Lots of people complained about the gearbox in the Aston Vantage and it turned out they were leaving it in auto expecting it to handle the gearchanges like their BMW. My F430 has an "auto" button, I have pressed it exactly once on the day I picked up the car, and doubt I will ever press it again.
The F1 gearbox is the part of the car that took the most getting used it. I didn't really like it at first, even in manual mode, but now I'm used to it I'm perfectly happy. Although I'd gladly swap it for a dual clutch.
Bispal said:
Griffith4ever said:
The "supercars" are expected ot have flaws doesn't sit well with me. If I spent over £120k on a car, I'd expect perfection, not compromise (other than a harsh ride due to race suspension)
Then you would need to buy a Chiron as that has had the same amount of investment as a VW Golf. Its just not possible to iron out every tiny detail when you only make a few thousand cars a year. Ferrari 11,000 and Lamborghini 8,000. VW spent £10.9 BILLION on R&D. Spread that across 11k Ferrari and it equates to £991k per car. Given a Ferrari is around £250k if you expect VW levels of perfection then each Ferrari would cost min £1.25M. I know £250k for a car is a lot of money but to achieve the level of sophistication of a Golf they would be much more expensive. And this is the issue many new supercar owners experience, They think spending 10 times more than a Golf will get them 10 times the quality, reliability & sophistication and the reality is they get 10 times less (not exact figures of course I'm making a point). Hence so many new supercar owners end up disappointed. .
Edited by Bispal on Tuesday 17th May 08:48
Great post OP. Fun to read.
Owning a supercar makes very little logical sense. They’re expensive to buy and maintain, they can be fragile and impractical, and if something goes wrong with it you’ll be digging deep.
But… I loved my Lambo (just a humble Gallardo). It gave me huge pleasure, it looked utterly gorgeous, it had bags of power and it sounded like the London Philharmonic.
If you’re lucky enough to get the chance, living with a supercar is a life experience. Even a brief fling is good. Renting one once isn’t the same, and no brand or market-wide conclusions should be drawn from doing so.
Owning a supercar makes very little logical sense. They’re expensive to buy and maintain, they can be fragile and impractical, and if something goes wrong with it you’ll be digging deep.
But… I loved my Lambo (just a humble Gallardo). It gave me huge pleasure, it looked utterly gorgeous, it had bags of power and it sounded like the London Philharmonic.
If you’re lucky enough to get the chance, living with a supercar is a life experience. Even a brief fling is good. Renting one once isn’t the same, and no brand or market-wide conclusions should be drawn from doing so.
Spindoctor said:
Great post OP. Fun to read.
Owning a supercar makes very little logical sense. They’re expensive to buy and maintain, they can be fragile and impractical, and if something goes wrong with it you’ll be digging deep.
But… I loved my Lambo (just a humble Gallardo). It gave me huge pleasure, it looked utterly gorgeous, it had bags of power and it sounded like the London Philharmonic.
If you’re lucky enough to get the chance, living with a supercar is a life experience. Even a brief fling is good. Renting one once isn’t the same, and no brand or market-wide conclusions should be drawn from doing so.
Absolutely agree with the above, you need to own one and have it in the garage for that odd occasion when it makes sense to use. You need to to live with it, to find its strengths and weakness's. There is too much notice taken of the journo's these days I've driven and owned cars that are icons and wondered what all the fuss was about and on the other hand owned cars that have been slated and loved them. Owning a supercar makes very little logical sense. They’re expensive to buy and maintain, they can be fragile and impractical, and if something goes wrong with it you’ll be digging deep.
But… I loved my Lambo (just a humble Gallardo). It gave me huge pleasure, it looked utterly gorgeous, it had bags of power and it sounded like the London Philharmonic.
If you’re lucky enough to get the chance, living with a supercar is a life experience. Even a brief fling is good. Renting one once isn’t the same, and no brand or market-wide conclusions should be drawn from doing so.
If you can just do it, if you mull it over for too long you will talk yourself out of it. Life is too short to be sensible all the time.
mr_spock said:
My wife bought me a 6 hour super car driving experience in Toronto last weekend, I thought some of you may be interested.
I think you've summed up the unfortunate paradox that more often than not it's old people who can afford supercars, but they have neither the bodies nor frame of mind to drive them anymore.sone said:
Absolutely agree with the above, you need to own one and have it in the garage for that odd occasion when it makes sense to use. You need to to live with it, to find its strengths and weakness's. There is too much notice taken of the journo's these days I've driven and owned cars that are icons and wondered what all the fuss was about and on the other hand owned cars that have been slated and loved them.
If you can just do it, if you mull it over for too long you will talk yourself out of it. Life is too short to be sensible all the time.
The journalists are a major problem as they can't say anything bad about a car. If they do, they get blacklisted and get no more cars to review.
Therefore they post a false image of everything being amazing, which in reality it isn't.
First post is funny but small luggage on a 488? It probably has the largest out of any supercar I have seen. You can easily get 3/4 overnight bags in the front along with two more bags behind the seats.
Edited by petjam on Wednesday 18th May 14:18
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