I share his sentiment on Ferrari ownership, but does it say something about my age, my taste, or just my carefully managed expectations that said first Ferrari will be a carburetted 308GTB?
@PatFromGundo: My expectations are a Dino 308 GT4. When or if I ever get another $25k or so to dump in a completely impractical car it will come down to the same choice. Do I want something along the lines of a C5 Z06 with an upfront cost of $25k and $10k-$15k in depreciation if I drive it like I stole it for 100k miles or so? Or do I get the Ferrari for about $25k and $15k-$20k in maintenance over the same or less miles with zero depreciation? The idea of having a car that is always ready and needs little more than tires and oil changes that on paper offers the same or better performance than the Ferrari seems to win out.
On a more realistic scale a Camaro is always seen as a "settle for" car for a man that really wants a Corvette. When I graduated college in 97 I was going to live at home with the parents for a while and put my income towards a NICE car for myself. My choices came down to a new Z-28 or a used C4 LT-1 Corvette. I choose the Corvette, a 94 with 9,500 miles. I put almost 150k miles on that car and loved every minute. Shortly after marriage, the Vette went away to be replaced by a 9 year old 1996 Z-28 convertible. There was NO comparison between the two.
There really is something to the "mystique" of performance cars, whither it is Ferrari, Lambo, or Corvette. Heck, I never got the whole BMW thing until I finally drove and owned one of them.
Automobiles, for the petrolhead and even to some of the uninitiated, are so much more than just objects. I've delved into the psyche before when comparing the love and fondness for certain cars over others to the love and fondness for certain women over others.
It's true that cars are, in the strictest sense, mere objects. They are inanimate unless coaxed into motion by a human. They are transportation appliances unless their bodies are sculpted and engines cast to not be merely a device to get you from point A to point B.
They are a waste of money since they rarely gain in value and those that do cost their owners more in maintenance than they can generally make back during a sale. But we still lust for them.
Against all logic. Against everything you learn in even the most basic of economics classes. Against any semblance of sanity. We lust for them.
We want to be the one that turns the key and presses the accelerator to make the inanimate animate. We want to be the one that sees the form over the function and to feel the energy from a perfectly tuned, raucous engine unfit for "daily driver" duty. We want to be the one who goes poor so that he (or she) can own that perfect specimen of an automobile.
That perfect specimen is different for each of us. But, when someone tells you he (or she) bought their dream car -- no matter what it is -- we can understand. And we are jealous of them, even if we disagree with their choice of dreams.
@engineerd is back in the D...for now: You sir are good. I agree with all that you said but will deny the fact that they are lifeless. As humans we give spirit to the objects that we enjoy, every time we look at it, think about it or feel for it.
When your car breaks you feel bad for it and want to get it fixed and likewise when you're driving it how ever hard you wish, when doing that it brings you joy.
We give names and personalitys to our cars and in doing so give them life, with out ever turning a key or pressing a throttle.
Every different car is so complex, has so many different aspects from the way it looks, to what it can do, to the way it drives, to the way it feels to be in, to the way it's built, to the way it fails, to the way the previous owner treated it that they can offer as much joy or pain (or both) in a relationship as almost any female.
They can be the one who took advantage of you, the one that got away, or the one that was tragically taken from you. They can leave you and come back, but they're never the same the second time.
The bad part about COTD is you're essentially ineligible before 10am (Matt sleeping?) and after 3pm central (Matt writing COTD?). So in reality, there's a narrow range.
I wish I had FULL "box score" stats on every COTD, because I'd wager that timeframe is pretty accurate.
@PowerTryp: @Mad_Science: You're both absolutely right. We don't just animate them in the physical world, but also in our minds when we give them names and impart on them human attributes. I was speaking more in the more absolute, physical world, but there is an entire level of connection with automobiles that we have. An emotional, psychological connection not easily described. That is what drives us. That is what makes us willing to go poor for a dream car.
@engineerd: As the username might suggest, I've got a pretty good handle on what makes the human body tick (and how to mess with it).
...which is to say that for me, the line between very complicated machines and animals and humans is not as huge.
The meaning that a thing or person has comes not from its function, but from everything else: malfunction, what/who produced it, how it's treated, how it's used, what it leaves behind. Without these, there's nothing but a pile of metal or an oily, salty bag of tubes.
@engineerd: Martin Luther King of Jalopnik, I salute you and your fantastic dream of a world hampered by politicians and passionless, soulless tree huggers!
Hopefully, one day, when the car has been replaced as transport just as the horse was replaced by the horse, we will all learn to appreciate cars like the way we appreciate horses now.
@engineerd: It's this kind of post that makes me rue the day that I unloaded my locked-engine, inop-A/C, 10yo beat up Ford Contour SE for a pittance. It most likely would have cost hundreds if not thousands to make run again. It got poor gas mileage and wasn't particularly posh. But when it was running, I just couldn't help but wind the V6 out to 6000rpm any time I had the room to do so (for the roar if not the speed), I threw it into corners harder than there was ever any reason to, and even with all the traumas to its paint and skin, it just looked perfect. Two years after selling it, even though I've got a Mazda 6 that almost makes as much power, handles almost as well, and is more safe, efficient, and reliable, I still feel like I dumped the perfect girlfriend over a stupid misunderstanding. #ferrarif430
10/21/09
07/06/09
but what of four cylinder engines that produce over 200 HP?
whatever, i want a ferrari too.
07/06/09
07/06/09
E30M3 = godly
07/06/09
But I agree, they're awesome.
They're one of a few cars I've watched go from "Oh yeah, I remember those" ~10-15 year old cars to 20+ year old classics. Kinda makes me feel old.
07/06/09
07/06/09
On a more realistic scale a Camaro is always seen as a "settle for" car for a man that really wants a Corvette. When I graduated college in 97 I was going to live at home with the parents for a while and put my income towards a NICE car for myself. My choices came down to a new Z-28 or a used C4 LT-1 Corvette. I choose the Corvette, a 94 with 9,500 miles. I put almost 150k miles on that car and loved every minute. Shortly after marriage, the Vette went away to be replaced by a 9 year old 1996 Z-28 convertible. There was NO comparison between the two.
There really is something to the "mystique" of performance cars, whither it is Ferrari, Lambo, or Corvette. Heck, I never got the whole BMW thing until I finally drove and owned one of them.
07/06/09
07/06/09
It's true that cars are, in the strictest sense, mere objects. They are inanimate unless coaxed into motion by a human. They are transportation appliances unless their bodies are sculpted and engines cast to not be merely a device to get you from point A to point B.
They are a waste of money since they rarely gain in value and those that do cost their owners more in maintenance than they can generally make back during a sale. But we still lust for them.
Against all logic. Against everything you learn in even the most basic of economics classes. Against any semblance of sanity. We lust for them.
We want to be the one that turns the key and presses the accelerator to make the inanimate animate. We want to be the one that sees the form over the function and to feel the energy from a perfectly tuned, raucous engine unfit for "daily driver" duty. We want to be the one who goes poor so that he (or she) can own that perfect specimen of an automobile.
That perfect specimen is different for each of us. But, when someone tells you he (or she) bought their dream car -- no matter what it is -- we can understand. And we are jealous of them, even if we disagree with their choice of dreams.
07/06/09
07/06/09
07/06/09
When your car breaks you feel bad for it and want to get it fixed and likewise when you're driving it how ever hard you wish, when doing that it brings you joy.
We give names and personalitys to our cars and in doing so give them life, with out ever turning a key or pressing a throttle.
07/06/09
Every different car is so complex, has so many different aspects from the way it looks, to what it can do, to the way it drives, to the way it feels to be in, to the way it's built, to the way it fails, to the way the previous owner treated it that they can offer as much joy or pain (or both) in a relationship as almost any female.
They can be the one who took advantage of you, the one that got away, or the one that was tragically taken from you. They can leave you and come back, but they're never the same the second time.
Anyway, you still get COTD.
07/06/09
The bad part about COTD is you're essentially ineligible before 10am (Matt sleeping?) and after 3pm central (Matt writing COTD?). So in reality, there's a narrow range.
I wish I had FULL "box score" stats on every COTD, because I'd wager that timeframe is pretty accurate.
07/06/09
07/06/09
I've noticed the same pattern. Although I always figured the cutoff at 4pm. Either way, the window does seem to be narrow.
07/06/09
...which is to say that for me, the line between very complicated machines and animals and humans is not as huge.
The meaning that a thing or person has comes not from its function, but from everything else: malfunction, what/who produced it, how it's treated, how it's used, what it leaves behind. Without these, there's nothing but a pile of metal or an oily, salty bag of tubes.
07/07/09
Hopefully, one day, when the car has been replaced as transport just as the horse was replaced by the horse, we will all learn to appreciate cars like the way we appreciate horses now.
Amen.
10/21/09
07/06/09