Car culture — American car culture in particular — tends to be driven by raw numbers, like 0-60 times, quarter mile times, top speeds and lap times. That’s why it’s wonderful Mazda is so brazen in saying they don’t give a shit about those things.
I’m a huge proponent of cars like that. Cars that are about the experience of driving, style, weirdness or pure fun rather than quantifiable things.
That’s our question of the day — what car is about more than just raw data?
One of my all-time favorites is the Citroën SM. Even for its time it was only just adequate as a performance car, but it was bizarre and amazing and incredibly high-tech in that Citroën sort of way. Is it slow? Sure. Is it hard to maintain? Almost certainly. Would I give one of my testicles to own one? Absolutely.
Your turn, what car was more than performance numbers?
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.