Welcome to Sunday Matinee, where we highlight classic car reviews or other longer videos I find on YouTube. Kick back and enjoy this blast from the past.
On this week's Top Gear they test the BAC Mono. It got me looking for other videos, though, featuring stripped out supercars. Why not have those cars be the Jaguar XJ220 and the Ferrari F40?
Both are absolute classics that have praise heaped upon them, piled up like the mattresses in the story of the Princess and the Pea. They're also both quite flawed, if we're being objective. The Jaguar has big turbo lag and terrible brakes, and the F40 has massive panel gaps and is completely austere.
And yet, both are absolutely great. It can be hard to understand that greatness more than 20 years on from when both cars were introduced, but watching reviews like these from when the cars were relatively new gives any Jalop a true understanding of how the supercars of today became, well, "super." It helps us understand why the Bugatti is such a marvel beyond its massive powerplant, and about how far the modern automobile has come in a relatively short time.
In a way, it helps us understand us. It helps us understand how we, as a society, have collectively raised our standards, and helps us reflect on what cavemen we all were. Even if it was practically yesterday.