GraemeH
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2005
- Messages
- 2,976
- Location
- Scotland, UK
- Car(s)
- Toyota Corolla, Lexus IS200, BMW E39 5 Series.
a pissing contest? you're kidding right?
its called being put into the record books for being the first to do it. its EXTREMELY funny that you didn't AT ALL include the Veyron into your post. it fits EVERYTHING with what you're talking about.
I'll try to explain;
-Shooting to get "put into the record books" is the pissing contest. The Veyron started it. Now, to win that contest, VW didn't need to sacrifice much, not reliability or comfort etc, the reason they didn't is because they were very thorough in their engineering and design. They have the resources to do that. The car was also always going to cost a LOT, and didn't need to be profitable. Few other companies have that luxury.
Now look at the other competitors in the pissing contest (the three i mentioned, though they were just select examples). They don't have such thorough design, engineering or resources. They have to do it by hacking together other peoples engines (2 of the 3 mentioned anyway) and hastily assembling interiors from Momo catalogues (the SSC at least). For these reasons, even if the cars are a few MPH faster, a few percent better in one category, I can't respect them as much, they're more like one trick poneys. It's just less impressive, even if they do "out-piss" them a little.
but what else is funny.....
is that every one of those companies you listed are American, and not one is Euro. so that could be the reason as to why you didn't.
An 'American playing the victim of disrespect' is as much of a clich? as the 'European acting superior' is. I don't buy either. Feel free to add non-American companies to my short list of cars, nationality has nothing to do with it. I don't know why they build their cars the way they do.
aSSC will ALWAYS be remembered for beating a car that almost everybody thought was unbeatable. Hennessey will ALWAYS be remembered for beating that same car in a standing mile competition. and didn't Vector hold the speed record for a year right after the XJ220 did it and RIGHT before the McLaren F1 smashed both of them?
Well it's funny you should say that about the SSC, then mention the Vector beating the XJ220, this fact about the Vector illustrates a point. The SSC won't always be remembered, just like the Vector wasn't always remembered and the XJ220 and McLaren F1 were.
Anyway as I said this Vector looks pretty cool. I just won't take it seriously as an all-round car until they prove me wrong, because as I mentioned before, i can't imagine that small a company has the resources to create an 1800bhp car that isn't a one trick poney.