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When i was about 9 i had pretty much memorised the entire Top Trumps Supercars and Performance Cars packs. The F40 was the best, but even then my favourite was the Lancia Delta, for some odd reason.
As a teen i was much more interested in being a hippy with a T2 camper.
But since i didn't bother learning to drive until i was 34 I have never had anything remotely nippy.
If i won the lottery now in my 40s, I'd probably go for a Lancia, or perhaps a TR6. I'd take a few test drives down at the Porsche garage though, see what all the fuss is about.
You don't think superfast bike doesn't mean the same? It's a lifestyle accessory - look how tough I am !
To the layperson (me), all motorbikes with the classic 'racing' silhouette look exactly the same - an egg with wheels. Just looks like a bloke on a bike. But a bright purple Lambo stands out a mile to even the most non-petrolhead, and imo almost always does scream 'tosser'. Especially so if it's doing 3mph in an urban traffic jam, or parked outside the shop.
That said, i did once see a young man stop his convertible Ferrari outside the shop in one of the most high crime areas of Brisol, blocking the road, leave the engine running and the door open, stroll into the shop, queue up politely to buy a single pack of chewing gum, and then stroll back to his car. Don't know who he was, but it made quite a statement, and it wasn't just 'my dad's rich'...
I drive a boring Ford I suppose but still enjoy watching these 2 waffle on about cars The supercar paddock from the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Somebody put the 2 men in a field video on here years ago and started me watching Jonny Smith and listening to his podcast with Rich Porter.
He does more interesting cars like this, interesting to me at least!
I think a lot of cars on the road now are completely unnecessary in terms of size and speed but marketing budgets keep throwing stuff into our faces and convincing us to buy em. The supercar market seems to have become more of an investment or marketing tool as far as I can see, London is awash with pearlescent wrapped nonsense parked outside a jewellers somewhere in Belgravia. I was in Harrogate a few weeks back and a finance firm had about 20 outside of a hotel selling car loans to the Yorkshire glitterati.
Depends where you live IMO - a supercar in the south of France fits in perfectly.
If you want to look cool in this part of the south of France this is the kind of super car you need:
https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/voitures/2884742701
Drive any kind of 2CV variant with the roof down through the south of France and tel me it's not a super car.
Unless you're into rapports tarifés in which case a mega buck super car might attract the kind of people you wish to meet. 😜
Super cars look cool and all that but I'd rather have a race one off, built by mechanics who know their onions. Some of the crazy stuff built for Pikes Peak or the Berg Cup maybe.
Something intimidating with a mechanical violence that shakes you to your core!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEdoa0m6tU8
But a bright purple Lambo stands out a mile to even the most non-petrolhead, and imo almost always does scream 'tosser'. Especially so if it's doing 3mph in an urban traffic jam, or parked outside the shop.
I was in Nice last year on holiday and one day rode to Monaco. From about 2-3 miles outside the Principality, the roads were solid with flash cars. I was filtering down the middle, conscious that I was inches away from wing mirrors that cost more than my bike. It was an absolute hellhole. Seemed to be the thing to do - buy a car worth more than an average UK house, sit in traffic in Monaco doing 3mph.
Riding around the place, there were no useful shops (none that I saw anyway). Was all glitzy Ferrari, Bugatti and Lamborghini showrooms.
Stuck in all this insane traffic were a few buses, presumably carrying the plebs to their jobs in hotels and as valets for these flash cars whenever they parked up anywhere. Seriously dysfunctional place, I didn't like it at all. Although I did get to ride most of the F1 circuit, in amongst having to slow down for all these cars capable of 200mph which had presumably never got out of first gear around the Monaco streets.
Riding around the place, there were no useful shops
Philippe Gilbert has a bike shop in Monaco.
Seriously dysfunctional place, I didn't like it at all.
One of the most densely populated places on the planet. A rich person's ghetto. Apparently you have to cycle to Italy for a decent coffee. The tax situation's good though.
I was also speaking recently to a guy who works for Bentley and he was saying now the market is nuts that you can create a limited edition 20 run of supercar , barely change anything yet sell it for huge margin
Place in the modern world? Billionaires have their own markets. We've had a more equal society for a short while but are heading back to castles and carriages. Sorry. Little bit of politics... Be great if we all could have them though. I should seize power and institute some sort of people's wagon...
A rich person's ghetto
You don't think they actually live in the shit hole do you? It's just somewhere to moor the big boat and declare income. You're far more likely to find them in their other homes in France or where ever, it's just a fiscal usually empty address. Monaco isn't very strict (by that I mean not at all strict) about policing the six month rule which is waived if you invest enough.
The idea that super/hyper cars are better engineered than others is nonsense - if you want a well engineered car you buy a Toyota. These cars are made in low volume therefore there is not enough budget for the level and depth of engineering design and validation that you would get in a high volume car. Fast does not equal well engineered!
Really? And you can back that up with actual engineering data? Certainly, there are some Toyotas that are particularly well engineered, but they’re the low volume high performance versions of regular production cars.
Would you include the Aygo, as an example? It’s an attractive little car, I’ve driven quite a few, but apart from having an attractive exterior, it’s fundamentally identical to a Citroen C1 and the Peugeot 107/108 in a joint venture factory in the Czech Republic.
Re-reading the above quote, part of it doesn’t actually make any sense at all! “These cars are made in low volume therefore there is not enough budget for the level and depth of engineering design and validation that you would get in a high volume car.”
That’s bollocks! When an individual car can cost around a million pounds?
Sheesh!
Mad Mikes 11,000 rpm 4 rotor Mazda RX7
I'm pretty sure that would be even more useless than a super car in the hands of a mere mortal, although I do get where you are coming from, having said that it's still only the same rev limit as a conventionally engined honda fire blade from over 30yrs ago 😉
Something intimidating with a mechanical violence that shakes you to your core!The Judd F1 engined BMW 1 series hill climb car.
You don't think they actually live in the shit hole do you? It's just somewhere to moor the big boat and declare income. You're far more likely to find them in their other homes in France or where ever
My mate lives in Monaco.
He'd rather not, but even if he kept the apartment in Monaco and lived in France, the French government would still nail him for taxes.
So I'm not exactly sure if you're right there.
Re-reading the above quote, part of it doesn’t actually make any sense at all! “These cars are made in low volume therefore there is not enough budget for the level and depth of engineering design and validation that you would get in a high volume car.”
That’s bollocks! When an individual car can cost around a million pounds?
I think the point is that Toyotas are extremely well engineered in the same way that, say, an Apple Watch is well engineered.
You could argue that an Apple Watch is not as well engineered as [Expensive Swiss Watch], but in a way, with CPUs accurate to the nanometre, heart rate monitors, sensors, altimeters and whatever else, it kind of is.
A supercar might indeed cost a million quid, but Toyota's annual R&D budget is roughly equivalent to about 30 years worth of Bugatti's entire 2021 revenue, and Toyota regularly top the charts of most reliable cars. They would eliminate a fault that occurred in one out of every 100 cars. Bugatti don't sell 100 cars in a whole year, it wouldn't make sense to drill down to that level.
Mad Mikes 11,000 rpm 4 rotor Mazda RX7
I thought the video of that might be... not boring, but big clouds of smoke burnouts and wheelspins, in the words of Shania, don't impress me much.
Our neighbour (lives at the back), occasionally wakes me up at the weekend with his McClaren F1 (he brings it home from it's supercar hotel), he also owns a gorgeous old TVR and the family run a round is a 4 door porsche. Amazingly he's quite into looking after the environment, was into cycling and has a wildlife friendly garden and drives sensibly. So not all supercar drivers are 'dicks', but most are.
My take on the whole thing is - the drivers of these supercars 'mostly' don't give a toss about people cycling on the road and are along with 'some' faux 4x4s a danger.
the French government would still nail him for taxes.
If they can prove he is in France for more than 183 days a year. And I doubt your mate is rich enough to play the Monaco system to its full.
Our neighbour (lives at the back), occasionally wakes me up at the weekend with his McClaren F1 (he brings it home from it's supercar hotel), he also owns a gorgeous old TVR and the family run a round is a 4 door porsche. Amazingly he's quite into looking after the environment, was into cycling and has a wildlife friendly garden and drives sensibly. So not all supercar drivers are 'dicks', but most are.
My take on the whole thing is - the drivers of these supercars 'mostly' don't give a toss about people cycling on the road and are along with 'some' faux 4x4s a danger.
TBF 2 of the 3 cars he's got are from the 90s, so that instantly gets STW eco points.
Now I'm just wondering what sort of neighbourhood you live in with folk driving £10m+ McLarens!
Now I'm just wondering what sort of neighbourhood you live in with folk driving £10m+ McLarens!
My sister lives in one of those standard 3/4/5 bedroom estate that was built 20 years ago. Average house price around £300k I guess. A bloke a few houses up has a McLaren P1.
My take on the whole thing is - the drivers of these supercars 'mostly' don't give a toss about people cycling on the road and are along with 'some' faux 4x4s a danger.
I think that’s a bit of stereotype judgement making.
There are lots of professional cyclist who like their supercars. Matt Jones, Bernard Kerr, Chris Hoy , Sam Reynolds. They all enjoy driving their cars fast
Separately as a kid I always want a Ferrari/Lambourghini/Aston etc
The internet these days IMO has done 2 things, made me realise very few of these cars are truly special. A lot f them are built using parts from the parts bin, and most utterly unreliable
Think now I would only look at a Pagani or actually a Porsche.
seems to me that youre never going to get to really drive a super car. Either find a road empty enough, or more so now, if you deploy all the power for more than 5 seconds its just going to kill you wherever you are.
An arms race of theoretical numbers that you cant actually use?
Surely "real drivers" have cars that are enjoyable to drive, and that they can afford the maintenance on.
or better still a car that can tow a trailer, and on the trailer a car they can regularly compete in. Aquaintance of mine used to do really well in the local hill climb circuit in a Vauxhall Tigra
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Surely "real drivers" have cars that are enjoyable to drive, and that they can afford the maintenance on.
I would imagine that very few supercar owners, that are also "real drivers" only have a supercar as their fun car(s)
There are lots of professional cyclist who like their supercars. Matt Jones, Bernard Kerr, Chris Hoy , Sam Reynolds. They all enjoy driving their cars fast
Fast and in this case after drinking too.
Being a cyclist doesn't necessarily make you a careful, considerate, law-abiding driver. Being a super car owner... well have a look at the article Bruce linked on the previous page.
There was a supercar event going over the local Col recently as I was riding it. Most were fairly quick but within reason, one I'd have loved the snow plough to be going the other way as it exited the blind bend on the wrong side of the road. You don't buy one to drive within the law:
That’s bollocks! When an individual car can cost around a million pounds?A million quid when put into proper automotive engineering budgets is bugger all. I've probably written off 10 times that in the 25 years i've been doing this.
I've probably spent 200 times that (ok, sent out purchase orders, i didn't get a snazzy bank card or wodge of non-sequential bills.) Last big program i did as an owner of delivery bits, *my* team budget averaged out at about 30 million USD. Per year. Over 3.5 years.
That doesn't even include the cars, they are on a central budget these days. I was allocated 12 IIRC. That's another 10 million.
It's absolutely not bollocks. The actual difficult bits of engineering in conventional ICE cars are the bits that the supercar people take out. Or don't need to meet because they only make 9 cars a fortnight. Getting to 200mph and 0-60 in 3 seconds is only a matter of persuading the owners that a £20000 service every 5000miles is normal and an oil change takes 2 days and you need to use a blend of unicorn tears, kraken slime and dragon spunk instead of oil.
I would definitely want a super car if I had extreme wealth. I am in the fortunate position to have a fast estate car (E63) and a track car (VX220). I struggle to see how much better a super car would actually be, I can't go around a corner on the road any faster than my estate car as I'd risk an accident (obviously need to be able to look out for cyclists!). On track, supercars are actually a rare sight, they aren't quicker than a track focused car and the running costs for tyres and brakes are hard for anyone to swallow. Super cars to me make sense if you are in a position to have a quiet mountain pass. You can briefly unleash a high power car up a steep road. Not easy to use the power on a british b-road.
Our neighbour (lives at the back), occasionally wakes me up at the weekend with his McClaren F1 (he brings it home from it's supercar hotel), he also owns a gorgeous old TVR and the family run a round is a 4 door porsche. Amazingly he's quite into looking after the environment, was into cycling and has a wildlife friendly garden and drives sensibly. So not all supercar drivers are 'dicks', but most are.
My take on the whole thing is - the drivers of these supercars 'mostly' don't give a toss about people cycling on the road and are along with 'some' faux 4x4s a danger.
TBF 2 of the 3 cars he's got are from the 90s, so that instantly gets STW eco points.
Now I'm just wondering what sort of neighbourhood you live in with folk driving £10m+ McLarens!
Just a small housing estate near Stockport. He's in a gorgeous 18th centuary cottage with his own successful business.
Getting to 200mph and 0-60 in 3 seconds is only a matter of persuading the owners that a £20000 service every 5000miles is normal
A new Ferrari comes with a 7 year maintenance package included in the price. (labour, original replacement parts, lubricants, engine oil and brake fluid). Recommended service interval is 12 months or 12500 miles.
I Should have said imo and ime supercar drivers don't give a toss about cyclists. Possibly a few of these owner drivers may even own a top of the range road or mtbike, but they are probably few and far between.
When I used to cycle into Stockport town centre years ago, there was a Lamborghini garage just along the road from the building I worked in. On test drives these cars had wing mirrors that were centimetres from my body, not a pleasant experience.
Not a supercar, but a friend once owned an E-Type Jag. That was one of the most uncomfortable cars I've ever been in.
if you are in a position to have a quiet mountain pass.
I do, it's currently occupied by hundreds of camper vans seeking solitude, tourists in cars distracted by the spectacular view, hundreds of motorbikes in herds/packs blasting up the "quiet" twisty road with minimalist exhausts, hundreds of cyclists, hundreds of brebis, a few cows, some wild horses and the occasional ****** in a low level supercar sometimes with one of those open pipe valve can't-possibly-be-legal things that lets you hear every time an exhaust valve closes and opens.
I agree with Solamandor. Doing lots of track days you don’t see many Supercars on track days, particularly the Italian brands. You see some very high end Porsches / McLarens but I think I’ve only ever seen one Ferrari (458) on track. That’s a pity since it’s the only place for many drivers to use their cars to the full. However I guess for many owners it’s more about being seen in their Supercars. Plus track days are expensive, especially for Supercar consumables
No accounting for taste! Over 300,000 rhinestones to "bedazzle" a $4million car - Aston Martin Valkyrie.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1R97redUa2A
(I came across this car due to a mountain biker on instagram jumping over one and riding over a cybertruck).
I looked at the channel to see if there was a full video of it in that kitsch state, alas not. There is one where they take it to the Kennedy Space Centre to drive it at top speed. "Battery issues" meant they didn't at all. LOL.
Not sure which is worse, that or the Lamborghini with a Trump 2024 American flag themed wrap, from the same guy,
Anyone who follows my £500 Cayenne thread will know that I've ended up with 2x Cayennes (they were both ridiculously cheap).
They are both 250hp with the diesel having massive amounts of torque. The petrol has instantaneous throttle response and sounds amazing. The diesel can be faster than my brain can process, both can tow well, carry lots of stuff, have stunning interiors and are genuinely the perfect all rounders for UK roads and European roadtrips.
........but the older 955 is really wide, thirsty and I feel a pretentious **** driving a cheap old Porsche. As Chinese EV's become the dominant norm these Cayennes feel like dinosaurs. For the above reasons I couldn't imagine owning anything more 'Super' than an older Cayenne but I am happy that Supercars exist. I especially like Gordon Murray and Christian von Koenigsegg cars and design philosophy.
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Been reading about a chap who bought a La Ferrari new that was delivered 5 years ago, with 54 miles on the clock, to his garage having paid $1.5ish mil for it.
He’s just sold it, with the same 54 miles on the clock, for $5 mil.