Hacker News Reader

Comment by ChainOfFools | Hacker News Reader

good? the obsessive fawning over speed (especially acceleration) as some intrinsically valuable property of a car could stand some introspection by society as a whole.

loud flashy, cramped exotics being humiliated by quiet practical commuter cars 1/10th their price calls the whole hyperbolic attentiin-seeking costume show of the former into question.

View on HN

It really doesn’t at all. People who want to show off still buy rolls Royce’s and Bentleys and so forth.

Most often the most annoying vehicles are Harley’s (slow), scooters (slow), and various sub $50k cars with modified exhausts.

The people with money aren’t really interested in flashing it among the poors. They’re interested in flashing it to their other rich friends…

The motivation behind the inexpensive flashy noise makers is exactly the same as the expensive ones, except there's slightly more embarrassing pretense involved, you have to make sure you don't get shown up by someone with an actual exotic when you're cruising around in your me too discount version. So-called supercars, unlike rolls or Bentleys or similar, derive their association with quality from the ability to hit certain theoretical numbers on a drag strip or a race track. When a basic $40,000 family car can do the same it rather knocks the entire mystique out from underneath these things. There's no more basis for pretending that it's about performance or speed.

In all cases they are all pretending that they are interested in the speed as if it is a proxy for their ability to appreciate the fine technology and precision engineering of their automobiles. When in reality a Toyota Prius is equally if not more an accomplishment of refined technology than any exotic.

The whole thing is just an excuse to project an image of wealth and status to impress strangers and play a one-upsmanship game with the rest of your interest group, very much like watches except with the ability to annoy the neighbors as a petty power tripping bonus on the side.

Does it? Twenty years ago you could buy a souped up Honda Civic with a twin-turbo and NOS that could beat an exotic off the line, and the world of supercars didn't implode then, why would it now?

Because you couldn't buy that Civic from a dealership, and generally speaking you wouldn't have said Civic be nearly as reliable (or anywhere close to reliable) to an exotic, even as unreliable as exotics tend to be.

EVs broadly embarrass sports cars all while being more comfortable, more practical, and... usually cheaper.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com