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The thing is, there is something about very high end sports cars -- and especially supercars -- that isn't present in most cars: the physicality of it all. Let's forget about "luxury" gizmos and gewgaws, which trickle down into everything over time in a very democratizing way. Everything has that eventually. -- ----- ----- Do you remember the last time you saw a pre-Aventador (so Murcielago, Diablo, Countach, Miura) V12 Lamborghini hammering down a road at 40+ mph (65+ kph), and not dawdling about looking for attention? If so, you probably remember something you actually felt. In your body. A shockwave, even as a pedestrian, imparted by that V12. It's a lot more real INSIDE the car. Drive a high-revving (8000+ rpm) mid-engine Ferrari. Once you're well into the depths of what the second camshaft profile offers, there is legitimately a frequency in which vibrations are transmitted into the chassis that will literally make your spine tingle. Get into a motorsport-derived Porsche. The air-cooled ones have a buzz about them by lacking the insulation of water-jacketing. Though the newer ones, past 7500rpm, twist their sound into a chilling, baleful howl. All while it's telling you exactly. what's. going. on... through its freakish levels of precision and feedback. You can put any knucklehead in a modern proper 911, have them go through a corner at twice the speed they would've normally considered, and the car basically will have made it absolutely clear they can go faster still next go around. -- ----- ----- There are other things too with materials. Where everything feels fantastic to touch and hold, and some devilish CNC work, machining and precision. Though for very high-end metal (granted, less so in the past 5 years, 10 for some brands) there is a real physicality to the driving experience that gives those cars the "soul" that other cars do not have. Some older more accessible sports and muscle cars have done it similarly well -- older Nissan GT-Rs, some Corvettes, Mitsubishi Evos, RX-7s, some particularly playful compacts and well-sorted muscle cars. The thing is... as everything else becomes increasingly homogeneous aside from body/character lines, headlamp and grille graphics, interior themeing -- particularly on the power train front -- that is what's going to differentiate manufacturer A from B. The new Porche Taycan Turbo S reviews all laud how brilliant the engineering is, and how well it handles, and how quick it is, and the usual build quality. Well and good. Though all the journalists have admitted that it has no soul, and ergo they just can't really give a rats. "It's nice. It's fast. Buy it if you want it. Cheers." Your Tesla you're so thrilled about? You're going to eventually acclimate to that torque. Then everything will have that torque. Congratulations, that will soon be the new normal... and a very different character (and I'd say less exciting) of torque delivery than other types of cars have offered. For most people, a "good car" is fine. Great. Focus on comfort, safety, reliability, TCO and emissions. It's the pragmatic choice, and I fault no one for it as it's the correct choice. In fact, I'm a pedestrian and public transit user well over 99% of the time! Though realize that for some of us, we like driving, and doing it in something interesting in ways that is difficult to quantify. Not commuting. Driving. At 3AM in the middle of nowhere. Having an adventure with our good friend: the machine. |