View Poll Results: Are supercars pointless?
Yes, pointless so stop building them
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1
3.13%
Yes, pointless and I pray they are always built
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13
40.63%
No, not at all
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10
31.25%
Unsure
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1
3.13%
Other cars are more pointless, X6, ZDX, etc
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7
21.88%
Voters: 32. You may not vote on this poll
James May explains why the supercar is, ultimately, completely pointless.
#1
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...-world-No.html
I can't imagine that anyone out there would deny that the development of the Maxim gun had a profound effect on the history of warfare and, therefore, on the way the world is today. It follows, then, that had it emerged 80 years earlier than it did, and in France, the final score at Waterloo would have been rather different and the course of European development would now place us all somewhere else. I'm not saying it would necessarily be better or worse, just that it would be utterly changed.
This is a fairly well-known historian's parlour game and fairly pointless in itself, but it's a good way of grading the relevance of things and happenings. How different would the world be had the technique for mass-producing consistent iron using coke instead of charcoal been a Swedish achievement (they had all the good iron ore, after all) rather than an English one? It's impossible to know exactly, but we can be sure the answer is "quite a lot".
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Had J S Bach, Picasso and Einstein all died in bicycle accidents as children, the nature of human thought would have taken a different course; more so than if, for example, the Beatles had been Japanese. The English Civil War has had more profound repercussions than the invention of the toasted teacake, but both played a role in making our lives what they are today.
Everything – it's a theme science fiction writers love – has an influence on what is to come, even, probably, the debate over the length of Richard Hammond's hair. It is merely a matter of magnitude.
This brings me to my forthcoming magnum opus, which I intend to present to the Royal Society: First meditations on the insignificance of supercars by Dr May, who may be found at the sign of ye Croff Keyf, Londinium.
We have established before in this column that the supercar is pretty useless in the role of a car. No one on the web page seems to have disagreed, not like they did with the contention that the Me 109 would have been a better defensive fighter in the Battle of Britain.
But the problem is bigger than we might think. Most supercar road tests allude to the glorious irrelevance of such things and hint heavily at the requirement to abandon rational thought when selecting something like a Veyron. But no one has yet had the Cromwellian courage to pronounce the supercar utterly pointless regardless of the means of analysis.
Italy, to my mind, is still the home of the true supercar, because it makes Ferraris and Lambos. But what benefit has accrued to Italy, principal arbour of the mechanism of the Renaissance, by their existence? None that I can discern, beyond a small entry in the economic administration of the regions that produce them. I reckon France was shaped more by the croissant than Italy was by the F40.
Hence my study. Nothing I can think of produces a greater disparity when usefulness is compared with imagined import. Not even nylon bed linen. How can I be sure? By reviewing real history and recurring scenarios, and then attempting to imagine how they could be manipulated by the presence of a supercar or its owner. You can help me with this.
Is there any sort of "My kingdom for a supercar" moment? I don't think so. Supercars would not have prevented the plague, accelerated the industrial revolution, instigated women's suffrage, advanced the space race, or produced one extra piano sonata from Beethoven. The Gallardo could not have altered the course of medical development and the Ferrari 458 would have had no bearing whatsoever on early 20th-century conceptual physics.
Let's be a little more down to earth about it. In the production of great drama, did any playwright or film director ever charge a distraught woman with the role of running into a room and crying: "Does anyone here own a supercar?" They usually want a doctor. Was progress in science and the humanities ever arrested by the absence of one? I don't think so. Would the Titanic still have sunk if the world had known about Koenigsegg? Yes it would.
This is what fascinates me. If we take any other artefact – the breech-loading rifle, penicillin, radio, Gore-Tex or even the adjustable spanner – we can insert it into an earlier age or remove it from a later one and change the world. The same goes for historic achievements and ground-breaking philosophy. If we move the work of Nicolaus Copernicus around the centuries, we can distort the sphere of the human condition. We can probably do the same by tampering with the discovery of bicarbonate of soda.
But we can't do it with the Lotus Esprit.
This is a fairly well-known historian's parlour game and fairly pointless in itself, but it's a good way of grading the relevance of things and happenings. How different would the world be had the technique for mass-producing consistent iron using coke instead of charcoal been a Swedish achievement (they had all the good iron ore, after all) rather than an English one? It's impossible to know exactly, but we can be sure the answer is "quite a lot".
Related Articles
*
James on sign language
*
Oil is a real alternative fuel
*
Honda Cub's a winner
*
And the Stig is...
*
James May: how to invade the Isle of Wight
*
James May: how to woo with music
Had J S Bach, Picasso and Einstein all died in bicycle accidents as children, the nature of human thought would have taken a different course; more so than if, for example, the Beatles had been Japanese. The English Civil War has had more profound repercussions than the invention of the toasted teacake, but both played a role in making our lives what they are today.
Everything – it's a theme science fiction writers love – has an influence on what is to come, even, probably, the debate over the length of Richard Hammond's hair. It is merely a matter of magnitude.
This brings me to my forthcoming magnum opus, which I intend to present to the Royal Society: First meditations on the insignificance of supercars by Dr May, who may be found at the sign of ye Croff Keyf, Londinium.
We have established before in this column that the supercar is pretty useless in the role of a car. No one on the web page seems to have disagreed, not like they did with the contention that the Me 109 would have been a better defensive fighter in the Battle of Britain.
But the problem is bigger than we might think. Most supercar road tests allude to the glorious irrelevance of such things and hint heavily at the requirement to abandon rational thought when selecting something like a Veyron. But no one has yet had the Cromwellian courage to pronounce the supercar utterly pointless regardless of the means of analysis.
Italy, to my mind, is still the home of the true supercar, because it makes Ferraris and Lambos. But what benefit has accrued to Italy, principal arbour of the mechanism of the Renaissance, by their existence? None that I can discern, beyond a small entry in the economic administration of the regions that produce them. I reckon France was shaped more by the croissant than Italy was by the F40.
Hence my study. Nothing I can think of produces a greater disparity when usefulness is compared with imagined import. Not even nylon bed linen. How can I be sure? By reviewing real history and recurring scenarios, and then attempting to imagine how they could be manipulated by the presence of a supercar or its owner. You can help me with this.
Is there any sort of "My kingdom for a supercar" moment? I don't think so. Supercars would not have prevented the plague, accelerated the industrial revolution, instigated women's suffrage, advanced the space race, or produced one extra piano sonata from Beethoven. The Gallardo could not have altered the course of medical development and the Ferrari 458 would have had no bearing whatsoever on early 20th-century conceptual physics.
Let's be a little more down to earth about it. In the production of great drama, did any playwright or film director ever charge a distraught woman with the role of running into a room and crying: "Does anyone here own a supercar?" They usually want a doctor. Was progress in science and the humanities ever arrested by the absence of one? I don't think so. Would the Titanic still have sunk if the world had known about Koenigsegg? Yes it would.
This is what fascinates me. If we take any other artefact – the breech-loading rifle, penicillin, radio, Gore-Tex or even the adjustable spanner – we can insert it into an earlier age or remove it from a later one and change the world. The same goes for historic achievements and ground-breaking philosophy. If we move the work of Nicolaus Copernicus around the centuries, we can distort the sphere of the human condition. We can probably do the same by tampering with the discovery of bicarbonate of soda.
But we can't do it with the Lotus Esprit.
#2
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I sort of agree with him. I chose "Yes, pointless and I pray they are always built."
Supercars have purpose in that they give the super rich more things to buy and more ways to envelope themselves in the shrouds of exclusivity.
But really, their mere existence provides countless hours of entertainment for many car enthusiasts. They serve the purpose of entertainment.
In that sense, I think supercars are just about as useful as the NFL or NBA (albeit to probably a much smaller audience). They constitute a source of entertainment and nothing more to the lay person. I think he's being a little melodramatic by trying to compare the function of supercars to that of modern medicine or ground breaking, life-changing feats. We don't typically hang the bar so high with sports. We tend to recognize sports for what it is - a source of entertainment and nothing more.
It's fun to choose a "team" in sports and follow their progress. When they win, you feel like you win as well.
I think for some people car brands also serve a similar purpose. Car brands are like sports teams, and the cars themselves are like the players. People invest themselves emotionally with certain car brands and whenever the brand comes out with a competitive car that beats another competitor in some head to head competition, you feel like you've "won" in much the same way a Los Angeles Lakers fan feels like he/she "won" when the Lakers won the championship last year.
Supercars have purpose in that they give the super rich more things to buy and more ways to envelope themselves in the shrouds of exclusivity.
But really, their mere existence provides countless hours of entertainment for many car enthusiasts. They serve the purpose of entertainment.
In that sense, I think supercars are just about as useful as the NFL or NBA (albeit to probably a much smaller audience). They constitute a source of entertainment and nothing more to the lay person. I think he's being a little melodramatic by trying to compare the function of supercars to that of modern medicine or ground breaking, life-changing feats. We don't typically hang the bar so high with sports. We tend to recognize sports for what it is - a source of entertainment and nothing more.
It's fun to choose a "team" in sports and follow their progress. When they win, you feel like you win as well.
I think for some people car brands also serve a similar purpose. Car brands are like sports teams, and the cars themselves are like the players. People invest themselves emotionally with certain car brands and whenever the brand comes out with a competitive car that beats another competitor in some head to head competition, you feel like you've "won" in much the same way a Los Angeles Lakers fan feels like he/she "won" when the Lakers won the championship last year.
#3
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I disagree, primarily for one big reason. Over the past several decades supercars have done a lot in terms of progress and advancement of the auto industry.
Saying supercars are pointless is like saying race cars are pointless. Race cars are even more rare, exclusive, and expensive than supercars. Race cars are also illegal to drive on regular roads.
Cutting edge technologies first appear in race cars usually, then they filter down to supercars and eventually filter down to common production cars.
Supercars are necessary because the push the automotive industry forward in terms of technology, performance, fuel economy, and the list goes on and on.
James May's rant seems a bit pointless to me.
Saying supercars are pointless is like saying race cars are pointless. Race cars are even more rare, exclusive, and expensive than supercars. Race cars are also illegal to drive on regular roads.
Cutting edge technologies first appear in race cars usually, then they filter down to supercars and eventually filter down to common production cars.
Supercars are necessary because the push the automotive industry forward in terms of technology, performance, fuel economy, and the list goes on and on.
James May's rant seems a bit pointless to me.
#5
Lexus Champion
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I'm not sure whether this article really is meant to be taken seriously or is just a form of sarcasm (or probably this British humor.......or Top Gear level of humor).
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#8
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I don't think supercars are pointless...many of the vehicles are purpose-built; Yaris was designed to be efficient, Ford f-150 was designed to haul crapload of rocks, Odyssey was designed as a people carrier, race cars are designed to be fast, Supercars are simply designed to be the ultimate toys...they're not the fastest thing on earth, can't carry more than 2 in most situations, and cannot tow your expensive yacht but their purpose is solely for fun.
if you think Supercars are useless, then the same argument holds for motorbikes (Harley and Sportbikes mainly) as well.
if you think Supercars are useless, then the same argument holds for motorbikes (Harley and Sportbikes mainly) as well.
#9
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supercars are dreams and aspirations. some are able to realize that dream. people aspire to do well, earn a grand living, and essentially have the necessary funds to drive off with one. though the majority of the world probably would not be able to afford one, it's still worth it for those manufacturers to produce them. to me, it seems likely that earning the income needed to purchase one of the fastest rides in the world might not ever happen, especially with family, education, and work, but one can dream. and i believe it is that dream that keeps these supercars in prodution and getting beter and better with each revision. i agree with GS3Tek....technically a yaris is all one needs to get from point A to point B, but it is a person's aspiration to want to work harder to get a nicer ride that makes it worthwhile to the buyer and producer.
#11
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For most normal street/highway driving, for the vast majority of drivers, they're almost pointless. I say almost because they DO help, in some cases, by serving as test-beds to perfect new technology. Honda's famous VVT-i valve-timing, now in widespread use throughout the industry, for instance, was perfected in F1 and supercar technology. So, to a lesser extent, were anti-lock brakes and traction/stability systems. The Acura NSX also served, more or less, as a test-bed for all-aluminum construction in that type of car.
#12
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supercars let people feel smug that they 'could' go 200mph on public roads, which, if undertaken, would be INSANE.
supercars (esp. lambos) let rich ****** show up at night clubs to feel extra smug and snooty.
ever notice that women don't own supercars? generally their ego isn't so fragile that they need one.
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supercars ARE pointless. fun to own, sure, although i think most would be like marrying a supermodel - the novelty soon wears off and they cost a fortune.
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Cutting edge technologies first appear in race cars usually, then they filter down to supercars and eventually filter down to common production cars.
Supercars are necessary because the push the automotive industry forward in terms of technology, performance, fuel economy, and the list goes on and on.
now a drive in top down car on a beautiful day on a quiet road is definitely something to enjoy a lot. you just don't need a supercar to do it.
#13
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For most normal street/highway driving, for the vast majority of drivers, they're almost pointless. I say almost because they DO help, in some cases, by serving as test-beds to perfect new technology. Honda's famous VVT-i valve-timing, now in widespread use throughout the industry, for instance, was perfected in F1 and supercar technology. So, to a lesser extent, were anti-lock brakes and traction/stability systems. The Acura NSX also served, more or less, as a test-bed for all-aluminum construction in that type of car.
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#15
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I disagree, primarily for one big reason. Over the past several decades supercars have done a lot in terms of progress and advancement of the auto industry.
Saying supercars are pointless is like saying race cars are pointless. Race cars are even more rare, exclusive, and expensive than supercars. Race cars are also illegal to drive on regular roads.
Cutting edge technologies first appear in race cars usually, then they filter down to supercars and eventually filter down to common production cars.
Supercars are necessary because the push the automotive industry forward in terms of technology, performance, fuel economy, and the list goes on and on.
James May's rant seems a bit pointless to me.
Saying supercars are pointless is like saying race cars are pointless. Race cars are even more rare, exclusive, and expensive than supercars. Race cars are also illegal to drive on regular roads.
Cutting edge technologies first appear in race cars usually, then they filter down to supercars and eventually filter down to common production cars.
Supercars are necessary because the push the automotive industry forward in terms of technology, performance, fuel economy, and the list goes on and on.
James May's rant seems a bit pointless to me.
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