Meeting Your Heroes [Car Talk]

[4601S/C]

You get to meet one:

• This is the vehicle you really want to drive, one that you could sit down and listen to or watch on YouTube endlessly all day. It's been your dream to experience it, but you hold reservations about owning it for one reason or another.
• Allowances: Drive it in it's element as much anger as you please for an afternoon, but then give up the keys.

You get to keep one:

• You know you'll love this car. Everything about it suits you somehow. It was a the poster car you said you said you'd own someday. Even as you've grown older and learned more about it, even as you see how it compares against it's successor and modern day competition, you'd still have it over anything else. The things that made it so desirable when you were young[er] have aged like a good wine. It's flaws only add to it's character, and pull you in even more. You cannot escape it. You need this in your life.
• Allowances: This one goes in your garage, to be used as you see fit. It can be your daily driver, weekend warrior, or maybe a garage queen. The point is; You get to come home, or wake up everyday and grab the keys to the car of your dreams if you so choose. You cannot sell it however it's part of your life now, for better, or worse.

You get to elevate one:

• This hero does great things, has accomplished great feats, or maybe it just gets something very right. However it's constantly overshadowed by one considered to be 'greater' or more significant. The say nobody remembers 2nd place, but what if the one in 2nd is greater appearance would make you believe?
• Allowances: Just name a vehicle you think deserves more credit or attention than it gets.

You get to denounce one:

• Everybody has one. It's that car that just about everyone loves. The one that gets endless praise for reasons that you cannot fathom. Maybe it's the zealotry, maybe it's looks, maybe it's the power, or maybe it's just..because. Whatever the reason, you know that it's not as good as everyone makes it out to be. If it was up to you maybe this car wouldn't have been made, or maybe you just want to take it down a peg.
• Allowances: Let the hate flow, but keep it civil. Vent away about why you hate it. You can just name it or post a picture if you like too.

I'll go first:


Meet: TVR Sagaris - Looks wild, drives wild, has wild ergonomics, and low weight. It was a dying gasp of the former TVR, and amazing one.

Keep: Ferrari F50 - [Weekend Warrior]-Don't care what anyone says about this car vs the F40. If I had the money I'd buy it, and drive it. This is one of the cars that really got me into cars. Love the sound, love the shifter, love the looks, love the idea behind the car.

Elevate: Koenigsegg - Seems to do what the Bugatti Veyron does, but better, cooler, and is run by someone with serious vision. Easily my favorite modern Hyper Car. In American pop culture though this German owned, French built car is the first thing out of most peoples mouths when talking about crazy Vmax and power figures. Why would I want a car that feels so sedate at high speeds? Isn't it supposed to thrilling to go 250mph? I want to get out of the car and know, with sense of my being that I went that fast. I want my body and my mind to remember that experience. The Koenigsegg just seems to push those buttons much better than the Veyron does. I don't have the Veyron, It's a really car, but it's not as cool as most people seem to think IMO.

Denounce: McLaren MP4-12C - It just seems like a very generic car to me. I can imagine that the McLaren built a computer and asked it to design a car, and the MP4-12C is what is spit out. It's just not an exciting car, and I would never own one. If someone gave me one I'd sell it and get something else. The 458Italia would my choice over the MP4, but I'd have a P1 in a second over either of them.

 

[1hot281]

Meet: Saleen S7 Twin Turbo. One of the best looking cars of all time, in my opinion. Raw and sleek. No paddle shift nonsense. No advanced traction control. No active aerodynamics. Just you, and a beautiful car stuffed with a loud V8.

Keep: Nissan GTR Nismo. Amazing performance. Back seats. Decent trunk. AWD. Easy enough to let my grandma drive to the store. Cruise to the track with the A/C blasting. Hurt some feelings around the road course. Cruise home and stop for groceries on the way.

Elevate: Pagani Huayra. Most people overlook the Huayra in favor of the Veyron and Agera. The Huayra is a piece of art.

Denounce: Hennessey Venom GT. $1,000,000? For a Lotus kit car with a twin turbo built GM small block. No thanks.

 

[Camaro_94]

Meet: bigatti veyron

Keep: lamborghini aventador

Elevate: new 5.0 mustang. Nobody realizes they're the fastest cars ever made except for the people who own them and can testify.

Denounce: Ford F150's with the ecoboost. I will probably need a flame suit, but I believe they are way over priced and don't get why having a TT V6 that puts out similar number so a NA V8 is a good thing. All that extra wear and tear for what? I'll take the 5.0l engine over that any day of the week.

 

[Low Class Yuppie]

Great thread! I've been lucky enough to experience a few of these.

Meet: Lamborghini Countach 5000S There's nothing quite like it, it's one of the most beautiful cars in the world, and I could stare at it all day. It's got a huge wing, massive fender flares, six twin-choke Webers feeding a massive, angry V12, and THOSE doors...opening and closing them NEVER gets old. However, actually driving it is, in a word, punishing. It's like making love to the woman of your dreams while someone repeatedly punches you in the back of the head. Growing up, this was in my "holy trinity" of dream cars. The Mystic Cobra was on that shortlist as well, rounded off by...

Keep: Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 Driving this car is an incredible experience like no other. Every ridiculous superlative lavished lovingly upon this car by generation upon generation of automotive journalists is 100% true. First, there's the sound. The roar of an angry, unmuffled flat six simply must be experienced by everyone at least once - preferably from a cockpit stripped of carpet and sound deadening, in a tunnel, around 3500-4500 RPM. The car requires a delicate touch and takes real work to drive, akin to attempting brain surgery with a sledgehammer, but you are rewarded endlessly for your efforts. It also has, hands down, the best brakes of any car I've ever driven. While other cars coddle you and allow you to learn at your own pace, aircooled 911s back you into a corner, put a gun to your head, and FORCE you to get better. Durable, reliable, and easy to maintain, I would drive mine every day if I could.

Elevate: Ford Mustang II Often maligned by people who've never driven one, these cars in hatchback form are actually quite attractive. As a kitschy '70's throwback, replete with psychedelic graphics, spoilers, lovers, scoops, and side spats, it certainly looks the part, and performance-wise, it stacked up well against the competition in its day. While the legendary "Smokey & The Bandit" Trans Am made do with 180 horsepower from a 6.6 liter Oldsmobile V-8, the Mustang II made only 40 less horsepower with nearly two fewer liters of displacement. It's light, with a short wheelbase and a clever front suspension design. Due to the lack of shock towers, you can fit damn near anything in the engine bay...but I'd be happy with a 5.0, a four-speed, and a limited-slip rear, like the one I owned in high school.

Denounce: Bugatti Veyron It's ugly, it's boring, and the only reason anyone cares about it is because it was, for a time, the fastest production car in the world. Cars like the Ferrari F40, Jaguar XJ220, and McLaren F1 all had style and panache - the ever-changing "fastest car in the world" moniker was just another feather in their respective caps. The Veyron, meanwhile, looks like a pregnant cockroach. It's loved by the same sort of people who malign the Mustang II because they "read it was bad," go on forums acting like a 14-second quarter mile time is slow, and act like the R35 is God's gift to the world (because it's CHEAP and FAST!) - wannabe alphas who have never actually owned an actual nice car, who are content to magazine race. I saw one at a dealership in Manhattan last year and it was the least interesting car in the room.

Flame away, kiddies! :banana:

 

[pho_phizzat]

Meet: bigatti veyron

Keep: lamborghini aventador

Elevate: new 5.0 mustang. Nobody realizes they're the fastest cars ever made except for the people who own them and can testify.
Denounce: Ford F150's with the ecoboost. I will probably need a flame suit, but I believe they are way over priced and don't get why having a TT V6 that puts out similar number so a NA V8 is a good thing. All that extra wear and tear for what? I'll take the 5.0l engine over that any day of the week.

WIN!:beer: