4 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Give me that car any day over one of those ridiculous looking hyper cars above. I really do not like the styling. They may be sleek, but they end up not looking like proper cars to me.

 

I like them. Way better than the boring cars of old. 

2 hours ago, LHookins said:

Did you notice that all three of those hyper cars looked alike? 😄 

 

Not really, but kind of. Drag coefficient accounts for some of the similarities. In the past they didn't care, or probably know, the detrimental effect of the design. Or care about the fuel economy given how low the cost of fuel was.

Apart from aerodynamic considerations, I don't think they look alike much. 

NASCAR cars all look alike because they're all built to an exact template.

Can-Am cars are all similar but different, and they definitely care about aerodynamics. 

Modern cars are less about aerodynamics than about the popular conception of aerodynamics. Like racing aircraft in the 30's. "We'll just tell people our cars are aerodynamic, and if they look at all aerodynamic, they'll believe us."

I spent many years wondering why American car companies couldn't make a sexy car.  Look at the Datsun 204Z/Fairlady.  Look at the DeLorian. Look at the Jaguar E type. Those are sexy. One local American car dealer had a Lamborghini Miura. That was really sexy. Look at Ferrari from those days.  Sexy. And these cars looked nothing alike.

The Mustang was sexy enough, especially around '67. The Corvette was sexy.  A few other companies attempted to give their cars some real personality. But nothing like the examples above.

To me, those hyper cars look like a bad case of steroid abuse.

The loss of actual automotive stylists reminds me of the Phoebus lightbulb cartel that enforced limits on lightbulb longevity 1925 to 1939. Planned obsolescence so they could sell enough lightbulbs to be profitable. As long as everyone did it.

Retooling for different car styles every year or three was expensive. If they didn't have to do that, it was considered a win. As long as everyone did it.

Hook

31 minutes ago, LHookins said:

Modern cars are less about aerodynamics than about the popular conception of aerodynamics. 

We'll just tell people our cars are aerodynamic, 

 

I would disagree with that, super car and hyper car manufacturers spend millions on wind tunnel time and aerodynamic analysis.

https://newsroom.bugatti.com/press-releases/bugatti-centodieci-sucessfully-completes-wind-tunnel-tests

Edited December 29, 20241 yr by martin-w

5 hours ago, martin-w said:

 

I like them. Way better than the boring cars of old. 

I’d have a helluva lot more fun tooling around in the Batmobile than a hypercar 🦇

1 hour ago, martin-w said:

manufacturers spend millions on wind tunnel time

Heh!  "Millions."

There's an old saying in business: "If the CEO starts believing his own press releases, the company is in trouble." You may believe what you wish. 🙂

As for the Batmobile, a car with a sort of similar styling is the 1958 to 1960 Thunderbird. I think I'd prefer that... to the Batmobile and certainly to the hypercars.

Hook

 

Oh man that brings back the memories.

My first job out of school, a coworker was a driver for a drag racing team.  They were doing 200 mph in the quarter mile at the time.  I went to the track a few times.  Lived through the transition from spinning the tires to slipping the clutch, and the first time I watched one of these cars back up under its own power I was amazed. The sights, the sounds, the smells. Video can't do this justice.

Later on another coworker was a driver for a "professional" street racing team. Never saw him race, though. We talked about it a lot and compared cars.

That 427 on the hood has a special place in my heart.  That's 7 liters for those who measure such things that way. A high school friend had a 1964 Ford Galaxy with a 427.  My own ride was a 1968 396 Chevelle. No, we never raced.

Certain modern cars might be going faster, but they aren't doing it with the same style, and they won't be producing the same kind of memories.

Thanks for posting that.

Hook

1 hour ago, LHookins said:

Thanks for posting that.

I’m glad I found that clip.  I almost didn’t post it because I thought maybe I’m just going overboard with Stingrays, but it really resonated with me. When I was a kid in the 1960s, I would stop and watch them when they drove by, totally mesmerized. The styling is so proportionally perfect, and they sound so cool. I always thought “Some day, some day…”.

And that day came. From 1979-1985, I had a blue 1966 Stingray coupe.  The insurance guy thought I was nuts, tried to talk me out of it. As I was under 25, I couldn’t afford comprehensive coverage, only liability. I was fulfilling a dream/bucket list item. 
 

Back to this video, the story of this car & the owner is so cool. How he got it back and “collaborated” with his sons in building it back up. I don’t know what their budget was, but for the sake of making my point let’s say it’s $150k. That would be 1/20th of the cost of $3 million that Martin pegged the hyper car at. And the experience of building it with your sons, racing it and the memories they’ll have is priceless.

Also as a kid, I remember street rods. Maybe I’m old and missing it, but I used to see more of that back then. Chevy Novas were popular “sleeper” rods:

Oh well, a nice trip down Nostalgia  Lane 😊

 

33 minutes ago, Mike A said:

I’m glad I found that clip.  I almost didn’t post it because I thought maybe I’m just going overboard with Stingrays

That reminds me of the really cute girl at the office who always dressed as a French maid for Halloween.  She once said she thought people were getting tired of the costume.  "Uh... I don't think that'll happen."

I remember at the time the Chevy Nova was the "cheap version." Many years later I saw one of the high performance Novas which changed my mind. "Woah... who knew?"

No matter how much trouble it was or how much it cost at the time, the memories of that '66 Vette are priceless.  It was worth it.

Hook

19 hours ago, LHookins said:

There's an old saying in business: "If the CEO starts believing his own press releases, the company is in trouble." You may believe what you wish. 🙂

 

Its fact. In fact Ferrari invested in their own wind tunnel and facilities. It cost 10 million.

Aston Martin are also in the process of building their own wind tunnel.

Wind tunnel testing and advanced aerodynamic testing is obviously vital for highly expensive, extreme performance hyper cars. Fuel consumption, handling both depend on it. Hence why there are similarities in design. 

Koenigsegg didn't set new industry aerodynamic and handling benchmarks by not investing in aerodynamics.

Edited December 30, 20241 yr by martin-w

21 hours ago, LHookins said:

1968 396 Chevelle

The bass guitarist in a very young band I was the organist for was given a 1968 396 Chevelle SS for his 18th birthday. It was a canary yellow hardtop. I've always thought that was one of the nicest cars ever produced. The one pictured in the link is for sale at a bargain price of only $43,000!!!

https://sl.bing.net/goIBPaL4Dfg

On 12/27/2024 at 10:37 PM, birdguy said:

The day I retired I also retired my wrist watch and haven't put it back on in over 30 years. 

Like several others have commented, I too no longer wear a watch. Mine sits on top of my ham radio for easy reference.

When I was a mere lad of thirteen, my parents bought a really Bulova "self-winding" watch. It quit working after only a few days. My dad and I took it back to the jewelry store for an exchange, thinking it was defective. The gentleman on duty asked whether we'd wound it, to which my dad replied "I was told it was "self-winding..."

"It is" he replied, "you have to wind it yourself!" 🤣

52 minutes ago, n4gix said:

Like several others have commented, I too no longer wear a watch.

I stopped wearing watches in my early 20's, as I kept breaking them.  In all that time until a few years ago, I adapted by knowing where clocks where on my daily travels, and just developed a sense of what time it was.  When cell phones came along, I was set, or so I thought.  The last 5-10 years, my hearing has deteriorated to the point where I can't hear my phone ring even if it's in my pocket and with hearing aids, and I can't always feel the phone when it's in silent vibration mode.  So I went back to wearing a watch on my wrist, an Apple iWatch, so I leave the phone on silent mode which then sends a signal to the iWatch which vibrates, which I can feel.  Hey, it works for me!😆🤣🤪

Edited December 31, 20241 yr by Mike A

I used to own a Hot Rod 68 Mustang Fastback before I bought my first and only new car a 1982 Capri RS 5.0.

42 years later, as a daily driver, it still sits in my driveway. The price was right, it was easy to work on, and the parts were cheap!

Edited December 31, 20241 yr by TuFun