Why do many people hate on excellence and claim that, without exception, the elevated cost is created artificially for vanity alone?

Do they? Is this a thing? I could take a stab at this, but it would be from a different angle. Some people might see a $1.5M price tag and chuckle – not because they don’t think the car is $1.5M “better” in design and materials than their Honda. They might just look at a car as a utilitarian device that brings people and things from point A to point B.

If my 11-year-old Honda will get me to the same place just as fast as this car, it might be difficult to figure out what the $1.5M is for, other than _____ (fill in the blank with status, vanity, or something else).

People also might simply not be impressed with the things that supposedly make this car the “greatest road car humanly possible”. To many people, “greatest” might simply mean some combination of the best fuel economy or safety. Exotic materials and attention to details might not matter at all.

As an aside, if that website is any indication of the type of car it is, I would want no part of it. It’s an atrocity. A website for a product needs to provide data. Instead, it’s shit animated graphics and designed for people who apparently do not care about the data.

@tom_g

You are aware that at one time your 11 year old Honda would have been considered just as exotic.

^ What does this mean?

@tom_g The car is targeted for sale to oil barons of the middle east, where a milion dollars is like a couple of minutes pumping time from their oil wells.

I bet you a dollar it has very limited trunk space, if any, and a lousy sound system. Who wants a car you can’t take on a road trip?

I am in awe of the skills required to design and build a car like this. I’m glad that there is still a place in the world for consummate craftsmanship. Excellence has my profound respect.

It’s more the market for products like this that disturbs me. Wanting a nice car? Fine. Wanting the ultimate, most badass car in the universe? I wonder why.

I realize there’s a paradox here. If there weren’t a market for over-the-top ego candy like this, then how would these craftsmen and engineers exercise their skills?

@zenvelo

It has an excellent sound system:

“The P1 features a 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine similar to the engine found in the MP4–12C, but tuned to deliver 727 bhp and 719 Nm (531 lb ft) at 7500 rpm.”

@SecondHandStoke Yeah, road noise like a Jeep Wrangler with the top off. A real car would have at least eight speakers in a cabin so quiet you can hear a pin drop, something that provides a symphonic experience so you can listen to the Doors L.A Woman and sing a long….

@zenvelo

Any sound dampening material would add performance robbing mass.

@zenvelo

Cargo room? Let’s take a look at the 245 MPH Mclaren F1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mclaren_f1#Interior_and_equipment

@thorninmud . . . I realize there’s a paradox here. If there weren’t a market for over-the-top ego candy like this, then how would these craftsmen and engineers exercise their skills?

Developing prosthetics comes to mind. I know the market is smaller but I believe that consumers would be infinitely more appreciative of the craftsmanship that went in to the product.

@thorninmud

So developing or buying this item is to attempt to achieve ego candy?

Experiencing the purest driving experience possible today isn’t it’s own reward?

It looks like the Batmobile.

@SecondHandStoke Can the kids eat an ice cream cone in there? If not, it’s way over-rated. Although as a two seater, you do get to use the carpool lane on the Bay Bridge with only one other person.

And, you admit it has a lot of road noise. Not exactly what one wants in a top end car.

Ok @zenvelo

How shall we get rid of the “unwanted” road noise?

Kids? Carpool lane? Seriously?

@SecondHandStoke Sure it’s ego candy. Wanting “the ultimate” in anything (whether an experience or an object, in this case both) is a greed-driven impulse, and greed is just a manifestation of ego.

@thorninmud

You are aware that the car you drive now is advanced as it is because someone had the vision to create the ultimate at some point in the past?

@SecondHandStoke Yes, this is why in my initial response I distinguished between excellence and the market for excellence. Excellence as a creative act is an admirable thing. Once the fruits of that act are out there in the world, they become objects of greed. Not so admirable. But that’s the way we are; one sustains the other. Hence the paradox.

My desire for one is not a attribute of greed.

The activity of driving, I just want the best possible tool for the job.

Back in my fly-fishing days (long gone), I really got into the gear of the sport. This is another of those last little refuges of no-holds-barred craftsmanship. There were (and I guess still are) a few guys who still built the traditional style of rods, painstakingly crafted from Tonkin cane. Each one is a masterpiece representing long hours of uncompromising work . In the hands of someone who really knows how to handle one, they’re considered the ultimate instrument.

Now, the plain fact is that I had no business owning something like that. I could barely get the most out of the stock rods I was already using. But I really, really wanted one anyway. In retrospect, it was greed/ego that drove that desire. I felt that this beautiful thing would somehow bring me closer to greatness. I would have pride in owning such a thing. It would empower me.

I wouldn’t have acknowledged any of that at the time (we usually don’t acknowledge this kind of thing). I couldn’t really afford such a rod, but I scraped together the money anyway. I actually had to plead my case with the builder for why I should be favored with such a thing (I just made up a bunch of BS). One year later, it was delivered.

Yes, it was beautiful. But after the first couple of uses, I had to admit that it was way beyond me to coax the magic from it. I was still just a mediocre caster. Owning it now felt like a reproach. I put it back in its case and never used it again. I had seen my greed.

Oh.

I never suggested that I wouldn’t be able to take near full advantage of the P1’s capabilities.

Sorry, greed just doesn’t play into it. The buyer is making an investment in a car related future that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Wanna show off gold chain set style? Wanna pose? Wanna be Justin Bieber?

McLaren Cars Limited is not the manufacturer for you.

Programming Note:

The P1 is a hybrid.

Will it tent anyone’s trousers now?

Somehow, it seem s the thing to do.