God only knows where my curated collection of yo-yos is now.
There was one vehicle that I left out of this rogues’ gallery, as it was present at The Quail, but not a new debut: The Gordon Murray T.50.
I would crawl naked through a field of broken glass for one of those and keep it forever, because I am confident that we shall never see its like again.
So the sponsors were Rolex, Bohhams, BMW, VAG, Flexjet, Honda, VAG, GM, VAG, VAG, whomever, who cares, et cetera? I wonder if old Johnny is going to like the next Jetta. I like human longevity though, I bet their customers totally don't eat babies.
One of my more popular recent pieces read a bit like a school report to me when it was published. It could have used more style. I guess, though, that it's more important for my editors and readers to like my stuff, than for me to do so. I wouldn't have hit "submit" if I didn't think it was good, but I still don't think it was my best work.
Its a system, and I'm sure it works for a few thousand miles (for little more than a demo). There is nothing wrong with the concept. Its just that it isn't in production for a reason. The 'genius' also isn't the first or the only one to think of it.
None of the Koenigsegg cars can meet any standards for engineering durability from any large OEM. They're only cars compared to an actual production car that meets all emissions, diagnostics, pass by noise, crash and safety standards in the sense that they all have a steering wheel and some pedals and wheels that go round and round.
These are literal toys which rely on their buyers NEVER exercising them to the limits of durability. The gimmicks of 'designed a transmission that the world has never seen' or a 'valvetrain that will shame the giants cause it was designed by automotive Steve Jobs himself' is for idiots without a high school education.
Look at it this way - How many production engines have entered commerce that are not K'segg 'buy and park' specials in the 7-8 years since Freevalve was spun off?
I don't know if the less exotic supercars are any better in terms of durability. I was at the preview to a RM auction looking at a Ferrari Testarossa. As it happened James Glickenhaus was standing next to me and he told me that he daily drove one. "How much broke?" I asked him. He replied, "Every fucking part. The frame broke."
That is an Italian special. When I worked with the Ferrari people they were the sloppiest engineers I met. With that background their performances in F1 in the last decade are easily explained.
It’s probably fair to say that a Testarossa would have had challenging reliability and servicing costs in period.
You could daily drive any of the current Ferrari volume cars, save for the Icona range and whatever the LaFerrari successor will be. They even have a (very) generous free maintenance plan.
I think the Koenigsegg, Pagani, etc. boutique cars are for guys who HAVE to stand out from the fellows who merely have Ferraris or Porsches or … etc.
The same as the guys who have to have an oddball, super low production watch from the likes of MB&F or Greubel Forsey to one-up the Holy Trinity and RM.
While I don't have their budget, and feel a little uncomfortable standing out in a crowd, I think I know how they feel. If I could afford something from the big 3, I'd get a Grand Seiko first and if I had enough money to be stupid about a watch, it'd probably be an F.P. Journe. Studied nonconformist? Moi?
Who could feel inadequate “only” having a LaFerrari or 918 or P1 even in the company of the rarer cars?
It would be like having a closet full of baby cashmere sweaters and learning that your neighbor has all the same stuff, but in vicuña; or weeping because YOUR yacht is a foot shorter than the next guy’s.
I had the chance to review the "entry level" 570S McLaren and the twice as costly 675LT. Some of the people that recognized the 570 as a McLaren asked me if it was a P1. I thought to myself, wow, a million dollars worth of prestige and 90%+ of the P1's performance for just $200K, that's a bargain! I asked Jack, who had also driven both models, if he thought the 675LT was worth the extra $200K and he said yes. Upon reflection, I decided that if had that extra $200K, I'd also go with the 675. These are strictly theoretical questions, of course. My daily driver is a Honda Fit with 100,000 miles and my most expensive watch is a vintage Ball railroad pocket watch by Waltham that cost me about $300 and about the same to have serviced.
I read - and enjoyed - both reviews when they were published.
It’s refreshing and interesting to see what someone in your shoes - deeply knowledgeable about cars but not easily seduced by that sort of exotica - has to say. Most supercar reviews are 800 limp words from a journosaur post-press launch or OMG RACE CAR from a lifestyle correspondent.
I recently re-read both reviews while formulating my thoughts on the Artura a few weeks ago.
Thank you for your kind words. My approach to those cars was "everyman reviews a supercar". I did a grocery run in the 570.
When I had the 675LT in Los Angeles, I was on my way from the Petersen museum to my cousin's place in the Valley, driving in Bel Air on a boulevarded street with big Spanish looking homes. I was in the left lane going in one direction and from the other direction a thirtysomething Angeleno, bronze and with a gold chain, was driving a Gallardo spyder, also in the left lane. He looked over at the McLaren, saw a car that was twice as expensive as his being driven by an old Jewish guy with a fedora and a beard, and I literally saw his face fall.
This works only as long as you don't need to actually use said car in the environment it was advertised to dominate. I understand the attitude carrying across from watches, shoes etc. but arguably cars are far more complex and have many aspects to them, and in every one a boutique car will be inferior in the long run.
I just think the whole 'its like a piece of jewelry' attitude towards cars needs to go. I know I'm the odd one out here. Its a machine, it needs to be used as a machine.
There is a slight difference between Koenigsegg and Pagani in this sense. While neither brand has ever raced in any real sense, Pagani does produce track specials that appear to acquit themselves well in track use. Koenigsegg’s raison d'être is numbers - peak power, top speed, etc. It’s all academic, theoretical.
I agree on the difference between those two, but the buyer often ends up being someone who's making an irrational decision based on exclusivity than use case.
I have a lot of respect for Gordon Murray as an engineer. But again, its a car that skirts all sorts of regulations and cannot be road legal except under some niche 'small manufacturer/show car' sense.
Ford/GM/VW, and others have more people working on compliance alone than the entire team working on one of these things. They're not idiots to be spending the money.
Note: all my comments are from an engineer's perspective, I'm sure each of these vehicles would knock my socks off, its just that they're apples and oranges if you were to compare them to say a bugatti or a bentley, or a hellcat for that matter.
These are all toys, and if someone goes down the path of 'but my koenigsegg is fastest on a track', they're idiots, because Jack's Radical is faster than any of these things, more direct, analog and at a MUCH lower price point for entry.
Anything else is fake showboating.
Gordon Murray's approach to cars though is VERY unique and worthy of studies within itself.
GMA appears to have built a car that will address the McLaren F1’s few performance shortcomings - e.g., braking.
I recall reading the 1997 Road & Track cover story on the “Ameritech” F1. The car overheated on them. It was plated in Texas, but I can’t recall where the driving took place offhand (I don’t have the issue in Atlanta).
I wonder how the T.50 will perform in traffic, when asked to do “normal” car things, etc.
By all accounts a Chiron (perhaps the Veyron, too) can be daily driven (i.e., used as a car) as long as you have enough money not to worry about door dings and driveway scrapes. And have ready access to replacement tires.
On a related note, there are a few videos that have dropped in the past 36 hours of the Mercedes AMG ONE circulating on the Nurburgring GP circuit. Chris Harris encountered software / reliability issues, and the CarWow team managed to put it in some sort of limp mode more than once. Bafflingly, all this ended up on camera! Reading between the lines, the MGU-H is always operational, and sometimes the battery has to discharge, so it enters a battery only mode on an involuntary basis. I also noted an ever-present CEL on the dash screen.
The AMG one power train was being calibrated by multimatic for US certification, they tried a few things and finally gave up trying to get it to meet emissions standards. None of these euro specials is a legitimate automobile or competes on an even playing field.
Damn, at a glance, the Bentley said Hyundai Genesis to me. A big luxury Genesis GT sounds like a great idea actually.
All the rest? Yawn! They aren't cars. They are just car shaped collectibles. And none of them are particularly attractive. Will this stupid bubble ever burst?
In Sherman’s day, the Bond Bores on the trading floor were enjoying a purple patch fueled by (1) an avalanche of new, “junk” debt to fund LBOs and (2) the general economic expansion of the Thatcher and Reagan years.
My career has been on the other side of the Chinese Wall.
Your last line reminded me of the first time I encountered that term.
For the layman to try and comprehend something of banking do you find that Chernow's House of Morgan provides sufficient vocabulary and insight, particularly the final third, to follow things with perspective? And if not do you have a book you recommend that is similarly easy to get through?
I don’t think you need to read a book of that length or scope (House of Morgan) to understand the industry. Check this out instead: http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/
I very much enjoyed the House of Morgan when I read it. I intended it as a companion to The Arms of Krupp and Dreadnaught to increase my understanding of the later quarter of the 1800s and lead up to WWI, but found myself fascinated by the post 1960's stuff. Unfortunately it remains my only source on the subject, and just once source can lead to weird views on things.
Sherman, great write up but to what end, cars like many things have to be aspirational to be desired. Just as your example, the $50 Yo-Yo was aspirational, the $200 Yo=Yo was not. There in the past high net worth individuals collected art by the masters, or in another time they built lavash country estates (think Vanderbilt, Ford, DuPont). Todays high net worth individuals buy mega yachts. What you covered were the collectibles for the high net worth individuals. These cars are not aspirational they are collectables just like a masterpeice. IMHO the ink spilled on these cars is a waste of ink, let alone the time and travel budgets spent covering them.
This exactly. I was coming here to say the same thing but you beat me to it. For me to really develop an interest in something, there has to be a possibility (however slim) that one day if I work hard and save and have a little luck I may be able to actually have it. To those kids the $50 yo-yo was something they understood. It was something that they could aspire to. The $200 yo-yo wasn’t ever going to happen for them so they didn’t care. The same way I just scroll past press releases of the newest 7 figure car.
The New Yorker is for dilletantes who FANCY themselves the upper crust. People who talk about The Met - or wine - because they think it impresses the aristocrats they want to be, and the nobodies they despise.
Mr. McCoy: The article you recommended from The New Yorker was eye-opening, to say the least. My feelings are mixed. On one hand, I’m glad these dolts are engaging in dick measuring contests with their money instead of starting new foundations that will further gum up the works for the rest of us.
On the other hand, spending my retirement as some form of pirate suddenly sounds interesting.
Time to spit on my hands and hoist the black flag!
As a general concept, I do like the Platonic Ideal of the 911 ideal that all of these restomod outfits are pursuing. I find it hard to believe there’s an ass (and a wallet) for all of them, however.
The most appealing to me is the no longer available Singer with NA flat six; they will have built about 450 in total when they complete those in progress.
I have a friend who has one, and I had the pleasure of going for a ride in it with him in Malibu a few years ago. It was fun, but I would spend ~$1.0 million otherwise.
If someone gave me $1 million to spend on the car hobby, I'd have a collection of 10 to 20 vehicles that I consider interesting rather than one very expensive car. Frankly, I'd rather have a slightly restomodded '56 Continental Mark II (I'd put in a modern powertrain and brakes) than a million dollar Porsche.
Have you seen the “Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History” YouTube channel curated by ex-GM bean-counter Adam Wade? He’s got your statement down to a “T!” He has something like 40 “commodity” cars, from the ‘50s-‘80s (think late-‘60s Mercuries, 1985 Seville, 1967 Riviera). Since you have some connections with various autorati in the Detroit area, maybe you’ve crossed paths at a car show or two.
Good choice. The Mark II's classier, and when you pass $500,000 for any car, you're just paying for the badges.
Ed Bolian's philosophy is to buy cars that make it look like you won the lottery ten years ago. Mine is to buy the cars that I WOULD'VE bought if I'd had a good job when I was 22.
i know i'm very old, but these cars are getting kinda boring; years ago i subscribed to robb report and similarly got tired of the prices that could be charged for a wristwatch or bottle of scotch. megayachts at least have utility.
Shockingly the humble author describes Car Week attendees as “Fortunate Sons” and then proceeds to tell an unrelated anecdote about his parents buying him a $200 yo-yo in the 90s? Lol ok.
I'm as disgusted as you are, this is like when Fat Brad spent ten years arguing for socialism then spent his Sadwood windfall on becoming a slum lord in Cleveland.
Parents who aren't wealthy can still be generous to their kids. I bought my kids bike shop bikes, not dreck from a big box store. My dad had a friend that worked at a wholesale toy distributor. As a present for my Bar Mitzvah in late 1967 my parents bought me Monogram's best slot car set, a four lane setup that retailed for $100. Even the $60 that my dad paid works out to over $500 in today's dollars. My older brother had an extensive Marx model train set with a large box of Lionel accessories. We shared a very nice Erector set and I had a pretty nice chemistry set. My dad was a professional, a veterinarian, but we weren't affluent. I suppose we were on the lower edge of the upper middle class. Were my toys as nice as those of my best friend, who was a 3rd generation country club member? Not most of them.
As I recall, I was a little young for Pogs. Although a mitigating factor would have been the glacial pace at which trends arrived in remote Appalachia in those days.
As a northeast Ohioan I recall them being a mid 90s thing. I would’ve been 10 or 11yrs old, give or take. If there’s a yo-yo craze in my memory it was quite vague; though I think I had a light up Yomega. I believe that was post-pog for us.
I suppose the reference being even broke dicks could have pogs, thusly tying themselves to a prerequisite mid 90s shitbox that 3 people care about. Maybe I’m just the snobby kid to the party there.
I was very sheltered as a child (and I was the oldest kid in my family so no sibling to pass things down to me). The Silver Bullet II that nemesis had met an early end when an enfant terrible destroyed it during latchkey one day after school. I admired this kid immensely because he got to do whatever he wanted: play video games all day after school, wear JNCO jeans every day, listen to explicit rap music, eat candy all day at school, etc.
Most of my clothing in elementary school came from LL Bean or Brooks Brothers, although I did have a collection of motorsport-related t-shirts from the Speedgear catalog. No video games for a few more years, and I mostly listened to classical music OR instrumental surf guitar.
Oldest here myself so I get the awkward and forced trailblazing. We were middle class at best. I had an second hand Atari for awhile in my youth until someone broke in stealing the tv, vcr and my power supply - putting an end to that. When I finally got a Nintendo I received the gold plated Bible Adventures cartridge. Sure was fun playing Noah or guiding Moses down the river...
My mom was into a homemade clothes kick for awhile; between that and the haircuts I wasn’t the most popular. Eventually I got some Bugle Boy shirts which I’m sure were out of style but that’s fine. Nothing got me the grief my Spaulding brand Haikeem Olajuwon high tops did thinking I’d receive the grace of Jordan’s.
I too shared the love of surf rock and the “oldies” though nothing actually classical. Had the friend with the fee pass lifestyle and all the good toys by the time I was in 7th grade. I’m still close friends.
We went different ways. He squandered life for awhile but is now an EMT. I think I have just grown into a perpetual adolescent that keeps trying to get adult versions of all the things I wanted back then. At 39 I’m not sure it’s the best trait but I enjoy it enough.
So my snobby is tongue in cheek. I’m far from it, just have the automotive pallet to appreciate what’s worthwhile and recognize fads based around what was never cool. I didn’t want that shit then (and the ridicule) and I sure as shit don’t want it now.
When I was in second-grade music class, the teacher had us take a quiz where we had to name a song that had a lot of complexity and many melodies. My dad loves classical music and in particular is a huge Bach fan. I'm pretty sure he has all of Bach's works, bundled up in CD box sets of several hundred discs each, the size of loaves of bread.
Anyway, I listed Bach, largely because that was what I was familiar with. My pride and ego took a body blow that day when I realized I wasn't nearly as cool as my classmate who listed "Ghostbusters."
I am so sick of air cooled p car variants. The 911K is cool for the redline, the rest are blatant pandering to their corpulent and unimaginative core audience. The Koenigsegg is cool for the gearbox but has to be a disaster in the end, and I just couldn’t give a shit about any EV basically ever until (if?) solid state batteries reach the scale and capacity needed for 1,000 mile + ranges
God only knows where my curated collection of yo-yos is now.
There was one vehicle that I left out of this rogues’ gallery, as it was present at The Quail, but not a new debut: The Gordon Murray T.50.
I would crawl naked through a field of broken glass for one of those and keep it forever, because I am confident that we shall never see its like again.
So the sponsors were Rolex, Bohhams, BMW, VAG, Flexjet, Honda, VAG, GM, VAG, VAG, whomever, who cares, et cetera? I wonder if old Johnny is going to like the next Jetta. I like human longevity though, I bet their customers totally don't eat babies.
If Jack is to be believed, Liebermann has his head shoved so far up his anal cavity that if he broke wind, he’d blow his brains out!
He genuinely thinks he does good work. He isn't even self aware enough to be self critical.
One of my more popular recent pieces read a bit like a school report to me when it was published. It could have used more style. I guess, though, that it's more important for my editors and readers to like my stuff, than for me to do so. I wouldn't have hit "submit" if I didn't think it was good, but I still don't think it was my best work.
And you can't even buy a Rolex at the moment!
Honestly I am stuck on "Human Longevity." Like after the Panama Papers and rape island, what are the odds that they don't literally eat babies?
Excellent piece.
I'd rather have a Hyundai Staria than anything on display at the Quail.
Finally, someone who recognises Koenigsegg for what they are!
What's your opinion of the Freevalve system?
Its a system, and I'm sure it works for a few thousand miles (for little more than a demo). There is nothing wrong with the concept. Its just that it isn't in production for a reason. The 'genius' also isn't the first or the only one to think of it.
None of the Koenigsegg cars can meet any standards for engineering durability from any large OEM. They're only cars compared to an actual production car that meets all emissions, diagnostics, pass by noise, crash and safety standards in the sense that they all have a steering wheel and some pedals and wheels that go round and round.
These are literal toys which rely on their buyers NEVER exercising them to the limits of durability. The gimmicks of 'designed a transmission that the world has never seen' or a 'valvetrain that will shame the giants cause it was designed by automotive Steve Jobs himself' is for idiots without a high school education.
Look at it this way - How many production engines have entered commerce that are not K'segg 'buy and park' specials in the 7-8 years since Freevalve was spun off?
I don't know if the less exotic supercars are any better in terms of durability. I was at the preview to a RM auction looking at a Ferrari Testarossa. As it happened James Glickenhaus was standing next to me and he told me that he daily drove one. "How much broke?" I asked him. He replied, "Every fucking part. The frame broke."
That is an Italian special. When I worked with the Ferrari people they were the sloppiest engineers I met. With that background their performances in F1 in the last decade are easily explained.
It’s probably fair to say that a Testarossa would have had challenging reliability and servicing costs in period.
You could daily drive any of the current Ferrari volume cars, save for the Icona range and whatever the LaFerrari successor will be. They even have a (very) generous free maintenance plan.
I think the Koenigsegg, Pagani, etc. boutique cars are for guys who HAVE to stand out from the fellows who merely have Ferraris or Porsches or … etc.
The same as the guys who have to have an oddball, super low production watch from the likes of MB&F or Greubel Forsey to one-up the Holy Trinity and RM.
While I don't have their budget, and feel a little uncomfortable standing out in a crowd, I think I know how they feel. If I could afford something from the big 3, I'd get a Grand Seiko first and if I had enough money to be stupid about a watch, it'd probably be an F.P. Journe. Studied nonconformist? Moi?
To me it really does smack of a deep insecurity.
Who could feel inadequate “only” having a LaFerrari or 918 or P1 even in the company of the rarer cars?
It would be like having a closet full of baby cashmere sweaters and learning that your neighbor has all the same stuff, but in vicuña; or weeping because YOUR yacht is a foot shorter than the next guy’s.
I had the chance to review the "entry level" 570S McLaren and the twice as costly 675LT. Some of the people that recognized the 570 as a McLaren asked me if it was a P1. I thought to myself, wow, a million dollars worth of prestige and 90%+ of the P1's performance for just $200K, that's a bargain! I asked Jack, who had also driven both models, if he thought the 675LT was worth the extra $200K and he said yes. Upon reflection, I decided that if had that extra $200K, I'd also go with the 675. These are strictly theoretical questions, of course. My daily driver is a Honda Fit with 100,000 miles and my most expensive watch is a vintage Ball railroad pocket watch by Waltham that cost me about $300 and about the same to have serviced.
I read - and enjoyed - both reviews when they were published.
It’s refreshing and interesting to see what someone in your shoes - deeply knowledgeable about cars but not easily seduced by that sort of exotica - has to say. Most supercar reviews are 800 limp words from a journosaur post-press launch or OMG RACE CAR from a lifestyle correspondent.
I recently re-read both reviews while formulating my thoughts on the Artura a few weeks ago.
Thank you for your kind words. My approach to those cars was "everyman reviews a supercar". I did a grocery run in the 570.
When I had the 675LT in Los Angeles, I was on my way from the Petersen museum to my cousin's place in the Valley, driving in Bel Air on a boulevarded street with big Spanish looking homes. I was in the left lane going in one direction and from the other direction a thirtysomething Angeleno, bronze and with a gold chain, was driving a Gallardo spyder, also in the left lane. He looked over at the McLaren, saw a car that was twice as expensive as his being driven by an old Jewish guy with a fedora and a beard, and I literally saw his face fall.
This works only as long as you don't need to actually use said car in the environment it was advertised to dominate. I understand the attitude carrying across from watches, shoes etc. but arguably cars are far more complex and have many aspects to them, and in every one a boutique car will be inferior in the long run.
I just think the whole 'its like a piece of jewelry' attitude towards cars needs to go. I know I'm the odd one out here. Its a machine, it needs to be used as a machine.
There is a slight difference between Koenigsegg and Pagani in this sense. While neither brand has ever raced in any real sense, Pagani does produce track specials that appear to acquit themselves well in track use. Koenigsegg’s raison d'être is numbers - peak power, top speed, etc. It’s all academic, theoretical.
What’s your take on the GMA T.50?
I agree on the difference between those two, but the buyer often ends up being someone who's making an irrational decision based on exclusivity than use case.
I have a lot of respect for Gordon Murray as an engineer. But again, its a car that skirts all sorts of regulations and cannot be road legal except under some niche 'small manufacturer/show car' sense.
Ford/GM/VW, and others have more people working on compliance alone than the entire team working on one of these things. They're not idiots to be spending the money.
Note: all my comments are from an engineer's perspective, I'm sure each of these vehicles would knock my socks off, its just that they're apples and oranges if you were to compare them to say a bugatti or a bentley, or a hellcat for that matter.
These are all toys, and if someone goes down the path of 'but my koenigsegg is fastest on a track', they're idiots, because Jack's Radical is faster than any of these things, more direct, analog and at a MUCH lower price point for entry.
Anything else is fake showboating.
Gordon Murray's approach to cars though is VERY unique and worthy of studies within itself.
GMA appears to have built a car that will address the McLaren F1’s few performance shortcomings - e.g., braking.
I recall reading the 1997 Road & Track cover story on the “Ameritech” F1. The car overheated on them. It was plated in Texas, but I can’t recall where the driving took place offhand (I don’t have the issue in Atlanta).
I wonder how the T.50 will perform in traffic, when asked to do “normal” car things, etc.
By all accounts a Chiron (perhaps the Veyron, too) can be daily driven (i.e., used as a car) as long as you have enough money not to worry about door dings and driveway scrapes. And have ready access to replacement tires.
On a related note, there are a few videos that have dropped in the past 36 hours of the Mercedes AMG ONE circulating on the Nurburgring GP circuit. Chris Harris encountered software / reliability issues, and the CarWow team managed to put it in some sort of limp mode more than once. Bafflingly, all this ended up on camera! Reading between the lines, the MGU-H is always operational, and sometimes the battery has to discharge, so it enters a battery only mode on an involuntary basis. I also noted an ever-present CEL on the dash screen.
The AMG one power train was being calibrated by multimatic for US certification, they tried a few things and finally gave up trying to get it to meet emissions standards. None of these euro specials is a legitimate automobile or competes on an even playing field.
Damn, at a glance, the Bentley said Hyundai Genesis to me. A big luxury Genesis GT sounds like a great idea actually.
All the rest? Yawn! They aren't cars. They are just car shaped collectibles. And none of them are particularly attractive. Will this stupid bubble ever burst?
How in the actual fuck does Kia, of all brands, get a seat here?!
Genesis?! Maybe, because it professes to play in the luxury sandbox!! And I’ve always thought that Hyundai was the Olds or Buick to Kia’s Chevy!
Speaking of Sloanian hierarchy, where was Ms. Mary-quite-Contrary and Cadillaq at this little garden party for the socialist 1%-ers?
KIA must have snuck in!
Cadillac and their $300,000 white elephant Celestiq were conspicuously absent.
Gotta be vaporware. Wouldn’t be surprised to see that one evaporate/hit the lot in a very different spec than advertised
What a black eye for them if that’s the case!
If wishes were horses... we wouldn’t need E”””V”””s
Notice how nobody ever shows off a functional prototype of their monstrous new hyper-exotic?
It's always big talk about how, "Our new hypercar WILL have 5,000 horsepower and WILL go 350 mph and WILL be a hybrid and WILL get 50 mpg, etc. etc."
And of course, what they do have is concept renderings, maybe a fiberglass-and-Bondo mockup and of course, a need for multiple millions to do the job.
I can't remember the last time I saw some press release saying "Our new car HAS GONE 350 mph, and we have documentation! Wanna go for a scary ride?"
"That's the worst-lookin' hat I've ever seen!"
Sherman, I don't know if you're a Master of the Universe, but you're certainly a Master of the Written Word. Highly enjoyable read!
In Sherman’s day, the Bond Bores on the trading floor were enjoying a purple patch fueled by (1) an avalanche of new, “junk” debt to fund LBOs and (2) the general economic expansion of the Thatcher and Reagan years.
My career has been on the other side of the Chinese Wall.
Your last line reminded me of the first time I encountered that term.
For the layman to try and comprehend something of banking do you find that Chernow's House of Morgan provides sufficient vocabulary and insight, particularly the final third, to follow things with perspective? And if not do you have a book you recommend that is similarly easy to get through?
If you want to know what a trading floor was like in the good ol’ days (the Bonfire Days), Liar’s Poker is the ticket.
If you want to know what banking is/was like from a junior POV - https://www.amazon.com/Monkey-Business-Swinging-Through-Street-ebook/dp/B004ZGZDMA (I have worked for multiple people at multiple firms who were at DLJ during the period covered in the book)
I don’t think you need to read a book of that length or scope (House of Morgan) to understand the industry. Check this out instead: http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/
Ordered.
I very much enjoyed the House of Morgan when I read it. I intended it as a companion to The Arms of Krupp and Dreadnaught to increase my understanding of the later quarter of the 1800s and lead up to WWI, but found myself fascinated by the post 1960's stuff. Unfortunately it remains my only source on the subject, and just once source can lead to weird views on things.
Some would bump up the Bentley Batur a whole letter grade due to the similarity of its visage to a G90's.
It does look rather Genesis-esque, doesn’t it?
So now we have the tail wagging the dog, so to speak; Genesis copied Bentley on the GV80, and now Crewe is returning the favor!
Sherman, great write up but to what end, cars like many things have to be aspirational to be desired. Just as your example, the $50 Yo-Yo was aspirational, the $200 Yo=Yo was not. There in the past high net worth individuals collected art by the masters, or in another time they built lavash country estates (think Vanderbilt, Ford, DuPont). Todays high net worth individuals buy mega yachts. What you covered were the collectibles for the high net worth individuals. These cars are not aspirational they are collectables just like a masterpeice. IMHO the ink spilled on these cars is a waste of ink, let alone the time and travel budgets spent covering them.
This exactly. I was coming here to say the same thing but you beat me to it. For me to really develop an interest in something, there has to be a possibility (however slim) that one day if I work hard and save and have a little luck I may be able to actually have it. To those kids the $50 yo-yo was something they understood. It was something that they could aspire to. The $200 yo-yo wasn’t ever going to happen for them so they didn’t care. The same way I just scroll past press releases of the newest 7 figure car.
I agree, and well-said.
Fortunately I learned that lesson a long time ago.
100% spot on. I simply tune out of stuff that's that unrelatable/unattainable
I took great pleasure in reading this piece (fair warning, it is a lengthy read):
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/the-haves-and-the-have-yachts
Interesting piece.
Even more so since the New Yorker has always struck me as a bourgeoisie magazine for the upper crust!
Bourgeoisie my ass.
The New Yorker is for dilletantes who FANCY themselves the upper crust. People who talk about The Met - or wine - because they think it impresses the aristocrats they want to be, and the nobodies they despise.
cf. Class, by Paul Fussell
Yes, you’re right—I had it bass-ackwards! 🤪🥴🙄
Mr. McCoy: The article you recommended from The New Yorker was eye-opening, to say the least. My feelings are mixed. On one hand, I’m glad these dolts are engaging in dick measuring contests with their money instead of starting new foundations that will further gum up the works for the rest of us.
On the other hand, spending my retirement as some form of pirate suddenly sounds interesting.
Time to spit on my hands and hoist the black flag!
" '90s yo-yo craze"?
Step aside, son. Yo-yos, like 3D movies, have had a number of crazes.
In the '50s and '60s Duncan did a lot of crossmarketing.
Free with a bag of Livesavers candies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVVYnphmMhA
Free with a box of cereal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjg22aBRnZ8
If only I could find my treasure trove of junk, I’d be well-positioned to capitalize on the next wave of yo-yo nostalgia.
I rather like that Tuthill, but then I was around when the 911 was first introduced.
Piech's version of Bugatti has yet to make a car doesn't look like an insect.
The Range Rover looks handsome.
The Bentley Batur looks like a Genesis.
As a general concept, I do like the Platonic Ideal of the 911 ideal that all of these restomod outfits are pursuing. I find it hard to believe there’s an ass (and a wallet) for all of them, however.
The most appealing to me is the no longer available Singer with NA flat six; they will have built about 450 in total when they complete those in progress.
I have a friend who has one, and I had the pleasure of going for a ride in it with him in Malibu a few years ago. It was fun, but I would spend ~$1.0 million otherwise.
If someone gave me $1 million to spend on the car hobby, I'd have a collection of 10 to 20 vehicles that I consider interesting rather than one very expensive car. Frankly, I'd rather have a slightly restomodded '56 Continental Mark II (I'd put in a modern powertrain and brakes) than a million dollar Porsche.
Have you seen the “Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History” YouTube channel curated by ex-GM bean-counter Adam Wade? He’s got your statement down to a “T!” He has something like 40 “commodity” cars, from the ‘50s-‘80s (think late-‘60s Mercuries, 1985 Seville, 1967 Riviera). Since you have some connections with various autorati in the Detroit area, maybe you’ve crossed paths at a car show or two.
Good choice. The Mark II's classier, and when you pass $500,000 for any car, you're just paying for the badges.
Ed Bolian's philosophy is to buy cars that make it look like you won the lottery ten years ago. Mine is to buy the cars that I WOULD'VE bought if I'd had a good job when I was 22.
i know i'm very old, but these cars are getting kinda boring; years ago i subscribed to robb report and similarly got tired of the prices that could be charged for a wristwatch or bottle of scotch. megayachts at least have utility.
I still enjoy following the industry, but I found this year’s crop of toys risible - hence the contemptuous response.
The air cooled Porsche selections struck me as very “me too.”
Mr. McCoy, this is really good writing and also hilarious.
Thanks.
Thank YOU for reading!
Shockingly the humble author describes Car Week attendees as “Fortunate Sons” and then proceeds to tell an unrelated anecdote about his parents buying him a $200 yo-yo in the 90s? Lol ok.
I'm as disgusted as you are, this is like when Fat Brad spent ten years arguing for socialism then spent his Sadwood windfall on becoming a slum lord in Cleveland.
Parents who aren't wealthy can still be generous to their kids. I bought my kids bike shop bikes, not dreck from a big box store. My dad had a friend that worked at a wholesale toy distributor. As a present for my Bar Mitzvah in late 1967 my parents bought me Monogram's best slot car set, a four lane setup that retailed for $100. Even the $60 that my dad paid works out to over $500 in today's dollars. My older brother had an extensive Marx model train set with a large box of Lionel accessories. We shared a very nice Erector set and I had a pretty nice chemistry set. My dad was a professional, a veterinarian, but we weren't affluent. I suppose we were on the lower edge of the upper middle class. Were my toys as nice as those of my best friend, who was a 3rd generation country club member? Not most of them.
This was a gift from my grandparents, who spoiled me in the worst possible way by inadvertently teaching me how to read before I went to school.
Actually, my maternal grandparents served a my yo-yo benefactors.
If my father knew I had $200 yo-yo, I’d be dead, and your life wouldn’t have been transformed by our friendship!
You gotta readjust your radar if you think that’s the threshold for a “fortunate son” in the 90s
This particular commenter - “Adam Diamond,” as he calls himself - is an absolute thorn in my side!
Yeah, but what about Pogs? Hmm? Surely that’s like the ‘SadWood’ version of this article.
As I recall, I was a little young for Pogs. Although a mitigating factor would have been the glacial pace at which trends arrived in remote Appalachia in those days.
As a northeast Ohioan I recall them being a mid 90s thing. I would’ve been 10 or 11yrs old, give or take. If there’s a yo-yo craze in my memory it was quite vague; though I think I had a light up Yomega. I believe that was post-pog for us.
I suppose the reference being even broke dicks could have pogs, thusly tying themselves to a prerequisite mid 90s shitbox that 3 people care about. Maybe I’m just the snobby kid to the party there.
I was very sheltered as a child (and I was the oldest kid in my family so no sibling to pass things down to me). The Silver Bullet II that nemesis had met an early end when an enfant terrible destroyed it during latchkey one day after school. I admired this kid immensely because he got to do whatever he wanted: play video games all day after school, wear JNCO jeans every day, listen to explicit rap music, eat candy all day at school, etc.
Most of my clothing in elementary school came from LL Bean or Brooks Brothers, although I did have a collection of motorsport-related t-shirts from the Speedgear catalog. No video games for a few more years, and I mostly listened to classical music OR instrumental surf guitar.
Oldest here myself so I get the awkward and forced trailblazing. We were middle class at best. I had an second hand Atari for awhile in my youth until someone broke in stealing the tv, vcr and my power supply - putting an end to that. When I finally got a Nintendo I received the gold plated Bible Adventures cartridge. Sure was fun playing Noah or guiding Moses down the river...
My mom was into a homemade clothes kick for awhile; between that and the haircuts I wasn’t the most popular. Eventually I got some Bugle Boy shirts which I’m sure were out of style but that’s fine. Nothing got me the grief my Spaulding brand Haikeem Olajuwon high tops did thinking I’d receive the grace of Jordan’s.
I too shared the love of surf rock and the “oldies” though nothing actually classical. Had the friend with the fee pass lifestyle and all the good toys by the time I was in 7th grade. I’m still close friends.
We went different ways. He squandered life for awhile but is now an EMT. I think I have just grown into a perpetual adolescent that keeps trying to get adult versions of all the things I wanted back then. At 39 I’m not sure it’s the best trait but I enjoy it enough.
So my snobby is tongue in cheek. I’m far from it, just have the automotive pallet to appreciate what’s worthwhile and recognize fads based around what was never cool. I didn’t want that shit then (and the ridicule) and I sure as shit don’t want it now.
Sheltered, huh? Try this episode on for size.
When I was in second-grade music class, the teacher had us take a quiz where we had to name a song that had a lot of complexity and many melodies. My dad loves classical music and in particular is a huge Bach fan. I'm pretty sure he has all of Bach's works, bundled up in CD box sets of several hundred discs each, the size of loaves of bread.
Anyway, I listed Bach, largely because that was what I was familiar with. My pride and ego took a body blow that day when I realized I wasn't nearly as cool as my classmate who listed "Ghostbusters."
They always write LOL but this time I LOLed.
I am so sick of air cooled p car variants. The 911K is cool for the redline, the rest are blatant pandering to their corpulent and unimaginative core audience. The Koenigsegg is cool for the gearbox but has to be a disaster in the end, and I just couldn’t give a shit about any EV basically ever until (if?) solid state batteries reach the scale and capacity needed for 1,000 mile + ranges