.jpg)
The first thing anyone wants to know when they see a fast car is, "how fast does it go?", or, "what is the top speed, zero to 60 or quarter mile time?" The truth is that most of the top echelon of super cars will achieve roughly the same performance levels. Once you get over 200 miles an hour, really how much more do you need?
In a world where Olympic medals winners and last place finishers are only about a second apart how can you really tell who is the Champion amongst the group, and would the winner change if the race was held another day? Comparison tests are constantly being carried out with sports cars to find the fastest lap time, the quickest from zero to 100 mph and back to zero, but these results in the end are just numbers.
When dealing with sports cars when all is said and done, the numbers really just don't matter! There are many cars that are just as fast as a Ferrari. But then why do so many people who can afford to drive anything they want to drive buy a Ferrari? There's something intangible about certain cars . Every good car actually has its own personality! The magic ingredient to any truly good car is the way it "feels".
Some Ferrari owners will tell you that they bought their car because of the sound of the engine or the feel of the famous H Gate shifter or F1 shifting. Others will say that it's the unparalleled racing history that is present in every car that Ferrari produces. Still other Ferrari owners may have bought the car because of the great handling and excellence performance. The way the car "feels" when being driven fast, or the way it makes them "feel" like a better driver because it handles so well at speed.
However, this "feeling" really doesn't have to be about speed. Take a Rolls Royce for instance. Sure they are fast. But it's the smooth ride and opulent luxury that makes the driver "feel" special when piloting such a finely crafted automobile. And that "feeling" might be something different for every person who drives the car. For some who get behind the wheel of a Corvette it might be that feeling that only an American front-engined real wheel drive V 8 can deliver. For another driver of the same Vette it might be the way it brings back the memory of being in their dad's Corvette when they were a kid.
This reminds me of a time I was driving out on some windy roads with a friend of mine who had a Porsche Boxster S. We swapped cars half way through the drive and I took over the Boxster and he drove my Porsche 911 SC. While the Boxster was certainly faster and felt more modern than my vintage 911, I wouldn't trade mine for it because of the way my Porsche 911 SC "feels". To me it's just like driving a legal go-cart on the street. To me it feels pure and unmolested by the modern electronics and safety features built in to any contemporary car. While these things make my classic 911 feel special to me, another driver who loves the 911 might only get that feeling from, perhaps a Porsche 356, with their opinion being that the 911 SC feels too "new".
This is what makes every great sports car that has been created with passion and feeling from it's builders special. From rare cars like the Ginetta or Ariel Atom, to the MGA, Aston Martin DB5, or Maybach, each car has been infused with that intangible something special from the designers and engineers who conceived it. So really the most important thing about any sports car is the way it "feels", and the way it makes its owner "feel".
source:examiner
