GTP Cool Wall: 2012+ BMW M5
- Thread starter White & Nerdy
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If the M5 does look a bit mundane, there is the M performance parts catalogue to add a bit of bling. This White M5 (with competition pack I believe) lives near me, and also has most of the M-performance parts fitted.. I think it's quite eye-catching, but then, I know what it is to begin with...
Joel
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- 8,141
- Halifax, NS
- Noob616
For the millionth time, all the cheap oil has been pumped out of Texas already, the wells in the middle east are running out, and we haven't found any new deposits of conventional petroleum in decades. Oil will never "run out", it will just become more and more and more expensive as time goes on, because there isn't any more petroleum to discover and everything else is substantially more expensive to produce.
It's not the EPA's fault that it's more expensive to extract shale oil, drill in deep water, or refine bitumen than it is to pump petroleum out of the ground.
- 23,800
- Philippines
It's interesting to note that we've known about Shale Oil for decades. It was just never economical to pump out. When oil was $40 a barrel, it doesn't make sense to drill for oil that you need to sell at $60 a barrel simply to break even.
And now that "cheap" shale oil needs a support price of $85 a barrel to keep going, because shale oil wells dry up much, much faster than those ginormous old Saudi reserves. (Brent Oil requires an $80-$85 price support, too... but speculation is keeping it over $100... and, let's face it... new deep sea wells ain't going to be set up for a mere $85 a barrel!) And that price is only ever going to go up.
Enjoy the post-scarcity economy, folks. Pro-tip: it ain't Prius-driving Granny's fault it's here, either.
And now that "cheap" shale oil needs a support price of $85 a barrel to keep going, because shale oil wells dry up much, much faster than those ginormous old Saudi reserves. (Brent Oil requires an $80-$85 price support, too... but speculation is keeping it over $100... and, let's face it... new deep sea wells ain't going to be set up for a mere $85 a barrel!) And that price is only ever going to go up.
Enjoy the post-scarcity economy, folks. Pro-tip: it ain't Prius-driving Granny's fault it's here, either.
Cano
Premium
- 20,758
- Cephiro
Yes indeed. I have some friends that were into turbocharging Neons before the SRT4 came out, and they were pretty good at it, had some 300 whp thingies running around. But when the SRT4 came out it was like a complete reset for them, a freaking revelation. Today, they're routinely getting 600 whp out of those engines, putting them everywhere from Sentras to Ford KAs, all of them complete with SRT4 emblems
- 87,599
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
I'd probably think that's a 520 that's been beaten with the Barry stick.
- 17,333
- United Kingdom
Well, that could be true of any tarted up vehicle - although I guess it also depends to a great degree on the cynicism and/or knowledge of the viewer.
M Performance parts != Competition Pack
It's about options. Tradition says an M5 doesn't stand out that much in a line-up of 5 series's.. indeed the greatest M5 IMO (the E28) was virtually indistinguishable from the standard models. By the time the much loved E39 came out, BMW were in the business of selling very similar M-sport packs for standard models --- so I guess you could say that they had gotten more aggressive, but at the same time, still not that distinguishable from lesser models. Anyway.... as I said, it's about options, all I'm saying is if you are of the opinion that your £80,000 sports saloon should look a little bit more snorty, then you have options. If you want understated, fine. It's an opinion that is often divided, so why not offer options?
I'll agree that calling some of the add-ons "Performance parts" is very silly.... in some cases they are just £100 stickers! Of course in other cases it's titanium/carbon fibre exhast systems.
Cano
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- Cephiro
- 87,599
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Q-Cars - or as the youth of today call them, "Sleepers" - aren't cool. The reason they aren't cool is because they're an in-joke.
In-jokes are only funny to the people who are "in" (and in this case those people are car enthusiasts and car bores). To everyone else they're just a strange thing that the weird guy said and some other weird guys laughed at, but they don't get it.
A performance car has to give you a clue to be cool - it can't blend in and it can't be the automotive equivalent of a raised middle finger smeared over the viewer's face (NSFW), 'cos obnoxiousness isn't cool either.
- 29,967
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
@Famine This leads me onto something I had been debating whether to make a separate thread on; Cool Wall theory.
Why does a car need to be "explained" ? You don't buy it to impress non-car enthusiasts or even enthusiasts, unless you're a complete 🤬
You buy a car because you like it, or at least that's the mantra I would use. While other people might consider what I have uncool, whether they are an enthusiast or not, it's whether you like your own car and consider it cool. And in my own opinion, a Q-car is cool exactly because it doesn't look like it's been injected with steroids and doesn't have to shout. In fact, wanting to be noticed is very uncool in itself.
This is the subjective nature of coolness, though.
Why does a car need to be "explained" ? You don't buy it to impress non-car enthusiasts or even enthusiasts, unless you're a complete 🤬
You buy a car because you like it, or at least that's the mantra I would use. While other people might consider what I have uncool, whether they are an enthusiast or not, it's whether you like your own car and consider it cool. And in my own opinion, a Q-car is cool exactly because it doesn't look like it's been injected with steroids and doesn't have to shout. In fact, wanting to be noticed is very uncool in itself.
This is the subjective nature of coolness, though.
- 87,599
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
No... it really isn't
You can't be cool while driving an Audi, because other people think you're a nob.
You can't be cool while driving a Hummer, because other people think you don't have a nob.
You can't be cool while telling an in-joke, because other people aren't in on the joke - and if you have to explain a joke, it's not funny any more.
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- Philippines
Yes indeed. I have some friends that were into turbocharging Neons before the SRT4 came out, and they were pretty good at it, had some 300 whp thingies running around. But when the SRT4 came out it was like a complete reset for them, a freaking revelation. Today, they're routinely getting 600 whp out of those engines, putting them everywhere from Sentras to Ford KAs, all of them complete with SRT4 emblems
A Sentra? Heaven forfend! Then again, while it is possible to get near 500 whp out of the SR20 block, the extra displacement of the 2.5 makes it a better candidate for big numbers, and SRs tend to eat trannies like nobody's business. Hell... I know people who break SR axles and third gears even before boost, so that's not surprising...
- 29,967
- Bratvegas
- GTP_Liquid
While these are good examples (I certainly wouldn't drive a Hummer, because it's uncool) again, if I did think one of them was cool, I'd have no qualms about driving it regardless of whether other people thought it was uncool or thought it made me uncool by extension.
Regarding the in-joke, yes it's true that much like a frog, a joke dies when you dissect it but if we go back to car examples I wouldn't care that other people aren't in on the joke. Whether other people know or not is irrelevant as to whether I think something is cool. Expanding that to the wider population though, this would obviously be subject to interpretation.
Volvo 850R. I love them, cool cars. I don't think this is universal though.
Non-enthusiast: "Tsh, average, boxy Volvo. Uncool."
I'd have to explain why my 850 is different to a standard 850. Why must I? This could be just me, but I don't care. I don't feel a compulsion to explain why something is cool or different.
Cano
Premium
- 20,758
- Cephiro
A Sentra? Heaven forfend! Then again, while it is possible to get near 500 whp out of the SR20 block, the extra displacement of the 2.5 makes it a better candidate for big numbers, and SRs tend to eat trannies like nobody's business. Hell... I know people who break SR axles and third gears even before boost, so that's not surprising...
Yeup, 4-door too. I'm talking this:
with a twin-turbo/entire drivetrain off a Neon SRT4. Made 605 to the wheels. Scary as all the hell.
Cano
Premium
- 20,758
- Cephiro
Really??? A Tsuru with 600 horses????Madness!!!
yeah. There's also a KA. And a Shadow. And of course several Neons. Their latest is a tube-chassis car off the long-defunct Copa Neon, with two 500 hp engines and two differentials running off a single gearbox. Home-brewed 4wd thinghamabob with about 1,000 horses and, well, I think 3 people could carry the entire chassis around. I'm scared just by looking at it.
- 87,599
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Indeed - it wouldn't change the fact that other people think you're uncool.
You're divorcing what you like from what is cool at that point. You're happy to drive it, you know it's uncool. Why is it uncool? Other people think it is.
You don't have to at all. You're happy to drive it, you know other people think it's uncool.
I drive an MX-5. I'm fully aware that it's either cool or gay. It can, in a fit of Schroedingeriness, be both simultaneously. I don't really care 'cos I like it - but whether I like it or not doesn't have any bearing on its coolness. Other people do.
- 23,800
- Philippines
Having learned to drive on one of those, with its suitcase-sized cabin, soda-can crash structure and front suspension that bottoms out if you even breathed upon it... I could imagine.
Seriously uncool car.
Pretty cool in SE-R form, but very rare to find one that isn't a pile of rust at this point. Surprised the motor doesn't torque the chassis in half.**Yes, I know SRT motors are longitudinal, but it's a very pretty fantasy, so let me be!
- 4,035
- Gothenburg
- Agremont
The engine sound speakers alone makes it uncool.
Joel
Premium
- 8,141
- Halifax, NS
- Noob616
Same thing happened in Alberta, we've known about the oil sands here for a while but until fairly recently it's been to expensive to produce. It always makes me laugh when people here complain about the price of gas despite the rising price of oil and the Alberta oil sands being the backbone of the Canadian economy.It's interesting to note that we've known about Shale Oil for decades. It was just never economical to pump out. When oil was $40 a barrel, it doesn't make sense to drill for oil that you need to sell at $60 a barrel simply to break even.
And now that "cheap" shale oil needs a support price of $85 a barrel to keep going, because shale oil wells dry up much, much faster than those ginormous old Saudi reserves. (Brent Oil requires an $80-$85 price support, too... but speculation is keeping it over $100... and, let's face it... new deep sea wells ain't going to be set up for a mere $85 a barrel!) And that price is only ever going to go up.
Enjoy the post-scarcity economy, folks. Pro-tip: it ain't Prius-driving Granny's fault it's here, either.
- 6,041
- Puget Sound
- Crash852
A modern BMW unfortunately automatically starts this with uncool but this M5 is fairly good looking, and cooler than your typical dreary office worker BMW.
In 20 years, this would be subzero. Until then, this particular generation gets only a meh.
In 20 years, this would be subzero. Until then, this particular generation gets only a meh.
- 7,432
- Fort Collins, CO
- Koios1031
- koios1031
I'm right there with you. But I've also got the teenage boy trying to out duel me on everything while telling it's uncool.
Anyways, my thoughts on the car. Meh. It's a BMW, which is cool if you drive it, but uncool if you don't. It's got a soundtrack piped in. But it also has an off button. I think it's trying to hard to fit in because BMW itself has raised the bar so high that they are now jumping over sharks. Every pro has a counter con, and every con has a counter pro. In the end, I just don't care enough about to love it or hate.
- 8,642
- London
- GTP_Stotty
