GTP Cool Wall: 2013+ McLaren P1

[Joel]

I'm not going to argue with it.

See this thing you're doing?

you guys

last thing I would have expected anyone here to.

Stop doing that. That's where your problem lies. Instead of looking at people as individuals you want to paint everyone with a broad brush to fit whatever straw man you're arguing against.

 

[Kent]

This car managed to put an emblem into all of the obivous design features: everywhere you look is a McLaren emblem. It is amazing that a car of this performance and design concept can be uncool to any one. This McLaren breaks the stereotypes of eco-friendly and manages to be an insane performance car.
Compared to cars like the GTR this is incredible.

I have my doubts about any one saying this car is a seriously uncool car, it is simply a supercar.

Voting uncool because of that means you are close-minded. 👎

 

[Famine]

This McLaren breaks the stereotypes of eco-friendly and manages to be an insane performance car.

It has an 730hp V8. Of course it's an insane performance car.

It returns 35mpg (imperial) combined when allowed to use the battery (which has a SIX mile range) - about equal to that paragon of eco-friendliness the Range Rover Sport.

Compared to cars like the GTR this is incredible.

y expensive, vulgar and ostentatious.

I have my doubts about any one saying this car is a seriously uncool car, it is simply a supercar.

Voting uncool because of that means you are close-minded. 👎

Drive this - or any other hypercar - down a street with 100 people on it.

Excluding the kids, ~5 people will say "Ooh, a McLaren P1.". Another ~10 will say "Ooh, what's that?". About 30 won't know what it is but will think "Flash tosser". Around half won't even notice it.

Overt displays of wealth aren't cool in the same way that a hailstorm of spittle or slashed tyres aren't cool.

 

[Kent]

It has an 730hp V8. Of course it's an insane performance car.

It returns 35mpg (imperial) combined when allowed to use the battery (which has a SIX mile range) - about equal to that paragon of eco-friendliness the Range Rover Sport. y expensive, vulgar and ostentatious. Drive this - or any other hypercar - down a street with 100 people on it.

Excluding the kids, ~5 people will say "Ooh, a McLaren P1.". Another ~10 will say "Ooh, what's that?". About 30 won't know what it is but will think "Flash tosser". Around half won't even notice it.

Overt displays of wealth aren't cool in the same way that a hailstorm of spittle or slashed tyres aren't cool.

Only us who can't afford it assume it's a display of wealth and not simply the insanely rich man's miata.

BTW, much of what you said seemed to be slang that I didn't understand.
I got the drift gist, of it but genuinely wasn't impressed to the point that you'd change my opinion.

Supercars aren't meant to be every-day-man cars.

 

[Famine]

The only slang word in there is 'tosser', which is a pejorative form of 'excessive male masturbator'...

And it's not meant to change your mind - merely point out that the general population think you're a [insert pejorative] if you drive an obviously expensive and brash vehicle, which is why they're always uncool, rather than some 'close-minded' view without rationale.

 

[Azure Flare]

Taking what other people would think about it, do you thinks it's cool?

 

[Kent]

The only slang word in there is 'tosser', which is a pejorative form of 'excessive male masturbator'...

And it's not meant to change your mind - merely point out that the general population think you're a [insert pejorative] if you drive an obviously expensive and brash vehicle, which is why they're always uncool, rather than some 'close-minded' view without rationale.

Azure flare has a point about worries of what other people think but...

Why is an obviously expensive vehicle not cool?
I mean really, do you oppose very rich people spending money? Is it wrong to spend money on fine goods rather than stock it away in investments?

I don't judge if the P1 is cool on how much it costs or how street walkers judge me for driving it.

I look at how fast, stylish, and forward thinking the design is to get an understanding of cool or not.

I think it's an awesomely cool car regardless of how much it cost to buy or how people would think of me as they see me drive past them.

 

[Azure Flare]

To reiterate what I said before.

Personally, I don't think about the people who buy/bought the car for me to determine how cool I think it is. How cool I think a car is how it feels to me.

 

[Famine]

Taking what other people would think about it, do you thinks it's cool?

No. It's a hypercar.

Why is an obviously expensive vehicle not cool?

People despise overt displays of wealth.

I mean really, do you oppose very rich people spending money?

Do I? No - but then I wasn't mentioned at any point. I'd much rather see a P1 bought and driven about than shoved into a museum.

Do the general population? Hell yes. There's a massive "eat the rich" groundswell - you only have to look at threads like this. I mean, the entire "99%"/"Occupy" movement is based on the hatred of people who have money.

This is why brands like BMW, Audi and Mercedes are popular amongst non-car people. The really expensive versions don't look like it - sure, there's a premium badge on there, but genpop wouldn't know if the car cost £30k or £130k.

Ironically, genpop also love BMW, Audi and Mercedes because they can buy the cheapest, entry level cars and look like they're doing well for themselves. But that's people for you.

I don't judge if the P1 is cool on how much it costs or how street walkers judge me for driving it.

I look at how fast, stylish, and forward thinking the design is to get an understanding of cool or not.

I think it's an awesomely cool car regardless of how much it cost to buy or how people would think of me as they see me drive past them.

And other people look at it differently and think differently. But you don't see your opinion - on a subjective matter of how cool something is - being 👎 as "close-minded" by those people.

My post was an explanation of why supercars and hypercars are regarded as automatically uncool. Now you know that there is sound reasoning behind it, rather than the knee-jerk response of the thoughtless.


Incidentally, us car guys aren't cool. We're geeks. Sure, people come to us for advice when they're looking for a new car ("Hey, you're a car guy aren't you?") but most of the time we're boring nerds who are "always talking about cars".

 

[Bopop4]

It's more like how Bopop suddenly decided to agree with me on the last thing I would have expected anyone here to. Whatever. I'm not going to argue with it.

Just because I disagree with 97% of what you say doesn't mean I automatically go against every single post you make.

It's a car doing donuts, that's cool in itself.

Factor in a bright orange supercar and it becomes even more cool.

 

[Kent]

. Now you know that there is sound reasoning behind it, rather than the knee-jerk response of the thoughtless.

I get what you're saying with the rest of the response but that doesn't leave me feeling like the "eat the rich" and "occupy" people are using any "sound reasoning" for saying a super car isn't cool.

I'd actually say it's quite the opposite.
The people who hate on super cars for the reasons you've talked about should encourage people to buy them and get that wealth of money back into the economy.

And of course, there's always the fact that assuming someone is an excessive tosser is never sound reasoning (unless they are actually proving it to you in which case you should run and call the police ).

I appreciate the time taken to explain the hate on these hyper and super cars but it doesn't change my opinion about the cars or the people hating on them.

 

[CarBastard]

Talk to any super-car owner that doesn't have selfsteem issues and you'll hear that the constant crowd-drawing capabilities of these cars gets tiresome really quick. You might as well step out of your door with a sign hanging off your neck that says "LOOK AT ME I'M RICH GIVE ME ALL YOUR ATTENTION", and there's no way you can consider such a thing cool.

Sure, everyone has his/her own rules for deciding what's cool but you shouldn't confuse "Cool" with "Engineering wonder", "Nordschleife time lord", or even with "I like it". Cool is an abstract and hard to define concept but it definitely involves social perception and, like someone else said in a Cool Wall post (I think it was Roger The Horse), a certain... X factor. This McLaren's got none of that. Engineering masterpiece? Of course! Would I kill to drive one on a track? You bet! Would it look cool to a woman who I want to take to dinner? Definitely not.

 

[Famine]

I get what you're saying with the rest of the response but that doesn't leave me feeling like the "eat the rich" and "occupy" people are using any "sound reasoning" for saying a super car isn't cool.

I'd actually say it's quite the opposite.
The people who hate on super cars for the reasons you've talked about should encourage people to buy them and get that wealth of money back into the economy.

And of course, there's always the fact that assuming someone is an excessive tosser is never sound reasoning (unless they are actually proving it to you in which case you should run and call the police ).

I appreciate the time taken to explain the hate on these hyper and super cars but it doesn't change my opinion about the cars or the people hating on them.

Remember that rating it as uncool isn't synonymous with hatred or dislike though - it's simply rating it as uncool.

 

[homeforsummer]

I have my doubts about any one saying this car is a seriously uncool car, it is simply a supercar.

For the record, I made my own "uncool" decision based mainly on the Nurburgring dick-waving that McLaren seems to be indulging in, rather than simply because the car is a hypercar.

McLaren claiming they don't want to get involved in a 'Ring arms race and then drip-feeding information about its time is essentially like claiming loudly and often you have a massive knob but never putting it to any use. The former is tedious and frustrating for petrolheads as I imagine the latter might be for the ladies (or the fellas, I guess).

What you end up with is an over-hyped supercar, of which few will ever get to experience the extent of its performance; and which does the hybrid bit less well than the Porsche 918... the car that McLaren won't reveal whether they're quicker than around the circuit nobody gives a toss about anyway.

 

[Tornado]

At this point I highly suspect you guys are randomly switching your viewpoints around just to mess with me.

While that would be something I would do, I (and I suspect James as well) just tend to find similarly ill-informed opinions on the opposite end of the spectrum to be equally pretentious (if not moreso, considering the reasoning some of them are expressed for).

 

[White & Nerdy]

Just remember, if someone's hatin' just because your car looks expensive, it just means they're jealous.

 

[Roger the Horse]

Cars I feel jealous of the owners of when they drive past:

That was more cars than I was expecting, come to think of it...

 

[Tornado]

A bunch of Volvos? How wacky!

 

[Slash]

I don't care who you are, or if you like cars or not, if you don't turn your head when ANY super car/hypercar drives by, there is something VERY wrong. They stick out from everything like a sore thumb, even some of the most subtle ones.

 

[Tornado]

Sticking out is not necessarily a positive quality, though.

 

[Roger the Horse]

I don't care who you are, or if you like cars or not, if you don't turn your head when ANY naked man screaming as loudly as he can that you should sell your soul to the devil runs by, there is something VERY wrong. They stick out from everything like a sore thumb, even some of the most subtle ones.

Fixed. You spelt by with a u.

 

[Exorcet]

A very nice car with a serious driving focus, especially through the aerodynamics. It's weighed down with a pointless hybrid system though. Lacks the rawness of what would be its 90's or earlier equivalents. We may never see cars like those again. It's a very nice car, but doesn't feel as special as it should.

This car managed to put an emblem into all of the obivous design features: everywhere you look is a McLaren emblem. It is amazing that a car of this performance and design concept can be uncool to any one. This McLaren breaks the stereotypes of eco-friendly and manages to be an insane performance car.
Compared to cars like the GTR this is incredible.

The logos everywhere is one of the worst parts to me.

I also think the car is the spitting image of one of the bad sides of the eco-friendly movement, which is pointlessness. I don't see the need to dilute a sports car with a hybrid system. I'm sure the saved fuel is nice but I don't think I would miss it if it was gone. It's probably not even noticeable on a race track. You could also get a good amount of it back by removing the dead weight and focusing on making the rest of the car even lighter. Even if it came at the cost of power I'd gladly take that. The cornering speeds could go up by insane^2 amounts with the downforce this car makes.

 

[Slash]

Sticking out is not necessarily a positive quality, though.

I never said it was.

 

[niky]

I don't care who you are, or if you like cars or not, if you don't turn your head when ANY super car/hypercar drives by, there is something VERY wrong. They stick out from everything like a sore thumb, even some of the most subtle ones.

I know I've told this one before, but we did a sports car club shoot a few months ago. Now, high-end sports cars and exotics here cost a lot. A whole lot. You can buy a Ferrari for about TWICE the retail price in the United States, simply because of the sliding tax scale.

-

Now, you have guys in Porsches, old Ferraris, new Ferraris, Lamborghinis, GT-Rs, Mustangs, assorted muscle, high-end BMWs/Mercs/AudiR8s and assorted exotica and premium sports cars. They park their cars in front of the club for the shoot, and maybe a dozen girls with iPads come up to ask for photos.

-

Where do you think all the car guys and, most importantly, exotic owners are?

They're over in the corner fawning over a BMW 2002 turbo... or standing around the Dino, talking about it.

So, which is cooler, cars that attracts the Twilight crowd, or cars that car guys simply gravitate to?

Hypercars are simply ostentatious displays of wealth. Perhaps if they weren't, they'd be cooler than liquid helium.

Then again, hypercar-ness isn't why I voted down the P1.

At this point I highly suspect you guys are randomly switching your viewpoints around just to mess with me.

Some people here might, but the rest of us can make up our minds without worrying about what other people think, or worrying that what we're thinking might be too similar to what other-people-who-we-don't-think-are-very-brilliant-and-who-watch-too-many-cartoons think.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Unless it's a twenty-four hour clock.

 

[White & Nerdy]

I also think the car is the spitting image of one of the bad sides of the eco-friendly movement, which is pointlessness. I don't see the need to dilute a sports car with a hybrid system. I'm sure the saved fuel is nice but I don't think I would miss it if it was gone. It's probably not even noticeable on a race track. You could also get a good amount of it back by removing the dead weight and focusing on making the rest of the car even lighter. Even if it came at the cost of power I'd gladly take that. The cornering speeds could go up by insane^2 amounts with the downforce this car makes.

That didn't seem to hurt the 918's percieved coolness much, and honestly I think the 918 is worse in terms of pretentious environmentalism. The P1 is serious enough that you can almost believe the hybrid gear is there for performance and not so you can save the planet when you're not driving fast. I mean, look at that electric range - 6 miles? You can pretty much tell they didn't even bother to work on that part.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Yeah Porsche is all about that der environment...

 

[White & Nerdy]

Also, if you're looking for a supercar with an image problem, McLaren isn't it. The official car of balding, golf-playing, $20,000-watch-wearing stockbrokers is a Porsche on the low end, or a Ferrari on the high end - and Ferrari doesn't help that image at all with their Ferrari theme parks and Ferrari cologne. It's like Harley-Davidson, but for the very rich.

 

[homeforsummer]

not so you can save the planet when you're not driving fast

Yes, how terrible that the sports car refuses to burn all your gas money when you're sitting in traffic rather than carving canyons. Just shocking.

 

[C-ZETA]

The typical super and hyper car is just uncool because they don't do anything else that something else did before it.

This one would do something new unlike others...if there weren't three other cars doing it too. One of which is ultimately better.

Still, it does actually look superb, so it's just about meh.

 

[Badasp5.0]

I think its the cool supercar.