Ofcourse he is, he’s also acting entitled and is displaying an array of complexes and crap grammar that even I would be ashamed of. But if you put down a payment of 2.5 million for a car and are told “in 8 months time it will be street legal in your country and delivered”, you expect this to be the case, not the “bubbling paint show model which we will allow you to drive on the track with none of the setup actually done, but you must pay for this pleasure yourself, and it took 1.5 years”. The “bubbling paint” is not “transportation damage” as was stated by CvK.
Also i’ve seen videos of CvK, and the guy might be passionate and everything, but he really seems clueless. The company that took over 2.5 months to pay the initial deposit on one of their cars back, and really is in trouble with Swedish banks announcing a “groundbreaking technology 1 gear / electric car combo” is not something that goes hand in hand. Pagani on the other hand - I like that guy, and in all honesty I would value his cars a ton more than I would any Koenigsegg
Who knows, but I will! It’ll be just like how Jeremy Clarkson described the fictitious TVR band. It’ll be really loud and fast. And it will most likely spontaneously combust during the drum solo.
I’m with Squidhead on the perspective on Koenigsegg: it’s punching well above its weight but the price of this is telling: in the fifteen years or so they’ve been operating, they’ve managed a profit in maybe three of them at most AFAIK. Everyone who works there is seriously tightening the belt loops. They all love making hypercars but they seem to lack in the logistics, finance and PR department, which isn’t uncommon.
IMHO I don’t think the Chiron actually has a place in this world. The Veyron already was spoken of in the same way but it established itself as an engineering landmark, and I assume the Chiron is there mostly to evolve the legend. That’s fine but I expect that it will perform two functions: futile magnate mating rituals revving it in a gridlocked CBD, and crashing it into a lake at speed. I’m not even sure how you’re supposed to drive the damn thing, because the best I can come up is with ‘improbably fast for a bus’. It ranks on the illogical scale for me around the level of a Porsche Cayenne.
This is why after the ultimate madness that was Mercury (2hp:1kg ratio, seriously), I realised that GG was essentially being funded by a clientele I didn’t want to depend on, who would never give justice to the cars they drove. And I always thought luxury was frivolous (I can’t say I was actually any more comfy sitting in a top trim Merc than I am sitting in my Civic). And the ultimate frivolity is combining opulence and speed, because the latter is not comfortable and the former is not fast.
It’s Got 500 Extra Horsepower and it feels like it just doesn’t add up. It’s barely any quicker and barely or faster. The performance is seriously compromised compared to what was promised in the concept. Last year we where promised 290MPH and 2.2 seconds to 60. If I had paid for it then, I’d be severely disappointed now. Being a big fat bus and Illogical to buy and horrible to drive doesn’t really bother me, as these where issues with the original Veyron. Buggati has always sold to the billionare bragger. Not a problem, it’s an understandable market. At least the Veyron made constant imrpovements, and this does not. What bothers me is how promising it appeared and how promising it does appear yet how little improvements it’s made over the Veyron. Big whoop, It has sequential Turbos and looks cooler. the only advantages to buying this versus a regular veyron are the looks, and it won’t depreciate that horribly due to being one in 500.
That’s how I feel about it, too. It’s only about as fast as the weaker Veyron Super Sport. Seems like it would make more sense just to keep the Veyron around, and continually improve it’s aerodynamics, engine, and tires rather than replace it from the ground up.
In my opinion, that’s been true since it came out. If you’re gonna build a really fast car, why not make it one that can take a corner better than a Reliant Robin with a fridge on it’s roof.
A bit off topic, but why do so many people loathe traction control? Not everybody is a pro driver. The majority of us need a little help in order to enjoy a car in it’s entirety, particularly with fast cars. Plus, on advanced cars like the Ford Focus RS and the Mclaren MP4-12c, traction control can even enhance the driving experience.
Well to really think about it. EVERYTHING hypercars use makes it into the production cars for the people eventually. Think Porsche 959, it’s AWD system was revolutionary, and soon enough it found it’s way into a supercar - Skyline R32 GTR. In 10 years we saw it in a sportscar - Lancer Evo, and these days even Nissan Juke has one. So having “no traction control is pure kind of supercars” is simply foolish. If they were as simple to build as a go-kart, then nobody would ever benefit from it.
I know, however, I just don’t like the idea of any sort of electronics assisting or interfering directly with my driving (something like ABS is ok with me), whether it be for better or worse. Ultimately, I don’t care if I need help or not. I’d much rather learn proper car control on my own, even if it is more risky.
Well you should fly an EuroFighter jet with all it’s assists off. See how far that takes you. All the noobs who can’t fly (A.K.A. the military jet firghter pilots) use assists in jets these days, you’d get a ton more enjoyment, definetly.
Also what’s the double standard with ABS? You can work your way on throttle control, but can’t do the exact same movement with the exact same foot on another pedal?
Well, technically, it would be difficult to piston your foot like fifty times per second Trail-braking is a similar principle but still rather different in practice.
But that’s a side point. You can be as purist as you like, and that’s fine. You can make any kind of assertion as to what you think is the ultimate supercar, because that’s highly subjective and most of the fun in argument, unless you take yourself way too seriously in which case you really need to go check yourself before you wreck yourself. But to say the cars of yesteryear were more capable than now, that’s objectively wrong and I hope nobody is asserting such.
I also think that older cars are only pure from a relative modern standpoint. Think about this, if Dual clutch transmissions and Electric hybrid powertrains where a proven technology by the time the first generation Acura NSX came out, would Honda have used them? Sure, creating a pure sportscar is something they keep in mind, but Mclaren claims to have also kept it in mind when developing the P1, which by all Porsche 911 for life purists would claim has the 3 strikes of pure sports car no’s, turbos, auto gearbox, and Hybrid powertrains. To me at least, you have to judge a car based on the era it was built in to determine if keeping the driver to road experience one on one was the most important part. Which would quickly turn down about 90% of what we consider to be “Pure” sports cars by today’s standards.
On the topic of Jets, by the way, pilots do need to learn how to fly without assists, because one good EMP, and I’ll let you do the math.
Edit: Apparently I was wrong about the assists thing.
They do, I know. But most modern jets are built to be unstable, adding lots to maneuverability, and the electronic aids is what keeps the pilot concentrating on the flight/dogfight/mission, instead of “not plunging to his death thousands of feet below him”. The electronic aids in cars in my opinion do the exact same thing, you concentrate on the sensation which the car can deliver instead of battling it all the time. I mean, Hennessey Venom can wheelspin in 5th at over 180mph, while hugely exciting and entertaining, when covering ground at such pace, I’d rather be concentrated on reading the road ahead, leaving the rear wheels to the electronics. A 400hp car with no assists is still very much manageable (M5 e39 for example, with all systems off is still a great car that allows you for all sorts of hoons), but when your power is in excess of 1000, I doubt it’s a kitty cat out to play with you, it’s a damn lion trying to bite your face off, and that’s when you need it to be on a leash.
I wouldn’t fly at all (mostly because my vision is only15/20 at best, even with my glasses on). And I don’t usually use ABS either. My first car didn’t have it, and I deactivated it on my current car. I just prefer control to electronic oversight.
Trail-braking is a similar principle but still rather different in practice.