Look at this Lambo

wow, and I thought it was going to be something like this..

$141k.

$141K.

Nice.

For the sake of comparison, a copy of 5h3 first Superman comic book just sold for $6,000,000.

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My only problem with this is you're still the guy who showed up in a Lambo.

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That is some fine execution.

There is a C&C that runs down the street from me when the weather is nice.  It has grown by leaps and bounds in the two or three years it has been running.  Has a huge parking lot that overflows these days.  And there are lots of "that guy who shows up in a Lambo."  So much so that they no longer stand out. Showing up in your Lambo must really be "a thing".

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I think showing up in your Lambo has always been a thing, even before there were Lambos.

What keeps amazing me is, for all the attention it gets, how unLambo-like the Speedster is.

It's more like showing up with a puppy.

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@El Frazoo posted:

There is a C&C that runs down the street from me when the weather is nice.  It has grown by leaps and bounds in the two or three years it has been running.  Has a huge parking lot that overflows these days.  And there are lots of "that guy who shows up in a Lambo."  So much so that they no longer stand out. Showing up in your Lambo must really be "a thing".

The one big C&C I occasionally attend has Lambo “sections.” Along with Lotus, Maserati, Alfa, McLaren, and GT3 sections. The one marque that’s actually rare is Ferrari.

I guess C&C just isn’t a Ferrari owner kind of thing, because I know they’re out there. (A neighbor has 2)

There are usually 6-8 Ferraris at the C&C I frequent. One of them is mid-60s, the rest are modern (i.e. this century). Those guys tend to hang out together in one part of the lot.

We also see Lambos, lots of Porsches, several of those newer Audis, a Bugatti or two, beaucoup Corvettes of all vintages, many Shelbys (a real one occasionally), a decent contingent of British stuff, a pack and a half of Japanese specimens, many rat rods, a few brass era beasts, plus one uh...tank?

And the inevitable 22 Big Block Chevelles & such.

Our local weekly C&C usually has at least one Ferrari and a couple of McLarens, but Lambos are uncommon.  Our monthly Ale & Octane event usually has several of each, plus some even less common exotics.  There's a lot of money in Charleston - none of it mine.  Sigh...

I just don't get it.

If all somebody does is write a big check and park their car with other guys who wrote big checks, what is the purpose?

Car shows, IMHO, should be made up of cars that the owner has had a hand in building, modifying, enhancing.

Otherwise it is a bunch of guys standing around measuring and comparing  appendages, if they can find them.

My dad was one of the most capable people I've ever known. He drove every nail in the house we grew up in, the house he dreamed of living in, and the house he retired to (along with a half-dozen others, mine included).

Dad loved showing off his projects to his brothers or friends from growing up. It always came off to me as a bit unseemly, but I understood the pride in workmanship he took. He measured himself by what he could do, and had done.

I've designed the last two places we've lived in and really like the good use of space -- but it's for its own sake. I really don't care what somebody else thinks, and I'm learning to get past the need for, "I did that". I like figuring things out, as much for the doing as for the sake of having a clever thing at the end. Sometimes getting to the end means more than the doing of it and I end up hiring things I can do myself. That's OK.

We recently took a cruise, which used Miami as the port. We had a couple of days in Miami Beach before and after, and took a boat tour -- which unbeknownst to me was a "houses of the rich and famous" sort of thing, where you drive the boat past a place and the guide tells you, "this is Gloria Estafan's place, she spent $120M on it" or some such. Everybody on the boat ooohed and ahhhed about Brad Pitt's largess or Shaq's wealth. It seemed really, really disturbing and odd that so many people cared.

I ended up shutting my hearing aids off. I understood my dad and I understand myself, but the more I learn about conspicuous consumption as a measure of wealth, the less I understand it. The weird part is that it is the coin of this age.

"What year is that?", etc. I understand. "How much did that cost?" is not something I'll ever answer. I stopped caring about C&C, etc. when it became as much about a measure of wealth as about cars.

A 550 Spyder cost the equivalent of $87,000 in 1956. That's everyday monster truck money today.

But you also had to know the right people in order to have a chance to buy one.

Stan

Where I now live in Sunny Isles Beach FL; we happy-hour on our balcony and watch the Miami cruise ships heading out every evening.  Had we known you were 'in port' we would have clinked a bon-voyage glass to you as you set sail.

Porsche Design Tower is three properties to the south of us.  There is so much money around here that Lambo's are as vanilla as a Prius.  A walk on Collins (A1A) to the grocery will likely show-off more exotics than the usual C&C that I've been to.  It's just like that here.  Jeff Bezos just bought a property down the street on Indian Creek Isle for $90M.  He now has three properties bought in the last year on Indian Creek totaling $250+M.  Typical of what we see around here, the mansions that are on those lots will ultimately be tear-downs, to clear-out for some new compound.  $250M for a tear-down?  And the boats!  Millions and millions of dollars of spectacular yachts everywhere.  You probably saw some on your harbor cruise.

Speaking of tear-downs, the lot next door is being cleared right now for the new 60-something stories St. Regis Residences towers.  If you hurry, you can get in on the ground floor (literally) for about $8M for a lower-floor apartment, "designer ready" (bare concrete floors and walls).

I have nothing in common with any of that kind of money.  I'm just an onlooker.  It's fun to live in the middle of it.  But after a while it just becomes ordinary.  "Look, a Lambo!" (yawn).

Yep.

The hotel we stayed in going and coming was on Collins. Every 3rd car was a Lambo -- in neutral and revving to about 7000 RPM.

There they go, again, Rich People -- they are different from you and me.  So be it, and Amen.  Which is redundant.

I'm a land and lake lover. Lambos don't even get a first, never mind second look.

If you own multi hundred thousand or million dollar automobile that you put about 1000 miles a year on and use approximately 20% of it's driving capabilities ever .... I likely have no use for you in real life

Stan wrote: "this is Gloria Estafan's place, she spent $120M on it"

We went to a wedding in Miami maybe ten years ago and decided to take an afternoon and "Tour South Beach" on one of those double-decker tour buses.  The guide we had was a mid-20's kid who had a similar patter to what you turned off (and we saw Gloria's house on the island, too - It looks like a nice place.....from half a mile away).

The kid got all excited as we passed an exotic car dealership, telling us "This is where Justin Bieber got his Lamborghini !!."

Shortly after and a few blocks farther down A1A, he points to a busy intersection at a light and says, "And this.....is where Justin Bieber crashed his Lamborghini !! "

There's a C&C event for every day/night of the week throughout SoCal.

http://socalcarculture.com/events.html

One of the largest is held just down the road from my humble abode.

https://www.southoccarsandcoffee.com

I haven't been to a C&C event in over 2 years because in this area it's just the same bunch of Lambos, Ferrari's, Bugattis, Maseratis, McLarens, RR, Koenigseggs, Paganis all parked in their staked-out sections. Also there's the usual cool hot rods, VWs, Cobras, Corvettes, Detroit Steel, etc. scattered around.

Typical question I'd get at C&C is "Why a replica?" MUSBJIM ANSWER: It's kinda like breast implants. EVERYBODY knows they're fake, but they're still nice to look at...and WAAAY more fun than the originals.

Another: "How much did you pay for it?" MUSBJIM ANSWER: Tell me how much you make and I'll tell you if you can afford it".

I know we're into April already, but with all this exotic car talk and C&C stuff I think we must rewrite the old seasonal saw about March.

March. It comes in like a Mustang (taking out 3 parked cars) and goes out like a Lambo (revved to 7,000 in neutral).

I feel like a Lamborghini ought to compete in the Carlisle Low Car Limbo contest. Just for poetry's sake.

@El Frazoo posted:

There they go, again, Rich People -- they are different from you and me.  So be it, and Amen.  Which is redundant.

I don't know if I agree with that statement.  I don't know if half of those that are driving a Lamborghini are actually wealthy.  A lot of those are sponsored, or rented, or mortgaged out the @#&*.  That goes with any exotic.

The wealthy folks I know are just like any of us.  Why?  They want to blend and not show off their wealth......it attracts too much attention.  Puts them and their families at risk, along with being surrounded by fans that act like their best friends and taking away from their otherwise good time.

I've noticed the truly wealthy are out driving their cars around at 6am-7:30am when the roads are relatively empty....or finding remote parts of the state.  The look-at-me I'm trying to be rich crowd are the ones rev'ving those engines seeking attention.

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@edsnova posted:

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I feel like a Lamborghini ought to compete in the Carlisle Low Car Limbo contest. Just for poetry's sake.

Ed must be thinking of the musical phrase that would result: a Lambo Limbo .

And a wonderful phrase it is. A little consonance. A lot of assonance.

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@JMM (Michael) posted:

I know we're into April already, but with all this exotic car talk and C&C stuff I think we must rewrite the old seasonal saw about March.

March. It comes in like a Mustang (taking out 3 parked cars) and goes out like a Lambo (revved to 7,000 in neutral).

I had my brother drive me down to a back procedure today. (because anesthesia)

As we’re waiting in the left turn lane onto a major thoroughfare, a nice Lambo turns left in front of us and gets onto it a bit. As he proceeded down the road we both go “Damn,” disappointed that he didn’t wrap it around the telephone pole on the corner.

@El Frazoo posted:

There they go, again, Rich People -- they are different from you and me.  So be it, and Amen.  Which is redundant.

It's not that rich people being rich people is all that odd. It is average people delving deeply into the lives and spending habits of rich people as a spectator sport that I'm talking about. It is strangely voyeuristic and exceedingly odd.

I know there is an entire industry built around this, but I really could not possibly care less what Jeff Bezos spent on his Florida compound, nor where Justin Bieber crashed his Lambo, nor who Macaulay Culkin's consort is this week. Apparently, a princess in the UK has cancer. That must stink for her, but I'm still living my unchanged life.

I'd like to stand all over the linked replica simply for what it is -- a very fast and hand built specialty car. I like that it has zero cache in the "right circles" and would likely be sniffed at by my betters (all of whom are driving store-bought cars). I'm sure it has zero electronic nannies, meaning that to drive it briskly is all on me. I especially like that owning and operating a V8 Miata or a 911 with an LS is not ever going to attract gawkers. Not even the kid up the street would care.

YMMV.

There's a national club to which the rev'ving Lambos belong. Membership is pretty broad, open to anyone that loves to feverishly rev their engines during a car show for that added attention.  It's called the LDC, or Little !$%# Club.  For those that feel slighted by what God has given them and need to find avenues to over-compensate.  The more expensive the car, the smaller the gentlemen's sausage.

Half asleep on the beach, Did someone say Sausage ..............  I like pie too !!