I think the Lamborghini Huracan is not as good as the McLaren 650S. The truth of my statement is under debate, and has nothing to do with reality. The Lamborghini may be a better car, but that is not the point. The point is that we hold opinions on things in which we have no experience. I have never driven a McLaren or a Lamborghini, so I can not say which one is better. I have never even ridden in a Ferrari, Aston Martin, Bugatti, Maserati, Pagani, Koenigsegg, Nissan GTR, Shelby Cobra, Viper, Lotus, or almost any car that can be found posterized on a boys bedroom wall. I have seen them, touched them, heard them run, but I have no experience beyond a spectator at a sporting event. Yet I have opinions on every car I have mentioned. Unqualified opinions? Possibly, but I can offer some insight on why I hold the opinions I so easily shove down my reader's throats.
If you want to know about football, don't ask me. All I know is a home run is worth seven points. Cars, on the other hand; not to put too fine a point on it, but I have studied cars for a long, long time. I am no engineer, and I don't even play one on TV. Regardless, I have a rudimentary understanding of Newtonian physics, and I have experience driving as many different kind of cars as I can get my hands on. This allows me to make intuitive leaps that are based on hard evidence. Automakers spend millions developing cars to be pleasing to the customer. Part of that development is in driving dynamics. I base my opinions on my perception of a car’s driving dynamics more than any other trait.
At the risk of being boring, how a car drives can be closely linked to where the engine is located and which wheels get the power. Driving a Porsche 911 feels very different than driving a Honda Civic. The feelings some 911 drivers experience have nothing to do with the emotions that may arise from driving a car that most people can't afford. That is petty overcompensation for some other shortcoming in the owner’s life. The feeling I am talking about is separate from emotion. It is the interaction of varied and complex forces on your inner ear as a result of control inputs and opposing reactions.
Surprisingly, we all have the equipment to evaluate this sensation, it is called your butt-o-meter. A Honda Civic, even a Si, is not all that fast. Under hard acceleration or turning the front wheels skitter across the pavement, fighting for traction because they are responsible for most of the acceleration and turning at the same time. The driver of this car’s butt-o-meter would register disappointment, understanding somewhere in the caveman part of the brain that energy is being lost, partially as a result of weight transfer from the front to the rear of the car. A Porsche 911 on the other hand will light up your butt-o-meter like few things will. The 911 is unique among cars because it is a very fast car that carries its engine in the back, out behind the rear wheels. I will admit this is not necessarily the best place for ultimate performance, but it makes the car feel “special.” Weight transfer presses the rear wheels harder into the pavement when a 911 accelerates, and creates a slight pendulum effect at the rear of the car when cornering. Any rear drive car is more satisfying to drive than a front drive car, but the 911's rear weight bias pegs the butt-o-meter during most maneuvers due to this slight pendulum effect. Acceleration, braking, and turning seem to happen somewhere just aft of your right elbow, instead of out at the front bumper. It is vastly more challenging to drive a 911 fast than to drive a Civic fast, but it is also considerably more satisfying when you get it right, and markedly more exciting when you get it wrong.
So why, then, do we even care about these type of cars when a Civic is adequate, even nice to drive? Because Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and the like dare to approach the limit of human ability. I have opinions about cars I have never even seen, and I spend time building those opinions with research and speculation based on my personal experience and the experience of people I trust.
To paraphrase the Avett Brothers, I will continue to talk on things I don’t know about. Just because I do not have the experience of driving some of the cars I write about doesn’t mean I haven't the right to form an opinion on them, and to force you to know my opinion. And besides, everybody has an opinion.
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