James May explains why supercars are ‘pointless’ – do you agree? [w/poll]

Filed under: UK, Celebrities

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport 16.4

2010 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport – Click above for high-res image gallery

Here we go again. Dante should have made the question ‘Do Supercars Make any Sense?’ one of his levels of hell near Sisyphus, since so many people love to wail and moan and gnash their teeth on it in circular fashion. James May, a.k.a. Top Gear’s Captain Slow, has taken up the query and come to the conclusion that the speedy little devils are pointless.

He intends to make his point by asking, “what benefit has accrued to Italy, principal arbour of the mechanism of the Renaissance, by their existence?”, and then by comparing the effect that supercars have have on the world to the effects produced by Gore-Tex and penicillin and the radio and the Maxim gun. Mr. May, you have us there – we’d rather our doctor prescribed us antibiotics and not a Ferrari if we had a staph infection. That is, unless we had at least seven days to live, in which case we’d take the Ferrari and trade a ride in it for a prescription.

Most supercars are as useful and as pointless as marshmallows, with little technology actually trickling down to more affordable machinery – at least on a consistent basis. In fact, we’re mildly surprised there’s any debate left in this issue – even in jest. If May wants to talk about pointless things, let’s start with the Salad Shooter or anything else sold by infomercial. We’d live without a Lamborghini Murciélago as soon as we’d live without s’mores, which means that we’d do it but we’d really rather not. Maybe the world hasn’t been changed by supercars, but our world has, and that’s good enough for us. Ergo, when May ends his piece with “Prove me wrong,” we’ll admit we can’t. But we can prove his article pointless.

How about you? Do you see supercars as pointless exercises? Take our poll below and then weigh in with your thoughts in Comments.

Gallery: First Drive: Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport

Photos copyright (C)2010 Drew Phillips / AOL

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[Source: Telegraph]

James May explains why supercars are ‘pointless’ – do you agree? [w/poll] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: World’s Fastest backhoe is pointless wheelstanding amusement

Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Etc., Humor, Specialty, Racing

World's Fastest Backhoe

World’s Fastest backhoe – Click above to watch the video after the jump

Drag racing and construction vehicles do not typically mix well. Unless someone is trying to quit their job in dramatic fashion, heavy equipment is confined to slow speeds and hard labor. The JCB GT backhoe chooses to disagree. Thanks to a 1,300 horsepower engine, this drag racing backhoe (one of the weirdest phrases ever typed) rips away from the tree and down the line. Perhaps they were inspired by videos of wheel-standing loaders and drifting semi trucks?

The folks at JCB are no strangers to speed. A few years ago, their diesel-powered salt flats racer hit 350 miles per hour and at one point they expressed interest in purchasing Jaguar. We’d love to see how driving the Dieselmax compares to handling the JCB GT. We’d wager the backhoe is scarier to drive…

See the JCB GT in action after the jump.
[Source: Streetfire via CarDomain]

Continue reading Video: World’s Fastest backhoe is pointless wheelstanding amusement

Video: World’s Fastest backhoe is pointless wheelstanding amusement originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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