[sburns2421]

First off, I do and always have loved anything with a motor. My dad has pictures of me in diapers helping him "fix" his Honda 305. Later it was him and I tearing into a lawnmower or trying to get our old Winnebago running again in the middle of the night in a remote part of Ontario (a story for another day).

Heck, I went to school for years in Mechanical Engineering mostly because I loved understanding why things, specifically cars and motorcycles, work the way they do. Oddly enough a career at GM or Harley never appealed to me...

Anyway, any car enthusiast has a list of cars they want to own someday. I've had an XK8, we had a Cayenne Turbo for about a year. My wife has had several nice Mercedes. The bucket list has always included cars like a AM Vanquish, Viper, or of course Ferrari. 308, 355, 360, 430, 550...all are appealing. Or so I thought.

Saturday however I had a bit of an epiphany. The exotics or general high-end cars might not be for me. A big reason is the potential owners, this might not be a club I want to join.

Back to the epiphany. My wife is friends with a mid-20's girl who is reasonably attractive and a goldigger in my observation. She has found a trust-funder whose only employer will be his daddy, and has always had enough money at his disposal that it is more or less meaningless. They are engaged to be married later this fall. My wife called me over to look at this girl's facebook page. She was picking out a wedding present or something to that effect. My wife wanted to know if a Bentley Continental GT was expensive. Next picture was the girl sitting in a Ferrari 430, the caption was something like "I want this for my Anniversay present next year". Keep in mind this girl is two years removed from a crappy apartment overlooking the Interstate and making $22,000/year as a starting teacher. I have been around them a couple of times, she is just obnoxious and he acts like he is clearly superior to everyone (except daddy no doubt). If they ever did a Real Housewives of St. Louis, this girl would seriously be a good candidate for the show.

Anyway my general annoyance with this girl constantly rubbing it into the faces if everone around her (including my wife), I finally told my wife that this stupid c*** found a rich d*** to suck off and good for her because her looks are already fading. Many people work their asses off their whole lives and do everything right but it just doesn't happen for them. Sadly this girl and her p****whipped fiance will likely never know what it is to work or really earn anything in life, as everything is apparently being handed to them.

So then I started thinking. What is a Ferrari (or Bentley or whatever), if it is just given to you? If a 458 Italia is just another toy to be disposed of in a year or two, how is anything worth anything? If I were to buy a used exotic, say a Gallardo or V8 Vantage, it would require saving and sacrifice. But the sacrifice would probably be proportionate to the thrill of owning and "achieving" this automobile.

But what if it is not? What if that Gallardo was just another cage with A/C and an IPod interface? What if the entire time I'm thinking "a ride would sure be fun right about now"?

This was the realization. Anyone with the money, whether it is because you scrimped and saved for years, or because the quarterly distribution from your trust fund came in, can buy and use an exotic car. At the end of the day a Ferrari/Lamborghini/etc can be driven by fat housewives or high rappers or anyone in between. But, it takes some modicum of skill to ride a motorcycle. It takes skill and balls to ride a sportbike relatively fast and survive, and that is something that no amount of money can buy at the end of the day.

Sour grapes? Jealousy? Maybe a little. All I know is that seeing that girl in the 430 suddenly made it look ugly and downright vulgar.

Realistically, in 10-15 years I am going to be too old to ride sportbikes without looking ridiculous. Crusiers have no appeal nor have they in the last 25+ years of riding for me. Until the time comes to liquidate what rides I have sometime in the mid twenty-twenties I'm going to ride these things and enjoy them. And not window shop Ebay or Autotrader seeing how far cars I thought I wanted have depreciated.

 

[B200 Pilot]

I like both, and you do have a point about sport bikes taking some skill and balls to go fast. They aren't a status symbol like a car is to wealthy, or wanna be wealthy people. I like that about bikes.

 

[sburns2421]

I like both, and you do have a point about sport bikes taking some skill and balls to go fast. They aren't a status symbol like a car is to wealthy, or wanna be wealthy people. I like that about bikes.

Thank you for stating what took me forever to get to the point.

 

[Turbo329]

Wow.....


Well man all I can say is that life has a way of balancing things out. In this life there is always a test and nobody has it all. This is evidenced by the rich often turning to drugs or committing suicide.

You can have the nicest home but the nastiest neighbors.
You can have the fattest bank account but have ill health.
You can have the best health but be dirt poor.
You can have a lot of expensive toys but nobody to play with.
You can be well off but suffer in a terrible marriage or be surrounded by folks that just want to use you.
Or you can have money, health, security, everything, and then your kids turn out to be crackheads. Talk about heartache. No amount of money can ensure that your children grow up to be responsible adults.

I've learned that things that appear golden on the outside often have rotten cores. Those who marry for the superficial (looks/attractiveness) often times have a rude awakening; proven by the high failure rate of celebrity marriages. Those who marry 'only' for money miss the point of the whole marriage arrangement and are often unfulfilled and end up cheating.

However, to say that all wealthy are shallow isn't fair. There are lots of good wealthy people out there. Some have come from nothing and made their way. But in the end no matter how much money you have, you still go back into the ground naked and with nothing.

When you have a chance google "Powerball Curse"

Money isn't everything. Riding is.

 

[Blue Balls]

Well said Turbo329. God Bless.

 

[UnpaintedHuffhines]

seems like you spend a lot of time trying to convince yourself working hard makes you happy. ****ing around makes me happy, so i do it, and i am smart enough to figure out how to earn enough to do it. do what makes you happy. hating on rich people because their value system is different than yours is silly. i make more money than my entire family did, combined, 25 years ago, and i just dick around. there are people i bump into now that think im crazy for the things i dont value. im not a shitty person, i give most of what i make to charity anyhow. ehhh. valuing things that are not nec tools is ignorant no matter what.

 

[sburns2421]

I've learned that things that appear golden on the outside often have rotten cores. Those who marry for the superficial (looks/attractiveness) often times have a rude awakening; proven by the high failure rate of celebrity marriages. Those who marry 'only' for money miss the point of the whole marriage arrangement and are often unfulfilled and end up cheating.

However, to say that all wealthy are shallow isn't fair. There are lots of good wealthy people out there. Some have come from nothing and made their way. But in the end no matter how much money you have, you still go back into the ground naked and with nothing.

Funny you should mention some of these things.

I agree that having money does not make you shallow, I didn't want to imply that. However shallow and overall douchebag behavior is tolerated much more by a person with money and power. It is so easy to be an asshole when you have large amounts of wealth and get by with it still having "friends". It is a credit to those with money that are not assholes.

This girl used to teach with my wife. She said her only goal was to teach long enough to have a kid with this guy, then it was shopping and bon-bons. Those literally were her words to my wife. She has been living with him for a year, now off birth control pills on the sly. For a goldigger to have fertility problems...damn the luck! Anyway, she has stated a couple of times to my wife that this guy will never cheat on her because she is way better-looking than he could get otherwise. I have a feeling as you said that a hard emotional landing might be in her future, but even then she will be relatively well-off if she was truthful in her bragging on the conditions of her pre-nup.

I think the theme of my thinking was not so much about having money or not, it was about cars and who buys them. Paris Hilton drives around with vials of cocaine in her Lexus LF-A. Does that mean another guy with $350k to burn would want to be associated with buying the same car? OTOH, if Jimmy rides a 1098, does that mean I have to cross it off the list of bikes i would like to have?

I don't know. At the end of the day I know it doesn't really matter, I guess for the first time I saw a newer Ferrari as something ostentatious rather than super cool. Possibly this is the way many people think of them and that gave me pause. It just took someone I know and don't really like to see it that way.

 

[BRod]

Interesting points sburns and turbo, and I mostly agree with them, although I wouldn't let some rich dude and his girl ruin my fun, if that fun were exotic cars, airplanes, fancy vacations, motorcycles, nice shoes or anything else. I stopped lusting after cars about 25 years ago when I came to the realization I'd never own a ferarri, lambo or other six digit fancy ride. Motorcycles are a much better alternative IMO, and they're easier to get away with riding hard too .
BTW, good to know there's another ME dork on this site .

 

[Dezmo]

Ive always felt that bikes required far more skill to go fast on, and youre using your whole body to control the vehicle, not just your hands and feet. Also, high performance bikes, even exotic ones, are dirt cheap compared to even the lowest priced Lambo, Ferrari, Bently, etc.

I had an Eagle Talon AWD turbo in high school...the day I got it, I was out driving around, feeling fast...and got smoked stupid by a squid on an F2. It wasnt long after that I started looking for a streetbike.

 

[Turbo329]

OTOH, if Jimmy rides a 1098, does that mean I have to cross it off the list of bikes i would like to have?

hahahahaha Just caught that. Now THAT was funny. I almost feel sorry for Jimmy and the abuse that he gets here.

This chick whom you speak of may think she has it all figured out now but I know plenty of women who married with the sole purpose of a pension and some of them even sleep in separate beds from their husbands. Doesn't sound to me like a thriving marriage.

Nothing is garanteed. Stuff happens. Miscarriages, health problems like infertility, etc. Think about all those retired well off people with great pensions who worked for GM. When GM went under do you not think they were affected? It's not about wishing evil on the wealthy but it's more about realizing that everyone has some measure of unhappiness in their life. It doesn't matter who you are. Some more than others, yes, but everyone is affected. I near lost my shirt when Citigroup stock took a dive. hahahahahhahahahaha You just never know man! But I do know that if I equated my self worth with my 401K I'd be a broken man now. Here's some deep food for thought. My BEST EVER year financially was the year that my first wife left. Mull THAT over.

When I started doing my own maintenance and tire changes etc this year I felt great about myself and my work. There's something to be said for the personal satisfaction that one gets when he works hard and sees the good end result. It's much more rewarding than having something handed to you that you'll never have real appreciation for. Sure you'll be glad you have it but you won't really see it for what it is unless you "Bled" for it. There's just no getting around that point.

At the end of the day I still want a Ferrari or a Lambo Diablo. I was talking to my wife about it a couple of days ago. I know folks would sneer at me as I drive by and I can understand why. But it's all about balance. A buddy of mine told me he doesn't floss his toys when unemployment is high or when the country is in recession. He feels that it's somewhat insensitive. He's loaded. And he posts on this forum from time to time. And I have great respect for him. I also share his views. If all the regulars here started posting about losing their jobs and their one-and-only bikes and such I would definitely not be posting pics of my 3 bikes. lol That's just wrong man. Sadly though, lots of folks just don't get it.

Here's an analogy: If a guy with a six pack goes to the beach with his friends who all have pot bellies to holler at girls, they are gonna hate on him if he takes off his shirt. "Who does that guy think he is"; "He's just showing off". Now, he wouldn't be wrong for taking off his shirt. After all, he is at the beach. But, to me, true character is manifested when one can be sensitive to the feelings and needs of others even when he may have the right of way. Besides, in the end if he shows true character he'll still get the hottest girl because there are other good qualities that came with that six-pack like discipline, determination, resolve, etc that will be evident even without him taking off his shirt. The natural progression of events will take him to his desired destination anyway.

 

[sqd8r]

Maybe hottie got to you more than you thought. Seriously, you're letting her dictate your next purchase. Bizarre.

Trust me there are as many jerks on motorcycles as there are in high end cars. Ottawa is full of both. Rich or poor.

Personally, if some young hot thing is in a hot sports car, I really don't care how or why they have it and I certainly never feel jealousy or envy beyond wanting the car, her or both. But that is a fleeting feeling.

Also, while some skill is required to ride a bike imo I don't think we should be fooled into believing that we can push the bikes anymore than the car folks can. 99.99% of us cannot ride a sportbike to its limits anymore than the car folks can drive their hot cars at the limit.

A lot of people have issues with the rich, probably moreso given the economic times we are in. IMO I don't care, if someone has a free ticket in life and is willing to live with the way they got it, that's their business not mine. Everyone has skeletons in their closet, some are just more public than others.

Basically playing off stereotypes has never been a good thing. Rich people are people too, and their as good bad or indifferent as the rest of us. If we consider the negative opinions regarding motorcyclist, do we really want to be associated with them? Can we even name a group that doesn't have a negative connotation attacted to their organisation, real or imagined?

 

[ericf1]

I would point out....why let someone owning the same car as you (or as you dream of) affect you...do you think she would ever feel the satisfaction of a perfectly hit apex, or an upshift at precisely right moment? I would argue that maybe you should buy the exact car that she has and go out and drive it like it was meant to be driven, all the while knowing that she will never know that feeling and eventually her decisions will come back to haunt her.

 

[Saiyan66]

For me it all comes down to money really. I love sports cars and bikes (both as toys, not necessities). But frankly I cant justify spending 35k on a bone stock mid level sports car, when I could build an amazing top of the line bike to my tastes for less. However, if money were no object I am sure that there would be a Viper in my garage.

I sometimes envy the Ferrari and Lamborghini owners and always try to strike up a conversation with them whenever time allows. However there are very few of them that impress me as truly quality individuals (putting it nicely). Talking with them usually makes the envy go away.

 

[bsess]

I like both. You can also add boats and beautiful women to the list. Oh, BTW, did someone mention delicious foods? If not, please add that to my list also. Wait a sec,...music is a also a critically important part of the life/pleasure experience so if its not too late, kindly add music to my list as well.
While our economic circumstances may affect the quality and quantity of the extent to which we can indulge ourselves in the pursuit of our life's pleasures, I think we owe it to ourselves to take in as much as we can, whenever we can and for as long as we can because tomorrow never knows.....

 

[TrickLidz]

Great points, all around. But the only place to talk to an fancy sports car onwer is at the track. There you'll hopefully find so resemblance of skill and love of the sport. And....you'll most likely be there for a motorcycle trackday (another good thing)!!

 

[socal]

...just like there will always be someone slower, there will always be someone lower than you on the socio-economic totempole.

I don't understand how someone can want something or dislike something because someone else owns it.

The Ferrari/Lambo equivalent is a Ducati 1198R riden to Starbucks.

 

[Dezmo]

Cadillac V-Series Performance Lab

Im not sure why, but I received an invite to the Rd ATL event...prob had something to do with me taking that BMW performance driving school last year. Im not in the market for a caddy, but if they want to let me thrash one a few hours around RA for free, Im there.