Ruminations on seeing wrecked cars.....
Yesterday, a friend sent me a photo of a lightly damaged Dodge Challenger SRT-8. When he called me to tell me he had the photo, he referred to the car as "totaled," yet a single glance revealed that this wasn't even remotely true. No big deal, a new bumper and some paint should take care of it no problem. But why does my opinion of a new car change after I see one damaged? There are several possibilities.....
The first time I ever see a car on the road, I look at its lines and analyze what my emotional response to the car is. I hear how it sounds, watch the wheels turn, and, most of the time, I think of the car as a whole, solid piece, and not an assembly of parts that can come apart when struck. For a reason that I can't really understand, the most prominent example of this would be the first time I saw a BMW Z4 on the road. Sure, it's not the most exotic car out there, but the flame surfacing and hard edges of the car really made it look like the body had been sculpted from one solid block of metal. This seems to happen more with German cars than anything else.
Several weeks later, I saw another Z4, but this time, the car had been heavily damaged in a crash. The whole front end and drivers side of the car were smashed, pieces were scattered about the shoulder on the Taconic Parkway. Suddenly, the "carved from a solid piece" fantasy dissolved in my mind, and I've never really been able to look at the Z4 the same way.
The same thing happened when I saw the Challenger crash photo. I've seen several Challengers in person, and the shape is so simple, clean, and muscular, that it really evokes a solid feel. But seeing the photo, even though the damage is light, shows the real frailty of metal on metal and shattered that fantasy too.
When I really think about it, I've owned a great many cars compared to the number of years I've been on this planet, and I've never actually bought a car after seeing one crashed. It could be a subconscious feeling that, if I've never seen a particular car in pieces, I feel safer driving it, with my delusions of solidity guiding my response to the car. After all, I've only ever bought cars based on emotional responses, with virtually no regard at all to practicality, driveability, or any other "normal" reason for buying a car. Call me crazy, but I don't care.
What do you guys think? Is it wierd that I can't buy a car after I've seen one crashed? Am I crazy? My shrink says that it could be like saying I would never date a porn star, which I wouldn't (though I haven't had the opportunity to test this theory), and that that seeing a crashed Challenger could send all Challengers into the "damaged goods" category.
Am I the only person out there who thinks like this?
crash, dodge, challenger, SRT-8, Ruminations
Take the sweet time to Google image search the cars you own with the words "crashed" or "wreck", and see your dream-world fall to pieces. Every car ever made isn't solid, or made to look pretty after a wreck, hopefully they're at least made for you to survive the crash. It is delusional IMO to think because one example was crashed, that the car isn't worth your time. Your a racing fan, of the many great things racing has brought us, its the advancement in safety using body/chassis construction.
Matt, your not the only person thinks like that. It's really your mind telling you how fragile your life can be. If you think of a Z4 all waxed up shimmering in the sun. Then look at a a recked Z4 and you can see how fragile it really is.
Here one minute, gone the next.
Matt, were you singing Dust in the Wind to yourself as you wrote this?
haha, don't drink the acid from the blue cups!
I know it's ridiculous to think that there is a car out there that hasn't been wrecked, I just felt like rambling. It happens from time to time.
Interesting commentary...