Interesting study

As a person who has spent his life studying psychology and sociology, with the specialty, Sociology of Mental Illness, I am drawn to this phrase from the article about that study:  “These are people who often see themselves as superior and are keen to display this to others.”   BUT!  They want to see see themselves as superior... and keen to display.  Guess what?  They do not see themselves as superior.  They are trying to be noticed as superior, but really know they are not what they want to be.  To get noticed, they must continually prove to themselves that their cars are something special, so that you notice and think the driver must therefore be special.  As the study points out, many people who driver great cars simply like quality.  These people are not driven by a desire to prove anything, so they drive normally. Too many tweakettes fall into the same category, by obsessing on proving to themselves how special they are, when they could be listening to and enjoying great music.

Addendum:  Due to the characteristics of a very special car I loved, I got rid of it in order to quit looking like a weirdo, and to keep my license.  It has nearly 400 horsepower in a 2700 pound car, but no power below 6000 rpm. It runs its best except in its power band from 7200 to its 9200 rpm ignition cutoff.  The car made me drive like a moron to have any fun.  Luckily, turbos solve the low end problem that car has, without sacrificing light weight.  Don't be a moron.  Buy a really good audio system, listen, and be content with your life..

The majority of my cars are British, but I do own one BMW sports car.  ;-)

Hopefully the British stuff offsets the German and I am only a bit of a jerk.....

(Just another internet filler piece - ho hum)

On a clear day you can see General Motors”

of course required reading is Halberstam, Ford vs Datsun

if course Ford just lost $1.7 B in an everything is perfect record full employment economy.. how do they manage that ?

where are all the Tesla short seller pundits, now?

Geoff are you going to answer the question? And excellent Neil Young song quote BTW buried in that question...

"Used to enjoy going to the Lions drags back in my L.B. ’wasted youth’ era, just to enjoy the ’heat blast’ of the AA fuelers whip by"
avsjerry-
Long Beach native here. I was just too young to experience the "Golden Era" of drag racing or Lions Drag Strip. I did however get to witness the 1st run of the Long Beach Grand Prix when it was Formula 1. It was very unorganized, I was able to slip right in,along Shoreline Drive to see the race. You could FEEL the violent downshifting, then the drivers mashing the pedal back up to 15,000 rpm.
Being a gearhead at heart, I "get" what you say about NAACAR and other motorsport. I’m also a fan of Moto GP and appreciate MX.Those guys are superhuman.

I unfortunately, am part of the generation that only experienced the remaining bits and pieces of SoCal which made it great. It’s still great, just in a different way. My oldest brother was a teenager during the early-mid sixties. Vietnam vet as well. He got out of Dodge mid 70’s and never came back. Retired comfortably in Florida.

No time in history was perfect, but it sure seems if you were a teenager in SoCal during the late 50’s -60’s, you were in the peak of SoCal greatness, and you just didn’t know it.

Anyhow, I still manage to see through the insanity with my diversions.
Thank goodness, I’m past upgradeitis. Other than consumable items-phono cartridge and tubes, I just don’t feel the desire to acquire anything. I can just enjoy looking and hearing cool new stuff, knowing it’s really the same thing, only a tiny bit more convincing.

We still have a few record stores in the neighborhood, where I get my "stampers" for cheap.
Edit-Q shipI was raised by parents of "The Greatest Generation" Dad was a WWII vet. He was on a sub, probably blowing up stuff. .Parents settled in Long Beach after the war.