First Arab Supercar Costs $3.4 Million, Has Diamond-Encrusted Headlights 241
cartechboy writes "If you're looking for bling, you can always count on Dubai. At the Dubai Motor Show this week, Lebanon-based W Motors unveiled what is billed as the world's first Arab-built super car. The Lykan Hypersport incorporates jewels and precious metals in its construction, suicide-style doors, and an interactive holographic display system. (Yes, drivers will be able to adjust radio volume via a holograph.) The 750 horsepower car accelerates to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds and has a top speed of 245 mph. The cost: $3.4 million, but owners will also receive a Cyrus Klepcys watch, said to be valued at around $200,000. W Motors plans a whopping 7 units for production."
if a sheikh had $3 million spare, why not charity? (Score:4, Interesting)
And none of these "HE EARNT IT FROM THE SWEAT OF HIS BROW" lies, please.
1) Hard workers are poor - smart workers are rich;
2) Arab oil magnates CERTAINLY didn't work for it.
Conspicuous Consumption (Score:5, Interesting)
Conspicuous consumption [wikipedia.org] is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power â" either the buyerâ(TM)s income or the buyerâ(TM)s accumulated wealth. Sociologically, to the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means either of attaining or of maintaining a given social status.
Moreover, invidious consumption, a more specialized sociologic term, denotes the deliberate conspicuous consumption of goods and services intended to provoke the envy of other people, as a means of displaying the buyerâ(TM)s superior socio-economic status.
Nothing new.
Re:if a sheikh had $3 million spare, why not chari (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wonder about the mileage (Score:5, Interesting)
It looks to have a modified version of the 911 engine, so probably not too bad. Most "supercars" like this are Porsches or Ferrari/Lamborghinis with a body kit, sometimes an engine swap as well.
So, yeah. Just another example of some "expensive" bulls**t being little more than a much less expensive thing with lots of gratuitous and tacky bling glued on. (*)
:-P
I mean, so what? I could make the "world's most expensive car" by gluing the Koh-i-Noor diamond [wikipedia.org] to a 1998 Vauxhall Corsa [wikipedia.org]. Who cares? It's still just a clapped-out Vauxhall Corsa.
Then again, it's entirely appropriate that this would be unveiled at the Dubai motor show, held in a location notorious for its gratuitous bling architecture such as the Burj Khalifa [wikipedia.org], the tallest building in the world that needs trucks to remove all the crap [gizmodo.com] because they don't even have the sewage infrastructure. Yeah, I'm impressed guys... come back when you can actually develop a supercar- or half-modern society- yourselves. This doesn't count.
(*) Ironically, the reason why so many products at this level of "premium" *are* just bog-standard kit with jewels glued on is because they couldn't *actually* afford to pay what it would cost to develop a car that was (e.g.) 25% faster than the current record-holder or a phone that was twice as fast and had twice as high resolution as the current best model... unless they were to sell in large numbers, which would entirely defeat the purpose. The development and tooling cost would render them ludicrously expensive even for the richest people in the world- many of these things only work out as being economic because they're intended to sell in the millions to us plebs. You can wave several million dollars at Intel, and you still won't get a processor that's twice as fast as their current high-end mass-market model. Ha ha, nice Corsa you've got there.
Re:Wonder about the mileage (Score:5, Interesting)
Except the Veyron is well built and a hell of a lot faster. This car is the prime example of gold plating a turd. Look at how they open the doors, they look as if they are ready to fall off. and the engine can not generate the HP they claim it can.
Re:Wonder about the mileage (Score:4, Interesting)
Just because a customer makes you rich doesn't mean that you love or even respect them. More often than not, the opposite is true.
Something which Michael O'leary, the CEO of Ryan Air have proven again and again. A couple of sample quotes
“The European consumer would crawl naked over broken glass to get low fares.”
On passengers who forget to print their boarding pass: “We think [they] should pay 60 euros for being so stupid.”
"Anyone who thinks Ryanair flights are some sort of bastion of sanctity where you can contemplate your navel is wrong. We already bombard you with as many in-flight announcements and trolleys as we can. Anyone who looks like sleeping, we wake them up to sell them things."
Re:Wonder about the mileage (Score:3, Interesting)
With turbocharging and a large budget, you can make as much horsepower as you want from an engine. During the infamous turbo era of F1, engines with 1.5 liters of displacement were generating well in excess of 1000 HP.
That said, I don't think a 750 HP car can go 248 MPH without *serious* aerodynamic compromises. Look at the difference between the Koenigsegg with and without a rear wing as tested on Top Gear--the wing dropped the top speed by something like 20 MPH, but improved the track time significantly. There's a reason modern F1 cars actually top out at around 200 MPH--anything above that and you are better off using the extra power to generate more downforce.