I was thinking about Justin's bang-for-the-buck blog and Frank's By The Numbers report. It occurred to me that the autoblogosphere is ruled by numbers. Horsepower, sales per month, number of comments, unique visitors per day, and so on. Which is kind of funny, as I have less aptitude for math than a Himalayan yak. My love for cars is visceral, not digital. When Justin investigates the $/hp equation, my mind turns to thoughts of coffee and bookmarks that dare not speak their name. But when he mentions the Mustang GT, I can immediately hear the roar of that V8. I can feel the gear knob vibrating in my hand. I can remember my sense of disappointment, as the engine ran out of puff ("Oh C'MON. We were just getting STARTED"). When Frank mentions the Dodge Durango, I recall the horrendous smell of the car's plastics assaulting my nostrils. I can hear and feel the glove box lid lock struggling to catch, dammit. And then I saw Autoblog's diss of in.pro's "make your econobox sound like a supercar" Virtual-Motor. "Worst. Accessory. Ever." made fun of the aftermarket inventor's attempt to relieve cash-strapped pistonheads of tinny engine audio Hell, or maybe experience a brief if cod moment of automotive aural sex. It made me shake my head. Numbers are the map. But they are not the territory.
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“Numbers are the map. But they are not the territory.”
Did you just pull that bon mot out of your tailpipe Mr. Farago? Or is that a known quote from elsewhere?
I wonder because I really like it.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
chuckgoolsbee :
Did you just pull that bon mot out of your tailpipe Mr. Farago? Or is that a known quote from elsewhere?
It’s a riff on Sun Tsu’s Ancient Art of War.
well, now maybe i understand a *little* more about why you’re always pinching dashboards and complaining about them.
oh, and btw, you inspired me. i’m currently renting an ‘05 grand am, and it’s so nasty inside that i just HAD to give the dash a good squeeze. without thinking about it, i wiped my hands on my pants. the plastic is so poor that i actually felt subconsciously dirty. you win. again.
Going across threads here, but I don’t think the F-250 wins your “bang for buck” challenge.
F-250 with V10: $24175/362hp= $67/hp
(from the Toyota website)
Tundra 5.7L 4×2 “standard bed”: $24380/381hp= $64/hp.
Numbers are more than the map. Numbers are our friends. Without numbers, without the arabic numeral system, or something equivalent, there would be no automobiles. Can you imagine trying to do engineering using roman numerals? I love Justin’s quantitative analyses.
RF, you must be rehabilitated. To start with, pick a favorite prime number.
Explains a lot. Thanks for sharing.
Paul
@David Holzman:
I hope you’re kidding about loving my quantitative analyses – unless you love them because they’re hilariously bad. I think I’m the cheap third world knock off of a quantitative expert.
I like that numbers quote. Kinda gells with my own personal one…
At the end of the day, numbers don’t really matter. You can take your power to weight ratios, bang for buck, hp/displacement, quarter mile times, Nurburgring times, gear ratios, ftlbs of twist, and ponies, and shove it all.
Because the only thing that matters is whose in front when they cross that finish line.
Or, as my numerous football coaches have told me…on any given sunday.
Next thing you know RF will be waxing eloquent about the holistic ‘beingness’ of different models. The wonders never cease.
@ David Holzman
2
Justin,
It IS true that Paul Niedermeyer has the really good numbers. But give yourself credit.
Numbers: you can count on them
When Mr. Berkowitz slipped up (catching himself, though) referring to a Pontiac version of the Lambda platform – I chuckled a little…because with that one little slip – I think he just inserted a vehicle in GM’s product plans.