djmotorsport said:
I don't care what it looks like or if it's 'cool/not cool' for other ethereal reasons.
It's a fantastic driving tool which means it's cool (to me).
Which is all "cool" is, after all. One person's opinion.
IMHO, cool
is all about the indefinable, ethereal "something" that a cool thing has, and an uncool thing doesn't.
If the R8 is designed to be a fabulous handling car, and turns out in practice to be a fabulous handling car - marvellous, a successful design. But my house is full of utensils and devices that handle their job description with aplomb. That on it's own doesn't make my tin-opener cool, or my Sky box. Or my sofa.
Cool is a quality over and above fulfilling the adequate function requirement, and into a zone of directly affecting our emotions. And I mean affecting them beyond the level of the pure function in it's own right. I can achieve the perception of travelling very fast, with delightfully balanced handling, at the controls of a go kart. The emotions it arouses (oo-er) are real enough, but are nothing beyond the emotions engendered by the experience itself.
It doesn't make the go kart
cool.
The R8 is a fantastic piece of kit. I would love to own one, and would be proud to have it on my drive. I can admire it, I can be in awe of the technicalities of it, but I don't see it as cool in the way I do a Lancia Integrale or a DC2 Integra.
Just my 2p.