The Jay Kay Test

The picture below used to wind me up, how can people be so stupid and careless with something so beautiful? Then I thought, "well at least they are being driven, okay most incidents might be low speed crashes but they are at least doing what they were designed to do, not stuck in a garage like a show pony"!

 

 

What's the point of buying a hyper car and then leaving it in a display garage for 20 years? 

 

You have some of the greatest engineers working for the greatest automotive companies in the world creating the most desirable machines ever to roll of a production line and they get shoved in a garage.

 

I understand Ferrari's reticence of not letting any old fool off the street with cash drive away in one of their most prized possessions but incorporating conditions like you have to own at least 5 Ferraris to be able to buy a LaFerrari is the wrong assessment, you are trying to assess if the person is passionate about the product not if he is a great collector.

 

What automotive companies like Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche should be dong is the "Jay Kay" test, this is a guy who loves cars, loves to drive them which is the most important thing and now owns a green LaFerrari. So the first question the hyper car manufacturers should be asking is, " are you going to drive it?", any response with "no" then they will be instructed to leave the premises!

The following is a transcript from Top Gear:

 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSj7GFLDhew)
where Jay Kay was talking to Richard Hammond whilst driving a Lamborghini Miura...

 ...“I don’t buy cars to speculate, I don’t buy cars like these fools, and they hide them away, the kids today don’t see them, they will never know what it’s like to see a Lamborghini Muira busting past you at a 130-40 miles per hour”.

There you have it, if I ever get the opportunity to own a Zonda R, McLaren P1, LaFerrari, 918 then I can guarantee I will drive it as it was designed and engineered...to be driven!