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Beauty in the Eye
I forgot to take in my trash can this morning, so I pulled up through the gate and got out of the car to roll the bin back in. So on the walk back out, I was staring at my car for a while (it’s about 100 yards from the gate back to the house). Now, I’ve always liked the looks of this particular car (why else would I buy it?), but the look gave me real satisfaction, maybe more than seems reasonable. So my thought is: How much of perceived beauty is due to 1. either some universal concept(s) of beauty, or some inherent biologically determined perception as opposed to 2. some learned reactions or beliefs as to what constitutes beauty?
I’ve always believed that the true measure of the looks of a vehicle is how it looks ten or twenty years later — for example, an E-body Jaguar still looks incredible some 60 years after it debuted.
Gratuitous pictures of my car included:
I believe in objective beauty.
I understand the “beauty in the eye of the beholder crowd” – there’s no accounting for personal taste.
But some things are simply objectively beautiful.
There’s something to be said for it. There’s a game of chess that’s known as the American Beauty. Is it beautiful? That really depends on how much you care about chess.
5.0L 6 speed stick? (Obviously) Beauty in the eyes of the beholder? I’d like to be-holdin’ that down the Mass Pike right now.
I miss my 2016 3.7L. She wasn’t the fastest ‘stang but could out-run most cars. I once laid rubber with it outside the Bridgestone arena. The only draw back was pressing the clutch in hours of heavy traffic.
I’ve always thought the Jaguar E type was the best looking car ever made.
I have a Lexus SE430, which is merely adorable. She’s 23 this year.
My Kia is over 20 years old and is underwhelming in all respects, but it is beautiful to me. It was paid for long ago, it starts every time, and it only has 40K miles.
I call it a money maker.
It’s the Voodoo V8, which has a flat plane crank and sounds like the hounds of hell. Redline at 8250. Ford only put it in the GT350 and production is over. You can’t even buy a crate motor.
As much as I love talking about cars, this applies to other things. For example, I understand symmetry is a big factor in the attractiveness of human faces. But what else? Men’s reaction to women often seems largely primitive. How much is biologically wired?
It’s all biological. We know it when we see it.
Beauty is when my granddaughter turned controlled falling into walking. Hank mentioned a chess game. I thought of code working perfectly through a situation I didn’t anticipate. This subject could go on forever. A crane catching a fish outside my office window yesterday. It’s everywhere all the time, you just have to acknowledge it. Doc has a good point too. Sometime you just have to say WOW!
Beats me. Even cars that most people laugh at due to their ugliness will find buyers. The question ought to be answerable to a degree, though. Get a whole bunch of volunteers to look at a bunch of pictures of things, and on their own computers, rate each one on a scale of 1 to 5 for beauty. Then get an equal number of volunteers in a room and show each picture one at a time. With each one, invite a few people to speak up with their reactions, then have people raise their hands. How many vote 1? How many vote 2, et cetera? Then compare the results between the people who voted in a group and the people who voted independently. Are the results pretty close to the same or not? That should at least give some insight into how much our judgments are our own vs. how much they are influenced by others. I would bet there is a substantial degree of crowd-following.
I think I’ve got to object to the word ‘biological’ here. Nature left me with no predilection for particular arrangements of black and white pieces. If you want to say that I didn’t bootstrap myself into a particular aesthetic appreciation, that’s fair. The details of the process aren’t under my control. But I think jumping to ‘biological’ for all forms of beauty assumes too much.
I saw a Cybertruck in the wild. It didn’t look as stupid as it does on the internet.
That’s fair, but then you’re looking not just at whether it looks good, but what people are willing to admit. More complicated problem.
I’ve had my Mustang . . . holy cow, almost 15 years! And I still take time to admire its looks in parking lots.
This is a pic with my first lust leaning on my later lust.
While not a fast as your Stang, and not in the same consortium as an E-type, yet with the hopping up I did to the modest 2.5L straight six, it now clock 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds. Much better than stock, but also not in the same performance league as my 99, and 09 BMW convertibles.
We develop our infatuations early in life, and I still have the first lust, and she encouraged me to get the other one (again) that I was fawning for a few years ago now that I have the resources to enjoy it without having to make it slog though inclement weather, which was never a strong suit for mid 20th century British tin.
Sorry but some cars will never be viewed as esthetically pleasing. This was born fugly, and still is fugly
First manual transmission I ever drove was an XKE in 1962. Still defines automotive beauty to me.
I’ll trade Tex 5 of these for his.
So you’re saying you like to objectify.
~calls feminist police~
I saw one with the planar faces purposely edged in either rust or some kind of paint to get that effect, one of which had a sort of cattle brand thing in the middle. Surprisingly awesome.
And will die as a compressed metal block of ugly.
One of my friend’s sister had a Gremlin. It often shows up on a “list of ugly cars” now and then. We all thought it was pretty cool, especially after watching the car chase scene in Brewster McCloud . . .
After Walter White drove one in Breaking Bad the price of used Azteks skyrocketed, but the actual one from the show only brought in $7800 at auction (about twice Blue Book). Truly an outstandingly bad performer.
Looks like a souped-up AMC Pacer.
90 hp of Kenosha thunder, baby!
I would not consider the Pacer a ground breaking beauty in terms of its esthetics. It is not in the same abysmal league as the Pontiac Aztec, which should, like it’s namesake, have it’s beating heart carved out, and it’s ugly carcass kick off the top of the ziggurat.
Yeah, there are some cars that are homely because the manufacturer just didn’t put an effort into making them stylish. Then there are ones that seem to have been purposely designed for ugliness.
That’s what they said about Kyle Rittenhouse.
An oldie:
Q: What do you call a pair of new windshield wipers for a Yugo?
A: A pretty good swap.
That one always struck me as having been designed by Dr. Suess.
The Fiat Multipla, never sold in the U.S., thankfully:
Kenosha blunder . . .
A guy I worked with bought a Yugo. He was a big guy, too, which made him look silly whenever he got behind the wheel. I asked him why he bought one. His answer was something like, “It only cost $4000. I’m going to drive it until it breaks, then leave it on the side of the road and buy another.”
Considering he got a new car under warranty at the cost of a good used car (back then), his logic made some kind of sense . . .