Quote:
Originally Posted by BrennanB
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You would rather drive a Lamborghini than a Dodge Caravan.
You would rather have a competition that recognizes those that deserve recognition.
Doesn't matter how I look at it, but owning a Lamborghini will always be more inspiring than owning 100 dodge caravans.
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My emphasis added:
Which is more inspiring, owning any lamborghini, or:
Owning your own fleet (100 caravans) of new app based taxis which move make about 1,000,00 person to place trips per year (1.5 passengers per average trip x 100 vehicles x 20 fairs per day x 330 days per year of vehicle usage (assuming 35 days of downtime for general maintenance).
http://www.boston-cabs.com/2009/01/t...n-service.html
Owning a grocery/meals deliver company that assist 5,000 people get fresh meals/groceries each year (assuming 1 vehicle could service about 50 unique customers per week per vehicle) making 250,000 deliveries and facilitating 100 new jobs...
http://www.peapod.com/
Or having a fleet of 100 Minivans testing protype battery management system:
http://www.allpar.com/corporate/electric-cars.html
Or a fleet of minivans that are retrofitted to include side ramps so they are wheelchair accessible:
http://www.braunability.com/commerci...e-minivan.html
I am picking on you a bit, but I was inspired by the Lamborghini when I was in elementary school. I specifically remember coveting a poster of this image:
http://kleberly.com/284146-lamborghini-countach.html up until I was about 10 years old. I never did get one.
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The above examples are not just pulled from thin air...
I was personally was inspired by the Dodge minivan as it was a neat vehicle taking me to and from school, games, and 4-H events through out my life. Cubby holes, flip down seats, interesting over-center cam link for the rear windows... I must have played with that over center linkage 1,000 times as a kid.
Around 13 years old, we were in a high speed rear-ending on a freeway, and it not only saved our lives, but we were able to fix that van and I used it in College.
During college, my first internship was working at Braun Corporation which retrofitted minivans with a new floor and fold down ramp for wheel-chairs. They owner had MS and even had his converted so he could drive with a joystick similar to his wheelchair. It was a small engineering department, but they did very inspirational work.
My second internship was with Chrysler, a friend also interning at chrysler was part of the TEV program where Chrysler was experimenting with Electric Minivans durin the 90s and did do some Zero-emission fleetwork. I was inspired by this experience to take an electric vehicles course during my master's program.
While working at Chrysler, I worked in advanced vehicle engineering on some fold flat seat concepts, and got a patent for a multifunction liftgate (again inspired by minivans).
I later went on to work on Challenger and Viper. (Just stating this so you know that I too like performance cars).
Also in the early 2000s, my grandmother lost her personal mobility. She was able to get in and out of my mom's minivan, and really appreciated the support from the "meals on wheels" people that helped her live comfortably in her own home without having to "get out" too much.
Around 2007 or 2008, I was at a really neat vintage car show where I got the chance to finally see a Lamborghini Coontach (LP-400s) in person. It looked short, wide, and had 14" wheels. Its 0-60 was 5.9 seconds and it was $100,000 1985 dollars. By 2005, I could by an SRT4 that had a faster 0-60 for $19,900 2005 dollars...
As just one other point. I would be willing to bet that Chrysler sponsors more FRC teams than Lamborghini, and the money for that sponsorship is largely due to the profits of one of the companies best money makers (mini-van).
It was a neat car, but to be very clear, had nowhere near the impact or inspiration that any one of the above dodge Caravans had on me, not too mention the collective impact that those less than 100 had on me or the other people I have mentioned.
I clearly look at things a little different than you, but I am pretty partial to minivans. Even now, I work on the
tracked military minivan... though I would never call it that in front of the soldiers... Its infotainment and gaming system is a little too dangerous to play around with.
I am not saying that the Lamborghini should not be inspiring (I prefer Viper), just maybe you might want to look a little harder about what inspiration 100 minivans could provide. ...Your Mileage May Vary...