I've just looked at your "first pics" thread, Gary, and was incredibly impressed by those photos. By your own admission you spent hours experimenting with the camera, so you're hardly my target.Have we met?
With respect to my mate & the Saab, I am / was neither angry nor jealous of him - I was just absolutely surprised at his "ignorance". I came to cars late, having ridden bikes (on & off) for about a decade, and I admit that I wasn't terribly knowledgeable about bikes throughout much of the time I rode them. But I just always figured blokes who were "into" cars had grown up being into cars, read all about them as teenagers & all that kind of thing. I guess I have this expectation of teenage boys knowing all the specifications, the difference between the mark 2 & the mark 3, and all that sort of thing. As someone who wasn't into cars, I knew what ABS was by the age of 14.
Matey's Saab was a 4-door hatchback thing, so it provoked no emotion for me - it's basically mid-engines that I lust after, and it's those that I do get wound up about if they're "wasted". Seems funny that you'd drive an Elise on L-plates, but again you took it on the track a week after you passed your test, and IIRC you describe it as "fun to drive", so you're not the target of my ire there, either. It's mid-engined sports cars driven as if they were a minivan... I can't say I'm entirely rational about this, maybe I do suffer from the green-eyed monster, but I think owning a sports car just to "look cool"... well, it's somehow symptomatic of consumer culture. I'm not immune to consumerism myself, but I want a mid-engined car so I can better enjoy driving fast down twisty roads, and frankly can't imagine ever being able to afford one (but would be tracking it on a regular basis if I did, better to learn it & avoid killing myself).
Ironically, when I rode bikes I was a reverse-snob about it. I never cared for or about super-bikes when I was a crap rider, but once I became good (following 10 months of dispatch riding) I would turn up my nose if I saw a bike with loads of plastic fairing and no scrapes on the footpegs. It really didn't bother me, I just felt smug to myself & self-satisfied at seeing it - I guess this is because I knew my worn old BMW was just absolutely perfect for me, and I loved riding it.
I wonder if it's sports cars that wind me up because they're exactly the sort of thing that people buy to "prove" they're successful. Nice car, nice house, keeping up with the Joneses. I hate all that, and I guess I do find it hard to comprehend people spending the price of a small house (some places) on something that'll be rusting on the scrapheap in a few years. I would probably develop quite a different perspective if I were wealthier!
Stroller.
The car was an insane and somewhat silly purchase. The camera, well I think less silly. I certainly get a lot more enjoyment from photography than I do from driving like a complete knob 
:thumbsdown: I just don't understand some people.
