Ray wrote:Once again, you are saying you are better than me. You arelready called me braindead, now you are saying that Euopeans are better than me and that I've never thought about efficiency. Yeah, you're right. We aren't efficient, and being so is completely foreign to us Americans. Our auto companies aren't striving to meet emmissions goals. If you guys are going to continue to chastise Americans about how we aren't smart enough to understand F1, or how our cars are no match in any form to yours, I'll quit writing replys. I don't call you guys stupid for liking one thing over another, or for your lack of something or anything. (Though I did say you guys were thickheaded, which I'm sorry for)
All I keep hearing in return is that most prefer a well handling car to a stoplight demon, and because we Americans like that kind of car it is inferior to European cars. Opinion is fact apparently. I don't care that your cars handle better, and that doesn't make mine inferior!! They are built for different evironments, stop beating a dead horse.
I'm sorry, Ray. I think you misunderstood me. I was trying to avoid being judgmental in my post and I was never trying to claim to be better than you. I believe our different views emanate from different cultural and social backgrounds and this kind of differences must always be on our minds when having these discussions. Even the efficiency thing has roots on the price that is paid for all kinds of energy in our and in your side of the Atlantic. That concern doesn't come out of enlightenment or better values: it comes from the money that comes out from our pockets for electricity, gas or oil.
And clearly, there's no judgment implicit on the straights vs. curves issue! Curiously enough, I believe that American racing circuits tend to be a lot more twisty and slow than most European ones. But I'm leaving ovals aside, so that's probably the justification: to clearly differentiate speed and handling circuits. Since we have little tradition of ovals, our road circuits are more of a compromise than yours.
Concerning the origin of hydrocarbon supplies and the politics issue, I would rather leave that out. I'm a technician and this is a technical forum, not a scientific or political one. And I'm sure our points of view on that are too far away from each other to provide any sound discussion.
Once again, I beg you to forgive me and forget about my ranting post. We should respect our differences and I believe in evolving as individuals exactly in the respect and understanding for the differences. Forums like this are a golden opportunity to broaden our horizons and understand that there are different views on things and that ours are not necessarily better or worse than anyone else's. Actually, we learn a lot only by understanding WHY people have different opinions from our own.
It's always nice to debate and see the other sides argument.