While I don’t have many posts on here, I am here quite a bit reading and watching.
As you might have guessed from my user name I am a motorcycle guy first and foremost. But I am also one of the 480 of us who have a ZL1 build and waiting. I’m #310
A replacement for my 2010 SS/RS which is already gone to its new home :(
But I wonder am I now a ZL1 snob? In the motorcycle world it is VERY click-ie. The sport bike guys stay with the sport bike guys; Harley riders hate everyone but their own, metric cruisers secretly want to be Harley riders, GoldWing riders are a different bread altogether with their cup holders, reverse gears and cigarette liters! Dirt bikers are different than quad riders and so on.
But within each one of these different groups are a seemingly endless subculture of even more separation.
Dirt bikers who ride motocross don’t like the dirt bikers that ride desert or trail ride. The trail riders don’t like the supercross riders and so on.
Sport bike riders who road race don’t like stunters, stunters don’t like the Hayabusa crowd, and those riders don’t like this one and so on, and so on. :fighting0040:
All of that is preference to riding style, I get it. But even within these subcultures the bike you chose to ride is a factor. If you ride a GSXR1000 that is like driving a ZL1. It is a top of the line high performance machine. (Regardless if those reading this like the GSXR1000 or not, it cannot be denied it is a performance leader. As is the ZX10, CBR1000 or R1 respectively
SO! What does this have to do with cars and the ZL1?
While all of the above mentioned bikes are top performance machines from there respective manufactures. Unlike cars, there are not really any different trim packaged or levels to the bikes. It basically goes like this; here is the bike for this year. You can pick between two, maybe three colors. That’s is. Not to omit the fact that there are sub-categories such and engine size etc, but that is different point.
How this relates to cars is:
A base model Camaro. A strip down basic nothing. Steel rims with a v-6 auto. The kind you would rent from Dollar rent-a-car. As a ZL1 owner do you look down on that car/driver? Maybe even just a little bit in the back of your mind? What about the SS series? Now that the ZL1 is top dog… why not? Why wouldn’t you?
It is not being rude. Let me explain. In motorcycles if you ride a GSXR1000 or R1 etc. you own one of the best of the best. If a guy pulls up on a 250 Ninja (equal to a base/base Camaro) it is still a sport bike. So you are still friendly (see original subculture dynamic above) but you kind of look at his bike like. “Dude… WHY?” He is a nice enough guy etc. just with a less than desirable bike compared to yours.
But then a group of Harleys or some metric cruisers show up and you and the 250 Ninja guy are like long lost brothers! The bond of your sport bike group is greater than that of your subculture. Just as if a metric cruisers showed up and you two were the only bikes around, the umbrella of motorcycling would trump the individual subculture. Except Harleys because as previously mentioned…. They hate everybody but their own regardless. =)
I am sure like most of us while out driving we see the Gen 5 Camaro’s and look to see what it is… “Oh that’s a SS/RS” or “hey that a v-6 because of…”
I always looked for the SS cars because they are in my “group” But even now when I look I think. “Dude that SS is nothing compared to the ZL1”. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate or enjoy their car but now with a new king of the road. Have the others all moved down a notch?
Maybe this makes me sound like a jerk. I just was wondering if anyone else now looked at the SS the way they once looked at the V-6. All still Camaro but within this Camaro subculture – I believe just like in bikes – there is a prejudice. Or am I wrong and all Camaro guys love one another equally?
Your thoughts?
Disclaimer: no disrespect intended to any motorcycle group or subculture. Or to V-6 owners 