Do Not Touch
Still pondering the car show. I recall the blue Lamborghini parked near the entrance to the show, at the intersection of State and 3rd. Ferrari is widely recognized as an uncommon instance of excellence, the high art of the automobile. Lamborghini is even more so, and one might argue the apex of a tradition of Italian dedication to the esoteric, to the quest for perfection in a performance automobile. Lamborghini’s logo, a bull, is to their point.
I believe these are photos of a Lamborghini Aventador.
The V12 engine is 396.6 cu-in naturally aspirated. The maximum power is 770 hp. The transmission is all-wheel-drive, the gearbox is a single-clutch 7 speed unit. The vehicle offers the same aerodynamic downforce regardless if the top is open or closed. The system has a number of active, computer-controlled flaps that opens and close depending on the speed and steering inputs, increasing the massive wheels’ traction. The Aventador SVJ accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds and the car has a top speed of 218 mph.
There are objects of respect, occasions of reverence, – not to be handled.
It is a great achievement
when the masses
(people of all kinds who lack depth or have speedy bowels)
have finally had the feeling bred into them
that they cannot touch everything,
that there are holy experiences
which require them to take off their shoes
and keep their dirty hands away,
– and this is pretty much as high a level of humanity
as they will ever reach.
Conversely, what is perhaps the most disgusting thing
about so-called scholars,
the devout believers in “modern ideas,”
is their lack of shame,
the careless impudence
of their eyes and hands
that touch, taste, and feel everything.
Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Judith Norman, aphorism 263
