Relative Beauty

“Oh bloody hell, here goes old Kim again, bitching about how ugly new stuff is compared to old stuff.”

Well, yes.  I am very aware that the new stuff is streets ahead of the old stuff, technologically speaking.  I am also aware that despite this, in many cases this techno-superiority makes very little difference in terms of everyday use.  Here’s an example, using this modern iteration of the venerable 1911 handgun:

…versus the traditional:

Now I know that there are all sorts of reasons why the SIG P211 is a great pistol, probably far better than the Gold Cup in terms of, well, everything, from features to function and so on.  But at the end of the day, will both guns deliver a half-dozen or so rounds of manly .45 ACP goodness into the desired target area?  Yes, the P211 has more rounds to deliver, and yes, it has a tacti-cool red-dot sight which I guess will make this new model x times more accurate than the old-fashioned Gold Cup.  If all that floats your boat, have at it.  I’ll stick with the old 1911, because it’s enough for me, and it will shoot better than I can shoot it anyway.

Consider another example of this phenomenon, using high-end sports cars this time.  Here’s Ferrari’s La Ferrari:

Looks good, is super-fast, has all those holes in the body to make the airflow more efficient, etc.  And hoo boy, it sure is super-fast.  No argument about that, least of all from me.

So let’s look at an older version of a supercar, the Jaguar E-type Series 2:

It’s for sure not as fast as the Ferrari — hell, a tuned E-type can only manage at best ~150mph compared to the 220mph of the Scuderia creation, and its piddly little 4.2-liter straight 6 engine pushes out at best 265hp (compared to the newer supercar’s 6.3-liter V12 plus the F1-derived KERS system yielding 850hp).

So… no contest, right?

Quite right.  I’d take the Jag any day of the week, six ways to Sunday.  The looks of the Jag are smoother, less angular and frankly, streamlined enough for me, and the performance is frankly much more than I need.  (The Ferrari’s performance is not only excessive, it frightens me because I wouldn’t be able to control the beast.)

Frankly, both the SIG and LaFerrari embody to me a “modern” style that I have come to detest — much as this example of a “modern” building compares very badly to an older one:

Your opinions on all the above examples may vary.