There is a VERY big difference between the mindset of an owner that is taking their car to a track/doing breakfast runs/skidpan etc etc and one that is hooning about looking for likes and attention. It is less that the car can't handle it and more that it is a sign that a car is generally going to be neglected. Blown diffs, driveshafts, going sideways into verges/the bush, oil starvation on some motors and transmissions, clutch issues etc can be things with excessive spinning and despite looking like they are fresh from the 'hood, actual 'sport prepped' spinning cars are built to prevent these things. It is very obvious from these threads that there is almost no overlap between enthusiast owners and these meets that are more of a social-credit-building thing/money-show that happens to involve cars.
Performance cars are not the only victims. Many luxury cars and SUVs also meet this fate from people that are not enthusiasts of any kind at all.
My Alfa has seen a lot of track duty (as have cars I've owned in the past). If you look at my Alfa, it has 16000km and is 6 years old. It has had 2 sets of tyres (one of which I am again changing now due to age/use rather than wear), 5 oil changes (and Petronas Selenia Quadrifoglio ain't cheap), a cambelt/waterpump service, new rubber bits of various descriptions/swaps to silicone hoses, 2 ceramic coatings, 4 brake flushes (Neither is RBF660 cheap) and many minor things that make it better or more reliable for track duty and high speed breakfast runs which is the purpose of this car. There are MANY people on this forum that have the same mindset even for their 320ds and 320is, let alone their Ms and collectibles. You will find someone like eg Gav even takes this approach with a Corsa Bakkie. Unfortunately, with the way things are today, you don't even see what they are doing and they definitely avoid the meets everyone sees in these clips... but I digress.
Seeing a car treated the way some of the cars are in these videos almost universally comes with dogshit tyres, absolute BARE MINIMUM maintenance if it is maintained at all, patch fixes when something breaks, rubbish fluids, aftermarket parts on critical items (same guys that say "better than OEM" while fitting trash), fake/rep parts that look and fit like shit, no investment in actual skills development (eg driving courses, track days, skidpan, gymkhana events) and almost universal baby whining about 'not having anywhere to use their cars' while actually just looking for an excuse to be an asshole on the street and taking their unfair share of public space. I appreciate that Durban has a legit reason for the latter but Cape Town doesn't really. The police attention and behaviour is wrong, but it is also a symptom of a larger disease.
Come time to sell, these owners will (as is the case with another car in another thread as the latest example) call to the meticulous maintenance history of the PREVIOUS owner when selling the car. Stolen valour in a sense LOL. This is a sore point for me especially with cars I last owned LITERALLY 10 YEARS AGO being marketed as "my old car with all mods done by me" 2 owners later, yet they are missing parts... parts I did fit are painted different colours and... oh yes... treated SO POORLY they managed to have patch fixes cause entire engine failures... car sitting for years... repaired and maintained on a budget but then sold as no expenses spared.
Apart from this, the 'scene' and 'culture' has become absolutely vrot. Very few people actually KNOW about cars or care about them outside of the likes/views/attention it will bring them or the image it will give them as a 'connoisseur of cars'. That same community will also immediately turn on those same people they are giving all the attention to when the opportunity arises. Probably one of the more extreme examples of this from a few years back: there was a guy that basically lost his legs after a high speed crash in cape town. The day before he was looking for secondhand tyres for his M. The day after we were all supposed to feel sorry for him disrespecting every other road user and every car enthusiast. On the other hand his "mates" and followers were going around his car posting videos for attention while he was in a literal coma, not knowing whether he was alive or a vegetable, calling him "their blood", while others were all over social media looking for attention and obviously didn't give two shits about him as a human being. The sympathy didn't last long though since when he eventually spoke up he didn't have any remorse and just couldn't understand why his mate had a broken arm but he had to lose his legs... Can't make this shit up.
Closer to home, these community dynamics have tempted me to just disappear into the ether many times (you'll have noticed many former 'regular and extensive posters' have done the same) because when you post things it also attracts negative sorts of attention in this community (cars in general), be it judgement, racism, people having opinions on how to spend your money or half a dozen other reasons... Whether you're buying a R3M thing or a R100K thing you are not immune from the peanut gallery, and they don't do this directly - you hear about it or see it in screen shots that someone will share from some group... I have some of the best followers (even outside of 'real' friends) and who helped a lot with my garage build/choices etc... but it is also obvious it is the same 120 or so good guys and there are 1500 odd others that are there for 'unknown' reasons. I can only imagine how this scales up to people with actual big followings.
Three examples from me:
once upon a time, I was literally reported to my employer at the time for a comment I made on an emigration thread... FORTUNATELY this person failed comprehension, and it turned into nothing, but I did freak out quite a bit about it.
Babies that say "I don't care what you think - you're x, y, z and nothing" and then go and whine on a whatsapp group showing they obviously care greatly about your comment... and you're getting the updates almost in real time with commentary from their 'friend' (Sorry if someone gets unfriended for this
)
More recently and on a lighter note, with the Porsche (that I didn't even want to start a thread on initially...) I had this because of an off hand comment about using it to carry my dogs and dirty kid/bike things around... (F*** me for not wanting to waste a million bucks or over pay for a 20d/30d Xx, right) but I 'had too much money' and they decided to share this on (checks notes) a watch group that happened to have my cousin's husband on it
. If you think nobody is sharing your comments or antics on what is perceived as 'private or safe' spaces you have another thing coming.
Anyway the point is that with the bad comes the good whether it is finding out the history of cars or the intentions of people, and you can see just what level of honesty is at play as well as what level of risk you are willing to take with cars at least LOL. That is social media... Whatever is said/done is never really secret/private - you can now get encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of anyone/anything and crowd-source that information from the collective memory of what I say is 'the internet' but is really the communities we are a part of. You have to obviously use your own common sense and risk appetite to make a call.
