Why Men Like Fast Cars

The question was asked of me: why do men like fast cars?
I explained it thus:
A car is at its most basic level a tool. It is designed to transport a person from point A to point B. As with all tools there are different grades of tool. For example back in the early days of civilization before the metric system had even been dreamed up people used body parts to measure thing. While the specifics of the origin of the imperial system's foot, a foot was used to pace out building sites and all sorts of other things. Villages without standardized measuring tools could still use the loose measure of a man's foot at least enough to get business done. Later when the foot was standardized it is anecdotally believed that the foot came from the shod foot of King Henry I. To use this standardized measure in the modern day one can use of those crappy plastic rulers issued to every public school child, you know the one, it had the three holes in it to fit in a three ring binder which were inevitably used to balance it atop a pencil and spun like a helicopter. A step up from this would be the wooden ruler with the metal band sticking out the top for a truer straight edge. The spectrum progresses until you start getting into serious measuring equipment like laser sights that will measure a distance in millimeters to 32 decimal places.
For most of use however, we really don't need to measure things to 32 decimal places. Clearly then I have proven that I do not need a Ferrari 430, a Hyundai Accent would probably accomplish all of my needs. Yet I still want that fast car, why?
Well, in the first place, while I have no need of a car that makes 483 bhp and has a top speed of 196 mph having an F430 gives me the ability to do so should the need arise. I might not need to measure things to 32 decimal places but with a laser sight I can when I need to and when I don;t I can always round the decimal places off. In perhaps a argument more timely to those of us in the Baltimore area: pick-up trucks aren't the most fuel efficient vehicles, making as they do all that horse power and riding so high they are about as aerodynamic as a brick wall. When the blizzard hits town though, better believe you want to be in the 5.7L Hemi V8 Dodge Ram 2500 when you absolutely have to get somewhere.
Secondly there is a certain beauty to any refined tool. The male frame of mind, I would argue, is very result oriented. Looks certainly play a part but when concerning tools, those things designed to help us accomplish a given task, results are paramount. Thus when presented with a tool that would allow us to accomplish a task very well, in this case moving from point A to point B in the least amount of time possible, men instinctively desire the best tool available. This same principal can be observed when a man walks into an electronics store. He may only need a set of very basic computer speakers but almost invariably he will spend time looking at the 5.1 surround sound system that has speakers that stand as tall as his waist and has a sub woofer that could blow your face off, grin still intact.
This demonstrates that mens' desire for the best is not limited to cars, leaving the question why then is the desire for fast cars so seemingly universal to to all men where as other things are not? To that I would say cars provide the universal element all men need. Not everyman is an audiophil, thus not every man wants awesome speakers, but a car provides something everyman has a need for: transportation.
Even more fundamentally I would argue that cars are motion machines. To be alive is to move. In a sense motion is life. The invigorating, life affirming thrill men get as the command their machine to hurl them at ever increasing speeds toward their final destination is literally a 100 proof shot of life.
In America this feeling is magnified because of cultural values stressing independence. An American man looks at a fast car knowing that not only does it perform its function very well but that it as with most any other car it is a symbol that he can go anywhere he wants anytime he desires.