Most automotive news outlets have only written reviews of the mad new McLaren from a glorified press day in Portugal, but while everyone was distracted with that, the blimey blokes at Autocar have managed to put 2000km on the clock of one. Better yet, they made a couple videos so you can actually hear the twin-turbo 3.8L V8 spin to 8,500 rpm and see it tuck its nose into corners effortlessly.
Autocar’s Steve Sutcliffe, resident supercar afficionado, also took the passenger seat next to Jensen Button for a few hot laps with the aging F1 star.
Those sodding limeys have it good.
Watch the videos and tell me that the new Macca doesn’t make the Nissan GT-R look like an even better value. Just try.
For those of you who have never heard of Switzer Performance, you’re in for a treat. The Ohio based company is owned by the eponymous Tim Switzer and it specializes it taking perfectly insane turbocharged production cars and turning them into absolute world beaters. The company is renowned for its work in tuning the Porsche 911 Turbo and the Nissan GT-R, two cars that lack performance the way that China lacks global ambition. What separates Switzer from other tuning companies is a sense of maturity – you won’t find any Honda Civics or Mitsubishi Evos here, just premium performance hardware taken to the nth degree.
Jack Baruth is as well known for his skill on the race track as his editorials on the internet. I’ve been reading Avoidable Contact for nearly two years now. Since then, Baruth decreed that the Nissan GT-R would be an abysmal sales failure in North America, he chronicled the advent of fake luxury, the joys of the Porsche option catalog, and published the seminal work on the futility of comparing lap times at the Nurburgring. I’ve always looked forward to Jack’s next instalment because he combines history, foresight, and a challenge to conventional wisdom. His brashly upstream style of writing is a refreshing change from the usual groupthink crap that floats around the web and print media.
For his most recent literary exploration, Jack likens the Toyota Prius, as a brand, to the Apple iPod. Both have undeniably had a halo effect on the other products their companies offer. This certainly holds true in light of the new iPad, a product that I want desperately to like but can’t seem to justify with anything resembling logic. Between my iPhone 3G and my 13” aluminum MacBook, I don’t see the gap in my life that Steve Jobs and Jony Ive created yesterday with the introduction of their plus-sized book reader.
Regardless, Jack’s argument is that since hipsters buy Apple products and hipsters buy Toyota Prii, all other computers and hybrid vehicles are second-rate and not “cool”.
Earlier this week we took a look at a video review from Autocar UK comparing the GT-R, the R8 V10, and the new 997.5 Turbo. Now we’ve also got a splendid collection of photography to go along with it. Nothing quite like a perfect photograph of a bulgingly brutal supercar, innit eh?
Take particular note of the shots caught mid-drift. The visual proportions of the R8 are wretched, the Turbo looks like it’s VW Beetle forebears, and the Nissan looks huge, if extremely purposeful as well.Follow below for more.
Autoweek.nl, those crazy diplomatically-neutral Dutch guys, have pitted the two most competent, all-around-usable AWD supercars hoofd-aan-hoofd. I don’t know why they didn’t include a Spyker. That’s not very patriotic of them, especially since we all know that the Top Gear model (i.e. the only model) of televised car programs must be inherently biased towards home-grown autos. If we were doing a review of supercars, we’d include the Locus Plethore faster than you could say “double-double”
The results of the R8 V10 vs. GT-R battle royale? While not definitive, it’s hella fun to watch them try to sort the two out. Personally, this is almost an impossible choice. Thank god for real auto journalists. And subtitles.
While I myself am Canadian, my father’s family originates from the Ukraine. Ok, it was about 100 years ago that they came to Alberta to farm these fertile lands, but the Ukraine is still their second home. According to English Russia, a broken-English website chronicling all things strange and wonderful in the former Soviet Union, the Ukraine my forefathers left is starkly different from the one today.
In terms of cars down on the Kiev street, there’s no shortage of expensive, flashy rides. It’s just the way in the former USSR, I suppose, but do they really have to modify them so… so… tastelessly?
The Audi R8 has no right to look that objectionable. Neither to the rest of the cars below.
As you’ll recall from Part I of my NFS: Shift review, I’ve been progressing quickly through the ranks. Last time I checked in with you, I had a BMW 135i and a Porsche Cayman S as my Tier 1 and Tier 2 cars. I then went on to accumulate a few more hundred grand and bought myself a Tier 3 car. Between an R8, a GT-R, a Murcielago, a Z06, and a 911 GT2 (among others), it was a touch choice. Did I want outright power? Did I want the confidence of AWD? Did I want the best bang for the buck? Did I want the coolest car, regardless of gameplay? Or did I want the car that would get me to my Tier 4 dream car, the Zonda F, the fastest?
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