Posts Tagged ‘porsche’
One of these things just doesn't belong
Reports of a large group of sports cars passing in no-passing zones were coming from drivers along Highway 18 near Grand Ronde, Oregon. Senior Trooper David Petersen parked his cruiser and waited for the group to arrive. I’m guessing Petersen did not have to wait too long based on the speeds the drivers were going. Four exotics passed him before he had a chance to pull onto the highway in pursuit, and a fifth passed him after he began his pursuit. I know the news reports say five exotics passed him, but as you can see in the photo one of the vehicles was an Acura NSX–hardly an exotic ;)
“They said they had been down in California and they were on their homeward part of the trip,” Hessel said. “They knew they were pushing the envelope. I guess they’re pretty high-paid fellas. They just accepted their citations and went on about their trip.”
The drivers were all cited for speed racing and were let go. Unfortunately, the Orange Lamborghini Gallardo “BADBUL” was pulled over again by Oregon State Troopers a couple hours later for going 90mph in a 65mph zone. If the cars look familiar, its because many of them are from Calgary and were coming back from an annual cruise organized by a local used car dealership.
“These were all $100,000-or-more cars,” said State Police Sgt. Brad Hessel. “One guy told us his Ferrari cost more than $400,000. It was pretty much a street-legal racing car.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who the quoted Ferrari driver was :) If you can’t figure it out, find out by visiting the original forum discussion.
Pictures courtesy Oregon State Police
News Release
In this weekly segment, we cover the top discussions going on in the automotive forums. These threads may be the most recent hot topics, or epic threads that we just wanted to dig up and feature.
If you have a suggestion for a thread to be included on the forum weekly review, e-mail it to info@beyond.ca. If you have not joined our forums, register today its free!
Cash & Cars Lottery Winner Takes Cash Instead Of Koenigsegg CCX
This years Cash & Cars lottery made headlines everywhere when they announced they were giving out a Koenigsegg CCX as the grand prize. It would be the only CCX in Canada as the car is not street legal here. However, the winner opted to take $1M cash instead of the CCX because the small town he is from, Norman Wells only has a single 12KM road. To top it off, there are no highways that lead to Norman Wells. It would totally suck to have a CCX you couldn’t drive wasting away in your garage!
Forum Post Counts Revised, Users In Uproar
This past week the forum post counts were revised to reflect only automotive based posts. Many users saw massive drops in their post counts and as a result, their “gear”. For anyone that is still curious, only posts on the car forums count towards your post total while posts under the lounge will not. Pretty simple change, but I guess some people take their post counts really seriously.
Nissan Solves the GT-R Launch Control and Weak Tranny Issue
There were widespread reports of GT-R transmissions blowing up when the proud new owners of Nissan’s brand new Porsche eater tried to repeat the numbers they read about in car magazines. The good news is that Nissan has fixed the problem on the 2010 Nissan GT-R, so no more worrying about losing half your gears when your tranny implodes racing that pesky 911. The bad news? You might lose to the 911 as Nissan has eliminated the launch control from next years GT-R.
As a relatively portly sports car, the Nissan GT-R has amazed people the world over by posting blistering lap times on the Nurburgring, far faster than its specifications might allude to. It was rumoured after the initial stock GT-R lap that the car was running on non-production tires, but when a Nissan rep mentioned it was running on “cut slicks” it was brushed aside as a translation error and soon faded from the collective memory. Today, the controversy is back.
7:29? Nien, say some men in laboratory coats.
In their clean white laboratories in Stuttgart, some Porsche engineers got together, analyzed the GT-R data and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t just fast; it was too fast. Something didn’t quite add up, so they did what any men of science would do; they got some stopwatches, some calculators, a driver, a GT-R, two 911’s, and headed for the Green Hell. Ah, Germans. Where would Internet car arguments be without you? Maybe you should have taken a Z06 along as well.
So, what did the driving deacons from Deutschland find? Pretty much what their theoretical calculations told them they should expect. Their chassis designer/Ring expert driver got the 911 Turbo and GT2 around in times of 7:38 and 7:34 respectively. The Nissan, however, couldn’t be persuaded to break the 7:54 mark, over 25 seconds off Nissan’s claimed lap record. Why? We’ll let August Achleitner, Porsche’s 911 product chief, explain.
“This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car. For us, it’s not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres.”
He went on to say that the 7:29 time only made sense if the car was running on semi-slick tires, just like it was accused of doing many months ago.
That said, Porsche’s claim is not likely to put a dent in the GT-R’s sales numbers, with the bulk of cars being purchased long before they hit the showroom floor. US $69,850 US $76,840? A pittance for a car capable of defying the laws of physics!
I wonder how Porsche will respond when the Nissan GT-R V Spec Nurburgring laptimes are released.
Source
Discuss it on the forums
He may be the father of Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, but he certainly did not pass on the driving skills to his son. Earlier today Anthony Hamilton lost control of the twitchy Carrera GT on his way home on a sweeping right hander when it apparently spun, plowed up a grassy embankment and through some hedges.
When I first saw this story, I wondered if the car belonged to Lewis Hamilton. It would have made for a much better story. “Son, I took your car out without asking and umm… I crashed it!”. It would have been an epic story, a twist on the classic son crashing daddy’s car story.
In his defence, the Carrera GT is known to have some pretty wild snap oversteer. I’ve never driven one and probably will never drive one as I can’t afford to fix the car when (not if) it decides to spin around and smash into a wall.
I’m sure you have all read countless comparisons of the GT-R vs. every other car in the world and whether you like the Nissan’s latest sports car or not, the truth is, the GT-R slaughters much of its competition.
That is, until Car & Driver released their latest comparo pitting the GT-R against a Porsche 911, and a BMW M3. The Car & Driver test drivers chose the M3 as the winner in the comparison citing the fact that it is a more practical package that both the 911 and GT-R.
A naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V-8 can’t deliver the massive torque of the blown sixes, but the M3 delivers its 414 horsepower in a linear and consistent manner from idle to its 8300-rpm redline. No lurching, no drama, no sudden explosions of boost. And the sound the BMW V-8 makes is due a Grammy. It’s a V-8 note not often heard outside racetracks, while the Nissan and the Porsche both sound as though they could wear a Dyson label.
The author is quick to point out that the M3 is the cheapest of the three, and near the end when explaining why the M3 is the best of the trio, he again mentions the M3 was able to offer the “hassle-free” performance at a price that undercuts the GT-R. Seriously, the M3 is only about $6,000 cheaper than the GT-R. I could see this argument being made if the price difference was similar to the price gap between the GT-R and the 911 (the 911 in the comparison was about twice as much as the GT-R) but a difference of $6,000 on a $70,000+ car is peanuts especially when $6,000 buys an ass whopping.
In this group of radical cars, the M3 emerged quickly as the voice of reason. The extremist voices of the Porsche and the GT-R are just not present in the M3. It never shouts, utters complaints, or makes any unbecoming demands. Road and tire noise are subdued, the fabric-covered seats are perfect, and there is a back seat and a real trunk.
In my mind, I have always thought that car magazines were paid off by car manufacturers. There has never been any solid evidence and I chalked it up to the differences being small and subjective that would allow a comparison to sway in anyones favor (ex. C32 vs E46 M3 and C63 vs E92 M3). In a comparison of sports cars, who would suggest that the car that was most practical would win?
Whats next? Throw in a Toyota Prius into a sports car comparo and say that the Prius is the best because it had the best mileage? Car & Driver FTL!
Oh and if you want a translation of the article, hit up this analysis on our forums:
M3 Beats GT-R and 911 Turbo
The winners of this years International Engine of The Year Awards have been announced and to no ones surprise, BMW has dominated and taken the top prize again with the same engine that won for 2007.
International Engine of The Year
BMW 3-litre Twin Turbo (135, 335, X6)
Best New Engine of The Year
BMW Diesel 2-litre Twin Turbo (123d)
Green Engine of The Year
Toyota Hybrid 1.5-litre (Prius)
Best Performance Engine
Porsche 3.6-litre Turbo (911 Turbo, GT2)
Sub 1L
Toyota 1-litre 3-cylinder (Aygo,Yaris/Echo/Vitz, Citroën C1, Peugeot 107, Subaru Justy)
1.0L - 1.4L
Volkswagen 1.4-litre TSI Twincharger (VW Golf, Touran, Tiguan, Jetta (140/170bhp))
1.4L - 1.8L
BMW-PSA 1.6-litre Turbo (MINI Cooper S, Clubman, Peugeot 207, 308)
1.8L - 2.0L
Volkswagen/Audi 2-litre Turbo FSI (A3, A4 Cabrio, A6, TT, Eos, Jetta, Golf GTi, Škoda Octavia, Seat Altea, Leon)
2.0L - 2.5L
Subaru 2.5-litre flat four Turbo (Forester, Impreza)
2.5L - 3.0L
BMW 3-litre Twin Turbo (135, 335, X6)
3.0L - 4.0L
BMW 4-litre V8 (M3)
4.0L+
BMW 5-litre V10 (M5, M6)
For a complete write up on each of the categories, click here.
Beyond Media, Inc.
