Recent Comments:
Forbes lists the Top 10 Fastest Fictional Cars {Autoblog}
May 16th 2008 5:48AM In the environment that that AE86 races in, it probably would be faster than half the cars on this list. List also fails for no F-Zero machines, those things can do over 2500 km/h, while drifting!
APS builds 557 hp twin-turbo setup for Pontiac G8 GT {Autoblog}
May 12th 2008 8:09PM Larico Brownm, you do realise the VXR8 is simply a Clubsport R8 with different badges yes? It looks identical...
Corvette ZR1 engineer says GT-R won't be King of the 'Ring for long {Autoblog}
May 2nd 2008 7:34PM Christian, last month Australia's MOTOR magazine did the world's first test off the three second-gen GT-Rs with the R35. On a small track, that they chose to make the power increase for the R35 as less important as possible, the R33 ran a 51.12, the R35 ran a 46.18. Five seconds faster than a lightly-modified R33 GT-R V-Spec on a very short track chosen to be in the R33's favour.
The R35 has NOTHING to do with any previous GT-R apart from the Nissan and GT-R badges. Oh, and maybe the ATTESSA name for the AWD system, but it is a completely redesigned system sharing only the name with previous GT-R's.
So yes, the R35 is probably a minute faster than the R33 GT-R around the Ring. The R33's time was a stripped out development car, everyone knows this, and back then no one really cared too much about the specifics of how a lap was done, so it was fine back then but obviously not counted as a real lap these days.
No one outside of Nissan has gotten better than 7.50 in the GT-R because the German guy who drove it had never driven the car before, so obviously he's not going to pull out an amazing time. You do realise driving is more about the driver than the car yes? And the Ring is all about confidence, if you're not 100% confident about the behaviour of the car you aren't going to be super fast. Quite simply really. That was the only time a non-Nissan tester has driven the car on the Ring at speed, everyone else has just been journalists and stuff who probably would be lucky to break 9 minutes.
Nissan 360: the Micra 160 SR {Autoblog}
May 1st 2008 1:39AM The Yaris is one of the best selling cars here in "omg why do they get all the V8 RWD sedans" Australia (I think it's about fifth or something, Corolla is first, Commodore second), so I don't find it impossible to believe the Micra could do ok in the US. In fact they just started selling it here recently, and I've seen quite a few of them already. Don't think we can get this version though, only the more average versions of the car.
2010 Mazda MX-5 is coming with Mazda6 cues {Autoblog}
Apr 25th 2008 8:00AM Yeah I think this is pretty disappointing as well. The MX-5 is seperate from all other Mazda's, it has an iconic look to to it, and trying to fit it in with all the family cars is a crazy idea. Especially when you're talking about the perfect oval tail lights being replaced by those hideous things from the 6 (the worst part of that car's looks by far).
Top Secret V12 Supra does 222 mph at Nardo {Autoblog}
Apr 13th 2008 10:25PM It's an old engine, so they haven't bothered to update it's claimed power above the now dead gentleman's agreement level of 280PS/276hp.
Corvette ZR-1 'Ring times in low 7:40s, GT-R V-Spec amused {Autoblog}
Apr 11th 2008 7:27PM Why would Clarkson care about car prices? The guy earns millions of dollars a year, he swaps one supercar for another every 6 months. I highly doubt he cries himself to sleep at night thinking of how much a Corvette costs.
Oh and the GT-R has already smacked the Z06 by 5 seconds on a dry, American track with a good, American driver. There's a much greater weight difference between the GT-R and Z06 than the V-Spec and ZR1 as well. It's not just simple physics, it's good engineering as well.
Anyone would struggle with putting the power down on a ZR1 as well regardless of how dry the track is. The Z06 is already massively handicapped by how unstable the rear end is during cornering, and now it's getting more power making the problem even worse.
Corvette ZR-1 'Ring times in low 7:40s, GT-R V-Spec amused {Autoblog}
Apr 11th 2008 4:29AM In the video (the proper video, not some tiny YouTube thing) you can CLEARLY see the car is wearing the STOCK Potenza RE070 runflats for it's 7.38 lap. If have not seen any thing any where about an 8.00 minute lap, even some German guy in his very first time in the car pulled out a 7.50 or something. The GT-R is faster than the Z06 around race tracks, get that into your head. And the V-Spec will most likely be faster than the softened ZR1 around race tracks as well. Why would the GT-R only be able to do 8.00s on the Ring to the Z06's supposed 7.42 lap when even American media have shown how much faster the stock GT-R on stock tires is than the Z06?
Nissan GT-R V-Spec lap times stun observers {Autoblog}
Apr 9th 2008 6:24PM Supercars like the S7 and Enzo can't really run on the Nordschleife. For similar reasons that F1 cars can't run there (the BMW that did recently was heavily modified), they're just too hardcore in terms of ride height and stuff, more like GT racecars than road cars. Even other supercars like the Carrera GT and Zonda are a little more useable, so they can lap the Ring without much problems, hence they've both set record times.
Nissan GT-R V-Spec lap times stun observers {Autoblog}
Apr 9th 2008 12:37AM Why would it be on slicks? They're developing the car, not trying to do unrealistic lap times on nowhere near production tires to please some fanboys (which is what some people still think they did with the 7.38 lap). It's probably using one of a few different kinds of semi slicks (the same kind of tires you can get on numerous production cars, not some amazing 'omg dey r cheeterz' things) they are considering for the final car, and is simply testing suspension tunes and such.
