Tonight. Problems at Daytona with duracells, problems in Tokyo with speed camera and problems with self control at Trail Mountain. We are back!
Head 2 head
Clash of the centuries
World spins so fast nowadays. Few years ago I wouldn’t belive that I’ll have phone with 1GHz CPU and fast mobile internet access. I love modern technology, but sometimes it freaks me out. AI for example. I don’t want to be killed by my slave robot who thought that he could be Chip Guevara.
There is one thing that I fear even more. Electric cars. Ok, some small city cars, aka shopping carts with engine could be fine. But electric sports car? That’s abomination! And this abomination has a name - Tesla Roadster. We decided to make some comparison with dinosaur form times where people didn’t care how much hair gel and petrol they use. The closest in terms of PP was Chevy Camaro Z28.
So who will win? Steppenwolf or Lady Gaga?
First test: practicality.
If modern electric cars are so economical they should be also practical. Range is important if you want to drive somewhere further than shop at the end of your street. There is no better place to test it than Daytona Speedway. Pedal to the metal and let’s see how quickly our V8 monster can eat out 70 liters of petrol. Well we don’t know becouse after about 102 km Tesla’s batteries were empty, and Camaro still had over half tank. Ther is one more thing. You can’t fit new duracells in and drive away. 1-0 for young John Travolta.
Second test: drag race.
Tesla is over 200kg lighter and has only 9PS less than Camaro, so it should be easy for this flashy washing machine. It’s completely opposite. Chevy easily wins this competition. 2-0.
Third test: let’s drive!
Alright. Range, and drag tests are not the most important ones. Time for some driving on the edge. Camaro feels heavy, but oddly it drives truly great for old muscle. It doesn’t understeer like crazy and with less power than most of his friends from wild west it’s hard to loose it with oversteer. Is Tesla as bad as in previous tests? Nope. It’s tricky and not ballanced well. Front is too loose, and it becomes twitchy under braking but it’s also really easy to regain grip. I have to say that Tesla is fun in terms of driving, but there is one major problem. Soundtrack. Without proper, growling engine, or happily whistling blow-off valves you just can’t feel like you are pushing your car. So what that Tesla’s handling is fun if it’s not only thing that determine driving pleasure.
There is one,last thing to do. We have to test which one is faster. So we’ve handed them to our tame racing idiot. Some say that he wears pink stockings and he has belly button on his foot. All we know, he is The Sztig. 200kg lighter Tesla won, but with barely noticable margin. We still can’t understand why it is so slow. Oh, one more thing. In modern electric sports car I want to feel like I’m flying in X-Wing, not some boring middle class hatchback!
So if you want to feel like hipocrite holywood star, that thinks she saves our precious planet, go get yourself Tesla. But if you like to sniff petrol and melt the ice caps, hop in Camaro and burn some rubber!
Supercar fest
The dream came true
Everyone born in late 70’s or early 80’s dreamed about this car. Countless posters were hanging on walls of almost every little boys bedroom. When we grow up we usually lose sentiment to our past dreams, but not this time. F40 is still legend and hopeless dream.
Also when you finally realize your dream it ends up with disappointment. Not in this case. You might heard that it’s slow and very uncontrollable. Well, that were lousy drivers talking. This legendary bi-turbo monster is great. You actually feel it is slow, but it’s because gears are ridiculously long, and turbo lag is huge. Keep it over 4500RPM and it’s a blast. Oh, and if you are not experienced driver, find yourself something easier. It’s really hard to control, but so so fun when you finally get to manage its light weight and power. It’s madness of Gary Oldman combined with looks of George Clooney.
The Szitg was delighted with it. Also he insist to take some photos of him and F40. Partly becouse of his new suit. He claims that he found it on a beach, but it looked more like he robbed some poor guy.
Diva in latex
This time we have tried 350Z on steroids. I’m not a big fan of tuned cars, but you have to try everything in your life, right? Body kit on Opera is nice. Not too loud, but certainly mean. It looks really nice in night city lights.
This singing lady honestly can show some hardcore attitude. It’s like driving Dragunov sniper rifle. Precise but deadly. It just sticks to the road. Sztig took it on our test course and result was surprising. It was almost as fast as RUF CTR2, with 170HP less than RUF!
We have problem with tuned and racing cars. They don’t suit well with out power lap board. Should we make another one for them? Tell us what you think.
Drift corner
Skylines want to drift too
I don’t like idea of drifting with 4wd cars, but I like looks of older Skylines. Fortunately there is some sort of cure for this. The GTS-t Type M. Too bad we have only R32, but it’s better than nothing and it can be really good drifting machine.
It needs more power, but with proper tune it’s going sideways really nice. Be prepared for some bashing in online lobbies as some morons don’t know that Skylines can drifft too, with only rear wheel drive.
Sports season
The hitman
Bentley Speed 8. First of all, look at it. It’s freaking marvelous. Audis LMP cars look like toy cars compared to this beast. I know that it doesn’t matter how race car looks, but this green track leviathan is just jaw-dropping.
Driving it is just sensational. Going 370kph at dawn in this interror is pure terror. But besides that it’s really well planted. Amounts of grip are endless. Brakes are precise. Suddenly you realise that it doesn’t try to kill you. It’s like that tatooed, black haired, sexy girl with freezing eyes at the bar that you fear to talk to. But when you finally brace yourself to talk to her it can be ride of your life.
Below new times of Tesla, Chevy and F40.
1:28,219 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 '10 Pooooooower
1:29,667 Lamborghini Murcielago SV '10 Whoa!
1:30,619 Pagani Zonda C12S 7.3 '02 Razor edge
1:30,881 Mercedes SLR McLaren '09 I mean... how?
1:31,026 Mercedes SLS AMG '10 Faster than you think
1:32,103 McLaren MP4-12C '10 Tricky but fast
1:32,323 Saleen S7 '02 Wild and fast
1:32,908 Ferrari California '08 What the hell?
1:33,668 Ferrari F40 '92 Demanding - rewarding
1:33,879 RUF CTR2 '96 Faaast but not fun
1:34,391 BMW M3 GTR Road Car '03 Astonishing accuracy
1:34,520 Aston Martin Vanquish '04 Glued
1:35,403 Spyker C8 Laviolette '01 Hard to manage
1:35,705 Maserati GranTurismo '08 Hard to manage
1:36,106 Mercedes E55 AMG '02 Powerslide!
1:36,159 RUF 3400S '00 Pure pleasure
1:36,402 Audi RS6 '02 Heavyweight monster
1:36,566 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione '08 Nervous but fun
1:38,402 Autobacs Garaiya '02 Oversized kart
1:38,486 Tesla Roadster '08 Whoooooosh
1:38,718 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 '69 Growling burger
1:40,035 TVR V8S '91 Controlable fun
1:41,731 Mercury Cougar XR-7 '67 Funny boat
1:43,660 Mercedes 190 E Evo II '91 Idiotic tires
1:44,233 Ford Focus ST '06 Predictable
1:45,103 Honda Accord Euro-R '02 Very good for big FF
1:45,174 Fiat Coupe Turbo '00 Nice car, yup
1:46,575 Opel Vectra 3.2 V6 '03 Understeering cow
That's all. That's all. Too much text this time
All comments and ideas are welcome