If you haven't read the first-ever Road & Track Performance Car of the Year story, I would highly recommend reading the Baruth-penned story, which gives any British buff book a run for its money, despite a dearth of derring-do heroics on Welsh backgrounds. Some of the most illuminating information comes not from the Disco Hoodied One himself, but from other R&T staffers. Take this choice quote about the Nissan GT-R for example
"There's a lot of chuckling in the paddock over the blue seats and odd Track Edition badging on Nissan's newest GT-R, but on the runway, it's serious business. It's also damn near the fastest car in the test. "It's so good … and it used to be so terrible," says Cammisa."
Wait — what?? The GT-R was terrible? If it was, I never heard about it in the press. At the time, it was hailed as the greatest thing on four-wheels, a Porsche 911 Turbo beater for half the price. Nobody truly figured out a way to use "the wobble" and tell you that the generous discount meant an utter lack of charm or drama, and that the GT-R was just a away for quantitatively-oriented Playstation nerds to extrapolate their video game experience into the real world. Or perhaps they did now, since the statute of limitations on criticizing a very important product launch has passed.
Now Nissan is introducing a "Nismo" version of the GT-R, which can supposedly hit 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and lap the Burgerkingring in 7:08 – figures that mean nothing outside of masturbatory bench racing, but make for great copy for the myriad automotive news aggregation sites that will breathlessly report on its mere existence.
from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment