racing modifications car is given to any vehicle that has been altered from its original state. The term denotes a car that has been significantly altered for the purpose of appearance or for increased engine or handling performance, the process by which this is carried out is known as car tuning. The term is generally used in reference to modern vehicles that have been altered, and not typically used to describe other types of racing modifications cars such as Hot rods
After showing you spy paintings of the next front-engined V12 Ferrari, here are a couple of photographs of the next mid-engined V12 Ferrari, a car I know precisely nothing about. All I know is that the "F70" is the successor to the F60, officially nicknamed the Enzo Ferrari after, er, Enzo Ferrari. That car came out in 2004 with a 650-horsepower, 6.0 V12 it later shared with the 599, an 'F1' automated manual "flappy-paddle" gearbox and a top speed of 217mph. This, I imagine, will be better in every way. Logic dictates that this V12 is related to the 6.3-litre engine in the FF and the two-seater revealing itself at Geneva this March, but it will probably have more power. The Pagani Huayra has 730bhp, so let's say this ultimate Ferrari will have 740 or 750. It'll be around there anyway.
It also probably won't be a "breadvan" shape once it takes its camouflage raincoat off, unless it's a styling reference to the old 330 P4 endurance prototype, or indeed the 250GT Breadvan. That's all I've got, I'm afraid, except it won't be available with a manual transmission, because apparently feeling connected to your car isn't as important as shaving tenths off at the track day you'll never go on...
Nope, that's definitely not a 456M with a raincoat on...
Believe it or not, the Ferrari F599 GTB Fiorano (or 599 for short) has been around since 2006. While various editions have kept it fresh in our minds - the hardcore 661bhp GTO, the 599XX semi-racer, the SA Aperta open-top version, and who can forget the 2009 HGTE handling pack? - the new FF shooting brake and younger rivals are necessitating its replacement, which has just been spied exiting the main gate at Maranello. Y'know, right where there are signs showing "NO PHOTOGRAPHY". Assuming the mystery spy obeyed the signs, I hope these incredibly realistic paintings are accurate... The 599 was so-called because it had a 5.9-litre engine very closely related to the engine used in the one-day legendary Enzo Ferrari from 2004. Going by that rule, the next car could be called the '630', as it is suggested that it will be based on the FF and will share its 6.3-litre V12 engine (yay) and 7-speed DCT (boo). People who know about these things suggest that Ferrari will gift this more conventionally-bodied, rear-wheel-drive GT with an extra 40 horsepower over the all-wheel-drive shooting brake FF, making 710PS, or 700bhp.
The next V12 GT from Ferrari, codenamed F152 (because codenames are always sexy like that), could potentially buck the trend for carbon fibre bodies - as you find on the Lamborghini Aventador and McLaren MP4-12C - by sticking with good old-fashioned aluminium, because of the "lack of significant weight savings provided and very high collision repair costs involved. Therefore, the high construction costs exceed the benefit of using the composite material." Well, it has come from the prancing horse's mouth before that they will stick with aluminium while they're still getting great results. What's more, aluminium can be hand-beaten into wonderful shapes such as the Aston Martin One-77, so it might well be a looker. That said, if it takes styling inspiration from the creepy smiling FF as well as the chassis and engine, it might not...
For sure, it will look different to the 599. That was designed by Frank Stephenson (whose CV includes the McLaren F1) and Jason Castriota (whose CV includes the Maserati GranTurismo), neither of whom work at Pininfarina anymore. Castriota went to work at Stile Bertone and Stephenson went to work for McLaren again, doing the poorly-named MP4-12C.
Hopefully, whatever it looks like, it won't have an identity crisis. When you think "front-engined V12 Ferrari", you are presented by your car-loving brain by the likes of the 250 GT, 275 GTB, 365 GTB/4 "Daytona", 456 GT, 550 (or 575) Maranello, and the brilliant but questionable-looking 612 Scaglietti. Some of those are four-seaters, and some (like the Daytona) are two-seaters, so, as is the way in this modern world, Ferrari now offers both kinds of GT to customers, with the FF replacing the 612 (aren't these names so memorable?) as the four-seater with some family values. For instance, it's probably the first car in Ferrari's 65-year history with folding rear seats. Or, if you prefer, the first hatchback with folding rear seats and a full-sized V12 under the bonnet. While the 612 was the comfy GT (think DB9), the 599 was a harder, more aggressive take on the genre (think DBS), but because it still had a luxo interior, it was weighed down quite a lot compared to other two-seat super coupés, and with 612bhp throwing the weight around it could be quite a handful with the electronic aids turned off. And by handful I mean killing machine. But hey, it can get to 100mph in 8 seconds.
This time, with the FF taking care of comfort, the "630" can focus on being the fastest V12 coupé in the world, I reckon. It should be agile and balanced like the Lexus LFA, not madly wayward like an AMG SLS. Hopefully they can apply all the research they've gained from the 599XX Programme (where you spend €1m to be a guinea pig and drive a ridiculously powerful experimental semi-race car at selected events), and the subsequent 599XX Evo, which features active aerodynamics, like the Pagani Huayra I pined for in my second ever post. If it has the looks to back it up (not entirely likely) and continues to have the most advanced and intelligent driver-aid software (entirely likely), it should be a devastatingly fast car with 700bhp and a Ferrari that, like the 458 Italia, can go on your bedroom wall with pride like its recent predecessors couldn't.
The Ferrari Codename F152 will get the full reveal - and a real name - at the Geneva Motor Show this March. Stay tuned for highlights of the current show in Detroit, and swing on by in a couple of months for this and many more cars making their début at the première European motor show, such as the great new Dacia Lodgy two posts down.
The Lancia Stratos was practically made for YouTube, despite being made in the 1970s. With that body emitting that sound (courtesy of a 2.4-litre Ferrari V6), it's a match made in heaven, and because it went rallying (and won the World Rally Championship 3 times), there's plenty of footage out there of the car in its heyday, being driven like it's worthless. This video compilation is just 5 minutes of that footage. It is five minutes worth spending if you like cars, art or music. Enjoy!
This morning, I was reading a TopGear article about Kazutoshi Mizuno (he of GT-R fatherhood). He seems great, like a funny mad professor, and his ideas on supercars are quite interesting. If you want an insight into the mind of someone capable of creating the Nissan GT-R, here are a few quotes: "Thinking my car is too heavy is a mistake! Journalists need to develop a more professional level of thinking! The GT-R <i>needs</i> to be this weight. A lighter car does not handle. Lighter weight can be dangerous, and it will not be drivable by all customers ... All customers can easily enjoy 500bhp and get to 62 in three seconds!" - Considering the existence of the Caterham 7, Lotus Exige and BAC Mono - to name a few - I think he means lighter cars can't handle 500bhp very well.
Carrying on the same point - "Imagine an F1 car in a high-speed corner, on the best tyres in the world. An F1 car weighs over 560kg. How much downforce can an F1 car generate? Currently around 1300kg. So what is the total weight? 1860kg [GT-R + driver = 1860kg~]. A GT1 racer weighs 1200-1300kg. Plus the downforce of 600kg, and the actual weight is 1800kg. You see, very easy!"
"Oversteer is foolish. Only foolish people develop that. Actual grip car, only a clever engineer can develop. A car that makes the maximum tyre grip is not dangerous. It is important to enjoy a high-performance car, but it is more important to keep a life. Tyre grip is better than maximum engine torque."
"Tyre-grip load is the essence of performance. I want constant tyre-grip load on all four wheels, so balance is very important. That's why the GT-R has a front-mounted V6 and a rear transaxle. It is the best for balance. Everything starts with the amount of weight on all four wheels."
When asked if it's correct to say the GT-R could only have come from Japan, he replied "The GT-R is a Japanese supercar, yes. So what is Japan? All German cars are high quality and high price. American care are cheaper and not as good. Italian cars are eccentric but unreliable. Nationality is bigger than the cars. Again, what is Japan? Japan is takumi [broadly meaning skill and artisanship]. This is Japanese spirit! For example, grandmother buys kimono, mother, daughter all do the same... takumi then modifies each person's things. It is a special skill hat adds something special in the customer mind, and passes it on to the next generation. So the GT-R is takumi. I do this for the customer, not for myself or company pride."
"I am like the painter who keeps painting, in search of the perfect picture, until he dies. The GT-R is the same. Nothing is ever perfect, but we must carry on. <i>Takumi</i> mind has no set target."
You can see how his thinking translates into the world-beating GT-R, which is improved year-on year just like its Skyline forebear was. Another thing Japan is famous for is incredible attention to detail, and that shines through in spades in the GT-R. For instance, the new 2012 car has an asymmetrical suspension set-up. In Right-Hand-Drive cars, the suspension on the front-left side is slightly harder, and the ride height is a little bit lower, so that when the driver gets in the right side of the car, the suspension loads are more even in the corners. What's more, the tyres are filled with nitrogen instead of air (as they have always been in the R35), because it's more stable and less affected by temperature changes. The engine is made in a hermetically sealed lab by hand to avoid any contamination causing imperfections in the VR38DETT (3.8-litre V6 Twin-Turbo), and the GR6 double-clutch gearbox is specifically matched to the engine, so moving a gearbox from one GT-R to another wouldn't work. This is perhaps to ensure they work in perfect harmony with each other. This list of pedantic facts goes on and on and on. The same is true of the Lexus LFA, or the Honda NSX, or any other Japanese supercar.
This extreme thinking produces results, though. It is safe to say the GT-R is the fastest four-seater car in the world, with a top speed ever closer to that magic 200mph mark and Nürburgring times so fast that Porsche made the 620bhp 911 GT2 RS specifically to lap the 'ring faster. The current time for the '12 GT-R is around 7:18, as is the '11 GT2 RS, and when the R35 came out in 2007 it was a record-breaker. Perhaps more impressive than the cornering ability is the acceleration. Thanks in part to the new LC4 launch control system, which is considered to be the best around, this 1730kg, 542bhp car can get from 0-60 in under 3 seconds every time. One test conducted by Nissan showed the car on standard tyres managing a 0-60 time of just 2.7 seconds. The Bugatti Veyron has twice as much power and only does that 0.3 seconds faster. The ultra-hardcore Ultima GTR's power-to-weight ratio of 727bhp/tonne plays the GT-R's 313bhp/tonne. The Ultima is only 0.1 seconds faster.
This is thanks of course to the GT-R's long-developed "ATTESA-ETS" All-Wheel-Drive system, which is also what helps control the weight so well, and get Mizuno-san's constant grip load on all four wheels. It monitors the car's movements 100 times per second, and distributes the power/torque accordingly. To keep the cornering sharp, it actually prefers a rear-end balance, rather than heading towards understeer like most AWD systems do for control. Skylines used to have 4-Wheel-Steering to do the same thing, but it is no longer necessary.
Setting newer GT-Rs further apart from the 2007-09 cars are a number of chassis and minor aerodynamic changes. The exterior changes are summed up on your right, with a wider upper grille opening, a new moulding in the bumper and twinkly LED lights, as is de rigueur these days. It also has a small brake vent behind the rear wheel for, er, venting brake heat. The chassis was significantly strengthened at the front, enough for them to change the chassis code from the original "CBA-R35" to "DBA-R35" in 2010 when this first happened. The engine power also jumped from 478bhp to 523bhp, which has been tweaked further for 2012 to 542bhp.
This philosophy of constant improvement, called "Kaizen" by Nissan, is evident in the video below, which shows GT-Rs from 2009, 10 and 11 in a drag race. Obviously, with a ~50 horsepower deficit, the '09 GT-R was going to come last, but that's quite a difference. Will that annoy people with pre-2010 cars? Probably, but most of the people bothered by this have probably been to Litchfield Tuning or someone similar to get that much or more out of their cars anyway. The DBA-R35 also had a strengthened gearbox and the new LC system to stop the transmission "grenading itself" under full-throttle starts and voiding the warranty/ breaking stuff that's expensive to replace (a new 'box is apparently £20k *gulp*). Mind you, if you think the cost of a new gearbox is a bit steep for a £65k car, you should've seen the CBA-R35 'V-Spec' version. Carbon fibre lids and doors matched up with a set of Brembo's finest race-grade carbon-ceramic brakes and a number of other changes to make it cost the discerning Nissan fan £125,000. For a car with only 5 more horsepower. Where did that price come from? Well, I daresay the £36,000 brakes had something to do with that. Happily the new "Track Pack" launching this year achieves basically the same thing as the V-Spec for only £10k extra.
Anyway, here's the video (skip to 1:38):
I could go on all day about the GT-R, but I'd better leave it there for now. There might be a GT5 photo dump at some point about it.
In the motoring world, "crossovers" are a plague that has plighted us for a few years now. They've been around for a while (see the '90s Isuzu VehiCross or the '80s AMC Eagle), but nowadays they're spreading like a virus, and Ford has just announced their second one, a Fiesta-based car to sit under the Focus-based Kuga (that doesn't at all sound like 'Cougar', a coupé they used to make...), which has the worst and laziest name ever conceived for a car: EcoSport. That says it all, doesn't it? Crossovers are clearly nothing more than moron bait... Let's stay on the name for a second. 'EcoSport' isn't the name of a particular options package or trim level, it's the name of the whole car. You will actually have to say to people "Oh, I drive an EcoSport". Even you, the owner, will wince. I guarantee it. You might as well just yell "I am an idiot", because if you buy this, that's exactly what the spotless off-road trim and twinkly LED lights will say to other people. It says you're someone who knows nothing about cars. Is it even available with 4-Wheel-Drive? The press release doesn't say, so because it's based on the purely 2-Wheel-Drive Fiesta, I'm going to safely assume it doesn't. It's probably also safe to assume that everyone including Ford is on the same page when it comes to off-roadability, in that it won't have any. What you've bought is in fact just a high-riding Fiesta that looks like Jabba The Hutt. Well done you.
If the name wasn't a big enough clue, the press release also suggests that this is a car cynically conceived to make money. There's two whole sections about nothing but the new markets it will be sold in, as well as later being available in the western world, where many idiots live. This attitude is one that's taken when designing a good 90% of crossovers. Build it, and they will come. Sell it, and they will buy. That's all these cars are for. How else do you explain the Audi Q3 and Q5, or the BMW X1, X3 and X6, or the 2WD RR Evoque? Cynical cars made by cynical people as a cynical marketing ploy.
Why do they sell so well? Because most normal, non-car people don't know about or consider these things. Despite many car companies bending over backwards to apparently appeal to customer needs (Ferrari made the FF for this reason), this genre of cars proves that in some cases, the customer is being told what they want, and blindly agreeing. Marketing buzzwords like "Eco" help lure in more hemp-wearing hipsters with Apple Macs as well, which is why the name "EcoSport" is a horrible stroke of sad, sad genius, because people also want other people to think they look "sporty", which by extension makes them "cool". It's the perfect name for this kind of car and the kind of world we currently live in. What's more, these crossovers with black and silver plastic trim and big chunky wheels (this one even goes as far as having a spare on the boot like a RAV4 or a CR-V) are frequently branded as "lifestyle vehicles", a term just as wet and empty as it sounds. Having a "Lifestyle Vehicle", or a "Sport Activity Vehicle" is meant to suggest that you go skiing on a surfboard at a beach in the mountains where your mountain bikes get used frequently between time spent either chillaxin' with your friends on Facebook or eating ice creams sold from a straw hut while you wear hemp sandals with your rock-climbing wife and two outdoorsy children. You then load up your various leisure equipment into your perfectly suited vehicle, dry yourself and your small family off with some towels and head off on a flat-but-sandy path back to trendy urban civilisation. What do people really put in them? Kids. Kids, bags and prams. Maybe a few tissues and "acceptable" CDs as well. That's some trendy lifestyle you have there. May I suggest an MPV with sliding doors?
Ford have branded this particular "Compact Utility Vehicle" (CUV) as, and I quote, "a sporty and casual car, for consumers who want to stand out and who want more from life, but in an intelligent and sustainable way." Oh dear.
It's like companies writing these things (and clearly the designers too) live on the island where they film The Truman Show (if you haven't seen that movie, first of all watch it, but basically they don't live in the real world, where real people live). Alas, the so-called discerning consumer just sees a car with some flashy bits on it and 4x4-esque trim that makes it look "safe" compared to the 5-Star safety-rated Fiesta, Clio or Polo, and that's all it takes for many people...
That, dear reader, is why you should never buy a crossover. OK, maybe the Nissan Qashqai, because I hear that's actually a very good car, but that's the exception which proves the rule that all crossovers are crap. Oh, and the Škoda Yeti, because you can land your trendy lifestyle helicopter on it.
Edit:Apparently 4WD is an option, just to reassure us that it can drive over speed bumps with no trouble.
A belated Happy New Year! My first post of 2012 is a video that would be awesome in any year. There will be more to come, mostly rants (and maybe a review of my new phone). Bah humbug.
I haven't got much to say about this one, as it's pretty straightforward. Someone has decided to live all our dreams and take a BMW M3 CSL (E46) up a mountain pass on a quiet day, choosing Nufenen Pass in Switzerland. Turn your speakers up, because this is a good one for your ears (you can thank the 360PS 3.2-litre straight-six for that, which the poster says still has the standard exhaust attached). Unfortunately for the driver, he gets held up by a bloated French hatchback near the end, a feeling that's all too real to me. Not that I have an M3 CSL, or you would've read about it a good 50 times by now...
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