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New Developments

by madmanmoo on Wed Oct 01 13:55:40 PDT 2008

Well, I'm sure the fanboys will have something to say, but this article backs up what we've all been thinking for a long time. Feel free to flame after reading. Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at Nurburgring 30 September 2008 Paul Gover Porsche has accused Nissan of cheating in the GT-R's record bid at the Nurburgring racetrack. Porsche has just run its own back-to-back tests with the Japanese company's GT-R supercar and says it could not get within 25 seconds of Nissan's claimed record time of seven minutes 29 seconds in April. It also found its 911 Turbo and GT2 were both quicker than the GT-R. "This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car," says August Achleitner, the 911 product chief for Porsche, speaking to the CARSguide at the Australian press preview of the latest 911 Cabrio. "For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres." He believes the time achieved by Nissan with ex-Formula One driver Toshio Suzuki would only be possible with a semi-slick race-style tyre. Achleitner says Porsche took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tyres, and ran it around the Nurburgring within two hours of its own cars, on the same day with exactly the same weather conditions. He says there was no tweaking of any kind and the GT2 and Turbo both ran on regular Porsche road tyres, the Michelin Sport Cup. "We bought the car in the US. We drove a GT-R with new tyres," he says. Achleitner was initially protective of the exact lap times, which were run during a program when Porsche also compared its upcoming four-door Panamera with a range of potential rivals. But he eventually revealed his team clocked the GT-R at 7 minutes 54 seconds, with the 911 Turbo managing 7:38 and the GT2 getting down to 7:34. The laps were not run by Porsche's usual hot-lap specialist, former world rally champion and race winner Walter Rohrl, but one of the company's chassis development engineers who is an expert on the Nurburgring. Achleitner says the back-to-back comparison was run because Porsche was concerned by Nissan's claims for the GT-R, which is heavier than the 911 with similar power. "The Nissan is a good car. I don't want to make anything bad with my words," he says. "It's a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo . . ." In the end, Porsche believes its testing has achieved the right lap times for the Skyline GT-R and benchmarked it against its own 911 heroes in the right context. "For us it has been clearly the result. This technical puzzle now fits together. With the other numbers we had problems to understand it," he says.

gR8!

by laurasdada on Fri Oct 03 09:41:57 PDT 2008

I saw my first R8 (besides at the Auto Show last year) rolling down the road yesterday. Pulling out of the Porsche/Audi dealer, led's aglow with menace. What a beautiful piece of machinery! Windows tinted all around, might have been Tom Brady of the soon to be Super Bowl champions again (sans Tom Brady) Patriots. My friend was A6/8 shopping there this weekend, saw the R8 and was told it was Brady's... Tint was fairly dark, so hard to make out the driver. Wonder if Giselle had shotgun?

Re: What country is this? [steve_]

by kernick on Tue Sep 30 14:06:15 PDT 2008

If Al Gore wasn't in politics and now championing the GW-cause, I could picture his bloated face and body (he doesn't look like he's on a low cal. diet!) on TV every Sun. morning, raising money for his ministry - of which 10-20% would actually go to the needy. Instead he runs the Carbon-Credit Church of the Gullible and Self-Flagellating Ecolologists. I guess I'm fired up today, about our Leaders and systems! :mad:

Article Comments - WRC Rally New Zealand

by KarenS on Mon Sep 29 12:34:48 PDT 2008

It's at breakfast, sucking down my second bowl of Weet-Bix on the first day of the New Zealand round of the World Rally Championship, that I realize why world rallying is unlike any other motorsport on earth. Sitting in the restaurant at the modest Novotel hotel in Hamilton, I notice Subaru driver Petter Solberg joining his teammate Chris Atkinson for breakfast. He's the second world rally champion to drop in. WRC Rally New Zealand: Adventures in Low Key and High Tech

Re: The Slide continues... [imidazol97]

by lilengineerboy on Fri Sep 26 07:40:57 PDT 2008

The deficit went up. The publicized numbers were from "creative" bookkeeping much the same as creative bookkeeping has worked for the Fannie and Freddy and other financial companies. There were items of spending taken off the budget so that they didn't add on; but we still spent the money. National Debt Can you pull out where it said that, I just saw where it said it went up by 500 billion every year since 2003 with the village idiot running things. Oh and Clinton and Rubin were where the push to "give" everyone a mortgage and homeownership started. That was aided by people like Dodd and Frank pushing for popularism. Right, when Fannie May and Freddie Mac were paying out HUGE dividends to share holders and having record profits, when the economy was growing and there were more jobs being created, when inflation was under control and interest rates were stable, Billy suggested Freddie Mac and Fannie May might want to consider lending to people who might actually need to borrow money. Aww shucks. Then our latest economic champion decided to make the loans even more liberal and not worry about pesky things like how they qualify, even though the economy had stopped growing, job growth was at a standstill, etc. Now, I can't afford to buy a new car even if I wanted to and I can't move because I can't afford to sell my house. The lack of new jobs means if anything else happens in this region, I just mail my keys to the mortgage company and walk away (I would normally drive, but with 3.75 for gas in a de-regulated industry and the amount still owed on the cars, walking might be my best bet). Resale value of domestic small and mid-sized sedans has risen dramatically in the last 2-3 years, and the incentives for new ones have been decreasing. At the same time, the '07 Accord was 4000 off of msrp.

Re: The Slide continues... [lilengineerboy]

by grbeck on Fri Sep 26 08:34:50 PDT 2008

lilengineerboy: Right, when Fannie May and Freddie Mac were paying out HUGE dividends to share holders and having record profits, when the economy was growing and there were more jobs being created, when inflation was under control and interest rates were stable, Billy suggested Freddie Mac and Fannie May might want to consider lending to people who might actually need to borrow money. Aww shucks. The seeds of a company's fall are usually planted during good times. Just because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were paying out dividends a few years ago doesn't meant that there weren't problems brewing. Studebaker paid out dividends in the early 1950s, when it should have been investing that money in new plants and equipment. The company was almost bankrupt by early 1954. The company's problems didn't start on January 1, 1954. The standard for whether people should be lent money is whether they can reasonably be expected to pay it back, not whether they need it. I could certainly use $500,000 right now. No prudent bank or credit union would lend me this money, as I certainly can't pay it back within a reasonable time frame. lilengineerboy: Then our latest economic champion decided to make the loans even more liberal and not worry about pesky things like how they qualify, even though the economy had stopped growing, job growth was at a standstill, etc. This problem started LONG before George W. Bush became president, although I agree he has made a bad situation worse. The move to use the Community Reinvestment Act as a way to pressure banks and other lending institutions to relax loan guidelines that were deemed "unfair" and "racist" began in the 1990s. Again, check who was president during that time... lilengineerboy: Resale value of domestic small and mid-sized sedans has risen dramatically in the last 2-3 years, and the incentives for new ones have been decreasing. At the same time, the '07 Accord was 4000 off of msrp. Yet I still see that, according to Edmunds.com, the domestics still rely on incentives more than Toyota and Honda. And they still rely on fleet sales more, despite constant promises to reduce this way of artificially inflating sales. Meanwhile, I just priced out a brand-new Civic sedan on Edmunds.com. The True Market Value is....the sticker price. I guess Honda doesn't need many incentives to move those cars.