While we’re on the Jazz Age, how about some cars from the era?
Category: Drive Time
Uh Huh
Headline and sub-head for this article:
Quickest Pickup Trucks We’ve Ever Tested
The quickest on the list weighs more than 6800 pounds and is quicker than a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4
…right up until you get to take a corner, whereupon they more closely resemble the drum of a Whirlpool spin dryer.
They might do quite well in the Dakar Rally, actually, but they’d be up against some interesting competition:
…or however they say it in German.
Understand, I’m not saying that the auto companies shouldn’t make these behemoth speedsters — they must, because America — but people need to be careful about choosing their comparisons.
Rage Against
…not the dying of the light, but against those who want the internal combustion engine gone from our lives.
In one of his more serious moments, Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the Aston Martin Vantage V12, and his conclusion was unexpectedly poignant (watch it first before reading on).
“…what I’m driving here is an ending.”
Lamborghini has bid farewell to its incredible naturally-aspirated V12 engine, fitting the final two powerplants into a pair of one-off cars that pay testament to one of the great supercar motors.
The Invencible [no, that’s not a typo] coupe and Auténtica roadster are unique special editions modelled on the outgoing Aventador and will be the last 12-cylinder Lambos without any form of hybridisation, with the Italian marque set to embark on electrifying its model line-up in the coming years.
I’m not a Lambo fan, haven’t been one since the disappearance of the wonderful 400 GT:
But I love what Lamborghini cars have come to represent (even though I don’t much care for it, personally): completely batty, speed-is-everything, balls-to-the wall acceleration, hopeless impracticality, outrageous body shape, even more outrageous prices, and all that.
And all that, as Clarkson observes, is going to be taken away from us by the bloodless killjoys among us because in these oh-so modern times, we’re not allowed to have fun [thousands of silly and who-cares reasons omitted because I don’t want to have an RCOB].
Even the Puritans of the Mayflower would have said, “Stop that foolishness.”
But we can’t stop them.
I’m feeling even gloomier than Clarkson.
Changing Perspectives
Chris Harris asks the important question:
What happens when cars like the 296 appear is they cause geeks like me to stop and rethink what we had assumed were accepted ‘classes’ of cars. This happened to me when I was driving the 296 and following Paddy in the Pagani Huayra BC. Because he was driving something that looked like a livid insect, I assumed it would simply disappear in a straight line. It didn’t.
What we now have is an ‘entry level’ Ferrari that is as fast as one of the craziest hypercars ever sold. It’s a remarkable reset in the history of fast cars, yet it seems to have passed most people by. Perhaps that’s because these machines are so competent that people expect such things to happen. But I can’t quite get my head around the level of performance a 296 offers.
I have no idea where this is all going. I’ve written before how cars’ performance has increased to the point where very few people can actually drive them without wrecking them — 600hp engines? FFS — and here’s Ferrari making a “street” car that could have won the Monza F1 Grand Prix race as little as ten years ago — or even more recently.
I should also point out that Longtime Buddy and Former Bandmate Knob is on the waiting list for a 296. I hate him.
Little Beauty
When no less a personage than Iain Tyrrell pronounces a car to be one of his favorites, it behooves us all to give him a respectful hearing.
Seriously? A Fiat?
Like I said, give him a listen.
Pathetic
I thought this nonsense was more the provenance of the Japanese and Koreans:
Even when they switch to battery power, Ferrari supercars would continue to make a booming sound if a patent filed by the Italian firm is used in its electric vehicles of the future.
The Maranello-based car maker’s plans have been exposed by design drawings filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which were first spotted by CarBuzz.
They suggest the iconic brand wants to take the authentic sounds created by the powerful electric motors driving its plug-in models, then enhance them and pump the noise out via external speakers.
JHC, can anything be more pathetic?