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SteveD said:
We regularly tease Datsun (I mean Nissan) about the first point and I would also agree with you on the latter, although it looks better in darker colours (i.e. black). But sadly I cannot agree with you about it not being quick or fun.
It's a strange car the GT-R, we've driven it thousands of miles and it's the real deal.
My criticism of the GT-R was akin to nit-picking, but here you go..
1) the leather inside is not of the same quality as a proper luxury car, especially the thin shiny leather on the steering wheel
2) the ride quality is poor, not that it crashes over bumps because it doesn't, but it doesn't cosset either. You can hear the sound of stones pinging inside the wheel arches and it sounds like there is very little sound-proofing, so it doesn't feel luxurious.
But its strengths outweigh its weaknesses (if you can call them that). It feels like it weighs less than the 911, despite actually weighing considerably more. It was the most stable and the least prone to roll out of all the cars on test and its lap time on the circuit beggars belief.
In fact I am sure that when we publish its lap-time we will be accused of somehow fixing it, but we double-checked by taking an owners car...which then went even faster.
Out of the four cars in this test I would have happily chosen either the 911, R8 or GT-R, they were all pretty much beyond reproach. The standards are now so high that you can't loose.
You'll be pleased to know that when we drove them all hundreds of miles cross-country there was nothing really in it, each were able to maintain a stunning pace and the 911 had little problem keeping up with the GT-R.
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SteveD said:
We regularly tease Datsun (I mean Nissan) about the first point and I would also agree with you on the latter, although it looks better in darker colours (i.e. black). But sadly I cannot agree with you about it not being quick or fun.
It's a strange car the GT-R, we've driven it thousands of miles and it's the real deal.
My criticism of the GT-R was akin to nit-picking, but here you go..
1) the leather inside is not of the same quality as a proper luxury car, especially the thin shiny leather on the steering wheel
2) the ride quality is poor, not that it crashes over bumps because it doesn't, but it doesn't cosset either. You can hear the sound of stones pinging inside the wheel arches and it sounds like there is very little sound-proofing, so it doesn't feel luxurious.
But its strengths outweigh its weaknesses (if you can call them that). It feels like it weighs less than the 911, despite actually weighing considerably more. It was the most stable and the least prone to roll out of all the cars on test and its lap time on the circuit beggars belief.
In fact I am sure that when we publish its lap-time we will be accused of somehow fixing it, but we double-checked by taking an owners car...which then went even faster.
Out of the four cars in this test I would have happily chosen either the 911, R8 or GT-R, they were all pretty much beyond reproach. The standards are now so high that you can't loose.
You'll be pleased to know that when we drove them all hundreds of miles cross-country there was nothing really in it, each were able to maintain a stunning pace and the 911 had little problem keeping up with the GT-R.
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SteveD said:
Out of the four cars in this test I would have happily chosen either the 911, R8 or GT-R, they were all pretty much beyond reproach. The standards are now so high that you can't loose.
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moto said:Quote:
SteveD said:
Out of the four cars in this test I would have happily chosen either the 911, R8 or GT-R, they were all pretty much beyond reproach. The standards are now so high that you can't loose.
What did you think of the Aston then?
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moto said:Quote:
SteveD said:
Out of the four cars in this test I would have happily chosen either the 911, R8 or GT-R, they were all pretty much beyond reproach. The standards are now so high that you can't loose.
What did you think of the Aston then?
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thuggy said:
I have no doubt that the GTR is quick. I just cant understand how a car that does the ring in 7:50 can keep up with a car that can do it in 7:29...
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Nidge said:
The fact that we are talking about a car thats comfortably 30K cheaper than others tested is the real yardstick. Previously you paid the price for performance and exclusivity. Now it would appear price will only satisfy corporate margins and snobbery.
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WAY said:
Am I the only to get blank pages after page 9?
Aug 10, 2008 3:55:47 PM
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SteveD said:
Someone asked me which of the cars would I have kept from this group test, which is probably the acid-test of such a comparison.
Well as already mentioned it would not have been the Aston. I have since driven a few thousand miles in the non-PDK 997.2 and I would prefer the manual 997 to this PDK version since I find the PDK interface frustrating.
I would have taken the GT-R home with me, but that's more because I would like to spend even more time with it.
Ultimately though I enjoyed the R8 most, but if a manual 997 C2S had been available then I might have chosen this instead.
The GT-R probably isn't ultimately my kind of car, it's great to drive but it does not render 911s or R8s redundant, especially the new 911 which is as quick in a straight line as the 997 GT3..
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Steve, you like some other auto journalists complain about the PDK interface. IMO this is the outcome of your exposure to many cars even during the same day during a group test. If say 4 cars in a group test have type A interface, the one with type B would be harder to adjust to.
However, if an individual buys a car to use every day for many thousands of miles, IMO he would easily adjust to whatever interface. It is the same with numerous gadgets and other appliances we use daily that after a short time their operation becomes second nature.
So please, stop this PDK interface moaning, because you distort the picture and do no favours to your mental ability to adapt to very simple biomechanical actions.
I've test driven the PDK extensively and after 10-15 minutes I had no problems to adjust and utilise the technology and enjoy the drive.
So all this negativity makes me suspect that it is a case of looking for a blemish in something excellent, because on principle nothing can be 100% perfect.
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SteveD said:Quote:
Steve, you like some other auto journalists complain about the PDK interface. IMO this is the outcome of your exposure to many cars even during the same day during a group test. If say 4 cars in a group test have type A interface, the one with type B would be harder to adjust to.
However, if an individual buys a car to use every day for many thousands of miles, IMO he would easily adjust to whatever interface. It is the same with numerous gadgets and other appliances we use daily that after a short time their operation becomes second nature.
So please, stop this PDK interface moaning, because you distort the picture and do no favours to your mental ability to adapt to very simple biomechanical actions.
I've test driven the PDK extensively and after 10-15 minutes I had no problems to adjust and utilise the technology and enjoy the drive.
So all this negativity makes me suspect that it is a case of looking for a blemish in something excellent, because on principle nothing can be 100% perfect.
Firstly I am not a journalist, I own a publishing company that produces auto reviews.
Anything can be adapted to provided you spend long-enough focusing on it, and provided you don't also use a similar mechanical interface that works in the opposite manner.
I own two cars (an M3 CSL and X6) both of which select gears by pulling for UP and pushing for DOWN. I have driven this way for just over 6 years now, and a drivers ability to adapt will depend on what they are used to. Also many of us have raced cars fitted with sequential gearboxes, and they all work on this principal (namely pull for UP and push for DOWN).
Given how universal this method of driver interface has been, you've got to question why it was necessary to deploy an unfamiliar method since the whole point of a man-machine interface is for it to be 'intuitive'. Unless of course it is clearly better, which in my experience it isn't.
So, yes you could learn the new PDK system, but why should you have to? If it 'aint broke...
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Gnil said:Quote:
SteveD said:
Try increasing your local storage settings from 100kb to 1MB, and make sure 'enable hardware acceleration' is selected.
I did the changes , but I still can't get past page 9