RC:
PBS2010:
nizer:
... the fact that a manual is not offered as well is major fail.
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Hello chaps. Short reading below, just to rub it in!
Are you a keen driver?
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Do you really love your driving?
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Do you get pleasure from a perfectly executed “heel-and-toe” downshift under brakes as a challenging corner looms?
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Do you appreciate superb steering feedback on a winding road?
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Does it give you pleasure to see your front suspension at work from the driver’s seat?
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Do you enjoy seeing the steering angle of the front wheels as you negotiate a corner, open wheel race car style?
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Do you enjoy a touch of opposite lock under power?
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Do you appreciate the pure driving pleasure that only a properly designed rear wheel chassis can naturally provide?
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Do you love using a slick short throw gearbox?
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Do you appreciate an engine designed to rev?
If you answer yes, then … you need a Caterham.
I was a professional rallye driver (group N championship) and I enjoyed driving a lot, still enjoy it a lot but I would never get a Caterham. Power sucks, safety sucks, sound sucks (yes...I like a different sound) and overall, this car is very overrated but to each his own I guess. Maybe I'm too old to loose my time with toys...for little boys.
Sorry...I had to say this.
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Hello. You apparently need a few things:
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an important update on the cars;
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a paradigm shift (if the list of cars below your signature line is any indication … all fat, heavy cars, some diesel! Porsche Panamera Turbo S, Cayenne GTS (958), BMW X3 35d (2012), Mini Cooper S Countryman All4!!!);
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be more objective / less chauvinistic (or is it that you are from Germany that you cannot just not defend Porsche because it is a home brand); as far as I am concerned, I have no personal interest at stake either way;
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not getting too personal on the verge of insulting.
I wrote ages ago, on this forum as a matter of fact, that I believed that the only true sports car (meaning light, authentic) manufacturers remaining in Europe are in the UK. There are now only a handful of sports cars from Germany (or the rest of continental Europe) weighing less than 1,400 kg. Less than 1,300kg, any? In the UK, there are lots on sale weighing half of that.
Car enthusiasts also cherish the amount of fun they get from the car, not just speed. BTW, not everybody leaves in Germany with handy access to unrestricted highways. And road drive is speed limited … which one has to take into account at some point.
In fact right above these lines there is a debate with the so-called “purists” arguing the case against the PDK. At this stage of their acceptance, they are now ready to acknowledge that the PDK is faster, but so far they hold on to their belief (probably true, but for certain persons only as it is not shared universally) that a manual box is more fun.
Since fun is the key factor, let us get back to the very light, raw and powerful British sport cars. Yes, they are powerful. The power to weight ratio of the average such car is 300bhp per ton, which is better than the 991 GT3, and yields lots of good sensations.
Safety? Interesting question. Let us put it this way. In an open-top sports car from across the channel, you can have fun at moderate speeds. Then what is better: to crash in a, let us say Caterham, at 60mph or crash at 150mph in a GT3. Yes, 150mph or about 200km/h, as it takes about 11.5 seconds in the new GT3 to get there from 0. Even if it is a Porsche, I do not want even to imagine what the consequences of crashing this fast will be. Physics tell you that kinetic energy grows with the square of speed, for a given mass. I did the maths: in the Porsche the kinetic energy released will be FIVE TIMES greater than that in the other car which you call derogatively.
Of course, you may still want to believe that you will be safe. Up to you.
Alternatively, you may want to argue that you will not crash this fast … because you do not need to this fast. Then, what is the point of having a nearly 500hp car? Or maybe you don’t?
I am sorry not to read much on this forum about alternatives to the new GT3.
In conclusion, I suggest a new criterion for evaluating sport cars: fun per km/h. The greater the index, the better the sport car.
A side note on the Nordschleife: it is a reinvention of German motorists to sell the type of car they like to sell: powerful, heavy and expensive. Funnily, a foreign manufacturer decided to play by the same rules to beat the locals flat out: GT-R vs Porsche. No one will dispute that the GT-R is not a light car.
Second side note: if you want the full thrill, offering proper downforce and lap times so minimal as to exterminate anything on the track with the Porsche logo on it (even Cup cars) that is sold to the public, check out for example the beast below:
Or may be this one, which has EC homologation:
RIP.