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Brabham BT62 throws down gauntlet to McLaren Senna

“We didn’t benchmark anyone else,” Brabham Automotive’s director of technology and engineering, Paul Birch, explained to Autoblog at the reborn motorsport brand’s exclusive BT62 supercar unveil in London last night. “We had finished our car by the time the McLaren Senna came out, and we’re looking forward to their next car challenging ours,” he added with a cheeky smile.

Why is he so confident the Senna can’t match the BT62? In simple terms, it’s because the 710 horsepower, 5.4-liter V8 Brabham BT62 is lighter than the Senna (2,143 vs. 2,641 pounds, dry weight), has a better power-to-weight ratio (730 hp vs. 668 hp per ton) and offers way more maximum downforce too (2,646 vs. 1,764 pounds). 0-62 mph times and top speeds aren’t listed yet, but Brabham Automotive is positive that its first commercially-available car, has met its internal brief, which Birch confirmed was, “a GT racer without restrictions, aimed at endurance sports car racing.”

The $1.4 million car (before local taxes and options) will take 7-10 months to build and is not road-legal. Brabham is instead seeking owners who want to improve their track day performance through individually-tailored driver programs which, through a high-tech software partnership with Microsoft, will be able to measure each customer’s biometrics and even emotional racing health (as well as track times). The BT62 will be limited to 70 examples — to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Sir Jack Brabham starting his racing career in Australia back in 1948 — the first 35 of which will be painted with the livery of each of the 35 Grand Prix victories the Brabham team enjoyed in its 30 years of Formula One.

A return to motorsport for Brabham is imminent too — perhaps as early as 2020 in the GT class at Le Mans — and a road-going version of the BT62 is also on the cards, plus other models to form a Brabham range. In charge of making this dream a financial success, commercial director Dan Marks told us, “This is only stage one, we’ve designed other models and I’m confident we’ll sell all of these cars, either for the museum or the track.”

Birch hopes most BT62 customers will be motivated by the latter. “The BT62 is all about lap times, so we’d like a high percentage of these cars to join our track days,” he said. He remained tight-lipped about the designers behind the car though. “We had a number of people assist us,” he conceded, “but the concept is that it’s a Brabham. It was a collaborative effort led by the performance of the car, but we wanted a strong road-car aesthetic too.”

Given his father Jack’s death in 2014, it was a particularly emotional evening for multiple Le Mans winner and new Brabham Automotive managing director David Brabham, surrounded by classic racing cars from Brabham’s illustrious history in motorsport. In one corner there was the tiny yellow 1948-51 Australian Speedcar in which his father started his racing career and in front of the main stage sat the green BT24 in which his dad and Denny Hulme won the 1967 Formula One championship. Together with many other vehicles, plus numerous trophies, helmets and racing memorabilia displayed within the Great Exhibition Hall of Australia House in London (incidentally also used as film settings for both “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and “Wonder Woman”) it was quite an occasion, and location.

Visibly moved and holding back tears, he declared to the elegant crowd packed inside: “If my dad could have been here tonight, he would have been so proud. This is the start of the next chapter of the Brabham story.”

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May 3, 2018 / Comments Off

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Ferrari 488 Pista Prototype Drive | Pants-soiling straight-line performance

Independent studies confirm that Lotus Elise drivers are 221.6 times more likely to spontaneously dispose of light-colored undergarments after driving on curvy roads. That’s because the weight distribution of a mid-engine car encourages novice drivers to inadvertently ask the rear wheels to pass the fronts in the middle of a corner. Adding insult to staining, the layout’s resulting low polar moment of inertia ensures that this rotation happens more quickly than the average person’s sphincter-startle clench reflex.

The flip side is that even the most powerful mid-engine cars have enough weight over their rear wheels to make straight-line acceleration a worry-free affair.

Well, they used to. Full-throttle acceleration in the Ferrari 488 Pista is genuinely terrifying. Wheelspin is a genuine threat at any road-legal speed — and when that happens, its rear end steps out with the same violence as the car accelerates. And that is saying something.

The 488 Pista is diabolically quick. Like, hallelujah-hold-on-tight, praise-the-lord, scream-like-a-child and slap-yo-momma quick. Or, in slightly more objective terms, the Ferrari’s claimed 7.6-second sprint from a standstill to 200 km/h (124 mph) is but 0.3 second behind that of the 1,000-hp Bugatti Veyron 16.4. When we say quick, we mean QUICK.

Perhaps too quick for the road, so it’s a good thing the car is literally named after the track. The Pista is the latest in the lineage of harder-core Ferraris that began with the 360 Challenge Stradale. The 360CS, like the F430 Scuderia (“Team”) and 458 Speciale (“Special”) that followed, was a little quicker than the regular car, a little more devoid of creature comforts and a lot louder. The same basic recipe applies to the 488, though in its transition from GTB to Pista (say “peas-ta”), its engine gets a bigger power boost than any of its predecessors. Boasting 720 metric horsepower, or 710 American ponies, the Pista makes 49 hp more than the already absurdly powerful 488 GTB.

The expected weight-savings measures are also present, accounting for a claimed 198-pound reduction in total mass. Ten-percent-stiffer springs and recalibrated magnetorheological dampers offer tighter body control, and Michelin Sport Cup 2 tires conspire with those changes to generate massive cornering grip.

But more on that later — the star of this prototype preview drive was the engine, Ferrari’s award-winning 3.9-liter flat-plane-crankshaft V8. Ferrari claims that half of the engine’s functional parts are new compared with the F154CB engine in the 488 GTB — enough to merit it a new code. Say hello to the F154CD.

The revised engine weighs 40 pounds less, and Ferrari claims that it has 17 percent less rotating inertia thanks in part to a lighter flywheel and crankshaft, titanium Pankl connecting rods and hollow intake valves. The engine breathes cooler air thanks to intakes that have been relocated onto the rear deck, out of the path of the hot air coming from the front-mounted radiators.

A new carbon-fiber intake plenum has 60 percent shorter runners, recontoured camshafts provide for 1 mm of additional valve lift and freer-flowing, ultralight Inconel tubular exhaust headers replace the GTB’s heavy cast manifolds. Bore and stroke are unchanged, but the F154CD receives new pistons that bump compression 0.2 point to 9.6:1, and ignition timing is advanced by 2 degrees.

Those are pretty granular facts, but they’re important because of what we haven’t discussed — there’s been no mention of an ECU reflash or bigger turbos to create additional power. That’s because, where turbocharged engines are concerned, there’s a right way and a wrong way to make more power — and Bigger Turbos, Moar Boost is the wrong way.

Indeed, an exceedingly high level of turbocharger control is what defines the F154 engine — it’s allowed to make full torque only when the transmission is in seventh gear. Peak boost is up marginally, from 20.3 to 21.8 psi, and the turbocharger housings are new, but only so that Ferrari could install turbine speed sensors. Knowing the exact speed of each turbo, rather than inferring it from boost pressure, allows the Pista’s computers to better control output, to sync the output from each bank of cylinders and to let the turbos run to within 1,000 rpm of their 160,000-rpm maximum speed. The margin of error in the GTB’s estimation model required a 5,000-to-6,000-rpm buffer.

In the first six gears, the computers deploy four reduced-boost strategies (first through third, fourth, fifth and sixth gears) with increasing midrange output — but each mode is designed to help the engine feel like a naturally aspirated engine with a 6,750-rpm torque peak.

It works — this is a turbocharged engine that rewards revs. The engine’s stupendous output and willingness to pull right to the limiter, combined with the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission’s short, incredibly closely spaced gear ratios makes for a blistering full-throttle experience where each gear seems to last only a fraction of a second before it’s time for an upshift. Since the engine’s 710-hp maximum output occurs in a plateau from 6,750 to 8,000 rpm, full power is once again available after each shift. Acceleration is relentless and otherworldly.

By comparison, the prodigious cornering grip seems entirely of this world. At its limit, the Pista exhibits just enough understeer to impart a sense of stability, but the smallest twitch of your right foot is enough to overwhelm the rear and summon the aid of stability control.

The latest version of Ferrari’s Side Slip Control is pure dynamic sorcery, programmed with the singular mission of adding speed. In its more aggressive modes, it allows significant tail-out antics without letting you spin and prevents the car from exploding sideways in response to the transmission’s positively brutal full-throttle upshifts, providing a significant safety net with no penalty whatsoever. This is the kind of stability control that you won’t ever want to turn off.

Especially when you experience just how quickly 710 hp can overwhelm the this car’s rear tires. The Pista encourages intimate relations with the oft-ignored area of the accelerator pedal that’s located between “off” and “on.” Ferrari deserves praise for having the courage to limit the engine’s torque in lower gears; any driver of this Ferrari will have no choice but to exercise additional restraint.

Then, the 488 Pista proves to be far more docile and tractable than any of its predecessors. Driven around town, the Pista’s ride is surprisingly unbrutal, the transmission executes smooth shifts and the engine will lug along happily at just over idle. It takes but one errant stab at the throttle to remind you, however, that Ferrari has flipped the rules of the mid-engine sports car. The corners? Those you can deal with. But when the road turns straight, you’d better clench tight before hitting that pedal.

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April 17, 2018 / Comments Off

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Scarbo Performance SVF1 First Drive Review | A hot-rodder’s take on vintage F1

THERMAL, Calif. — Some turn their nose to the sky as soon as they hear the term, “replica.” They only care for “originals,” cars that are inevitably destined to collect dust in someone’s impeccably clean garage, preserved for posterity, and never revved in anger or given the beans in fear of fouling up an “investment.” Joe Scarbo thinks this “mere existence” is a boring one, that cars are meant to be driven hard – period. That’s the outlook that spurned him to create the SVF1, an ass-kickin’ track weapon so good, and so demanding, our body quit well before we wanted to hand back the keys.

Once you realize what the Scarbo Performance SVF1 actually is, you’ll get it. The open-wheeled, open-cockpit retro-racer is modeled after a 1967 Ferrari F312 Formula One car, and many, justifiably, consider its sultry, minimalist lines to be among the prettiest F1 designs. However, the guts under its beautifully hand-beaten aluminum exterior are more SoCal hot-rodder than devout Tifosi replica. Made even clearer that this track beast resides in the former is what powers it; a Red, White, and Blue-blooded GM-sourced, 430-horsepower LS1 V8.

You can’t get much more American than that.

Our date with the SVF1 occurred at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs, an automotive oasis plopped squarely in the middle of an agricultural hub. The freshly finished facility is just a few hours outside of Los Angeles, but unlike the better-known Willow Springs, the track surface here is absolutely pristine, on top of which there was a fine mist of sand, a condition which kept both us and the SVF1 on our tiptoes.

To provide the perfect soundtrack for our track adventure, Scarbo married the LS1’s fly-by-wire throttle system with eight velocity stacks, providing an otherworldly induction yowl. This is punctuated by a guttural exhaust featuring an eight-into-one collector with a three-inch exit. Upon startup, the SVF1 is sends shivers through your body, and like chain lightning it propagates through the bodies of anyone within 60 feet. Grunt and stamina are required to shift the transaxle 5-speed manual transmission from a 986-generation Porsche Boxster mated up to the LS1. No flappy paddles or dual-clutches here.

You get into the SVF1 by placing your feet onto the softly padded seat and sliding your butt in-between its fuel tank, which straddle your hips and posterior. Clip into the five-point harness and you’re eyeball level with the truly massive Avon race-spec slicks. It isn’t until you’re strapped in, priming the fuel pump with a mechanical toggle, and looking out through your helmet’s thin visor that you begin to realize the raw effort you’re about to experience.

As we headed toward one of Thermal’s smaller configurations, we don’t have much time to consider the SVF1’s $112,500 price tag, our inexperience with this track, or the fact that the SVF1’s only traction control was the heat in the slicks and the restraint of our right race boot. Pit exit comes before we can dwell on it, and then we’re onto the wind-swept track.

When the Avon slicks are hot, they’ve got monumental grip. Cold, you might as well be roller-blading on ice. Given the lack of traction control, and the dusty track surface, we use the first lap to get well-acquainted with the SVF1’s instantaneous throttle response, the shifter’s heft, and its unassisted quick ratio steering. Those early laps were messy and full of on- and off-throttle oversteer. There’s also zero downforce to aid in traction management. Eventually the tires got gummy, the sand was swept off the racing line, and our bravery meter ticked closer to “James Hunt” territory.

Thanks to the staggering grip served up by the warm tires, the next thing that becomes apparent is the muscle needed to wrangle the SVF1 – and our lack of it. Just as you get to what your arms protest are the car’s limits, and the SVF1 offers another quarter turn of steering lock and even more grip. There’s also nary an ounce of roll in the entire chassis, although there was considerable roll in our necks as the g-forces increased throughout our session. The experience of working up the courage to stay flat over a crest and pin the SVF1 into a set of S-curves is easily worth a sore neck.

The aural cacophony produced by its eight-into-one exhaust is unhinged divinity. On throttle, the mighty motor sings, but on overrun, a crackling, rolling salvo of cannon-fire reverberates through the cockpit. Today, 400 horsepower barely registers in the performance world, but the key here is power-to-weight ratio. The SVF1 weighs less than 1,300 lbs – anything else would be drastic overkill. Of course, Joe says he’d love for a customer to spec one with an LS7 behind the driver one day.

The SVF1’s fuel tank running low, we turned into the pits with dead sore arms and killed the engine. As we opened up our visor, the only thing we could mutter was an astonished, “holy crap.” Joe, being a consummate gear head, only laughed. He knows he doesn’t need to say much to sell anyone on the car.

SoCal hot-rodders aren’t known for building classic European racing replicas, or truth be told, cars designed to navigate something other than a straight line. But the SVF1 turns those outdated ideas on their heads, as not only does it remaster a classic shape that’d likely never see any form of racing or track experience ever again, but does so in a way that doesn’t require a Scrooge McDuck-esque fortune to buy, run, or insure. Garage queens and their owners be damned.

It’s been days since we drove the SVF1. Hell, we’re still grinning.

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February 21, 2018 / Comments Off

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7 things you need to know about the McLaren Senna

McLaren doesn’t care if you think it’s ugly. Why would it? Even at $958,966, it didn’t struggle to sell all 500 Senna supercars sight unseen, nearly a third of those heading to U.S. owners.

“It’s not meant to be pretty,” McLaren boss Mike Flewitt tells us. “Ultimate Series cars are about focus in one area. In the Senna, it’s aero and track performance first.”

Still think it’s too ugly? Save your breath.

It goes harder than the McLaren P1

What would the McLaren P1 have been like without the electric motor, battery pack and associated heft? The Senna is your answer. Sure, 789 horsepower from an evolution of the 4.0-liter V8 in the 720S plays the P1’s hybrid-assisted 903 bhp. But the Senna’s lightest possible dry weight of 2,641 pounds is more than 400 pounds less than the P1, twin-scroll turbos compensating for the lack of torque-filling electric boost.

On paper it pushes the P1 hard, 0 to 60 mph coming up in just 2.7 seconds and 0 to 124 mph in 6.8 seconds – the latter a whole second faster than the 720S. The P1’s takes half a second out of the Senna’s 0 to 186 mph, and it’s faster overall at 217 mph against 211 mph. But next-gen aero and chassis control systems mean a P1 is unlikely to see which way the Senna went in the corners.

The looks make sense when you see it

With its goofy front overhang, undernourished wheel arches, gaping intakes and towering rear wing, the Senna isn’t conventionally beautiful. McLaren’s social media manager admits as much, sighing, “It’s not an easy car to photograph.” In comparison with the shrink-wrapped sensuality of the P1, the Senna has shades of some of the fussier, aero-heavy F1 cars such as Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 championship-winning MP4-23. But in the flesh, it’s more successful, the front view startling in its aggression, your eye instinctively tracking the flow of air over and through the car and making visual sense of how the aero works.

It’s got too much downforce

If the P1 was a transformer switching between suave hypercar and track monster, the Senna is permanently the latter, which is good news if you needed to drive your P1 everywhere in Race mode to prove your manhood. With a 25-degree range of movement, the wing contributes to a total of 1,763.7 pounds of downforce at 155 mph, the P1 generating 1,323 pounds at the same speed. Meanwhile, active, contrast-colored aero blades within the front fenders adjust airflow over their fixed downstream equivalents to maintain correct aero balance. Under braking this may mean bleeding off downforce on the front axle, the front and rear aero elements adjusting to a low-drag configuration at speeds faster than 155 mph.

Forget the acceleration – it’s all about cornering and braking

Switch to Race mode and the Senna will – like the P1 – slam its RaceActive Chassis Control suspension to its stiffer, track-only configuration, the front dropping 1.5 inches and the rear 1.2 inches for pronounced rake. “The whole thing of the chassis and aero working together is just going to give you huge confidence,” says project manager Ian Howshall, fresh from driving it in Spain. “You can brake later, turn in later and get on the power earlier than you ever could in a P1, just because of the downforce available. By constantly trimming that front to rear, it’s optimally balanced all the time.” Favor a last of the late-brakers’ driving style? You’ll love the fact the Senna stops dead from 124 mph, a full 56 feet short of the 720S – effectively a whole braking board later on any given circuit. Strap in tight.

It’s all about the lap time (just don’t ask about the lap time)

From Flewitt down, everyone at McLaren will tell you how lap time came first in the Senna’s development. Prompting the obvious question to Ultimate Series boss Andy Palmer – exactly what IS the lap time? And around which circuit? “We’ve got internal benchmarks, we’ve got our competitor benchmarks and we’re pleased with the numbers we’ve got,” he deadpans. But how can you say it’s about lap time without … confirming a lap time? “We’ve never released a time with the P1, and whatever circuit I say someone will translate that into a projected Nürburgring lap time. And I’m not giving a number.” So, it’s all about the lap time. But it’ll be up to you to set one.

The 789-hp power output is the least interesting thing about it

The M840TR flat-plane V8 is basically an evolution of the 4.0-liter unit in the 720S, sporting a 6.4-pound carbon-fiber intake plenum weighing nearly half as much as the 720’s aluminum equivalent and featuring revised cams, lighter pistons and titanium/Inconel exhausts. These exit through the center pipe at normal loads, the muffler bypassed and the exhaust routed through the other two when you’re really on the gas. In certain markets, you’ll even be able to delete the muffler and third pipe entirely.

It’s an example of where the Senna’s engineers lose the fixation with numbers and talk more about the sensory experience, the sheer rawness, the way the gravel sprays the arch liners, the sense of every extra rpm fizzing through the carbon structure, the undiluted feedback of the steering and the rush of induction air being channeled into the rooftop snorkel intake. For all its functional brutality, McLaren wants you to know that the Senna is designed to engage at an emotional level, too, even at road speeds.

Can’t live without your creature comforts? You can option air-con and a special Bowers & Wilkins audio system back in, the latter costing you $5,860 and an additional 16.1 pounds on the scales.

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February 7, 2018 / Comments Off

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What I learned using the McLaren 570S as my daily driver

There it was, sitting in my driveway as I returned home after running out for errands. A bright Curacao blue McLaren 570S, all mine for the next few days. I made my typical first-impression walkaround. My test car was slathered in all the carbon fiber trim that the vast options sheet had to offer. The retractable roof performs a lovely mechanical tango while whooshing and buzzing its way into a small space just aft of the cabin. It looks just as beautiful with the top down as it does up.

The doors open in a sort of dihedral manner, once you figure out where the handles are hidden (in the black space underneath the bodycolor swoosh at the top), and once they are fully erect, it’s not terribly difficult to contort yourself inside.

My first thought: I could drive this thing every day.

And so I did. For the next three days, I would use only the McLaren 570S to get from one place to another. I went to the grocery store, drove to dinner, and made a spur-of-the-moment trip up north from Seattle to Bellingham. Here’s what I learned.

Those dihedral doors look sweet — a prerequisite for any proper supercar — but the way the glass rises from the doors means opening them also opens up the roof section, so there’s really no way to keep the rain out when entering. That doesn’t matter on beautiful sunny days, but remember, this is my daily driver for the weekend, come rain or shine.
The most difficult part of getting cozy is adjusting the seat. The buttons are at the front of the seat, and, best I can tell, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason as to which button moves or controls what surface. It’s a 15-minute guessing game of button mashing, praying, cursing, and trying again.
It’s actually fairly comfortable inside the 570S once you find a correct seating position. You sit low, but not so low that your legs are parallel with the floor. There’s ample headroom for a six-plus-footer. Visibility is actually pretty good. I set myself to the task of roving about the cabin, testing switches and buttons, and generally getting familiar with my surroundings.
The infotainment system is, for this day and age, rudimentary. But that hardly matters, considering the car’s purpose. Let’s dip into the throttle and hear the sound of 3.8 twin-turbocharged liters of displacement. There are 562 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque waiting to burst out, at least once the engine settles into a completely reasonable idle after its somewhat frenetic minute-long warm-up routine.
There are enough buttons, switches, and dials on the console and steering wheel to merit a look at the manual, or, you could do what I did and start pressing things until the car is in Sport mode and the gearbox is in drive.
There’s some tire scrub at low speeds during tight maneuvering, like what’s required to exit my winding, tree-lined driveway. That’s to be expected with big, wide, aggressive tires and track-ready suspension and steering geometry, and nothing to worry about. If your passenger asks, tell ’em they are sitting in a street-legal race car and to sit down, shut up, and hold on. Unless it’s your spouse, as it was mine, in the passenger seat. In that case, definitely leave out the “shut up” part.
If you’re driving on a race track, there’s almost never a time when having more horsepower is a bad thing. When you’re driving on the street, in a carbon-fiber missile like the McLaren 570S, even 562 hp feels like more than enough. Especially in Seattle, in the winter, when it’s raining, like it was the first time I took the McLaren out for a spin to familiarize myself with the British supercar. Underway, it’s easy to modulate the throttle on wet asphalt, in part because the engine doesn’t really scream until it’s got a few thousand RPMs to work with.
My street is littered with speed bumps, dips, bumps, and cracks. The 570S has a mode accessed via a steering wheel button, to raise or lower the suspension. I didn’t need to use that raised mode on my street, but I did when I tried to pull into the local Trader Joe’s parking lot, lest I should unceremoniously scrape the front carbon fiber splitter across the driveway’s incline. Of course, stopping to raise the car meant forcing the cars behind me to stop in unison. Only one driver honked — I waved and mimed that I was sorry, since I couldn’t tell him I was doing this for science — everybody else just enjoyed the spectacle.
You can fit two full paper bags worth of groceries in the front storage compartment (frunk for short).
On day two of McLaren daily driving, the weather report again showed nothing but rain. Well, that’s why we’re having this little test, right? My wife and I hopped in and headed north in a deluge that seemed destined to last 40 days and 40 nights. Then, in a miraculous moment, the doves found their olive leaves, the sky opened up, and we got off the highway a little south of Bellingham for a run up Chuckanut Drive. With the rain gone for a glorious half hour, the top went down, we snaked the road between the coast and the mountains, and stopped for a few sunset pictures before the sun set in the distance.
And that is what supercars like the McLaren 570S are all about. Onlookers ogled, pedestrians preened for a closer look, and my wife and I posed for pics. Our social media friends probably hated us for a night, but on the return slog home, as the deluge came back with a vengeance, I didn’t care. Driving the 570S is a blast, rain or shine, night or day.

But that doesn’t mean it’s a good daily driver. After the debacle at Trader Joe’s, I resorted to parking on the street everywhere we went, and I was so worried that someone would even put fingerprints on the supercar that was in my care and keeping for a few short days that I stayed with the car and asked my wife to do all the shopping. I ran one full tank through the 570S, and fuel mileage was pretty bad, though not single-digit bad. The ride, while good by supercar standards in its softest setting, is still pretty stiff and punishing on poorly maintained roads.

The cost of one minor mishap with the McLaren — anything from a bump in the parking lot to a wheel scratched on a curb — is going to cost as much as parking a beater in your driveway that you don’t really care about. Save the McLaren for those random blasts up Chuckanut, and take the Mitsubishi to get groceries. Because when one of your cars is a McLaren 570S, who cares if the other one is a Mirage?

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January 4, 2018 / Comments Off

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‘Sensual but also logical’: Ferrari’s Flavio Manzoni opines on design at London exhibit

Ferrari design boss Flavio Manzoni was in London this week for the opening of a five-month exhibition on the famous Italian brand, part of its 70th-anniversary celebrations, at the world-famous Design Museum. So Autoblog jumped at the chance to ask the man behind the La Ferrari, FXX, 488 GTB and more about his design approach and inspirations, and also what he thinks about designing a Ferrari SUV, or even an EV.

Manzoni, 52, is pleasingly Italian in manner and accented English. Passionate and forthright, he has strong views on what makes good design in general and for Ferrari in particular. Having increased the importance of the brand’s Styling Centre considerably since becoming head of design in 2010, the now 80-strong team increasingly creates new vehicles in-house (as opposed to using former independent design company Pininfarina). The first project Manzoni fully oversaw within Ferrari was the La Ferrari. He’s a firm believer in form following function, “but not in a German way,” he says with a smile, citing the side of the 488 GTB, which is shaped by the need to divert air in a certain way around the car and also to look fantastic. As he declares: “You’d never find lines on a Ferrari just for decoration. The scoop on the 488 GTB is sensual but also logical.”

As another example, he says that his “latest baby,” the track-focused FXX K Evo, took a different path from the very engineering-focused Enzo of 2002, designed well before he joined the company. “We worked for eight months with the engineers on the FXX, to keep the functionality and make it beautiful.”

In Manzoni’s job, it would be impossible not to respect Ferrari’s incredible back catalog — he owns a Gandini-designed Ferrari 208 GT4, “still very beautiful, but iconic as well” — but he’s no slave to the past. “Déjà vu is something we don’t like,” he says with a slightly scolding look. “We don’t agree with nostalgia or the need to create a family feeling throughout our range. But a Ferrari must be recognizable without the badge. There are different ways to do this — not just in details like the headlamps, but sometimes in how you treat the surfaces. It’s tricky to explain, but it’s a feeling.”

He’s also not keen on following industry trends and has historically spoken out against luxury SUVs. “Every time we work on a new Ferrari, we try to improve on every aspect — including the center of gravity — so an SUV is not a Ferrari,” he stated as recently as 2015. “I don’t understand why so many other brands are doing them. In my opinion it shows a lack of courage.”

But forward-wind just two years, and parent-company CEO Sergio Marchionne has made several pronouncements relating to a potential Ferrari crossover or SUV plan. How does Manzoni feel about that? “I cannot answer, but one thing is clear: Ferrari is not a follower. There have been so many declarations from Sergio Marchionne and others. I cannot add anything more to what they have already said, but Ferrari won’t follow a trend.”

Given the way the world is changing, and as an admirer of those who think, imagine (and draw) differently — from Syd Mead to Le Corbusier — Manzoni must have considered an all-electric Ferrari, though? What does he think of the recent futuristic Lamborghini/MIT Terzo Millennio electric concept?

“I have a lot of respect for our competitor brands, but we are never influenced by them,” he says. “We work under our own vision and especially the guidance of Sergio Marchionne, who is giving us a big opportunity to reshape Ferrari in an extraordinary way. Of course I cannot say how, but we are living in a special moment of creativity, and when there is a change, there is also a peak in creative solutions.”

“Ferrari: Under the Skin” is on display at London’s Design Museum until April 15, 2018. It features $185 million worth of classic and new Ferrari road and racing cars — from the 1947 125 S to the latest La Ferrari Aperta, vintage photos and letters from founder Enzo Ferrari’s extraordinary life, plus an array of original F1 Ferrari racing helmets, including the classic 1960s bubble visor of American Phil Hill, and much more amazing memorabilia. It’s well worth a visit if you’re in London. See designmuseum.org/exhibitions/ferrari-under-the-skin.

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November 27, 2017 / Comments Off

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2018 Lamborghini Huracán Performante Second Drive | The Lambo of the moment

Down the front straight, past the pits, over the start/finish line, sixth gear at 140 mph. Suddenly, the shrieking wail of the 2018 Lamborghini Huracán Performante’s mid-mounted V-10 and hits me right between the eyes. It’s an easy shot, since I’m wearing an open-face helmet.

Speed is not a problem for the Performante. This new lighter and more powerful version of the Huracán is the best-performing Lambo of all time. It just set the new production-car record around the Nürburgring Nordschleife of 6 minutes, 52.1 seconds. That’s 35 seconds quicker than the standard Huracán. And Lambo says it can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, which is as quick as the Aventador S. Its 202-mph top speed still lags the top end of the V-12-powered Aventador by 15 mph, but does it really matter?

Completely flat, smooth as glass and just 1.8 miles around, Thermal’s South Palm Circuit isn’t exactly the Nordschleife, but the bathrooms are much fancier. Built in 2014, the luxurious Thermal Motorsports Club outside of Palm Springs, Calif., is an ideal facility for us to taste the 2018 Huracán Performante. If owners of the $274,390 supercar want a safe and controlled environment to wring out their new toy, chances are it will be at private amusement parks such as this.

In the age of twin-turbos, the Huracán’s naturally aspirated V10 is a (glorious) anachronism. In the Performante, it has been cranked up to 640 hp at 8,000 rpm and 442 lb-ft of torque at 6,500 rpm, a 30-hp and 40-lb-ft increase over the standard all-wheel-drive model, and it’s all above 6,000 rpm.
Displacement remains 5.2 liters, but Lambo’s engineers added lighter titanium intake valves, more aggressive camshafts, a less-restrictive air intake and a lighter freer-flowing exhaust system. The engine’s compression ratio remains a stratospheric 12.7:1, and it runs into a very aggressive rev limiter at 8,500 rpm.

The Performante is 88 pounds lighter than the standard Huracán Coupe thanks to liberal use of the company’s patented Forged Composite, which it calls the lightest, strongest and most innovative material ever used by Lamborghini. Chopped fibers embedded in a matrix of resins, it’s sort of like carbon fiber 2.0, although its finish looks like high-tech camo with golden flecks. It’s all over the Performante, including its massive rear spoiler, rear bumper and diffuser, front spoiler and its engine cover, which weights 21 percent less than the piece it replaced. Inside you see more Forged Composite on the dash, doors and console.

Lambo also stiffened up the Performante’s suspension by 10 percent, the sway bars are 15 percent more aggressive and the A-arm bushings are 50 percent stiffer. But the coolest piece of the Performante, and what’s really going to wow the crowd at local Cars and Coffee, is the new active aerodynamics system.
Officially called Aerodynamica Lamborghini Attive (ALA), the patented system opens and closes a flap in the front spoiler depending on conditions. When closed, the spoiler creates downforce for high-speed cornering and full brake conditions. When the small electric motor opens the flaps, which takes 0.2 second, it redirects the airflow through an internal channel and the underside of the car. This reduces drag, increasing acceleration and top speed.

The fully automatic system also controls two internal ducts connected to inner channels of the rear wing. When the flaps are closed, the fixed rear wing works in a traditional manner, creating downforce and aiding cornering and braking. Lambo says it generates 750 percent more vertical downforce than the wingless standard Huracán Coupe.

In high-throttle conditions, ALA opens the flaps, which routes the air through the rear wing’s inner channels and through ridges underneath the wing, reducing drag. But here’s the cool part: The air channel is split left and right and the flaps work independently, allowing aero vectoring for high-speed cornering. The ALA system can increase downforce and traction on the inside wheel, counteracting the natural cornering forces.

After 10 laps, it’s hard not to be madly in love with this ridiculously antisocial supercar. Lambo says it weighs 3,047 pounds dry, and out on the track it feels small and light. Not exactly Miata miniature, but it’s tossable and it likes to turn on the brakes. It also understeers a bit on power out just to keep you alive, but it will drift if you chuck it in and get back on the power quickly. Do it, it’s also easy to catch with a small amount of counter steer.

Our codriver agrees. Sinya Sean Michemi races a Huracán in Lamborghini’s Blancpain Super Trofeo North America. “Compared to the original Huracán, it feels quite a bit less understeery,” he yells over the Performante’s screaming V-10, which is mounted just inches behind our heads.

Most of the corners on this circuit are handled in second gear, although there are two good, long straights where we touch sixth gear and get to enjoy the upper-rpm pull and full song of the big V-10. The straights also reveal the silky and rapid gear changes from the Lambo’s dual-clutch 7-speed, which Lambo geared perfectly to keep that goddess of an engine above 6,000 rpm.

There’s also a three-apex right-hander with a fast third-gear entry at the end of the backstraight. It’s the most challenging section of the track, and the Performante’s stability is impressive as we enter hard on the brakes and drop it down to second to finish the corner hard on the power. It’s massive 20-inch Pirelli P Zero Corsa’s are incredibly forgiving, and the compliance of the suspension over the track’s tall curbing is a nice surprise.

It’s almost stupid how easy it is to drive this car fast. The Huracán’s gargantuan cross-drilled carbon-ceramic brakes are foolproof, with telepathic pedal feel and awesome heat resistance even after constant lapping on a 100-degree day. There was a time not too many years ago that Lamborghini brakes would have caught fire and failed under such conditions.

Lamborghini’s ANIMA system offers three modes: Strada, Sport and Corsa. In Strada, Lambo says traction and stability are prioritized, and it’s easy to find the point at which its electronic watchdogs step in on the track. In Sport, the all-wheel-drive system offers a more rear-wheel-drive bias, and the stability control system loosens up enough for some light rotation. Also, the transmission will upshift for you, even in manual mode. In Corsa, the transmission is completely manual, and the stability control allows for plenty of oversteer.

Lamborghini says demand for the Performante is high. However, buyers should know that there’s a Spyder version coming and it’s sure to steal thunder from this hardtop, especially in the States.

But the Performante’s real issue is Lamborghini’s new SUV, which will begin to overshadow the supercar the instant it is unveiled on Dec. 4. The much-anticipated Urus is the Italian automaker’s most important new product since the Countach in 1974, and according to Alessandro Farmeschi, the COO of Lamborghini North America, it’ll double the company’s production when it goes on sale next year.

When that bomb drops, the Huracán Performante will no longer be the Lambo of the moment. Its 15 minutes will be up. Hell, that game clock is already ticking. But until then, let’s enjoy the Performante for what it is: Lamborghini’s best sports car ever. It’s a masterpiece—a masterpiece with unfortunate timing.

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November 1, 2017 / Comments Off

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Aston Martin hires Ferrari’s ‘key guys’ to challenge 488 GTB

Aston Martin is wasting no time in its aggressive product rollout, and it’s putting Ferrari and other supercar makers on notice.

At the recent launch of the DB11 V8 in Catalonia, Spain, we caught up with Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer. The Aston chief gave us new details on plans for a mid-engine car to go up against the Ferrari 488 GTB, the McLaren 720S and the Lamborghini Huracán.

Palmer says Aston has harnessed a great deal of learning from the $3 million Valkyrie hypercar and plans to apply that to its next mid-engine car, slated to land sometime in 2020 or so. As indicated in part of our conversation below, design plans for that car are developing quickly.

Andy Palmer, chief executive officer of Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd., reacts during a Bloomberg Television interview in Singapore, on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017. Palmer discussed the impact of Brexit on the auto industry. Photographer: Vivek Prakash/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Autoblog: You said there will be a forthcoming mid-engine sports car. I still think the Ferrari 488 GTB is one of the best I’ve driven. How do you compete with that?

Andy Palmer: “Well, I agree with you. That’s the best car in its segment. And we’re going to take it on. And I realize the gravity of that statement, of what that means.”

AB: So how do you take on the 488 GTB?

AP: “Well, to start with, you recruit from Ferrari the head of body structures, and the head of powertrains. I’ve now got three of Ferrari’s key guys. And really, it’s a big compliment to Ferrari. That’s the defining car in its segment, and it’s really, really good. And those three guys now work for me. And you combine those guys with Nick [Lines, chief planning officer, Aston Martin] and Marek [Reichman, chief creative officer, Aston Martin] who you know really well, and you create some great recipes. And now I’ve got a better understanding of what that car looks like.”

AB: How far along is that car? Is there a clay model already?

AP: “Yeah, there’s clay. There’s actually eight quarter-scales. And there’s one in particular that I’m leaning toward. We’ve got it pushed out; it’s gone to a second studio in Milton Keynes. That studio is different from Gaydon. And I’ve got a pretty good idea of what the replacement for the 488 is going to be like as well. So, if we’re going in that market, we need to be ahead of the 488. And there’s no naïveté about what that means.”

One of the recruits Palmer is referring to is Max Szwaj, former head of innovation and body structures at Ferrari and Maserati. Szwaj has been named vice president and chief technical officer in his new role in Gaydon. Another recruit, Joerg Ross, formerly head of advanced engines at Ferrari and Maserati, assumes the chief engineer, powertrain, role at Aston. A third recruit by way of Modena is a very recent acquisition and has yet to be formally announced.

Aston Martin’s forthcoming car would slot above the Vanquish GT and below the Valkyrie hypercar in the lineup. And while the British luxe automaker is developing replacements for its existing lineup — most recently kicked off by the new DB11 — the Ferrari 488 fighter would join the upcoming DBX SUV as an all-new model line for Aston.

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October 6, 2017 / Comments Off

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Porsche Museum Vault: The secret collection you have to see

For any car fan, making a trip to Germany at some point is must. Beyond seeing how fast you can go on the Autobahn, each of the manufacturers have museums worth checking out. One is the Porsche Museum in Zuffenhausen, just outside Stuttgart. The imposing modern structure sits among the various Porsche HQ buildings and 911 production, filled with the greatest hits of Porsche’s production and racing history.

However, what you can see in the Museum is but the tip of a very deep iceberg. A short drive away in a top-secret location is what you could call the museum vault. Here is where Porsche keeps all its concept cars, prototypes, design studies, promotional cutaways and race cars that can be pulled out for use in the museum or shipped around the world for marketing and PR purposes. For instance, Porsche always features one or two of these cars at its annual New York Auto Show press event. There’s also at least one version of every car the company has produced, including special edition versions like the recent 911R.

Although many have always been in Porsche’s possession, the company has purchased some to fill out the collection, relying only on survivor cars as opposed to those that have been restored. The vault facility itself has a shop that refurbishes them as needed to make them show-worthy.

Some of my personal highlights include a Porsche Cayenne convertible design study (let’s call it the Cayenne Cross Cabriolet), a teal bulletproof 996, the bonkers Panamericana concept (also teal), the world’s only rear-engine and all-wheel-drive 944, a 928 convertible prototype (never produced), and an amazing Kermit green Carrera 3.0 Targa with the most perfect tartan fabric interior I’ve ever seen. Really, though, virtually everything you see is amazing in one way or another with an interesting story behind it — I could’ve spent a full day inside rather than the 90 minutes we were given.

Although the vault is sadly not open to the public, we hope you enjoy this brief photographic taste and make a point to visit the regular Porsche Museum at some point. It’s worth the flight to Stuttgart.

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September 1, 2017 / Comments Off

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Why the Ferrari Enzo Ferrari debuted in Charlie’s Angels | The Car Stays in the Picture

The irregular series, The Car Stays in the Picture, covers the sometimes bizarre backstories of the real stars of movie favorites: the cars. In our last one, we covered the iconic Porsche 928 from Risky Business. This time, it’s a homely hypercar’s unusual footnote in history.

The inelegantly named, and inelegantly styled, Ferrari Enzo Ferrari was, a technological triumph when it was unveiled in 2002 at the Paris Motor Show. The successor to the equally, but distinctly, unlovely F50, it was Maranello’s latest ultra-exclusive supercar. It had a price tag and spec sheet to match: 6-liter V12, 6-speed Formula One-inspired electrohydraulic transmission, 660 hp, $650,000.

It was also, at that fateful reveal in the City of Light, fresh off of a plane from Malibu, where it had just touched North American soil for the first time – or at least North American sand. It had been driven on a beach by a bikini-clad Demi Moore, in her star turn as a villain in the second filmic reboot of the 1970s Jigglevision TV show, Charlie’s Angels, subtitled, appropriately enough Full Throttle.

All of which begs the automotive question we love to ask at The Car Stays in the Picture: How the hell did something like this ever happen?

“It was a combination between us having a very strong connection in Hollywood, and knowing the dealer, Giacomo Mattioli of Ferrari of Beverly Hills, that has always been quite prominent, used by a lot of movie directors,” says Marco Mattiacci, the vice president of the Ferrari and Maserati brands in North America at the time. “But one of the things we were doing then was trying to find placements for Maserati. And we had to leverage that appeal of Ferrari.”

The Enzo was thus something of a Trojan Prancing Horse, with the re-launch of Maserati USA hiding inside – a carrot leading not a stick, but a trident, or maybe some slightly less familiar vegetable, like broccoli rabe.

“In that movie, there was the Enzo. But there is also a 2002 Maserati Spyder. That was more of the key product placement. We had to place the Maserati,” Mattiacci emphasizes. “So at that point, it was for me to go to the importer and convince Maranello to bring this car on set, because the only chance we had to position the Maserati was to give this premiere of the Ferrari Enzo.”

Intrigue and deal making aside, how was this executed – a multi-stop tour for a top-secret production prototype that originated in Italy, jetted to California, and then returned to Europe in time for a reveal in France? Ferrari supercars are among the most desirable scoop in all of autodom, rivaled in the entertainment industry only by the insatiably misogynistic demand for catty gossip from the set of a female-driven hit franchise. Placing the two together on a public beach must have created a paparazzi feeding frenzy akin to a sharknado touching down in a tilapia farm.

“We had to guarantee the importer confidentiality so no photos could be shot of the car. The car was still was one of the demos, or pre-production cars. So we took all the kind of precautions to not have the car viewable,” Mattiacci says, modestly. “We brought the car there during the night, the crew did an amazing job.”

Complicating matters was the fact that the notoriously complex car – with its low stance, weird doors, funky transmission, and odd startup routine – had to opened, entered, and driven on the coast seamlessly, by a scantily clad, wet, barefoot, movie star. “I did get to drive it,” Demi Moore says on one of the extra segments on the film’s DVD. “And I had to pull out at the beach parking lot, without going over the speed bumps so I didn’t tear out the bottom end of the car.” A Ferrari factory technician was on site. A translator for the technician was also present. What could go wrong? Sadly for those of us who live on schadenfreude, nothing of note.

“Everything went smoothly. I think from that point of view we were surprised about that with the cars. But we were very careful. Especially with the Enzo, because we knew they would be taking it to launches and auto shows in the following months. Of course we knew it would be a gamble,” Mattiacci says. “I mean the car was positioned on the beach, it was not on the sand. The car was in the parking lot. Demi Moore was coming out from the sea….”

Interestingly enough, the Enzo was not even the most valuable Ferrari on the shoot. Two of the Angels, played by Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, shared wheel time in a 1962 250 GT California Spyder SWB, one of just 55 produced. (Originally grey, the car was painted red prior to its appearance in the movie, but has since been restored to its factory hue.) As it turns out, Ferrari helped facilitate the loan of it as well, to sweeten the deal.

“That was from a client, but I can’t mention the name,” Mattiacci says. “It’s part of the Ferrari community and we’re lucky to have that clientele.”

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle was the top box office draw during its opening weekend, and eventually raked in over $250 million worldwide. The series’ appeal continues to this day, with a new Sony-produced reboot allegedly in the offing. That co-starring California Spyder was offered with a $7.5 million price tag in 2012, and seems to have entered a private collection. The film’s hero car was memorialized by Hot Wheels in a limited edition, 1:18 scale, 5,000 unit, numbered die cast model – unopened examples now trade for around $200 on eBay if you’re interested. And, according to vehicle valuation specialists at Hagerty Insurance, real Enzos have quadrupled in price since new, doubling over the past three years alone, from an average of nearly $1.3 million to over $2.5 million.

But what ever happened to the actual Enzo that Demi drove? “It went back to Ferrari,” Mattiacci says. “It was a European version car. It probably went to a customer there. But we never marketed it as the Charlie’s Angels car.”

Cars aside, did the Trojan Prancing Horse play work? “As a matter of fact, in the following 18 months, we put Maseratis in The Sopranos and Entourage, so it started a strategy that increased awareness of the brand very quickly,” Mattiacci says. “The use of the Ferrari as leverage, that was a key point when we started to build a community.”

We still don’t like the look of the Enzo – its front end reminds us too much of Pagliacci’s sad and tragic party hat, and its rear too much like the front end of a Plymouth Prowler. And we haven’t re-watched Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle since we saw it in the theater, but we would hazard to guess that it has held up just about as well as Demi Moore’s cosmetic surgery. However, Maserati sales are up nearly 40 percent this year over last, so perhaps this strategy is finally paying dividends.

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July 21, 2017 / Comments Off

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2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon First Drive | Don’t fear the Demon

“If you’re not hurt, we’ll be really pissed. If you are hurt, we’ll still be pissed, but not quite as pissed.”

These are the words from Jim Wilder, the vehicle development manager of the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, that echo through our head as we slide behind the wheel of the car for the first time. He was warning us about driving beyond our abilities, and keeping the car out of the wall. With 840 horsepower and 770 pound-feet of torque on tap from its supercharged, 6.7-liter V8, the Demon does 0-60 miles per hour in 2.3 seconds, and 0-30 mph in a second flat. If something does go wrong, it’ll happen quickly.

Following that talk, we had our guts sloshed as a passenger in a blurry eighth-mile run, giving us a taste of the G forces (the Demon can pull 1.8 G in a straight line) we’d feel when we got in the driver’s seat for our own pass down the drag strip. We’re already sweating.

It had rained – you could describe it as torrential – the day before. The grassy parking areas surrounding Lucas Oil Raceway were still flooded, but any water on the pavement had evaporated and hung in the air. Combined with the heat, we were sticky and uncomfortable.

In Drag Mode, the Dodge Demon’s air conditioning turns off. Any condensation that it could leave on the track would be a problem, plus we need to reduce parasitic power losses for a faster run. The system is still working, though, the refrigerant diverted to the chiller system cooling the air coming into the engine. There’s still condensation, but the Demon collects it on a catch pad to keep it from ending up on the pavement.

We’re also required to roll the windows up when entering the drag strip. For one thing, it helps keep the smoke out of the cabin during the pre-staging burnout. So, yeah, it’s hot as Hell in the Demon.

We pull through the water box and run through the sequence – which involves holding the “OK” button on the steering wheel usually used to navigate menus, and applying a specific amount of brake pressure before getting on the throttle to initiate the burnout. This gets any crud off the rear tires and heats up the rubber.

There are multiple ways to launch the Demon. We had an instructor sitting in the passenger seat as we pulled up to the beams that trigger the Christmas tree at Lucas Oil Raceway. He walks us through the most complicated of the three he had explained to us just minutes before when we were in the passenger seat. With our left foot on the brake, we pull on both of the shifter paddles on the back of the steering wheel. Next, we gingerly apply throttle with the right foot, bringing the RPMs up to between 1,100 and 1,200, and let go of one paddle. “Off the brake,” the instructor tells us. Overriding every bit of our muscle memory from years of driving that tells us it’s a bad idea, we lift our left foot. Our finger on the remaining shift paddle is what keeps us still.

The man in the passenger seat (whom we can’t see on account of our limited view from the helmet and the tunnel vision that accompanies the adrenaline hit one gets just before launching a satanic, 840-horsepower car down a narrow drag strip) says, “Off the other paddle, and gas.”

We comply, our finger lifting off the second paddle, and our foot rolling hard into the right pedal. In an instant, the engine roars to life, and the weight shifts to the rear wheels as they bite into the sticky pavement. As the Demon pulls our skeleton and the rest of our organs forward, our eyes and stomach seem to float in place for a moment. Eventually, they catch up, and we notice the whine of the 2.7-liter-per-rev supercharger, before the automatic transmission makes its first quick but jarring shift. Third gear arrives in another instant, and the car revs and shifts again with our right foot planted on the floor. We’re still headed dead straight, we realize with relief as the eighth-mile marker approaches, the car shifting into fifth gear. We’re off the gas, and we coast down the drag strip to our exit, chuckling to ourselves.

Once we realize we made it through our first pass intact, we begin to sweat again as our body decides it’s safe to resume normal functions. We pull off the strip, roll down the windows, and head back to the staging area. We’ve got two more runs to go before we have to give up our seat to the next driver.

A second time, we roll up the windows, pull through the water box, spin our tires, and set up our run. A second time, our instructor walks us through the launch procedure. This time, a little more confident, we let go of the second paddle and dig into the accelerator, though not nearly as smoothly as our first launch. The rear wheels hop, but eventually bite and the Demon takes off. We’re glad just to be headed straight as the dizzying G forces build and release, build and release as the car rows through its gears.

This time, we’re already thinking about our next run even before we reach our marker. As we finish our run, we’re telling our instructor about how that launch felt, excited about how well the Demon communicated its grip to us, and how the car was already telling us how to drive it better. Within minutes of hurtling down the drag strip as a terrified passenger before getting behind the wheel ourself – our first time on a proper drag strip, mind you – we’re remembering the articles we had read damning the Dodge Demon as a car unfit for the road, and thinking them silly.

We’re not afraid of the car anymore; perhaps we’ve come under the Demon’s sinister spell. The fearsome beast, proclaimed by Dodge as “not domesticated,” has lulled us into thinking it easily tamed.

More likely, the car is performing just as calmly as intended. Dodge made this car for the drag strip, and engineered it to go fast in a straight line. To take full advantage of the power on offer, the Demon’s TransBrake holds the upgraded transmission’s output shaft to send more torque to the rear wheels at launch. In Drag Mode, the suspension is tuned to shift more weight to the rear tires. Those tires are a set of grippy Nitto 315/40ZR18 drag radials created specifically for this car, and Dodge claims they provide 40-percent more launch force than the Hellcat tires. In order to survive the strains associated with the added power, the Demon has strengthened connecting rods and pistons, thicker rear half shafts, and improved materials in various components.

We pull through the water box ahead of our final run. We go through the somewhat cumbersome procedure to build brake pressure and spin the wheels, then set up our launch. Our instructor asks us if we want him to talk us through the steps again, or let us just do the paddle/brake/throttle sequence by memory, and we opt for the former. This time, it goes smoothly, and our timing is great. We nail the launch, getting into the throttle quickly without breaking grip on the rear wheels. The Demon surges forward, again leaving our stomach behind, but we’re getting used to the feel of the longitudinal G forces and the roar of the exhaust. Our run isn’t timed, but it certainly feels like the fastest of the three. Our instructor reinforces this feeling, telling us we’ve got the hang of the thing. We are officially partners with the Demon.

We coast toward the exit of the drag strip, sweaty and laughing. We roll down the windows and soak in the grumble of the exhaust, the smell of tire smoke lingering in the humid breeze as others take their turns on the track.

We know the Dodge Demon is an unusual street car, something that seems unnecessary. Some want us to think it’s dangerous, even. Truth be told, our thinking changed dramatically last week at Lucas Oil Raceway. Granted, we were driving this car in a controlled environment, but we’ve driven cars that are much more unruly and potentially deadly when one puts their foot to the floor. Despite our fears as we sat inside the Demon for the first time, we didn’t even experience a whiff of real danger. Without prior drag experience, we got behind the wheel of an absolute monster of a car, and came away completely intact, slightly smarter, slightly more experienced, and significantly happier than before.

And while it’s potentially dangerous any time you put a human behind the wheel of a powerful car, Dodge has built something (and engineered it meticulously) to allow a small set of people who are passionate about a strange, standout vehicle to own something that will give them a certain type of performance – specifically straight-line performance – in a relatively safe factory vehicle. And with the Demon, Dodge has probably created a piece of automotive history. That’s isn’t just great for the automaker, it’s a wonderful, exclusive experience for the few thousand passionate drivers who realize there’s little to fear.

July 19, 2017 / Comments Off

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Living up to its name | 2018 Ferrari 812 Superfast First Drive

What’s in a name? In the case of the Ferrari 812 Superfast, a numerical reference to its 800-(metric) horsepower, 12-cylinder engine and a not-so-subtle hint at its capability for extreme rates of travel. Only Ferrari, notorious for joyously naming its flagship “LaFerrari,” could get away with the moniker. But once you get past the super-obvious nomenclature, it becomes hard to argue with this on-the-nose model name.

If you’re lucky enough to have sampled the standard F12 and one of the 799 F12 TDFs offered to Ferrari’s most loyal clients, you’ve got a pretty good idea of the 812 Superfast’s personality, which involves a blend of the TDF’s edginess and the F12’s comfort and usability. Even within the rarified world of supercars, the 812’s athleticism is impressive despite its veil of approachability. More power, to the tune of 789 horsepower (versus the TDF’s 769) combined with weight loss of 132 pounds make it the highest-performance standard production model Ferrari in history. (For reference, the TDF trims an even more impressive 242 pounds, ditching niceties like sound insulation.) Along with mechanical and aerodynamic improvements, the elevated power-to-weight ratio enables it to hit 60 mph in 2.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 211 mph.

2018 Ferrari 812 Superfast

The main attraction is, of course, the 6.5-liter V12, which boasts 75 percent new parts and undergoes a series of mods to raise its output while (thankfully) retaining its naturally aspirated soul. A stroked version of the F12’s 6.3-liter mill, the V12 features new pistons, new con-rods, a reinforced crankcase, and a trick new direct-fuel-injection system that runs at a staggering 5,076 psi. The system is capable of changing the shape of fuel droplets as they’re injected into the combustion chamber, adjusting for around-town drivability or balls-to-the-wall performance. A revised air intake system incorporates a new plenum and bigger air inlet with wider throttle valves for better breathing. Silver lining: CO2 emissions have been reduced thanks to the new injection system and reduced friction from new 5W50 engine oil.

Each of the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission’s gears has been shortened, which has the virtual effect of producing an extra 50 horsepower – as if the mighty V12 was wanting for oomph. Upshifts can now happen 30 percent quicker, and the engine’s ability to rev-match for downshifts occurs 40 percent faster. Aiding the 812’s performance are revised aerodynamic profiles via a panoply of vents, ducts, vortex generators, and diffusers. With the goal of reducing drag while maintaining downforce, airflow is manipulated via passive elements at the front diffusers and three active flaps at the rear.

The powertrain tweaks seem tiny compared to the big news in the chassis department: Ferrari’s first use of electric steering (EPS). What took so long in an era when performance brands like Porsche are now several generations into their EPS technology? Ferrari says it considered the tech for the 488 GTB, but it wasn’t dynamically satisfying enough to warrant production. With so many systems digitally interfacing in the 812 – from traction/stability control and magnetorheological dampers to the electronic differential – Ferrari says it was finally time for the steering to became part of that dialogue. “The steering system now has a seat at the vehicle dynamics table,” says lead Ferrari test driver Raffaele de Simone, which begs the inevitable question: Is the steering feel good enough to warrant the change? More on that later.

2018 Ferrari 812 Superfast

Unlike Ferrari’s famously purposeful mid-engine cockpits, the cabin of the front-engine 812 Superfast feels spacious and fairly airy, with good forward visibility. Inherited from the GTC4 Lusso is the so-called twin-cockpit feature, which adds an 8.8-inch touchscreen above the glove box displaying navigation, drive mode setting or instrumentation info. The system works well enough and can easily be switched off, leaving a dark panel surface that blends well with the leather-lined interior. But the hot seat is the one behind the prancing horse-clad steering wheel.

The central focus from the driver seat is a large yellow tachometer that sits dead ahead. The dial is a reassuring reminder of Ferrari’s performance intentions despite the 812’s distinct grand-touring elements – the front-engine configuration, the surprisingly roomy seats, and the refined infotainment system inherited from the Lusso that includes twin hi-resolution five-inch screens.

Bring the massive V12 to life via the steering wheel-mounted start button, and the 812 fires with a deliciously loud thrum. The titanium exhaust system is slightly quieter at lower rpms in Sport mode due to sound regulations, but in the Race setting the system opens up to the F12’s more raucous volume levels. Set the manettino to Sport, and the engine’s tremendously flexible powerband makes it easy to lope around town with minimal gearshifts. There’s incredible pull from low rpms thanks to the engine’s Mack Truck-like displacement and continuously variable intake, and with 80 percent of torque available from 3,500 rpm the run to max revs at 8,900 rpm is pin-you-to-your-seat giggle inducing.

2018 Ferrari 812 Superfast

Up the ante by clicking the manettino to Race, and you’ll still get enough electronic intervention to keep you from kicking the tail out; I endured one well-mannered lap at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track before switching to the CT off setting, which enables tail-happy corner sliding with a safety net of stability control. This is hero mode at its finest: With so much power so easily accessed at your right foot, flawlessly executed power slides makes you feel like a certified drift master. The task requires more daring than ever because the 812’s four-wheel steering system adds stability at higher speeds; the act feels even riskier due to wider front tires that dig in more firmly, having grown from 255 mm to 275 mm (the rears remain at 315 mm).

While the 812’s power feels eminently manageable thanks to the naturally aspirated engine’s intuitive throttle response, it isn’t until ESC is switched off that the truly beastly nature of the car emerges. In what we’ll call Man-Up Mode, the 812’s personality shifts; the V12 responds without the politeness of electronic intervention, easily charging the vehicle ahead and even more easily sliding the tail out. More mechanical grip requires higher corner speeds to break the Pirellis’ grip loose; when that happens, quick countersteer is in order to keep the front end in tandem with the rear. Incidentally, Ferrari engineers say that during this state of oversteer, the electronic steering system is designed to slacken the steering in one direction, just like when the tires break loose with a hydraulic setup. The real-life feeling is appropriately realistic. Though the electronic steering feels slightly heavier and incrementally less lucid and transparent than the outgoing setup, the feedback is communicative enough not to raise significant red flags about its artificiality. There is, most certainly, a difference between old and new, but the difference is not strong enough to warrant storming the castles of technology, especially when they indeed have finally become a part of the vehicle’s ever-complicated electronics systems.

2018 Ferrari 812 Superfast

Having explored the 812’s limits on the track, the road becomes an appropriate place to dial back the drama and explore the grand-touring side of the car’s personality. That said, the V12 makes it all but impossible to switch on the Bose-powered stereo system, which is just as well. The mellifluous internal-combustion song is all but impossible to ignore, as is the addictive feeling of thrust as it sweeps the tachometer up toward its 8,900-rpm redline. Leave the gearbox in automatic, and shifts are remarkably smooth and well-timed. Hit a twisty road and click the manettino to Race, and the shift strategy is just as good as you’ll find on Porsche’s near-perfect PDK system, holding the revs in just the right range for strong-spirited driving. When switched to manual mode, the shifts get a tad less smooth, but the feeling of control is unparalleled; there’s virtually no lag between tactile input and cog swap, and a new feature enables the driver to hold down the left paddle during hard braking, which triggers multiple shotgun-quick downshifts. Neat.

In fact, “neat” just might be the operative word when piloting the 812 on twisty roads; despite its relatively lengthy 107-inch wheelbase and longish snout, the Ferrari manages to tackle switchbacks with zero drama. Ride quality is controlled and firm but never busy, and the so-called Bumpy Road setting offers a bit more compliance over the potholed bits. Even in the relatively restrictive Race mode, power is routed from the electronic differential to the road with seamless ease; no tire slip, no problem. And within the cabin, the mood is modulated because harnessing the engine’s immense power is far less stressful than you might expect, thanks to the intuitive feedback from the throttle, brakes, and steering.

If you could sum up the predominant mood following a day of driving the Ferrari 812 Superfast, it just might be a feeling of supreme satisfaction. With an endlessly smooth and powerful V12 under the hood, an accommodating cabin, and surprisingly agility, the 812 manages to achieve superlatives across a seemingly improbable spread of the performance/comfort scatter plot: It’s effortlessly quick, impressively athletic, and surprisingly comfortable. The only elements that seem to open themselves to criticism are abundance of slats and vents that break up the F12’s otherwise sculptural shape, and a bit more plastic trim on the interior than befits a $308,000 car. Apart from those quibbles, there really isn’t anything on the Ferrari 812 that isn’t super.

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June 23, 2017 / Comments Off

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2017 Nissan GT-R Driver’s Notes: Picking up pizza in a supercar

I forgot how much fun the 2017 Nissan GT-R can be, even for mundane tasks like running errands and picking up pizza. A blindingly red-and-black model spent a few days in our short-term fleet this week, and in this prolific era of angry sports cars, Godzilla still delivers.

The refresh includes light yet noticeable interior and exterior changes. The front end gets a new hood, spoiler, and bumper, and new style lines make it look tougher. Vaguely like a sea monster, I think. Inside I was surprised how nice the car is. This model is done up in burnt orange leather with black hard points, and it looks and feels premium. The layout and gauges are simple. You don’t adjust the steering wheel – the whole cluster moves up and down – it offers a bit of a racecar vibe. The 3.8-liter V6 engine also is tuned for more power, pushing out 565 horsepower (up 20 from before) and 467 pound-feet (four more). Nissan says it’s the biggest change since 2009, and it feels like it.

I tested a Premium model with the optional Premium Interior package, which included hand-stitched leather ($4,000). Add in the GT-R logo floor mats ($295) and the sticker came to $115,980. It’s a handsome devil. Here are my other random thoughts:

It’s still a head-turner. You don’t see that many GT-Rs in metro Detroit – it’s more Corvette and Hellcat country – and people take note. The red coloring underscored its menace (the images above are from a test in Europe).
It sounds good. Not crazy like some burbling, maniacal muscle cars, but lay on the throttle and this thing gets loud and angry. I did this in the parking lot of Autoblog Tower to waste gas.
There’s so much power here. With all-wheel-drive you get cocky. The brakes are strong with little pressure. Only the heavy steering gives you pause.
The six-speed dual-clutch is decent for the most part, usually kicking down smoothly. It can get a little too aggressive, like when I braked, then accelerated quickly and it clunked through a shift.
Visibility is pretty good. The long hood and seemingly faraway corners aren’t intimidating. It’s kinda fun to have all of this car around you.

No track test for me. I took it home, and after a long day at the office it did wonders to clear my thoughts. Then I volunteered to go pick up a pizza, and I went past half a dozen closer places to get the kind we wanted. Driving the GT-R also provided motivation.

So yeah, muscle-car Monday was enjoyable, and Nissan is wisely keeping its signature performance machine updated (modern might not be the right word) and competitive. And yes, it’s great for running errands.

The @Nissan GT-R always delivers, even when I pick up the pizza. pic.twitter.com/r5vVfhfNBZ

— Greg Migliore (@GregMigliore) June 13, 2017

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June 16, 2017 / Comments Off

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Ferrari, not Tesla, might be the stock to buy

Last week Tesla’s earnings – or lack thereof – were one of the big stories in the auto industry. As usual, the electric carmaker didn’t make money, but the news sent the market, analysts, and Tesla’s devoted fans into a lather. But another company, this plucky upstart called Ferrari, also attracted a positive reaction from the market and actually had the financials to back it up.

Ferrari posted net revenues of $898 million (at today’s exchange rates) EBITDA of $265 million (a slightly complicated way to snapshot financial performance) and an adjusted net profit of $136 million in the first quarter. The company delivered 2,003 cars, and sales of its V12 models increased 50 percent. It quietly made progress nearly a year and a half into its life as an independent automaker. For 2017, Ferrari expects to deliver 8,400 cars and rake in net revenue of $3.6 billion.

No one thought Ferrari would flounder when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles spun it off in fall 2015. With a rich history, expensive products, and its own loyal fan base that’s arguably even larger than Tesla’s, the company seemed poised for success, though skeptics wondered how it might fare after longtime chief Luca di Montezemolo stepped down before the spinoff. Plus, the company remains within the FCA sphere, as its key stakeholders are largely connected to its former parent in some way, and Chairman Sergio Marchionne also steers FCA.

Last week’s results showed Ferrari is gaining footing in the evolving automotive world, and analysts responded. UBS analyst Michael Binetti reiterated Ferrari stock (RACE on the NYSE) as buy status and raised his target price from $85 to $92. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas was even more bullish, raising projections to $100 in the next 12 months. Shares were trading around $82 Monday morning.

Both analysts viewed Ferrari as something different than a conventional automaker stock, with Binetti comparing it to luxury house Hermes, which produces high margins even for a specialty goods maker. Jonas suggested Ferrari’s singular reputation and history (16 Formula One Constructors titles, the most ever) could insulate its products when autonomous and electric cars become even more commonplace.

“In our view, a Ferrari is not transportation,” he wrote in a note to clients. “Ownership is viewed as an exclusive club, and membership requires more than just money. In a world where pleasurable human driving experiences on an open road become increasingly scarce, the value of this club’s membership may indeed appreciate.”

Ferrari is working on electric technology and has shown a willingness to diversify its product line with hybrid and turbocharging technologies in recent years. It also offers the GTC4 Lusso, a hatchback, with greater functionality than the brand’s cars traditionally offered.

Tesla, meanwhile, posted revenues of $2.7 billion in the first quarter but booked a net loss of $330.3 million, $48 million more than in the first quarter of 2016. Its stock was trading around $311 per share Monday morning.

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May 8, 2017 / Comments Off

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Secrets of the next Corvette’s engine and lineup, all figured out (we think)

We’ve taped up the windows and covered all available whiteboard and wall space with printouts, spy shots, sketches and maps of Bowling Green and Upstate New York. Hundreds of pushpins dot prominent points; miles of red strings connect them all. Data scientists call this link analysis. The cleaning people call it a nuisance.

The subject of our insanity? The upcoming mid-engine Corvette, the DOHC Corvette and, finally, the big-wing-toting Corvette ZR-1. Our deductive sleuthing tells us that all of these things are, finally, real. The evidence has been right in front of us for months. GM’s been hiding its plan in plain sight and we think we’ve cracked the code. Pore over our clues, follow along with our reasoning, and see if you agree with our conclusions.

(Note: We didn’t reach out to GM on any of this. They don’t comment on future vehicles, and we don’t want to waste their time.)

Dual Overhead Cam V8 Corvette? Really?

While the idea – and crummy renderings – of a mid-engine Corvette have sold a billion magazines and generated a trillion clicks, the transition to a DOHC layout should be the one getting everyone’s attention. Since almost the beginning, a big part of the Corvette’s DNA has been Chevy’s overhead valve, Small Block V8. And for good reason; these engines are compact, make great power across the rev band, can return exceptional fuel economy, and provide the reliability and inexpensive repairs that have kept the Corvette an everyman’s sports car for 60 years.

But those rods are pushing their last.

But those rods are pushing their last. We’re reaching the zenith of naturally-aspirated horsepower that any reasonable company would dare slap a warranty on (RIP, LS7), and Corvette buyers are repeat customers who will expect the next ‘Vette to top the C7’s 465 horsepower and 29 mpg. GM is one of the last holdouts on the naturally aspirated V8 and one of only two firms still offering it with pushrods. If GM wants to keep the V8, meet ever-stricter CAFE requirements, and continue to delight fans of the Corvette, something needs to change.

GM has done everything it can to keep the small block alive. Aluminum block and heads, direct injection, cylinder deactivation, variable valve timing. The next step is to either join the forced-induction party or admit the limitations of a two-valve motor and, literally, step up their cam game. The improved breathing and timing optimization afforded by four valves per cylinder and variable valve-timing-and-lift would get them there without a single person on the internet screaming about lag.

Oh, and let’s not forget that leaked document from late last year that confirmed a DOHC LT5 V8 for a Y chassis car.

Is it Doable?

The anti-DOHC naysayers will say that it requires a whole new engine block, and GM isn’t going to replace the Gen V engine so soon or spend the money on dual V8 lines. The argument also says overhead cams create a prohibitively tall engine for the available space. Let’s dispel both of these right now thanks to our friends at Mercury Marine. Yes, that Mercury Marine. The company that Chevy contracted to build the Lotus Engineering-designed DOHC LT-5 V8 motor that powered the legendary Corvette ZR-1 in the 1990s.

engines

After teasing the concept for a few years, at the 2016 SEMA show Mercury Racing, the go-fast subdivision of Mercury Marine, launched its 750 horsepower, 8,000 rpm SB4 7.0 automotive crate motor. Based off of GM’s 7.0-liter LS7, the SB4 does away with GM’s valvetrain and swaps in their own 32-valve DOHC setup. On this engine, the new overhead cams are driven by a dual-belt system. A straightforward dual-roller timing chain setup is mounted on the front of the motor off the crank. We’ve reached out to Mercury Marine for clarification on what happens with the now-vacant in-block cam-hole and will update the story if we hear back. In Chevy’s case, it could cast a new block that plugs the oiling holes, but would need to reserve this tunnel for a prop shaft. The Corvette’s high-pressure fuel pump is driven off the back of the camshaft, so any changes to that would necessitate a fix for the pump, too.

Chevy’s LS3 stands a tidy 17.72 inches tall from the centerline of the crank to the top of the intake. Mercury Marine’s DOHC, measures 17.1 inches from the crank centerline to the top of the throttle bodies. Of course, there are some differences in the intake systems that could account for this difference, but the point remains that converting an LS motor from pushrod to DOHC does not add enough height to kill the project. Especially not when you’re talking about an engine that could return 600 horsepower without forced induction.

This is important for a couple of reasons. Remember that we’re not talking about a new engine for an all-new car here, folks. According to our leaked document above, this is going to be dropped sometime in 2018 while a new, C8 Corvette shouldn’t be expected until 2021 at the earliest. Not only does this new motor need to fit vertically, but it needs to fit in the same mounts as the current OHV motor. New hood? Easy. Potentially relocating the whole powertrain? Not so much. The above solution as proven by Mercury Marine solves both of these problems.

Is GM ready for this change?

As we’ve previously speculated, GM’s absurdly massive investment in a “paint shop” in Bowling Green is more than enough to launch another vehicle line, so swapping in a new motor won’t rock the boat. What we didn’t know then was that GM was about to put $295 million into its Tonawanda engine facility, where Corvette 6.2-liter V8s are made, to support “future engine production.” Steve Finch, Tonawanda’s plant manager, was quoted by the Buffalo News as saying that the new engines “would represent the next step for the plant’s existing ‘Generation V’ engine line.” Kathleen Dilworth, GM manufacturing director told the same paper, “They’re going into future vehicle products that we’re not prepared to announce yet, for competitive reasons.”

To put this $295 million number in perspective, the 2010 investment in Tonawanda to build the Gen V small-block was $400 million. That investment should be enough for a significant valvetrain upgrade, especially as this motor will also be spread across the pickup truck line.

Whaaaaat?

Alongside the nonsense “it won’t fit!” naysayers are the armchair MBAs who argue that GM is too focused on the bottom line and too obsessed with scale to do another expensive one-off engine line. These people are onto something. GM isn’t going to architect this updated motor just for the Corvette; we see it replacing all of the V8s.

chevrolet silverado

The Gen V small block, introduced on the 2014 Corvette Stingray, found its way into the redesigned GMT K2XX trucks/full-size SUVs as the EcoTec3 in both 6.2 and 5.3-liter configurations. Any new development for the Corvette’s powertrain, besides the silly performance motors, needs to be flexible enough to do work across the whole GM portfolio.

Considering this, the timing is too perfect. For 2016, Silverado sales were down while nearly every other truck posted gains. Ford, specifically, is making gains with its lineup of efficient-according-to-the-EPA EcoBoost motors and aluminum bodies. GM needs to do something. A DOHC V8 would increase power and efficiency with minimal costs and no silly (and expensive) turbos. Finally, with the release of the new Chevy Tahoe RST, Cadillac and GMC need a hi-po engine offering to keep those profit machines rolling. We’re guessing we’ll see the first of these in 2018 as 2019 MY.

But first, we’ll see it in:

chevrolet corvette zr1

The big-wing, front-engine car (ZR-1)

To be fair, this is the weakest part of our argument, but stick with it. We’ve seen spy shots of this one (we’ll call it ZR-1 henceforth) a few times now, but haven’t gotten a good sense of what’s powering it. For a while, we were on the side of the fence that follows GM’s current pattern and assumed that the new ZR-1 would be the track-focused big-brother to the Z06. Think Chevy’s ACR.

That theory makes sense not only from a GM product strategy viewpoint, but would help explain why GM had rented out Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for testing. Launching a new performance benchmark for your brand makes a bigger splash when you can say you’ve taken back the production car lap record from the Viper ACR. In this worldview, the ZR-1 doesn’t need more power or a new motor, it simply needs better tires, suspension and aero. Easy(ish). Trouble is, this totally reasonable plan doesn’t solve our problem with the leaked document showing a DOHC Corvette in 2018.

This only leaves one possibility: The ZR-1 introduces the DOHC motor back into the Corvette family with 650 naturally aspirated horsepower (a nice number that is more ponies than the ACR and more horsepower/liter than the Mustang Shelby GT350), an 8,000-rpm redline and the production-car track record at Laguna Seca.

For 2019, we bet that the DOHC motor trickles down into the rest of the Corvette lineup (excluding Z06) with 500 horsepower, a lower redline and 31 mpg highway fuel economy rating. And while we’re just spitballing here, don’t be surprised if the high-power DOHC engine wiggles into a Z28-style Camaro.

The mid-engine Corvette

So where does this leave the “Corvette” with the engine in the middle? Glad you asked!
There are obviously a number of hurdles for the mid-engine car to clear: 65 years of front-engined heritage, the everyman image, and the possible consumer resistance to a $150,000-plus Chevy. The mid-engine car needs to be a true halo product. A brand builder. And because it’s a Corvette (of sorts) it needs to punch above its weight from a performance perspective.

chevrolet XP-819 corvette

Which means that the mid-engine Corvette is going to have a souped-up version of the new family DOHC motor with a higher redline, higher peak horsepower and torque, and an inline electric motor.

Yeah. We think it’s gonna be a hybrid.

Where else can they go? Chevy’s already got a 650 horsepower Z06 in the stable, matching or barely beating that power figure for potentially double the price doesn’t work. AWD is cheating. (Besides, AWD could be reserved for a Cadillac version of this mid-engine flagship…the one that gets the 4.2-liter turbocharged V6. Think Audi R8 vs Lamborghini Gallardo here.) Supercharging could work, but it doesn’t provide enough model separation from the Z06, engine-wise. Not only does a hybrid powertrain system avoid any confusion/cross-shopping with the traditional Corvette, but it leapfrogs any domestic or foreign competition and launches the mid-engine Corvette smack into keyboard wars with the LaFerrari and McLaren P1. Especially if Chevy forgoes the obvious front axle e-motor solution and keeps the mid engine Corvette rear-wheel drive. This layout would fit with Corvette’s heritage and falls more in line with the driver-focused, tire-slaying nature of both Corvette customers and the engineers inside of Chevy.

Something like this integrated motor generator unit from Bosch which produces over 100 horsepower and nearly 300 torques would allow GM to tweak the gasoline motor for top-end power while letting the electric motor handle low-end torque fill. And that’s just an off-the-shelf solution; remember that Bosch was the electrification partner Porsche chose for the 918. If the two companies forge a serious partnership on this project, there’s no reason to doubt that the result would be one of the fastest, most technologically advanced supercars in the world.

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May 5, 2017 / Comments Off

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The unbelievable everyday supercar | 2017 McLaren 720S First Drive

The McLaren 720S goes around a racetrack the way the Earth goes around the Sun, inasmuch as the numbers involved are very difficult to comprehend. The Earth is very large, and the sun is even larger and very far away, such that a relative speed of 67,000 miles per hour seems crazy but is barely noticeable. The McLaren, however, puts you in a more immediate frame of reference, such that everything pertaining to its speed is not just noticeable, but alarming.

The 720S is so fast that there’s no warming up to it. Almost immediately you’re driving at speeds that, in pretty much any other car would mean imminent calamity. Even the non-alarming voice the driving coach in the passenger seat uses to tell you to go faster seems alarming.

Best of all, though, McLaren reminds you that rewards come with skill, not just speed, which is weird for a car this fast. You can’t just point the steering wheel, mash the gas and let the electronics sort everything out. You have to, you know, actually drive, paying close attention to weight transfer and smooth inputs. That also sounds weird, but it’s rare these days. In our world of point-and-shoot supercars, McLaren made the 720S a true driver’s car.

2017 McLaren 720S

So, how did we get here? In brief, after dipping a toe in the carmaking pool with the McLaren F1 in 1992 and the Mercedes-McLaren SLR in 2003, racing juggernaut McLaren started McLaren Automotive in 2010 and got into the business full time. That lead to the MP4-12C (later just 12C), P1, and eventually the three-tier Sport, Super, and Ultimate series lineup present today. The 720S sits in the middle, replacing the 650S and 675LT. Since the start, McLaren has launched at least one new model or derivative every year. So expect a variant of the 720S in 2018.

This is the first of McLaren’s second-generation regular production cars. It uses a carbon-fiber underbody the company calls Monocage II, an evolution of the P1’s monocoque that replaces the previous carbon fiber tub. It has all the things that come with structual evolution: light weight, lower side sills, higher rigidity. The new carbon monocoque also results in amazing rear visibility, thanks to a C-pillar located at the far edge of the car, bolstered by another thin strip of carbon fiber with glass covering the space in between.

Visbility also benefits from the fighter-jet profile of the 720S. The wedge-shape of the previous McLarens gives way to a canopy-like roof that recalls cars like the Pagani Zonda or original Acura NSX. McLaren goes a step further by folding the air inlets for the radiators into the doors, so that you can’t see them from the side of the car.

2017 McLaren 720S

Every crease and curve in the 720S leads to some kind of aerodynamic function. And then there are the eyeholes. The blacked out area in the nose houses the daytime running lamp light bar, the headlights, and inlets for more heat exchangers. The motivation was to avoid having more inlets that disrupt airflow or make the styling too fussy. In person, they’re fine. Otherwise the 720S is a beauty of sweeping, organic shapes. It makes the previous McLaren cars, which were attractive in their own right, look heavy and dowdy.

Open up the out-and-up hinged dihedral door and climbing to the 720S is easy, provided you’re not interacting with the optional racing buckets. Those seats have a deep hip bolsters, which makes exiting about as elegant as getting up from a bean bag chair. On the plus side, they’re nearly as comfortable as the standard seats and more supportive in hard cornering, which the 720S does well and often. The rest of the cabin is familiar McLaren territory with a couple of parlor tricks thrown in for good fun. The main attraction is the tilting dashboard, that goes from a full digital display to a horizonal tachometer and digital speedometer. McLaren sees your head-up display, and decided it doesn’t need it. The other trick is deep storage pockets in the doors, which latch closed when the door swings up to prevent any unwanted spillage of whatever McLaren owners stash in the doors. Is it gum wrappers and receipts like the rest of us?

Anyway, fire up the 720S with the start button (make sure the brake pedal is firmly pressed, lest embarrass yourself by cycling through the on, off, and accessory modes to no effect), and the new 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 comes to life. It doesn’t roar to life or howl, it just starts. And that’s the biggest fault of the McLaren 720S. For a $288,845 starting you don’t get much in the engine noise department. The optional sports exhaust elevates the soundtrack from bland nothingness to a nice tenor growl, but the McLaren still lacks the distinctive sound of a V8 in a Corvette, Aston Martin, or pre-turbo Ferrari.

2017 McLaren 720S

But oh heavens does this engine go. It’s an evolution of McLaren’s 3.8-liter V8, stroked 200 cubic centimeters, with new turbos, electronic wastegrates, intake plenum, heads, crank, and pistons to list a few parts. McLaren says it’s 41-percent new. Output is up 69 horsepower, and 68 pound-feet of torque, to 710 hp and 568 lb-ft. Zero to 60 miles per hour happens in a claimed 2.8 seconds. McLaren says the 720S will do the quarter-mile in 10.3 seconds. Top speed is 212 mph.

Those numbers seem like afterthoughts to how the McLaren feels. And it’s not just the launch, it’s anything that involves forward progress. And probably reverse as well, but we didn’t try that. Stab the accelerator on an open stretch of country road and you’re up to 120 mph in a matter of a few car lengths. That move – hard gas, hard brake, maniacal laughter, repeat – never gets old. On the track the 720S accelerates with an unbelievable ferocity. As in, during the time between easing on the gas pedal and pinning it to the firewall, your brain stops about halfway down while your foot keeps moving. I did it, lap after lap, and every time found it shocking.

Yet for such power, and equally matched grip and braking performance, two things stand out about driving the 720S fast. First, the lack of noticeable electronic intervention. Even on a rough two-lane the only indication of traction control is the flashing light. There’s no bogging or surging in the engine.

2017 McLaren 720S

The second thing about driving the 720S fast is how balanced it feels. This also conveys a hint of danger, at least at first encounter: drive this wrong and you’ll pay for it. Get accustomed to the car’s responses, though, and it floats through corners. This McLaren doesn’t oversteer or undeersteer so much as it just corrects course with the right pedal application. The only exception to this is when the rear wing pops up as an air brake at decelerations above 0.5 g and you feel a noticeable weight shift to the rear.

There are three modes each to both the suspension and powertrain: comfort, sport, and track. McLaren representatives noted the elimation of “Normal” as the default setting, which is a nice touch. Sport and Track progressively tighten up the dual-clutch automatic shift speed and loosen up the stability control threshold. Then there’s Variable Drift Control, which McLaren is keen to point out is not a magic drift mode button, but more of a variable setting to allow more and more yaw. In function it’s similar to other graduated track modes like Chevy’s performance traction management, but more oriented towards potential hoonage. You can also turn everything off for full Cars and Coffee social media embarrassment.

Then there’s McLaren Track Telemetry (MTT), a $2,620 option on its own or $4,220 lumped in with front, rear, and in-cockpit cameras. This is the part that makes the 720S both a driver’s car and a driving coach. MTT delivers a full suite of telemetry and lap timing, plus a split time display in the dashboard. Inside the car you can review video, look at data like speed, brake pedal force, and steering angle and compare it all to a reference lap. In my case I learned that compared to McLaren’s pro driver I chickened out on Vallelunga’s Curva Grande (duh) but did some good hard braking after the back straight (hooray for me). It will also show your theoretical fastest lap from a sessions by taking the best splits, just like in Formula one. And you can download the data and video to a USB drive for further analysis or social media embarrassment.

2017 McLaren 720S

McLaren’s cars have always delivered an amazing combination of comfort with the performance. If there’s a unique angle to the cars from Woking, other than not being Italian, it’s that they meld all that performance with plenty of comfort. A major key to this is Proactive Chassis Control, McLaren’s name for its hydraulic suspension that moves pressurized oil between the corners of the car. The newest evolution of this adds one accelerometer and two pressure sensors in the damper at each corner. The fun fact is that the 720S does it without anti-roll bars. The practical upside is that, especially in Comfort mode, the McLaren’s ride is amazingly compliant, bordering on downright pleasant. If you long for spinal punishment, Track mode stiffens things up to barely-tolerable levels on public roads.

Along with the complaint ride is a spacious cabin, which is a surprise given how wide the doors are. There’s more than a foot more car beyond your elbow. Even for a wide car that should make for a cramped cabin, but there’s plenty of shoulder room and the abundance of glass in the cabin keeps things from getting claustrophobic. Cars this expensive that sell in numbers as few as the 720S have resale values that are tied closely to odometer mileage. Which is a shame, because McLaren a built a supercar perfect for long distances. It’s even user friendly. Whereas Ferrari makes you fuss with pulling both shift paddles for neutral, the 720S has three big buttons for drive, neutral, and reverse.

So the McLaren 720S is a car made for driving, both on the track and, well, anywhere. And you can actually buy one, unlike the obsessive vetting process for the Ford GT. It’s safe to say that in it’s short history McLaren has carved out new ground in the supercar world, both in terms of accessibility (at least to the monied) and expanding the breadth of capabilities. It’s also safe to say that the 720S is McLaren’s best regular production car yet. At least until the next trip around the sun.

May 2, 2017 / Comments Off

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The Pagani Huayra Roadster is legitimately different than the coupe

“I’m in love with the whole shape of it. Especially the fact that it doesn’t share any body panel with the Huayra Coupe but it’s still a Huayra.” – Horacio Pagani

Horacio Pagani is an obsessive. This trait manifested itself during his time as an engineer at Lamborghini, where he was responsible for the outrageous Countach Evoluzione, a 1987 concept that not only shaved an incredble 1,000 pounds off the weight of the standard Countach through the use of carbon fiber and Kevlar, but also became a rolling test bed for advanced systems like antilock brakes, four-wheel drive, and a computer-controlled adjustable suspension.

When Lamborghini wouldn’t follow his suggestion and purchase an autoclave for making production carbon-fiber parts, he left and founded his own company. In the promotional materials introducing his latest supercar, the $2.4-million Huayra Roadster, he claims inspiration from no less than Leonardo Da Vinci, who sweated the details “down to the most minute component of the design.”

His compulsion is evident everywhere in the new vehicle. But where does this infatuation find its deepest resonance? After he unveiled the new car at this week’s Geneva Motor Show, we stopped by to chat with Horacio, and he explained his car’s most belovedly maniacal details.

On the silhouette: “First of all, I’m proud of the car itself. It’s sculptured by the wind and it was the biggest and hardest challenge we’ve ever undertaken. I’m in love with the whole shape of it. Especially the fact that it doesn’t share any body panel with the Huayra Coupe but it’s still a Huayra, you can definitely recognize it, [which] testifies how much work has been involved into the project.

The engine: “Mercedes-AMG made the engine bespoke and together with us, this is quite an honor and something that makes me proud. It is truly something special to have one of the oldest and the most important car manufacturers in the world making an engine specifically for you.

Aero: “The active aerodynamic system also. We brought this technology into the automotive industry back in 2011 with the Huayra coupe, and I’m happy to see it applied by a lot of manufacturers all around the world nowadays in many different projects and type of cars.

Materials: “The carbon fiber and composite material in general have always been one of the key features in our projects. The Pagani Huayra Roadster is the first roadster lighter than the coupe thanks also to the carbo Triax HP52, a new type of composite material which is 52-percent stiffer than the one we used in Huayra Coupè.

Inside: “The interiors also give me smile every time I sit in them – and the fact you can drive it without the roof gives me goose-bumps. Italy is the most beautiful country, so I imagined the Huayra Roadster as the perfect companion for traveling this open-air museum.”

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March 10, 2017 / Comments Off

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Ferrari 812 Superfast: It looks like it sounds

Ferrari has been on a roll with its recent mid-cycle refreshes. Last year at the Geneva Motor Show, the prancing horse brand unveiled the significantly updated replacement for the FF and named it the GTC4 Lusso, reviving a name last used on the 1971-72 365 GTC4.

Now, at this year’s Geneva show, the Maranellites lifted the silk on a revised version of their omnipotent F12 Berlinetta and rechristened it the 812 Superfast, utilizing a suffixed moniker that originated in a proto-muscle car Enzo concocted back in 1957 when he stuffed a big V12 into a car originally meant for a smaller one and baptized it the 4.9 Superfast. At least the capitalization and compound wording in this honorific finally makes sense, giving respite to the Spell Check programs worldwide.

“The name Superfast belongs to the Ferrari history,” says Flavio Manzoni, head of the Ferrari Design Center. “When we finish a project, we always create a list of names and this one just seemed to fit.”

Ferraris have always, or almost always, been lovely objects to behold, but it still amazes us that a brand that so often nails its design language the first time around finds means and actualization for improvement when it comes time to spruce things up. We were obsessed with the appearance of the first FF, but the heart-stopping GTC4 Lusso wiped our memory of that hatchback like some process out of a Philip K. Dick story.

Similarly, this 812 Superfast obviates our Total Recall of its predecessor, and not just because the slightly larger naturally-aspirated V12 in its aquiline front makes nearly 60 more horsepower. The design is less encumbered that that of the F12, with smoother flow, fewer disruptive channels and voids, and additional streamlining that give the new car a more balanced profile and proportion. A thicker, and more sailing C-pillar in the back also raises the tail, providing an elegant and functional (Super)fastback design that echoes famed Ferraris of yore.

“Compared to its predecessor, we have made huge steps in performance, so it is necessary to develop very strong aerodynamic solutions or the car wouldn’t reach our objectives,” says Manzoni. “The rear reminds us of the Daytona, not because of the shape but because of the form. The cut volume at the tail is typical of many Ferraris of the Sixties, like the 250 Lusso, the 275 GTB4, the 288 GTO. And the return of the double taillight is typical of Ferrari as well.”

This car may represent the end of the line for Ferrari’s naturally-aspirated V12 engine as the sole powerplant of its front-engine grand touring and super sports cars, a tradition dating back to the founding of the road car brand 70 years ago this year. (An electric battery pack is expected to supplement the next-generation cars in 2020.) Electric power provides its own liberations and challenges for designers. How will this affect the appearance of future cars?

“If you consider that a Ferrari is always a form that follows a function, of course hybridization will have an impact on design,” says Manzoni. “A Ferrari must always be honest, have an aesthetic franknesss. The basic code of Ferrari is that it’s design is intrinsically connected to its essence.” He shrugs and smirks. “It is not possible to say how hybridization will produce different shapes. It will have to be a surprise.”

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March 8, 2017 / Comments Off

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BMW M3 Chrome Bullet

Making a special appearance on the showroom floor at the BMW Welt in Munich was this M3. The BMW M3 Coupe bearing the name Chrome Bullet, is made out of all chrome. The shiny M3 is detailed with the Motorsport decal kit.

It’s unknown at this time whether it’s a show car or will have the option to purchase.

Photos courtesy of BMW M Facebook Page

October 13, 2011 / Comments Off

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2011 Singer 911

Check out Singer’s take on the Vintage 60’s 911 with a 21st century twist.

This modern version gives you choice of three engines, ranging from 3.6 L to 3.9L with power range of 300-425 hp, a 5 speed Getrag G50 transmission, four piston Brembo calipers and drilled rotors, uprated Bilstein adjustable dampers and coil over springs, newly developed, three-piece forged aluminum 17-inch wheels, to match the vintage exterior a bespoke interior, and a classic 1973 Carrera RS steering wheel all within a new carbon fiber body that has been built upon an early ’90s-era 911.

March 10, 2011 / Comments Off

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