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The MW Automotive Thread


areaseven

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There is a world of difference between a race car and a street driven supercar capable of 200+ mph.  Sure you can make anything blazing fast, but can you do it safely, reliably, and still shoehorn in all that luxury to placate buyers paying a million dollars for it?  Its not like this car has a pit crew that will rebuild its engine every couple of drives.

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I just don't like the philosophy behind it. The Mc F1 kept to the basics (lightweight, no electric seats etc etc). The Veyron is just too damn big and heavy. I don't think I'll ever get a chance to drive one but with that kind of weight, it must surely detract from the driving experience.

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actually volvo had a really awesome motor that not many people knew about. For a few years (it was discontinued last year due to production costs) Volvo made an all aluminum 2.9liter inline 6 twin turbo motor that really put out some juice. A few people were putting that motor into old CL240's slapping huge turbos and boosting em up creating super volvo's (how embarassing would it be to get whooped by a Volvo).

As for the Veyron, i'm just not a big fan. It was really just a big dump of money by a company that nets over 2 billion dollars a year (VW) just to make a car that can drive like a jet in a straight line. It holds it's own pretty well on a track from what i've read because of it's wide wheel base and AWD, but that's also it's downfall since it eats up the equivalent of two cars parked next to each other.

I just remember the Veyron's first unveiling around 3 or so years ago, where it flew off the track and almost blew up into a billion pieces. And then again a year later when the transmission blew up. And then again a little later where the car was still barely able to hit over 200mph.

I agree that the philosophy of that car just doesn't quite cut it for me, where you have companie's like Ford Saleen Ferrari and Porsche who come out with a super car with estimated numbers and they either meet or beat them on the first run out and then work on improving from an already workable platform. The Veyron took a more trial and error approach and three to five years just to get it working.

I really think any car company that feels like throwing millions of dollars into a super car just to say they have the best one is going to accomplish it. And I'm sure if any other car company did, it would be better than VW's.

Edited by emajnthis
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I'm also a car enthusiast but mostly have been following rallying the most. My favorites are cars like the Lancia Stratos and Delta S4, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and Audi S1 and the new S4. I used to be big Evo fan but just of the older generations II through VI models, the newer CT9As don't appeal to me as much.

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aha, I was going to post some new pics I found of the Miura concept, but you beat me to it, A7. Hear Hear! Nicely done!

I'm liking that Camaro concept. The 3/4 angle view of the Challenger does it justice, too. Although from other angles, the Dodge just feels a little too "upright" or tall, for some reason. It's gonna be a big motha too, w/that 116" wheelbase, this one may suffer from weight issues compared to the Mustang, like the orginal Mopars did. I'd LOVE to see ver. of it go into racing head to head with the 'Stangs and Porsches, Maybe in GrandAm or SWC, if/when it goes into production. But the guys at Dodge better understand: it had better be able to walk the walk, if they're gonna take on the 'Stang on the showroom floor--it can't just look the part, it's got to be a solid performer, and more than just in a straight line. Yup, it's definitely a good time to be alive and a musclecar fan... B))

I'm LOVING that Miura, but it looks oddly like the Pantera as much as it does it's namesake Lambo. Maybe that owes to the nature of the design layout; mid-engine, long snout, short rear deck--there's only so much you can do within those parameters, and there's bound to be inherent similarities?

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Edited by reddsun1
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Lambo is going to have to flatten out that nose if they want to sell that car in the US to get the DOT approval, but that concept is perfect.

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The Challenger looks decent but to me it seems to have some odd proportions. The front looks great but somewhere in the rear quarter i'm not satisfied with the proportions. The entire front half of the camaro looks god awful IMO. It looks like knight rider came back from the dead and decided to take its rage out on the Camaro.

Dodge is usually hit or miss with performance, so hopefully the Challenger will have more to offer than it's Charger frame work. As for the Camaro, I hope it is much more than a rebadged Vette. They already have the GTO, I hope they do something special (maybe a DOHC motor since GM has a perfectly good one laying around) to make the Camaro more unique.

I really think now is a great time for motorsports in general. It seems like all of the car companies have really took performance to mind in at least one of their cars. I can't wait to see everyone's lineup in 2010 and what kind of modern performance jumps are made.

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Fuel prices are through the roof and America is producing bigger and heavier muscle cars. Their stupidity knows no limits.

They can't make a saleable car to save their lives, but they go on to make one that defys every person's ultimate goal of car ownership...

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Now I know what it is about the new Miura. I couldn't put my finger on it at first, but it's I see what's different--not neccessarily "wrong" but different--the greenhouse sits much farther forward on this new iteration of the design, hence the seemingly "snub-nose" look to it. Maybe it's to help with f/r weight dist?

With a little more time for contemplation, my response to the Camaro concept could be better summed "meh. I'll believe it when I see it in the showrooms." This is only the third or fourth concept we've seen so far isn't it? They can't seem to get their ship in order at GM. First it's "we're cancelling the Zeta platform in the US"; then it's "no, we're gonna do it after all." Make up your minds, guys. "We'll just keep building SUV's and pickups and selling at high markups; oh, and just keep churning out FWD variations of the same platform. Corvette's doing just fine as our RWD flagship. That 'Mustang' phenomenon is just a fad..." I just don't see how they could possibly be inspiring any kind of shareholder confidence--it's like one half of the board room table is occupied by crack-smoking monkeys, and the other half? Well, you can't see who's at their seats--they seem to have their heads up their arses.

Edited by reddsun1
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Those Fisker's have to be one of the most pointlessly expensive coach builds ever. I haven't seen anything new so far, i was hoping they would unveil some new concepts that haven't been shown at previous autoshows. I remember the spaceship Maserati, i thought it was neat. And the new Porsche 4S is exactly the same motor and drivetrain wise, but to help it's poor rear motor layout they widened the crap out of the body. Nice pictures A7

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wow, the new G35 looks friggin sweet. I'm glad they finally pumped up the rear fenders a bit, that was my biggest complaint with the original G35 coupe. It looks like the new IS is going to get some healthy competition, especially since the G35 still beats it in a lot categories and the car is several years old. Now all we need is a new M3 and the top 3 can have a proper shoot off.

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Its amazing how Nissan really doesn't get much of anything with their cars yet its sister company Infiniti gets all the good stuff for luxury.......meh that's probably why we didn't like messing around with them.

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Behold, the Mazda Kabura, which is more likely to have a Miata engine and NOT a rotary engine, so no new RX successor yet... thank god, this thing is ugly.

Seriously. I could never understand the idea behind those bulging wheel wells and fenders. The current 'RX is, in my opinion, is a sad replacement for the previous one cosmetically...

Edited by myk
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The new Infiniti G35 Coupe Concept is really nice, i love the interior. any idea of the cost that they have perhaps planned for such a car?

chris

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Behold, the Mazda Kabura, which is more likely to have a Miata engine and NOT a rotary engine, so no new RX successor yet... thank god, this thing is ugly.

Seriously. I could never understand the idea behind those bulging wheel wells and fenders. The current 'RX is, in my opinion, is a sad replacement for the previous one cosmetically...

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It's a good thing it wasn't a replacement then, eh? The RX-8 is not the replacement for the RX-7, just like the RX-7 wasn't the replacement for the RX-5 (or 4, or 3, or 2 or 100).

The Kabura is certainly different looking, but not bad. Compared with the G35 coupe (whats that... a BORING looking Nissan? Who'da thunk...), at least it's trying to be different instead of boring or retro.

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