With the advent of the Laraki Motors Epitome at Concours D'Elegance this past week, I started thinking. What exactly are the defining characteristics of a "hyper car" and what is the best one?
Not having driven any of these cars. This is purely my personal opinion, gathered from everything I have read and or watched over the years.
So what makes a vehicle a hyper car rather than a super car. A few things must be realized, and some cars do only a few of these things but not all of them. For a car to truly be considered a hyper car I feel everything has to be accomplished.
First off we deal with performance numbers. A hyper car should in my eyes have over 750 horsepower. Now allot of people are going to spout off about how power to weight ratio is more important than shear power. Those people are correct. However, a hyper car is supposed to strike fear into mortals and if you're vehicle has 300 horsepower, but it only weighs 1000 pounds, yeah it's going to be fast but a mustang would beat you in a bragging rights competition and what else do you buy a hyper car for if not for bragging rights? Next it should have a top speed greater than 230 MPH. If you follow current specs on a certain 2 cars from Porsche and Mclaren you will notice that this will disqualify them. Many people will disagree with this. As far as I know these cars are electronically limited to the top speeds they attain. I am not an engineer but if these vehicle's were allowed to go as fast as I'm sure they can they could beat the Veyron, but alas they are not. We can't forget acceleration either. A hyper car should be able to do the 0-60 run in under 3.3 consistently. Why not under 3? For the simple fact that for the driver to be able to do multiple back to back runs under 3 seconds he has to be an F1 driver on a perfect road in perfect conditions, not just you're every day (ahem ok maybe not your every day, but you get the point) rich guy. Now that performance has been dealt with. A hyper car of course needs to be exclusive and, in my mind that means no more than a thousand can be made. For the final criteria we have the price. Which, of course, will be just stupid and unnecessary. I'm thinking a cool million dollars will do the trick.
Now what does that leave us with? Now this will not be an exhaustive list by any means because there are many cars that fit the bill but I will cover some interesting ones and my personnel favorites.
I've covered the Bugatti Veyron before and as we all know it has well over 750 horsepower, 1186 to be exact (if we are talking supersport....and we are!) It costs over a million dollars and meets all the performance specs and than some!
Now this is a car I have not covered yet. The Mighty Koenigsegg Agera R. This car is super gorgeous and ultra fast. It regularly challenges the Veyron for top speed honours. She does 0-60 in 2.9, and has a snarling 5 litre V8 under the hood that puts down a possible 1115 horsepower on E85 fuel. For a small fee of 1.6 million dollars she can be yours. Is it the best hyper car? From what I have seen it can turn around and bite you on your ass if you don't respect it, so i'm not sure. Hyper cars should arguably be a handfull but this one seems to be overly angry.
The Hennessy Venom GT can not and will not be forgotten. It's a car that comes from a tuning company. It took down the Bugatti and currently holds the record for world's fastest standing run to 200 mph, completed in 15.6 seconds. Pictured is the GT2 which has 1500 horsepower. The venom cost 1.1 million dollars, so it's a bargain! Yes it is in reality just a VERY highly modified Lotus Exige body, but that engine however is a thing of beauty. A 7.0 litre V8 that sounds like it's going to eat your heart and will propel you to a measured top speed of 267 MPH! This car is mind blowing but because it is not a wholy original car I don't think it can be considered the best hyper car.
The Pagani Huayra... Just look at it, take it in. The name means Wind and it moves just like it's name sake. It just barely squeaks in the hyper car world with a 730 horsepower V12, a top speed of 230 MPH and a 0-60 run of 3.3 seconds so it just gets there. It does cost a million dollars though which once more just gets there. The interior is out of this world with a gear lever that has the mechanics exposed so you can see and hear the lever action "click" when you select a gear (even though it has paddle shift, but when you have that cool of a stick shift why bother?!) I do not beleive this is the best hyper car, I do however think it is the most beautiful. It is a piece of art if I ever saw one.
The SSC Ultimate Aero is the car that originally took down the Veyron with a world record run of 257 MPH (since been broken). I'm also pretty sure that the record run was done by a 70 year old man (which makes him the coolest octogenarian on earth). The car has a 387 cubic inch V8 that produces 1287 horsepower, does 0-60 in 2.87 seconds and costs a million bucks, like the rest. So I would say it definitely qualifies for hyper car status. It is not the best hyper car in the world though, for one reason. That reason is this.
The SSC Tuatara. This car is technically not in production yet but when and if it does come out? It will trump pretty much everything. It supposedly has the fastest 0-60 at 2.3 seconds. Also it has the fastest top speed, 276 MPH. This is made possible by the V8 that apparently is boasting 2 turbos and twin superchargers for an output of some where in the range of 1350 Horsepower. No word on the price yet but you can bet it will be terrifying to mere mortals. Is this the best hyper car. Well, who actually knows but I can tell you it has a damn good shot.
Hyper cars are for making peoples neck's snap, for making rich guys wet themselves and when it comes down to it, for saying mine's bigger than yours. To say which is the best one is all but impossible until some one lines all of them up and goes to town (PLEASE LET THAT HAPPEN). For now it is allot of fun to see where we are going with all this and if it will ever stop and reach a breaking point.
This is one car obsessed guy who hopes against hope that it doesn't.
So it's been awhile since my last post. I had some internet service provider issues.
I am back now and have been coming up with and finding new ideas, so they are gonna start coming fast and loud. So let's get on with it shall we.
every few years the auto industry goes through a bit of a metamorphosis. Where allot of new cars debut with allot of new technology. Some times this tech and these cars blow everyone's mind and get people very excited for what is to come. Other times no one cares and things continue as normal.
The last time we had an amazing year that I can remember was 2005. That year brought the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, the current design generation of the Ford Mustang (which is in it's last year sadly), the Aston Martin DB9, the Ford GT and the Ferrari F430 just to name a few. before that I would say it would have had to be 2002 which saw the debut of Lamborghini Gallardo (which they should be replacing shortly), the Ferrari Enzo and a new generation of Dodge Viper.
Now however we experiencing one of the best years in automotive history to date. 2013 and for that matter 2014 in my opinion will change cars as we see them the forever. No longer will you have to put a big engine in you're car to make big power, The performance statistics we are used to are being shattered in spectacular fashion and hybrid technology will go from being a joke to save at the pumps to being a viable option to add useable power to performance cars in an economic way.
I cannot and will not try to name all of the cars that are debuting or going on sale in 2013 but I will discuss some of them that I find to be notable. Let's see, we have the Ferrari Laferrari, porsche 918 spider, BMW i8 and i3, volkswagon golf/GTI/GTD, BMW 4 series and M4 along with the new 3 series and of course the Mclaren P1.
Honestly what can I tell you about these cars that you don't already know. If you read this blog than you probably try to stay on top of car news as much as I do but if you don't I will try to enlighten you.
We are going to start with the mind blowing laferrari, This car is the spiritual successor to the exceptional and rare Ferrari Enzo. This car however will make the Enzo look somewhat shall we say archaic. For that reason The car is....well I'll be frank it isn't cheap 1.3 million dollars but when you look at what it's competing against that isn't so bad.
It is driven by something called the f70 f150 HY-KERS System which produces 963 horsepower. This is basically saying that they took the V12 from the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta (730 horespower) tweaked it a bit to get 789 HP and put an electric motor system on the back of it which adds another 161 horsepower.
This seems to be the way allot of hyper cars are going now. They take a big engine and instead of dropping a big turbo on it they supplement an electric drive unit. I think this is a wonderful use of the technology available for two reason.
1, It increases the fuel economy of an other wise 3mpg car to slightly more reasonable numbers.
2, If you strap a big turbo on you're car it will probably blow up if the engine can't handle it, and NOS is illegal for street use. we have not seen the reliability of such electric/gas drivetrains yet but I have high hopes. Plus you can say you drive a hybrid without being laughed at.
As most of you will realize above is the new Porsche 918 spider. it's a little cheaper at just over a million dollars. It also has slightly less power at 875. It runs on a 600 horsepower v8 plus and electric drive motor to come up with it's total. The cool thing about this car over the Ferrari or the Mclaren is that unlike those cars this one can run on only electric drive if you so choose. I'm not entirely sure why a person who buys a million dollar 875 horsepower car that can do 0-60 in 2.8 seconds would want to drive in only electric mode (maybe it's a party trick) but to each his own I suppose. However having the ability to drive in pure electric does give the 918 a bit more daily drive credibility which could move it into the realm of the perfect car.
Now we arrive at my favorite of the hyper three, The Mclaren P1. This car is of-course 1.1 million dollars but that is no surprise by now. The tech in this car however is in my opinion more useful for a hypercar than that of the previous two cars in this post. It has a turbo charged 3.8 litre V8 that puts down 727 horsepower. Unlike the other two cars however where the electric motor works sepreatly but in conjunction with the gas engine, in this car the electric motor is attached to the driveline of the engine kinda like a supercharger it produces 34.8 psi of boost which in turn gives the engine another 177 horsepower for a total of 903. The electric motor can decouple from the gas engine and run on pure electric ( I know I said the porsche was the only one that could do that but the Mclaren can only run on pure electric for 6.2 miles so cut me some slack). My favorite part of this car though is the fact that it essentially has an electric NOS system. There is a button on the steering wheel that let's you instantly dump all 177 horsepwer into the engine for what I'm guessing would be a rather abrupt boost in power. That is just cool on a street legal car.
So that is the three big hyper cars debut for the year, Now let's talk about some more affordable cars.
The BMW 4 Series. Ok let's get this out of the way first. The name M4 or even just the 4 series is stupid. The name is supposed to represent the 2 door variant of the sedan 3 series and M3. Think about this for a second they have a 4 door car called the 3 series and a 2 door car called the 4 series. Am I crazy, does that make sense to anyone else. I understand why they didn't call it the 2 series or M2 because that makes it sound like less of a car. However a 2 door car called the 4 series hurts my head.
Now that I got that of my chest let us get back to the matter at hand. That car is drop dead gorgeous. The specs are all speculation from sources I've read.
it looks like the car will cost a little more than the current m3, around 90 thousand (the current models base is a bit over 72 grand) the M4 will have roughly 430 hp from a turbo charged motor as oppose to the current model's 414 HP naturally aspirated unit. The M4 will hit 60 in around 4 seconds. All in all it is shaping up to carry the tradition of possibly the most well rounded car on the market today. I can't wait.....now if only someone would let me drive one and review it.
These cars are really rather cool the i3 being a pure electirc car
with a top speed of 93 MPH from a 170 horespower electric motor get's the little
beast to 60 in about 7 seconds. That's not bad considering the Hyundai
Veloster Turbo does it in 6.8. so the little electric beamer can hang
with some hot hatches and it fully charges in six hours.
The i8 on the other hand is a bit of a different animal. It is a gas electric with about 362 horespower and will hit 60 in about 4.6 seconds. In this car the gas engine is a turbo 1.5 litre 3 cylinder unit with 231 horsepower, this drives the rear wheels. The front wheels are separately powered by a 131 horsepower electric motor that is available instantly from zero rpm. The electric motor alone can power the car up to 75 MPH. All told this car can get 95 MPG on U.S cycle gas. that is pretty awesome.
The new Volkswagen Golf just landed and amongst the debut they announced some model's such as the next generation GTI and GTD. These will be coming in 2014 and 2015 respectively. I am going to focus mainly on the GTD today though because it's my favorite.
The new GTI will be an amazing car. They have redesigned it slightly and it will now produce 220 horsepower or 230 if you opt for the performance package (which for once actually means something). The new Golf GTD is where it's at though. This car combines awesome fuel economy, the looks of the GTI and the torque of a diesel, and IT'S COMING TO CANADA PEOPLE!
It has Volkswagen's new EA288 diesel TDI motor which produces 184 horsepower. This is less than the the GTI's 220 yes but the GTD puts down 280 lbs ft of torque! This means it will be amazing at what hot hatches are supposed to do. That is accelerate and get out of corner's, Let's face it you don't really buy a hot hatch for the top speed. A hot hatch is used as a wicked fun daily driver that can dust lookey loo's at stop lights so 280 lbs ft of torque is a god send. The best part, while you're having you're cake you can eat it to. For the GTD to get 35 MPG with a heavy foot shouldn't be a stretch and it all will costs 27 thousand dollars (cheaper than the GTI by about 4 grand). I think this just may be the perfect car, now Volkswagen better damn well not change their mind because I for one would be in line to buy this beast.
So that's it folks a little bit of a preview of what's to come. I am excited for the future of automobile's and you should be to. With electric motor's being used as NOS to a sweet diesel hot hatch the only way this could get better is if I lived in Europe.
Perfect Cars. Cars are constantly ranked on many different criteria such as top speed, acceleration, price and so on. Motor Trend and Car and Driver specifically have annual "Ten Best" awards which many people take very seriously (me included). To be the perfect car however, it has to be well rounded, useable as possibly a daily driver, innovative, good looking, priced accordingly, and be fast and fun to drive as well as fuel efficient. Not exactly a small list is it, as well it shouldn't be. To be considered the perfect car is quite an accomplishment and not many can achieve it. I will be talking about the candidates I consider are maybe worthy of this title.
The first car I consider to be a possible perfect car is non other than the BMW M3. It's a car you can live with on a daily basis as it can have 4 doors (the new coupe model will be called the M4 which is really stupid and potentially very confusing for people in Britain) and it has a pretty good sized trunk (up to 12.4 cubic feet). If you drive it nicely (which will most likely be hard) it can return 20mpg highway as well. On the other hand it is also a fire breathing monster with a 4.0 litre V8 that puts down 414 HP and propels it to 60MPH is around 4 and a half seconds. It is a little pricey at
72,000 CAD for the base model but I think you get what you pay for. It is also a subtly gorgeous car, look at the muscular stance and the shapely hood blister that hides the dragon. The interior of this car is also something to behold...
It is an amazing vehicle that fits the bill for the perfect car, but there are other contenders for the title..
Such as the Volkswagon GTI.
http://blackauto.blogspot.ca/2011/04/vw-gti.html
The GTI is not as fast as the M3 by any stretch of the imagination (at least in stock form) or as exclusive. It's only around 30 grand and only has 200 horsepower, although the new one will have 220. It does however have much more cargo capacity (46 cubic feet to be exact) due to it being a hot hatch. It also gets better gas mileage, up to 31 MPG highway. Than again this car is not meant to compete with the BMW. It is a fun family car, but that does not disqualify it from contention of the perfect car. It can be all things to all people which is what a perfect car should be. It's fun, relatively fast get's good fuel consumption and can turn heads. Not bad for what it is. So is it the perfect car?
Keeping in the VW family, you could also consider something a bit different. The Bugatti Veyron. (allot of people are going to disagree with me on this one, just hear me out)
http://www.carsincare.com/2012-bugatti-veyron/
I feel any car considered to be perfect should be the absolute best at something or at least damn close. The M3 is the best sports sedan, the GTI is (in my opinion) the best hot hatch. The Veyron is the fastest, well, anything. Yes it's well over a million dollars and yes it returns something stupid like 3 MPG at full chat. It's looks are also completely polarizing (I think it's gorgeous). When you say the words Bugatti Veyron to anyone who knows anything about cars they know what you're talking about and they know that it is a force to be reckoned with. For those reason I think it could be the prefect car and in the very least it is perfect at one thing.
Now, when ever you're talking about what could be a flawless car you should include one of my all time fav's - the Nissan GTR.
This car needs to be considered if only because of the reputation it has developed as the supercar pounding godzilla. It's a 3800 pound car that can do 0-60 in less than 3 seconds and handle with the best cars out there. It also has a useable trunk (kinda) at 8.8 feet and back seats (they may not be to friendly but they are at least there) It also get's slightly better gas mileage than the BMW at 23 MPG highway thanks to it's V6 rather than a V8. This car can be driven daily if you so choose and it is definitely one of the most eye catching cars you can do this with. The only arguable problem is that it cost 110 thousand dollars which is allot of money, but for what you are getting it is a bargain.
And finally, a list of the the perfect car cannot be complete without mentioning the Porsche 911
Porsche has made this car for over 60 years with basically the same formula. Jeremy Clarkson once compared the 911 to an ax murder you took out to dinner - it will be all friendly and talkative one moment than the bill comes and BAM! It kills you. This is mainly due to the fact that the engine is in the "wrong place" or so many people think. I would say after doing the same thing for over 60 years they have finally perfected it. Now this car has virtually non existent trunk space (4.8 cubic feet), it gets pretty good gas mileage at 24 MPG highway and it can hang with the GTR in acceleration. It also has won countless "Ten Best" awards including the 2012 car of the year. So frankly if there is a car that deserves to be called perfect this one makes a very strong case. Don't you agree?
I have not covered all of the cars that could be considered and I will revisit this topic later because I think it is a very interesting topic. There are always new and better cars being produced which means there could be a new perfect car waiting in the midst that we don't know about yet. The future is exciting in the car world as always. So keep checking back cause you never know what will happen next....
James may of Top Gear UK driving the Bugatti Veyron Supersport
at Volkswagons test track at Ehra-Lessien, where
he hits 434 km/h
I posted this video to illustrate a point (and cause it's a great video). The automotive world seems to be leaning more and more to extremes in performance and price. Apparently it's not good enough for your car to be worth three hundred thousand dollars and travel at 200 MPH anymore, you are nothing unless its over a million and goes at least 240.
Let's start with the price issue: right now on the market the are no less than 20 new production (albeit limited production) cars that cost over 1 million dollars (I know there is more than ten but I cannot find a comprehensive list of million dollar cars).
Now let's just sit back and take that in. A MILLION dollars (six zero's) for a car. For a million dollars you could travel to every continent on the globe, hell every country on the globe in rather lavish style, you could possibly buy you're dream house, if you were smart you may never have to work again. Or, for 3.4 million dollars you could have this
mages.gizmag.com/hero/lykan-hypersport.jpg
That is the W Motors Lykhan Hypersport. It is not however the most expensive car in the world, currently that honour as far as I know goes to the Lamborghini Veneno at 3.9 million. This however is in my opinion the most outrageous car currently on sale. For 3.4 million you get a 750 hp RUF flat six with a top speed of 245MPH and a 0-60 time of 2.8 seconds. This is fast but no where near the top of the heap. What you pay for in this car is the accoutrements such as, wait for it.....Diamond encrusted LED lights, leather seats stitched with gold and an interactive holographic display (Ironman eat you're heart out) and just for fun it has rear opening upward angled suicide doors. This car along with all the other million dollar measuring sticks serve absolutely no purpose except as a means for unnecessarily wealthy insecure individuals to measure there.....um...wedding vegetable.
Ferrari, Mclaren, Lambo, Porsche, numerous other smaller manufacturers - they are all putting out cars that cost over 1 million dollars. They are doing this because people are actually buying them. The Lykhan Hypersport already has over 100 people who want it. To bad for those 100 people though, because they are only making seven. The Bugatti Veyron debuted in 2005 with a price of roughly 1.4 milion dollars making it the most expensive car in history. 13 years before that the Mclaren F1 cost 970 grand. Now since the inception of the Veyron things are going batty. Within 8 years we have gone from 1 car that costs a cool million to as I stated earlier; I'm guessing at least 20. This is insane and when will it stop? Within the last 2 years we have seen the debut of at least 4 cars that top a million; the La Ferarri est 1.3 millon, the Mclaren P1 est 1.1 million, the Porsche 918 spyder est 1 million and the Lamborghini Veneno 3.9 Million. It's not like these cars are the best in any segment either so basically the only reason I can think of that people are paying this is because they simply can. Now that's enough about insane automotive prices, let's take a look at the other extreme's we are facing in the world.
Before I really get into the meat of this section I have to get something of my chest. The mighty Mclaren F1 is NOT and never was the fastest car in production. The fasted car at the time the Mclaren F1 debuted was the Dauer 962.
It had a top speed of 251 MPH in 1981. Admittedly it was a Porsche Le mans car, but it was made street legal and they produced it for the the masses (13 I think). Which at the time made it the fastest production car in the world. And it held that title until the Veyron came along.
Now that I got that out of the way let's continue. I am seeing two more trends in automotive extremes right now. The first is massive power, huge speed/acceleration and skyhigh prices. The second is featherlight track cars that are street legal.
Back in 1992 when the Dodge Viper came out it had 400 hp which at the time was absolutely nuts for the general public, now you can buy a cheap mustang with more than that. The big numbers are now 900 plus horsepower and if you're car can't top 215 MPH and hit 60 in less than 3 seconds no one cares.
This list (above) has roughly 85 cars on it that can go above 200 MPH. Ten years ago that was an achievement, now frankly its the price of admission. Where can you go over 200 MPH? The autobahn if you're lucky and pay the toll (traffic can be rather heavy on the Autobahn, it is a major highway after all) or maybe on certain select tracks like The Circuit De La Sarth Malsanne Straight or the straight on the Nordschleif, and that's it so it's pointless right? Once more it is simply a manhood measure.
I remember when the under-three-second club was formed the Veyron did it first than Porsche and Nissan jumped in almost simultaneously. Now there are no less than 31 street legal cars that can hit 60 MPH in less than 3 seconds.
Topping this list is the crazy Ariel Atom V8. This car weighs less than 1000 pounds and has 500 horsepower. It does 0-60 MPH (highway speeds in Canada) in 2.3 SECONDS! Let's do an experiment; if you have a stop watch (usually cell phone's have one) lean back in you're chair, start the stop watch, immediately after starting the stop watch stand up out of you're chair than stop the timer. That is roughly the time it takes for the car to get up to highway speeds! 60 MPH or in Canada 100 KPH. To measure a speed like that is frankly pure luck, everything has to be perfect, the temperature of the ground has to be just right, the car has to have the correct weight of fuel in it, the driver has to be a robot of come kind (the Stig) and if you could do it twice in a row you should buy a lottery ticket.
On the horizon (within 2 years) there will be cars that can hit 280 MPH and complete the quarter mile in less than 8 seconds. My father used to drag race and he has told me that his car could do the quarter mile in 11.8 seconds in the 1970's, he was beating the fastest car's in his class at the time. These cars will be be completly street legal and they are going to be in the hands of people who frankly can't handle them and they will kill people.
Bugatti just announced that the next Veyron will take back the top speed crown at over 280 MPH. It will have over 1500 horsepower and cost around 7 MILLION dollars. The only reason they are waiting is because tire technology isn't available yet to sustain the force of 280. At full bore the current Veyron will eat through it's tires in 15 minutes.
So as you can see the trend for bigger, better, faster is certainly alive and well and doesn't look like it's going to slow down anytime soon. There is however another trend that has popped up in the last few years.
Recently small boutique car manufacturers have started producing tiny light weight "track cars" that you can drive from your house to the track. The Ariel atom started this trend with a Suzuki Hayabusa engine in a tubular frame that had little to no body work.
Than it started catching on. Now we have the Ariel Atom V8, B.A.C Mono, KTM X. BOW and the formula Ford 1.0 litre. Some people even consider the Morgan 3 wheeler a track car (I think they are crazy). These cars are all small single seaters (except the atom) and have very good power to weight ratio's due to them having very little in the way of....well....anything, some of these cars don't even offer windshields and the ones that due have a tiny plexiglass shield that you clip in front of the steering wheel.
So why would you buy something like this? You can't really use it daily (unless you have a track in the back yard) you can't drive them with other people comfortably, they have no trunk, no radio, hard painful suspension and no roof. They do however kick some serious ass on a track and they are allot of fun. You would buy these cars for the same reason you would buy a Million dollar dream machine, simply because you can. Other than serving as a rich man's measuring stick and because you are lucky enough to have the means necessary there is no reason to have any of the cars mentioned above.
During this post I have sounded somewhat cynical about these trends, however the case is in fact exactly the opposite. I fully support striving for the a 300 MPH car. Or a street legal car the breaks the 2 second 0-60 time. I love the power race and if I had the dough (or when I have the dough) I would be one of those guys you see in a Veyron or Ferarri. I spend countless hours of the day watching cars launch people's hair in to the back seat on acceleration runs or when John Hennnesy had his venom GT hit 267 MPH. I love everything about power, speed and automotive extremes. It's just when I am spouting off that a GTR can do 60 MPH in 2.9 seconds or that the next SSC Tuatara will hit 275 MPH, people tend to say "Yeah but you can't do that anywhere so what's the point?" My answer is and always has been....because you can.
I have been noticing a trend in the automotive industry lately. That trend is that once a company seems to have a working formula for a car that appeals to a certain group which generates steady (in some case great) sales figures, they screw with said formula and mess something perfect up.
The most recent blunder comes in the form of the yet to be released MazdaSpeed 3. Now before I continue let me backtrack and discuss what that car is and why it is a such a great car (which I have seriously considered purchasing on numerous occasions).
http://autoshow.roadfly.com/2010-mazdaspeed3.html
This car is something that up until recently NO other manufacturer in North America offered - a front wheel drive muscle car. That is because of the wicked fire breathing engine it has under the hood, a 263 horsepower and 280 lb ft of torque 2.3 litre turbo four cylinder monster that sends everything it has through the front wheel. For that reason almost alone this car has cornered a market, if you want an insanely powerful front wheel drive car then you have no where else to look in North America at least until the Ford Focus ST came along. Okay, let's face some facts here it doesn't exactly look all that much like a muscle car, it is kind of smiling at you. But that is not the point I am making here. What I am trying to say is Mazda stumbled upon something great here, then (from what I have read at least) they basically said screw it I don't like making money anymore.
You must be wondering where this is going. Well according to AutoExpress the next generation Mazda Speed 3 will loose the fire breathing 263 hp turbo 2.3 litre and replace it with, wait for it, a 200 hp 2.0 litre.
WHY! to put this in perspective the upcoming Golf Gti has 220 hp with a performance option upgrade this can be raised to 230, The Ford Focus ST has 252 hp and the Suburu WRX STI has 305. So Mazda has decided to drop the turbo and use the engine from the base Mazda 3. Of course this will mean better gas mileage and the car will be sharp and by cutting weight it will probably be an absolute blast to drive and with Mazda's new Kodo Design Language (which basically means the design of the car and the way the car drives mimic an animal in motion, it can be seen on the current Mazda CX-5 and Mazda6) it will look great.
That is the base 2014 Mazda 3, anything based off that will look awesome. I am not saying the new Speed 3 will be a bad car, I am saying they had a great thing going and in my opinion they screwed it up. Looking at the competition I think they may get left behind, when you go into a car dealership you base you're decision of what dealership you walk into by reading the statistics sheet on the car, correct? I for one see some downfall for Mazda in this area.
Now aside from Mazda there have been some colossal screw ups over the ages that have caught my attention (This is not an exhaustive list by any means, if you are looking for a worst cars list move on but if you have read this far I hope you stay, and tell you're friends) some of these screw ups have been rectified, some however have not. First and foremost one of the biggest screw ups in automotive history has to be The Mustang 2.
Produced from 1974 to 1978 this car was actually named car of the by Motor Trend in 1974, However do a Google search on this car and you will soon find out it has also been named one of the ugliest and worst cars in automotive history. I mean what were they thinking in that board room to come up with this,"hmmmm let me see, we have one of the best selling cars in the world and we need to update it, well we have a the ford pinto platform that isn't being used very much. Yes, that will work". Yes this piece of crap was actually based on a bigger piece of crap, the Ford Pinto which if all I have read throughout my years of existence is true the Pinto had a slight tendency to BURST INTO FLAME! Thankfully this stain on the automotive world was fixed with the fox body mustang and generations thereafter.
When talking about automotive screw ups one cannot forget the Dodge Charger. The new Charger I have actually grown somewhat fond of. I like the fact that it has an 8 speed automatic and a pretty good touch screen and that the SRT version is still pretty bad ass. The car however is a shadow of the legend it used to be, which is why I classify it as a failure (not to say I wouldn't own one). When this car debuted in 1966 as the outgoing model It was a pretty potent package with the legendary 426 Hemi
This thing would eat just about anything on a drag strip and the car continued like this for a while. Eventually this wicked car went out of production (After being castrated in the 80's along with every other cool car).
Then in 2006 some genius at Dodge got the bright idea to take one of the most sought after badass names in automotive history and turn it into a sedan......with a V6!
The reason behind this was apparently that the original people who bought the dodge charger (baby boomers) in the late sixties and seventies are now older with children and houses and responsibilities so they wanted to make the car they remember as kids into a more family friendly accessible car. I for one see a missed opportunity here, why would you make a car to cater to that generation rather than keep the car what is was (updated of course to modern standards) and capitalize on a completely new generation of car lovers. Instead they turned it into a rental car and in my opinion completely tarnished what the charger name stood for.
There are many other cars that could be on this list for example the 2004 Pontiac GTO (That car always should have been what the Pontiac G8 was) The upcoming Chevy SS (supposed to be the return of the G8 but is only offered in the top GXP G8 format and will cost roughly five grand less than a new Stingray). All of the models that used to be good and continued into the 80's. Oh and the "New Beetle" (there is so much that is wrong with that car, I'm not sure why they ever built it). I do not have the time to go into all of these vehicles in detail.
I don't know why when an automotive manufacturer has some thing good they have to mess it up. I suppose it's human nature. We always want to strive for improvement. It just brakes my heart when a good car goes bad.
A common question asked in the automotive world is "whats next" this refers to what will happen when all the gasoline is gone. It is going to happen, I am 24 years old and am hoping against hope that it doesn't happen in my lifetime (however it probably will). There are many options for what happens after the gas is gone, Diesel could become the main means of fuel (I don't see it happening though), there is always bio fuel made from corn and what not (we would have to grow a shitload of corn though! and we seem to be having this slight problem of city expansion taking away farm land, so that's kind of out), major manufacturers seem to be betting all of their marbles on electric power. There are even company's specifically devoted to creating electric cars that compete with and are in my opinion better than their gas counterparts.
http://elonmusk.com/
One such company is Tesla Motors, founded by a man who I consider to be a god among men Elon Musk. This guy makes normal humans feel inadequate, He is under 50 and his strategy in life was to change the three main driving forces (as he see's them, The internet, space exploration and the automobile) in the world forever so what does he do. He founds Paypal, he gets bored of that so he founds Space X, a company which can take rich people into space, he gets bored of that and decides to change the automotive industry forever by founding Tesla Motors. which made the Tesla Roadster, the first truly desirable electric car. Than the company produces what I think to be the most gorgeous and most advanced sedan (maybe vehicle) on the market, the Tesla model S
This car is The best electric option available today. It can beat a Dodge Viper in the quarter mile, It can go over 300 miles on a charge, Oh and it's DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, It also outsold all of it's gas competitors in the first quarter of 2013
Top five luxury cars, first quarter 2013
Tesla Model S, 4,750 US sales January-March (estimated)
That's an impressive feat for a company that produces only electric models. Now don't get me wrong I love this car and this company but this post is not about praising the electric vehicle NO! or writing a biography of Tesla Motors. I actually (as much as I want a Model S) hate the idea of electric cars taking over.
There is one MAJOR flaw with an electric car, you guessed it the battery. Yes they take along time to charge (I heard a rumor that Tesla has found a way to swap battery's in 90 secobds but don't quote me on that). Tesla has also created a way to half charge the car in half an hour without harming the battery. The charging time however is not the fundamental problem. It's something that not many people have not realized or at least written about, the problem is that unlike an internal combustion engine which can be fixed and can basically run forever if treated properly (there is a Volvo P1600 that is about to top 3 million clicks). Once a battery conks out completely it can't exactly be repaired.
An electric car runs off of a battery (or many little wee battery's in the case of the Model S) which eventually will need to be replaced. Now this isn't like dropping into you're local auto shop and swapping out a timing belt, this is very expensive major surgery. A battery of this magnitude can run anywhere from 14 to 50 thousand dollars plus (approximately depending on the car) and I don't know I thought people bought electric cars to save money. If you buy an electric car what are the odds of you saving up the money to buy a new battery when the old one craps out, If that were the case what is the point of buying the car in the first place. Now to give Tesla credit they do offer a minimum 8 year battery warranty but what happens if the battery dies at say 9 years, you're screwed and I'm guessing you go buy a new car.
Which brings me to my second point. If the electric car takes over, the collector car market will cease to exist for the simple fact that when the battery dies it is unlikely anyone will pay to replace it, So the car is garbage. This in turn will cause a massive influx of scrap cars which we will need to find something to do with. There are two options I can see.
1. we find places to put them I.E. scrap yards (which I already mentioned we don't have space for when I said we don't have space for farms to grow bio-fuel) 2. We recycle and/or melt them down which will cause a large increase in pollution. Which just so happens to be exactly what we are trying to avoid in the first place.
To sum all that up, basically I don't see electric vehicles taking over completely from gas anytime soon for the simple fact that an electric vehicle cannot be sustained like an internal combustion engine, the most I can see the E car doing is slotting in where diesel is now, as a possible second option when looking at a new car.
I stand by the fact that Tesla Motors is an amazing company and Elon Musk is an amazing man but I think that he may be going down a path that won't end well. I am stating right now that Electricity will NOT take over from gasoline unless they can find a way to make a battery that never needs to be replaced.
As a twenty something year old in the twenty first century I don't to have tell anyone that it is incredibly difficult to find a job let alone one you enjoy in a field you are knowledgeable about.
I specifically have had a life filled with automotive culture, I however am not very good at sales or engineering and do not have much of a hope of getting a job in automotive journalism, now you may be asking yourself what everything I have just said means, well basically it was a round about way of saying what this blog will entail. I am writing about my second love, Cars and automotive culture.
My love of cars started at a young age when I was taken to my first (of many) car shows. Initially I showed a feigning interest (but I mean really how much interest can a three year old show, they, or at least I had the attention span of a gold fish) but then in 1994 things got a bit more serious in my mind. What happened in 1994 you ask, The dodge viper was released ( now before you say anything I am fully aware that the viper was released in 1992 but I was 4 at the time so it took me a few years to understand and realize what happened) The Viper, a 400 horsepower drop dead gorgeous super car from America. I fell in love with this car, I had every magazine that had any article no matter how extensive, the sheer lunacy of this car is what I loved,
The near 500 cubic inch engine, the 400 horsepower and 465 LB-ft of torque, the 0-60 in under 5 sec, the fact that it melted your shoes and sounded like it was trying to murder you with a chainsaw. I
loved everything about this car and it was and still is the reason I
fell head over heals in love with cars, From that point on I was doomed.
I was always trying to keep on top of the latest news and the latest
cars coming out of all corners of the world.
I
should state however I do not own a viper (yet) and I am in no means a
mechanic. I am a lover of the artform that is the automobile and I am a
pretty descent photographer and love taking picture of cars.
My Photo (not my car) Bugatti Veyron 16-4
I did not and do not have the training to get the job I wanted in the automotive industry (however I am still working on that) so this blog is about a car guy expressing his love for the automotive world. In the future my posts will be more directed at a specific topic and they will be at least weekly if not more often, stay tuned because their will be allot more photo's and topics being posted (that's the fun thing about having a love of cars.....It never ends :).
