If any of you guys want your next vehicle to be a lot of fun to drive in a completely different way you should check out this video I made of my Gladiator off road at a Jeep event where it went over EVERYTHING! I was amazed.

 

Here are a ton of options for G37 replacements. The one magazine article I wait for anxiously every year to get the results is out: Lightning Lap 2022! For the few fellow track rats, you know the huge amount of usable data this test provides every year. And for the majority of you who will never track or race your car, know that the cars that handle well here usually also make the most fun cars to drive on the street or your favorite twisty road.

Time to separate the cars that merely look fast from the cars that actually are fast. Here is the link to the entire article that also includes the video if you prefer and you can expand the article for each vehicle as well: https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...ning-lap-2022/

For those of you thinking most of these cars are too expensive (myself included), here is the link showing the results of every year so you can find some high performing used cars: https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...storical-data/

 

New Golf R shaved 8 seconds off the MK7 R--pretty impressive, but I just can't get over the lack of physical buttons. The CT4 Blackwing is the one I might try and stretch the budget for.

 

CT5V BW ftw!

The plan is to still get one but hold out for another year or two.

 

At this point I could contemplate a several-years-old Panamera. I've already popped my german-car-maintenance cherry with the out of warranty Mini Cooper S.

 

I knew VW finally took the handling seriously on this car when I saw the Nurburgring improvement. I checked out the new GTI and the buttons are not as bad as everyone keeps making them out to be, but I have a sold Golf R incoming in the next week or two so I plan to get a video review up and check the buttons on that one too. I bet the new Audi RS3 sees a huge improvement as well- I was just hoping they would have one this year.

I am with you on the CT4-V Blackwing. What a sweet car! If you can find a used ATS-V the lap times and cars are not very different.

A little big and heavy for me, but still a sweet ride. I got to drive my owner's CT5-V Blackwing and I like the engine, but get the manual transmission. I was actually bored driving it with the A/T.

That Panamera time was nuts! Then again, it has a ton of power and very sticky tires. I am beginning to think that anything Porsche touches turns to gold on a race track. I would love to have a GT3 myself.

 

Last summer I was at the shop for my kid's car. The shop is street/pro, running the spectrum all the way from her crappy Sentra, to street rods, to high-end exotics. Although I suspect they make most of their money on repairing grocery getters.

Anyway, I joking said that I was there to pick up this gorgeous Panamera that was sitting outside. The technician proceeded to tell me the repair woes on that car, and how a simple thing like a brake job was 5x the cost of a typical car.

Very upscale looking vehicle. I'm sure it would be super rewarding to drive, but a gut-punch to own and repair.

 

I've driven too many 911s to want one. Maybe if I had a multimillion dollar life insurance policy.

There are multiple power levels of Panamera, and the lower ones aren't any slouch but aren't as persnickety as the top end models.

Like the Mini - supercharger lifetime lubricated, no way to service it, but lifetime actually means lifetime of the warranty (4 years). So every 4 years you get to spend $4k on changing the supercharger... on a car worth $4k. Yeah, BTDT. Having a deadblow hammer in the car to bang on the door to get the windows to work - they're BMW 318i parts. BCM burning out on brake light current. Failure of a $20 muffin fan cooling the power steering rack requiring replacement of the $2200 rack. That sort of thing?

However - when you were able to swallow maintenance costs - the Mini is *insanely* fun to drive hard.

My best friend bought an 08 M3 about the time I got my RX8. His first brake change was about $3k due to the carbon rotors. So... yeah, there can certainly be some sticker shock on prices.

 

Said every Alfa owner ever. But I hear you... the heart wants what the heart wants.

Speaking of Alfa... they finally introduced the new Tonale. And in the spirit of only saying nice things, the interior is very appealing.

 

HA. True. And... the heart wants an Aston Martin, because *that sound*. But... everything else is janky AF.

 

Opinions vary, with some folks that have already take possession saying you get use to them after a week or so. I think a lot of it is if you're going to be comfortable going into the touch screen to do everything. And the buttons underneath the touch screen aren't illuminated, which seems like a huge miss.

Pretty impressive numbers for a stock car (340 horsepower to the wheels), about what a stage 1 MK7 R is going to do.

 

Are you referring to the old widow maker 911 Turbos when you talk about life insurance? I have driven lots of 911's from early 70's up to recent Turbos (cream puff), but hiring a race driver to take me on a hot lap around the Nurburgring in a GT3 RS was in a completely different league.


Why did an '08 M3 have carbon rotors?



340hp to the wheels and it is rated at 315 at the crank from VW?!? Wow, that car is underrated. That means it really has nearly 400 hp at the crank! No wonder they shaved so much time off their laps.

 

VW has been underrating the GTI and R for awhile. Pretty common for MK7 Rs to be in the 270s

 

The MK7 Rs are rated at 292 hp at the crank so yes, still underrated, but to get 340 at the wheels on the new Golf R when it is only rated 315 at the crank, WOW!

 

Probably helps explain why reviews are cracking into the high 3 second range 0-60 and mid 12s in the quarter. Manuals won't be that fast though, even if they put down similar numbers (which they should).....Impressive nonetheless