Quote:
Originally Posted by Timgt5
One thing that I really do like about the British car industry is all the cottage builders like Noble, Marcos, etc... They are a plucky bunch to say the least and the Noble has evolved into something really impressive.
A few other points regarding the worlds great cars:
Corvette, great value for money but GM needs to sever all remaining pretense of this car's blue collar roots. GM already has the Camaro for the aspiring individual. The C8 should do the right thing and go mid engine like a real exotic, and be sold as a stand alone brand.
Ferrari 458 Italia-Sex on 4 wheels, so so so pretty it hurts to look at and it comes with the best sound effects ever, just hearing one run through the gears sends shivers down the spine.
Aston Martin DB9-Stick any dweeb in this and they become uber cool ,a tux should be included with every purchase. Still Britain's greatest export.
Porsche Panamara, Mercedes SL, Bugatti Veyron-The Germans can do some truly marvelous engineering, but they should really hire the Italians to style their cars, Ze Deutshe can't do pretty to save their lives. Do not speak of the 911, continuing to put out a car with same basic shape for 50 years does not count.
Nissan GTR-A lesson in how to flip the middle finger at the laws of physics. This car punches way above its weight class.
Mustang, Camaro, Dodge Challenger, Cadillac CTS-V series -What America does best-Big engines, loads of torgue, lots of tire smoke. That being said the CTS-V does hold the record for fastest 4 door around the 'ring
Lamborghani Aventador-Satan is on the wating list for a black one, no car would be more suited for the Prince of Darkness to make his entrance.
Fisker Kharma, Chevy Volt, Tesla-Expensive Tax Payer funded science projects, that will all be a dead end in automotive development.
Honda Clarity-The science project that actually gets it right, its just the matter of getting the price down. The Clarity will be the future for most Americans in a couple of generations, long live Hydrogen.
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It was nice of you to praise my country's top car makers, particularly Noble whose engineers craft their sports cars in carbon, quite a difficult matierial to work, namely their fine M600 and its predecessor, the M12 GTO and M400, though there have been recalls from faulty joint brackets. Very limited production and huge demand, Noble has a waiting list for their M600 at least 6 months, maybe more.
Aston Martin although remaining a private limited company has been in financial trouble for many years. Ford Motors took them over from around 1993/4 until 2007 when the car firm was invested into by an American banker. Can't remember his name now.. fabulous cars. Fab prices, too. But Porsche although you dislike them, we dislike their prices! Their interior design has been worked over as each year passes. But a Porsche rarely if ever goes wrong. When in Dubai recently I met a girl who had a 911 GT3 since 2009 and she never had any mechanical problem with it. Extremely fast. But I dislike Porsche too. They haven't come out with a radically different car, unlike Nobles.
I don't know anything about American cars, unfortunately.
But Tesla - eerily quiet. With petrol prices ever rocketing I'm tempted to buy one, plugging it into a wind turbine, for example, seems rather like a grand idea.
Were Tesla really Tax Payer funded? If so, on your side of the pond or on mine?