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I have to agree with that and disagree in the same point. The formula of which they're taking is still secret. Because Nissan had to ditch their RB for emission standards they have to resort to their VQ which was tested in JGTC using a 3.3 liter not the G35's 3.5 liter. Then there was talk about it having a 3.5 liter, but now due to the history of the Skyline (purposely making an odd displacement of 2.6 instead of 2.5 to differentiate it from it's lower models) people are speculating a 3.6 or 3.7 liter twin turbo with a completely rebuilt block and internals (which is where cosworth comes in). What Chassis they're using is irrelivant since most high performance cars steal a reinforced version of their chassis from a lesser model (like the M using the typical 3 series chassis) and with Lotus helping with their suspension and Chassis work, i'm sure the frame will be the same but the rigidity will be vastly improved. The part i agree with is design. Eventhough Nissan is notorious for releasing a production model that looks NOTHING like it's concepts, I hope they do something with the certain shape of this car. The front end leaves a lot to be desired, and in particular the C pillar just leaves me with a funny tilt to my head and a big question mark above it. I love the rear quarter of the car, but that's about as far as it goes. Realistically, i'm excited, but then not too excited. I'm excited that the Skyline is getting a global release, no doubt. I'm also supressed in excitement because the Skyline could equally prove to be a disappointment by using a V6 and not being able to retain their I6. AWD is nothing to worry about since they're keeping that formula the same, but also price/performance is a worrysome topic for me also. As much as i love te history of this car, i'm not sure the price tag (60,000+) is going to meet the performance expectations out the factory. I have my doubts, but in the same respect, everyone just has to wait and see. Kind of like when the new Vette was announced, I had great inentions to take a mighty dump on it... but once released, I had nothing but respect for the accomplishment.

noted

Actually, its Skylines (R32,33,34), Silvias (S13,14,15), 300z's, 350z's, G35's, 180sx's, Sunny GTiR's, and March's (i know i'm missing a few). I think you're missing the point. You're taking a snippet of my reply to your narrow views, but then you try to make my views look narrow by taking sentences out of context, you're like a liberal. Anyway, Honda is by no means at all sports king here, honestly (they don't even have a real sports car in my eyes), America is too big of a melting pot to classify a "king" of sports cars. My reference to Japan is more proper considering there are very few American or European cars on the roads there and of the Japanese manufacturers you will see more Nissan sports cars (among competitors sports cars) than anything else. Your opinions of the Skyline are based on assumption and not experience and thus are null until you actually drive or at the least sit in one. Even a stock Skyline pulls away from the line and jumps into corners like nothing else from the factory in its price range. The Skyline has the number 2 spot for the street legal land speed record (rated at 1600+bhp) and it has been agreed that first place would have been capable if the car was tested in more favorable conditions (it just rained). Skyline's with bolt on aftermarket modifications that do NOT include any Turbo or internal strengthening of the motor put the car in the 10 second 1/4 mile range (intercooler, intake, exhaust). And unlike a corvette, its interior has all the amenities of any modern Japanese/European sports car, leather trim, LCD Screen that displays all of the cars statistics (O2 levels, oil pressure, etc) and various other menus through out, sports seats and a perfect heal to toe brake/acceleration pedal setup. Anyone who has bad things to say about this sports car are either one) a fool or two) a hater. There are two problems that i have found with this car (because to me there is no such thing as the "Perfect" car) and those are 1) belt driven motor, and 2) Super HIKAS which is said to be removed on the future Skyline (if you're not familiar with it, its a fancy name for all wheel steering). The Vette accomplishes its purpose as the all American RWD Big V8 pride monster and does it quite well. Obviously it has two problems also (well one isn't necessarily a problem but more of a matter of opinion) 1) cheap as hell interior 2) transverse leaf springs (i'm not getting back into this with you pfunk ) But the Vette is always under heat for criticism from haters who haven't ever driven in one or actually had enough experience with the technology and development of the car to come up with a legible conclusion. Again, can't knock what you haven't tried. Futhermore, i used to go to the track all the time. Autocross is a great way to test the limits of your car and really see where you can tweek for improvements. In Japan they just hold street races where they turn the highways into their race track, and that's a part of their culture, which is specifically why the Skyline has a cult following, because it can kick off in a straight line AND maintain perfect handling. My reference to street racing in America is the typical American way of doing it, race to the next light (which is why American companies make cars that go fast 0-60, like the Vette), because the law enforcement would have you picked up before you got around the first bend if you tried to turn the highway into a track course. For A1, you simply can't compare an M3 to a Vette because they serve different purposes (which is a reflection of culture), the Vette is for the American way of thinking that people could give a poo less about what they're sitting in, but it goes like a bat out of hell in a straight line. The BMW is for people who like the power when they need it but has a better feel for the road and handling (which is why they're good on the track) and still maintain the regular luxuries of any other iconic German car. It's also not a great idea to always take your car to the track; once in awhile is good, but it puts a lot of wear on the car and especially the tires. And be sure to actually read my post before you take things out of context.

You also might notice i'm a little bias against Ferrari, and that has nothing to do with their reputation of building awesome cars. I think Ferrari's acheive their exact purpose (most of the time) and in that i applaude them, but in recent years it just seems like they aren't trying nearly as hard as in the good ol' days. Now if you buy a 360, you have to bring it in for maintenance every 20-30,000 miles or you can be sure it will be found on the side of the road. It's cool that they put race bread technology in the car, but at the full expense of the owner. I notice that anything built 355 and prior seems to work just fine almost seemless and most maintenance can be done by the owner... i just think they came a far way away from what they were to what they are. And Porsche... well i have recently developed a very humble respect for porsche. Even with all of the ramblings from VW to force them into projects they don't want to do, they still make cars that are pretty decent (not great... that's Ruf's job).

For some reason my computeres wouldn't connect to Macrossworld for awhile... anywho. All I can say about the GT-R argument is if you've ever driven in one, then you'd know what the hype is about, and why there is a cult following. It's kind of like people who love the vette and people who hate the vette, i bet the people who hate the vette have probably never driven or even ridden in one. The saying, "you can't knock it till you tried it" comes to mind. Aside from that, Nissan in AMERICA is known for being boring and less than satisfactory, but Nissan in Japan is the king of all sports car makers. If you go on the highways at night to check out whos racing you'll see nothing but Nissan's or awesome lower end project cars. Again, people just need to do their research before they make posts, just like the skyline looking like a G35 with a body kit. If you go to nissan-global.com and if they still have it, there should be a skyline prototype section where you can see the newest pics and specs. Nissan has always been good about keeping their new production cars under wraps until it's opening. Knowing the reputation and cult following they've built up with the GT-R they aim to please, and i can definitely see them doing something amazing with this new breed (especially since Lotus agreed to build their suspension, and cosworth their motor). Nissan is also well known among ALL car companies to have the BEST (and it's been thoroughly tested) AWD system in the market (Yes, much better than Subaru's and Mitsubishi's) which is why the Skyline is such a sought after car. If you look up any article about the car from all the famous car editors from any magazine, they'll tell you how amazing it is also. I have 3 friends, one of them is a rich kid who owns two skylines (R32, and recently purchased an R34) and two others that own R33's and all of them feel like rockets with wheels that can magically make seemless corners with almost no body roll. The recent R34 (before leaving production) ran a 0-60 in the 4's and a 1/4 mile in the 12's and for the sake of the gentleman's agreement only claiming to have 280bhp (yeh right!). I'd like to see ANY Ferrari compete with that. Personally, i don't care how nice your car looks, if you paid 200-300,000 for it, it better damn well beat anything on the freakin road. Because the real sports car enthusiasts knows what really matters is who wins at the end of the race (or in most suburban and cult following cases the end of the light) and whether that's done in a ferrari or a Hyundai is irrelivent.

Testarossa is the most recognizable, but as far as Ferrari fans go, the BB is the more sought after.

Yeh, No kidding, my "honeymoon" with the VF-11B ended in divorce... of his leg from the body! The QC on that toy was definitely overlooked.

and nothing says sexy quite like Ferrari, I still get a chubby when my cousin puls up in his 512, sounds like a bunch of angry hornets 345679[/snapback] Next to the 360 and the Enzo, the 512 has to be one of the most recongizable Ferrari's ever made. Even people who don't know what a Ferrari is, know that's a Ferrari. But for the sake of the argument, Ferrari has both Performance and design, but at a premium, and if you get them used, then look forward to spending more time with the Ferrari in the garage than on the road.

IMHO Maserati's style and design is just a body with the interior raided from a Ferrari parts bin. There really isn't a lot of thought put into the Maserati line if you've ever had the chance to sit in and critique one. Plus if i can roll up in a Nissan and rock the poo out of a Maserati in all categories, then I have a lot more to smile about than the person who spent 100k on his Maserati. Kind of like why the new ZO6 is getting so much press, since it's 1)American, 2)Suddenly got super car fast, 3)Is half or even a third of the price of cars with similar performance (Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati, etc.). I'm a much bigger fan of performance in mediocre design compared to mediocre performance in modern design. But with the Skyline's reputation, i know i won't be specifically let down in either, and i'll save 40,000 bucks compared to the Maserati.

He could always wait a year and get a 450bhp ATTESSA AWD Skyline GT-R... I'm already saving my pennies for one so i can wait another three years and pick one up used for half the price 345634[/snapback] It IS a cool lookin car, if I were lookin for a 2+2 coupe however I'd get a Maserati. About the same price. 345643[/snapback] The Skyline is going to be half the price of a 911 with comparable performance (much like the Viper Vs. Vette argument) whether or not it delivers on this claim is to be seen, but judgining on Nissan's history with performance and meeting those demands, i dont doubt this to be too far off. Last time i checked i don't think the newest GT-R had a backseat... and if it does it'll be historically as big as it was before which is the size of a breif case, much how much my Supra's "backseat" was. There's a Ferrari/Maserati dealership in my neighborhood. The more i see Maserati's the more i hate them, they're just wannabe Ferrari's. Most of which were made because certain Ferrari's couldn't qualify for the racing class, so they built a Maserati in its place. The quality is definitely there, but performance is not.

He could always wait a year and get a 450bhp ATTESSA AWD Skyline GT-R... I'm already saving my pennies for one so i can wait another three years and pick one up used for half the price

If Hollywood remade Fast and the Furious i wouldn't really care because it doesn't have any stake holding in my influence toward motorsports or the automotive world. Sure, it's fun to watch, but shallow acting, and 5 minute overexaggerated quarter miles kinda take away from the luster of what i really watched the movie for... sweet cars. Then i find out that the cars are just prettied up and have stock motors, so then i'm really disappointed. I'm actually more looking forward to what they do with F&F3 because it's exploring a genre of motorsport that has picked up tons of fame in recent years, and it has a good director. As long as things stay consistent like if the car makes a blow off noise and you open the hood and there actually IS a turbo in the car (unlike the green Eclipse in the first movie), because to me those little details make a world of difference for the movie experience. It's kind of like when you count rounds in a gun fight and see if the person actually reloads when he's suppose to.

I disobey traffic laws, and get my thrills on wooded back roads. The people that attend my track have a combined IQ of 50 and tend to have little to no ethics when it comes to 1/4 mile or running the track. If the track environment where i lived was more friendly and by far more intelligent, i would deifnitely go. hmm... Skyline Powered 67 Mustang... that's a good sleeper combination, but wouldn't do much for the sake of drifting (AWD Drivetrain attached to the RB is the best in the world).

In defense of A7, i think he was stating it was to replace the Echo in terms of being in the Toyota Line-up. Eventhough Scion is Toyota, most people are going to differentiate the brand and quality of the car. It's kinda like how there's an Integra Type R and a Civic SI. Effectively they're the same car, but because one is Acura and one is Honda, they keep them both around so both sides have a bottom of the line pocket rocket. Much like Scion having bottom of the line xA and xB, Toyota still needs a bottom of the line car to appeal to the market that specifically wants "Toyota" on their car and not "Scion" on their car.

I managed the Regional Internet Sales for the number 1 East Coast Toyota dealership, and it's true that probably a good amount of the xA's and B's were sold to older people (most xA's were sold to women, and B's to broke teenagers, or the older demographic), but pretty much all of the tC's were sold to the pocket rocket 18 - 30 crowd.

That's awesome, I'm glad that most of the euro/jap cars are finally making their way to America. It's a shame it happened after a good amount of cars were discontinued in Japan (FD RX-7, Supra TT w/VVT, Silvia's, etc.).

That's a little unfair considering that most cars being used for racing are Twin Turbo, and turbos are way more likely to have maintenance issues than superchargers. Though I'd agree that the 5.4 is probably not the best motor used for racing, I can't agree with the maintenance involved on any supercharged motor, supercharging is the safer alternative to turbocharging. That's an awesome idea, except the S7 motor is now Twin Turbo also, and is in the midst of getting an upgrade to twin intercooler (which will give it a horsepower figure in the 1000's) and even though the soul of that motor started as a Ford, Saleen basically took the design, ripped it to bits, and then built his own motor in its shadow. IIRC, Saleen has the exclusive rights to that famous 7.0 liter, and i doubt he would be willing to let it go, even to Ford.

the funny thing is, in japan they make the vitz fast also for competition i heard Nissan was bringing the Micra, aka the March in Japan, a small car which also has a cult following.

you're right, the Fords don't look terrible but they shamelessly ripped off the last generation of Audi A4's and their new A6's in the styling department. they've been doing it with a variety of other cars as well like their wagon and the AWD they promoted on the Five Hundred. 344896[/snapback] That's going a bit overboard... i could carve head lights and tail lights into a brick and it'll look like an Audi/VW. When it comes to German styling, it all pretty much has the same cues, you might as well say it looks like an early 90's BMW or Mercedes.

My old line of work (Administrator/Manager East Coast Internet Sales System) allowed me to collect higher up contacts in the auto industry. I live in Northern Virginia, and one of our clients who was the General Manager (it's a franchise, so GM also means CEO/part owner) of most of the Ford dealerships in the area (along with various other brand names) knew of my idolization of the GT and gave me the rare privelage of driving his. He's been known to let people drive his cars, among them being a 360 spyder and at the time a just delivered Carrera GT, so it wasn't unusual for him to let me drive his car, but never the less i was still in great awe of the opportunity. Basically just drove it up and down the toll road (the air port portion so there were no tolls) and then up and down 28 (another long strip of very clean road). It was quite a joyful ride. There aren't any really wnidy roads unless i go to a portion more out in the country, but for reasons of curteosy, stuck to the highways, and thus didn't get to test how well it handles (though specs showing it can pull 1.0g in the skidpad, i probably didn't have to). I can definitely say that it pulls like total hell in a straight line. Faster than ANYTHING I have ever owned or built, you can really hear that supercharger spool up, and just every grunt of the motor screams American. The growl of the motor is either a good point or bad point, for some who are bigger fans of a Porsche's smooth crisp wind up, you'll find the Ford GT's sound barbaric. For those who are fans of hearing the motor even when it's choking, you'll appreciate the thunderous roar. All around it was just an amazing drive. By the end of the ride, your jaw just unwillingly hangs to the floor. I loved it, but I'm sure anyone with the privelage of driving a super car would love it too.

Shelby did it for a lot of manufacturers, I did see the Cobra at the detroit auto show,,,,kinda more bubly looking compared to the photos, I just wish I could go down the street and check out the GT's and Cobra in Dearborn, I see them (GT's) on I-75 all the time (typical engineer road testing) I think everyone of them is friggin grey though 344724[/snapback] I drove & rode-in a Red GT, and have seen two blacks and a yellow, all of them with striping and premium wheels.

what a joke

said a1 to every hooker who ever gave him a hand job my mom thanks you for the tips by the way gt-40 vs ford gt... lets see... one was built to be a race car and did it's job well... the other was made to be able to go over a speed bump... 344702[/snapback] All I can say is drive one... if you can't drive one at least ride in one... you'll see where the "heritage" part comes in. The thing is really a true bread race car, and it still can't go over a speed bump. Sounds like you have a jet engine behind your head, and when you stand up next to it, it rides so low you forget it's next to you. The body has a more similar resemblence to the unsung Mk III GT40 with the headlights of the Mk II so people will recognize it. Personally, one of my all time favorite cars and a big tribute to the fact that Americans can make cars if they try (which i must admit they hardly ever do). They still are contendors in the super car market though, especially with cars like Saleen's S7 whose awesomeness is only inferior to that of AgentOne, and the GT who STILL beats the pants off of Ferrari's newest track car, it's very impressive to see American companies stand up against the Italian and German super car giants, and in most cases win.

I think that's an awesome idea. Everyone has their preconceived notions of the GT, but its numbers speak for themselves, and since it STILL beat the Ferrari F430 (and the Ferrari was built AFTER the GT) in all categories, that says a lot. I would love to see another Ferrari vs. Ford shoot off, even if Ford isn't specifically backing up the car.

Germans in general have never had reliable electronics. Just look at BMW and their "i-drive" system, it's total crap. Have you ever tried to use the Navigation on any german car? it's total crap, and hella freakin annoying. Personally, I think German's should just stick completely to mechanics and get all of their electronics from Japan. Germans have NEVER had a good track record for their electronic equipment, it's never user friendly to start, and then it will most likely fail by the time your car hits 50,000 miles. When it comes to Mercedes Vs. BMW and their approach to sports cars, i hardly consider Mercedes to be in the Pure sports car market. The first thing that annoys me about all AMG cars, is that Mercedes has never been able to make a decent manual transmission, so they stick that dated 5 speed automatic in everything. Aside from that, they kind of cheat when it comes to pumping horse power out of cars, and like stated above, they stopped over engineering awhile ago (hence why their coveted 55AMG motor is only single overhead cam) and rather than engineer and tune the horsepower out of their cars, they just stick a bigger super charger with a shorter pulley and crank more boost. Not to mention Mercedes has been foolish in creating new motors, but then not using them to replace any of their old ones (like creating the new 63AMG V8 but not using it to replace the 55, not to mention having two different v12 twin turbos) which is giving them tons of overhead production costs. BMW on the other hand gives all of their hot sports cars six speeds, or at least the paddle shift, and has now added variable valve timing to their Inline 6, so you know their still keeping up to date. Also incorporating their Formula 1 V10 into some of their new cars, and are specially creating a manual transmission to be linked to that motor in the next few years (since the only thing that could handle the V10 power was their 7-speed automatic before) so you know they're at least trying. Merecedes AMG cars are great and all... if you're retired. But for someone who truly loves the power and the pavement and the oneness that is acheived in a true sports car, the AMG just doesn't deliver.