Please help me, you experts!

[J-San]

At this moment, I'm making the hardest part of my diecast website, that is writting introdutory texts for every car, and I want you to help me improving the texts. I'll post the texts I've written so far, and I ask you to give me your oppinion on the texts (mostly on the contents and not so in spelling, because that I can correct with the spelling checker!).

I'm looking forward to your comments.

[J-San]

Ferrari 288 GTO (1984)



This was the first Ferrari supercar. Born in 1984, it was the fastest car in the world then. Ferrari made it to compete in GT racing according to Group B regulations, but some tragic accidents occured in Group B rallying lead to the cancelation of Group B GT racing even before its birth. Therefore, this car actually has never raced.

Its body was based on the contemporary 308 GTB, but wider and with longer wheelbase. The engine was longitudinal instead of transversal and it received two IHI turbos, making the power increase dramaticaly from 250 hp to 400 hp. It also used many expensive, lightweight materials to reduce the weight.

The car was very fast, had great handling and good brakes, although it was not an easy car to drive. It's also regarded as one of the most beautifull cars ever made.

Unfortunatly, it was completely overshadowed by the Porsche 959 in 1986, and even more by its successor, the F40, in 1987, so this car never had the recognition it deserved.

[J-San]

Ferrari F40 (1987)

In 1986, Porsche rewrote all the records of speed and acceleration with it's supercar, the 959. This car was much faster and much more advanced than the previous kings of speed the Ferrari Testarossa, 288 GTO and the Lamborghini Countach 5000QV.

In 1987, Ferrari's 40th birthday, Enzo Ferrari decided to launch a new stunning supercar, called the F40. Although Ferrari didn't officially admit it, the purpose of this car was not only to celebrate the birthday of Ferrari, but also (and probably mostly) to reconquest the title of fastest car in the world for Ferrari.

This car, called F40, was based on the chassis and engine of the 288 GTO, but with many modifications. The 4-cam twin-turbo V8 engine was slightly modified: the displacement rose just a little bit from 2.8 to 2.9 liters and the turbo boost rose to 1.2 bar. Astonishingly, the new engine output was 478hp, almost 20% up from the GTO, and the torque curve was also significantly improved in the low and mid range of revs. The spaceframe chassis was much improved and strengtned from the GTO, and the bodywork was also much modified to improve downforce without adding much drag. The most significant change from the GTO was the huge rear wing, wich provided much more downforce than the GTO's tiny spoiler. The front end was redesigned and the botton was made flat and covered to reduce drag (the car had a remarkable cd of 0.34). Most of the body panels were carbon fibre. The tires were much more modern and bigger than the GTO's, featuring 335mm tires in the rear, compared to the 265 of the GTO. This helped grip and traction a lot. The interior was completly stripped and the doors didn't even had any trim, to help further weight reduction. In the end, the F40 weighted just 1100 Kg (dry weight), a bit less than the GTO, despite the new car being more powerfull.

On the road, the F40 was found to be the most exciting road car ever made. First of all, its performance overwhelmed Porsche 959, except in 0-100 Km/h because the Porsche had 4WD; but in top speed, and mostly in mid range acceleration, the F40 crushed the 959 and all other supercars made untill then. In fact, untill today, only a few supercars managed to accelerate faster than the F40 (Mclaren F1, Pagani Zonda and Ferrari Enzo). Amazingly, even the F40's successor F50 couldn't accelerate faster. In the 0-160 Km/h acceleration, the Porsche 959 was 1,5s behind the F40, and in the 0-200 Km/h, it was 3s!
The F40 also had superior stability, balance, handling and braking. It could corner almost like a racing car, with the super-stiff suspension glueing the car to the road. It was by no means a easy car to drive in the limits though, due to its engine characteristics. This was for a very long time the fastest pure road car in a racing track, only beaten by its sucessor F50 (which was slower in straight line but had better handling and brakes).
The magnificent V8 engine pulled furiously from 3000rpm on, the throtle response was the best ever experienced in a turbocharged engine and the power delivery was very brutal: when the turbos cut in, there was a violent surge of power, that the driver must be prepared to control. The tendency of this car while cornering with acceleration was strongly oversteering, but very controlable too, due to its great balance.
All the controls were very heavy, just like in a racing car; the brakes without ABS and servo were powerfull; the gearbox was probably the least good control of this car, since it was a little bit slow and clumsy, but had the ratios ideally set up (not like in the Lamborghini Countach and Diablo were the ratios were too long).
The cabin was a bit cramped, very spartan (no equipment at all, not even trim!) and very, very noisy: the V8 engine was madly loud and there was no sound insulation at all, making that the noise could pass 100 dB under full throtlle accelerations.
Because all of this, the sensation of driving this car is incomparable to any other road car. The heavy controls, the brutal engine, the challenging, exciting and hugely capable handling, the old-fashion driving position, the sensational and unbelievably loud engine noise, the speed...

This was the last car unveilled by Enzo Ferrari himself and it's the car he should be proudest about. It's the most charismatic and exciting car Ferrari ever made, putting its successor F50 in the shadow. The best supercar ever? Probably yes... this is what the game is about: it could hardly be worse as a daily companion, but nothing gives as much thrills as this car.

[J-San]

Bugatti EB110 (1992)



Bugatti was the most prestigious brand in the world before the World War II, something like Ferrari is today. It made the most memorable and sucessfull racing cars, touring cars and even luxurious cars. But after the death of its founder Ettore Bugatti, just after the end of WWII, the brand quickly declined and died. In the early 90's an italian tycoon had the idea to ressurrect Bugatti, now in the "capital of supercars", the city of Modena, Italy.

The EB110 was the car responsible for the comeback of Bugatti, and had exactly the same qualities of its glorious antecessors. It was the fastest car in the world, when it was born in 1992. It was also exceptionally put together, with great attention to detail and quality. It was not a stripped out road-racing car by any means.

It featured an all-new V12 engine featuring an unprecedent 4 turbochargers, 5 valves per cilinder and a monster output of 560 hp. The engine drove the four wheels by a 6-speed manual gearbox. The body and chassis was full carbon fibre (the first car in industry made fully in carbon fibre!) and the whole project was headed by a famous ex-Lamborghini engineer, Paolo Stanzani. The styling was responsability of the famous Marcello Ghandini, that styled Lamborghini Miura, Countach and Diablo.

On the road, the car was found to have great handling, due to the wonderfully balanced and grippy chassis and the nimbleness provided by its small dimensions, despite the heavy-weight of more than 1500 Kg (too much for a carbon fibre car). The engine was a bit laggy, but explosive above 4000 rpm, leading the car to a world record top speed of 340 Km/h. Acceleration was less impressive though, due to the weight. The car had also lots of confort and luxury amenities, and was very easy to live with (despite being a bit cramped in the interior) and to drive hard. There was also a more stripped out version of this car, called EB110 SS, wich was a little lighter and more powerfull.

However, the new-born Bugatti bankrupted after a little more than 100 cars were built, due to some obscure business of its president. Many half-built cars were left as they were and sold to Dauer, wich continued the production of the car in a very limited amount. The car itself also had a short reign as the fastest car in the world, because in two months time the Jaguar XJ220 achieved the same top speed, and one year later the Mclaren F1 overshadowed both of them.

Anyway, this is still, in my oppinion, one of the best engineered and most complete supercars ever made, although possibly it isn't one of the most exciting to drive.

[78vette]

Very nice descriptions! Keep em coming.

[PATo355]

Hahaha , what is wrong with your descriptions ? They are really complete !!!

[astonmartinandy]

Yeah they sound pretty good to me!

[coombsie66]

very nice,

'.....the gearbox was probably the least good control of this car, since it was a little bit slow and clumsy, but had the ratios ideally set up (not like in the Lamborghini Countach and Diablo were the ratios were too long). '

Here though, i think it should read:

...the gearbox was probably the worst aspect of this car, due to its slow, clumsy action. However its ratio's were idealy suited to the engine (unlike the Lamborghini Countach and Diablo were the ratios were too long).

[FerrariFerrari]

In the F40 introduction you speak about its larger tires helping grip and traction
a lot. Hmmm.... aren't grip and traction the same thing.

Other than that and what, coombsie66, noted there perfect. They progress
quickly and in a logical order and do not have a lot of boring filler. They hold
the interest of the reader well.

[twboy1999]

address of ur website?

[coombsie66]

'It featured an all-new V12 engine featuring an unprecedent 4 turbochargers, 5 valves per cilinder and a monster output of 560 hp.'

Cylinder not cilinder

[Vansquish]

The descriptions look pretty good so far J-sama...but what is the website of which you speak?