motor

blue8 · 09-22-2007, 02:24 AM

Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
Posted by Paul Horrell

The Ferrari 599 has the power of 611 horses, and on the Isle of Man I am taken aback by what each and every one of them can do when pushed.

Strangely enough, at the moment of true epiphany I am not even in the car. I'm in the Aston Vantage, heading up a long, straight, open hill on The Mountain, clear of traffic.

I am accelerating hard, the Aston's V8 giving its not inconsiderable all. In the mirror, a dot. But then, with the suddenness of a fly splatting the windscreen, my mirror is full of Italian supercar. Oh dear.

In that moment the Aston's bravado is decisively punctured, balloon-like. What was formerly a growly beast instantly morphs into a sappingly slow drudge. Realisation dawns. A car of the Ferrari's performance - or the Lambo's come to that - really is in another league from some of the 'supercars' here, the Aston or Jaguar or Porsche or M3.

So, although I've always been amazed by the performance of the 599 from inside, now from the outside it has really shocked me.

Shocking it may be, but not brutal. That's what makes the 599 magically different from the other crazy-fast cars marshalled here. This Ferrari is never needy. It's sensitive to your moods, it won't do the dirty on you and it will still respect you in the morning.

It'll go incognito when you need it to, mounting cloak-and-dagger ops through traffic, slipping stealthily through the streets, riding sweetly, quietly, free of stress. It'll slither along a motorway like an adder stalking unseen. It doesn't make a fuss like the Lamborghini or batter you like the Ariel or Caparo.

But make no mistake, when you up the pace it comes alive. It moves with the accuracy of a surgeon's knife, the force of a broadsword. Every time you steer or brake or accelerate, it seems to have thought of it even before you have. It's got 10-Meg broadband to the centre of your brain. And it's never secretive; a complex character it may be, but it lets you see its every side. It's a bonding thing.

So you hardly need ask if the 599 is a brilliant car for the Isle of Man. It is, because it's a brilliant car for everywhere.

Audi R8
Posted by Jeremy Clarkson

There is only one car here worth your attention or mine, and that's the R8.

Audi has pulled such an absolute blinder that I'm looking at my new Gallardo Spyder and wondering if there's some sly way I can get my money back.

We all know the Supercar Rules. It must be ostentatious, like a Murcielago Roadster (you'd attract less attention riding an ostrich in the raw); and it must be hopelessly compromised.

If you can parallel park without crushing a child or get in without losing a testicle on the seat bolster then it's out. It must leak, fail to start and must scare the very marrow out of your bones in every corner. They're the rules, and not for the first time, Audi has torn them up.

For a start, the R8 hasn't been styled by someone with ADHD. It's subtle, yet unique - TT aside. Get in, knackers intact, and parallel park at will. It'll start first time until long after you won't, and won't leak, rattle or fall apart. Unlike you again. And yet it's still a supercar.

Delicate, precise, composed and effortlessly fast, it uses the best balance of Quattro with heavy rear-drive bias to dish up sizzling IoM domination. For the old guard, it's game over

Ariel Atom
Posted by Pat Devereux

The Atom should be the perfect car for the IoM. Featuring motorcycle-like reflexes, only with more power and loads more grip, it should be leaving the other cars for dead anywhere on the circuit.

The fact that it doesn't puzzles me before I've driven it. What is the matter with the other drivers - are they just being modest or are they just put off by the lack of bodywork? As a biker at heart, I'm not fazed by the exposure to the elements, but when I get in on the last day, I find out why everyone else is struggling.

It is blindingly quick alright, but it is also blindingly bumpy and the steering has a mind of its own. Not only is it difficult to see where you're going, whenever you do get a rare glimpse of the road, there's so much slop in the steering and gearbox you can't accurately sort out whatever mess you're in. Exciting up to a point, then just plain scary.

I know that with a bit of fettling this Atom could be a giant slayer but, as tested on these bumpy IoM roads, it feels little short of a liability.

Caparo T1
Posted by Jason Barlow

This won't be easy to get across in mere words. Superlatives simply won't do. But listen up, because I'm talking to you from the hottest, tightest driving seat in the history of Brit road cars. There has never been - and there will never be - anything like it.

The strip of tarmac that lies ahead has so many twists and turns that I'll be lucky to get anywhere near the speed at which the T1's various aero devices - underbody diffuser and wings - start hustling the air. Doesn't matter - that can wait for the track. This'll be all about mechanical grip, though it's important to point out that the T1 is compromised by wet-weather rubber and nancy-boy road trim.

I'm sitting almost flat on my back, encased in a seat that's designed to hold you even under 3.5g lateral loads. Not much room for anything, only your hands and feet are free to move. Yet it's oddly comfortable. There's no dash. The T1's vital signs are on a central display within the steering wheel.

I thumb the starter button and squeeze the throttle. The Menard-made 3.5-litre V8 thunders into life like an orc with a sore head. Blip the throttle, and keep an eye on the oil pressure. Instant response from the loud pedal. Blip again. These are pure race-car sensations. Somewhere between Le Mans LMP and F1. Seriously. Another blip...

Into first. If you're rolling, it's easy. Away we go. Let's leave the full-bore first-gear pyrotechnics to the Stig. Into second gear... right, let's have it. Waaaiiiiiaeeeee!!! Can't actually see what revs we're pulling, can't see the rev counter, pull the paddle, that's third engaged in less than 100milliseconds.

Brake, steer, turn. Oh, this is just incredible. So much energy yet so little apparent effort. So little inertia. Instant response. Even this far away from the aero zone there is grip and balance like you can't believe. It gets a bit tricksy over the nasty cambers, but hey, it's practically a race car.

A straight opens up. I nail it in third. It doesn't accelerate so much as compress time. It vaporises distance. Five, six, seven thousand, into fourth, if only for just a few seconds. Then brake, steer, turn. Gun it again. This isn't a car, this is some sort of Transformer.

And then it's game over. I've experienced about three-tenths of the T1's potential. And had more fun than in any other car here - or indeed anywhere.

Megane R26
Posted by Bill Thomas

I've devised a neat little experiment for the R26 - or Megane Renaultsport 230 Renault F1 Team R26 to give it its full monicker.

It goes something like this - Porsche, Lambo, Atom, R26, in quick succession. A five-minute blast over the same stretch of road in each, a combination of a couple of long straights, a couple of fast corners and some twisty stuff up and down a steepish, narrow hill.

Even after those three beasts as precursors, the Renault doesn't feel slow. Yep, after stepping straight out of a car that gets from a standstill to 100mph in under seven seconds, when you hit the throttle in that hot hatch you know you're in something rapid.

The Renault feels tall and upright after the others, naturally enough, the controls almost mystically light and easy to use after the workout of the Porsche, the car simple to place after the width of the Lambo and supremely civilised after the Atom - as you'd expect of any car with a roof and a body. But fast, too. Genuinely fast and most importantly, easy to use.

Go to the limit, keep it there, travel quickly, have fun. And all for £20k. Long live the hot hatch.

Ford GT
Posted by Bill Thomas

It says everything about the speed of the Ford GT that I can't leave it behind in the Lambo.

This is Clarkson's ex-car and we've brought it back to its old home, just to make sure America is properly represented - and to make sure we haven't forgotten what a searingly quick car the GT is. Holy freakin' aardvarks, this car is fast. Untenably, awfully, hideously fast.

New owner Phil Brett is an experienced driver and there's not much between us as we power over the TT's Mountain section. America in hot pursuit of Italy, Lambo stretched to its limit, there's nothing to split them. Nothing.

Despite four-wheel-drive and an extra 30bhp, there's no shaking the low, striped retro-Yank as I hurl the Murcielago through quick sweepers and down straights, concentrating on nailing my exits and getting on the power early.

I don't know what you'd have to be driving to lose a Ford GT on roads like this - maybe a Caparo with the right gearing. Even then, the GT's chassis has enough compliancy to deal with the worst bumps and dips flat-out. In the Caparo, you'd have to lift off.

And all the while, you can listen to the stereo and marvel at how easy the GT is to drive. A great car.

Jaguar XKR
Posted by Paul Regan

There was a moment in the supercar campsite, while sat in a folding chair with a burnt burger and a warm can of beer, when the Jaguar XKR suddenly made perfect sense to me.

It was my last night on the island and I'd just bagged the Lambo keys for the now-ritual dawn blast around the TT circuit the following morning.

Until that point it was bothering me that we'd always left the Jag idle in the car park for these thrashes, it somehow lacking the excitement and drama of the usual suspects we'd fight over. But tomorrow I was driving the likely six-hour trek back from the ferry port and none of the other metal interested me.

The XKR is the only car here that you could honestly drive all the way to the Isle of Man in, lap the island, and still step out feeling like you've been snoozing in your favourite chair. Yet at the same time it's capable enough to have got any one of us across that mountain in time for breakfast.

It looks beautiful, sounds right (although it's a shame you can't hear it in the cabin) and even left me feeling a bit disappointed with the Aston. And I never expected to say that.

It's a proper, all-round GT that offers versatility only the BMW could get close to. But from where I'm sitting that's still no comparison at all.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Posted by Bill Thomas

If we had a separate competition for engine sound and looks, just those two and nothing else, the Aston would win it easily.

Yes, looks are subjective, and you can argue till the sun snuffs out what's beautiful, but even given the breadth of disagreement among us on other issues, few disagree that the Aston looks the best.

It is stunning to behold - simple, sleek, low, perfectly formed, even parked next to its lowest, sleekest rivals here. Is there a more attractive car on Earth? A DB9? Maybe.

The interior is almost as attractive, as long as you ignore the ergonomic failings like the backward tacho and concentrate on the quality of the leather, which is high. It's good to be in, good to be seen in. But does the driving experience match the looks?

No. Nowhere near. Get past the thrill of the blaring, trumpeting, high-pitched V8 howl - a noise that eclipses even the Lambo's - and there aren't too many thrills to come, even on this Prodrive-fettled version.

There is vibration through the steering column, there's no subtlety to the ride, the rear end reacts too slowly at turn-in, and you never feel properly at one with the car. Could do better, Aston.

Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Roadster
Posted by Emma Parker Bowles

My arrectus pilorum muscle is contracting violently. The noise generated by that 6.5-litre V12 behind me is giving me serious cutis ansivini. Damn, this car feels gooood.

Spend five minutes behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 roadster and I'll bet my eyeballs that you too will get a severe case of cutis ansivini thanks to your arrectus pilorum contracting.

Think I'm being smutty? Well, no actually. Cutis ansivini is Latin for goose skin, as in goose pimples. And the stimulus that makes us excited or scared causes the muscles that pull up our body hair (arrectus pilorum) to stand on end.

All natural reactions when you're driving a car this stimulating. Well, more than stimulating. It's like a Rampant Rabbit on split-rim alloys.

I'm having one of those 'I'm so happy I could burst' moments, sitting in the LP640 roadster in the sunshine, waiting for my turn to have the coastal road all to myself, and unleash that fire-breathing raging bull.

It feels alive, it really does, like it's pawing the Pamplona earth and snorting in anticipation. And then I bury my foot and the engine detonates behind me.

Bad bull. Very, very bad bull. No wonder the Stig made a granny cry when he drove it earlier. There is now 631bhp and 486lb ft of torque to rinse, and once this wild beast gets going, no amount of tranquiliser darts will bring it down. There is just no stopping it. Well, clearly there is, by braking, and ceramic brakes are now an option.

I should at this point admit that I am miked up and supposed to be making clever observations in a running narrative for the film crew. I'm meant to be saying informative stuff like, "the shifts feel much cleaner and quicker thanks to the revisions to the 'box," or "LP actually stands for 'longitudinale posteriore'".

But instead, all the director can hear in his earpiece for the whole run is me going "oooh" and "aaaah". It must sound like I'm at a sodding firework display. Which, in a way, I am, it's just that the fireworks are going off in my pants.

So, there we have it. The Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster. The most stirring car here by miles. Also known at The Stimulator.

BMW M3
Posted by Matt Master

So it falls to me to write about the only car here that is really box fresh, that even Jeremy hadn't had his hands on. Which is probably a blessing.

The new M3 has pitched up at a tricky time. Audi has already swept all before it with the RS4, and just as BMW was launching its high-tech take on the small V8 saloon, Mercedes unwrapped the new C63 AMG, and that's fairly astonishing too.

The M3 has it all to do then, and that's before you consider its inevitable ubiquity and popularity with sleazy estate agents.

And that goes a long way towards explaining BMW's immensely conservative styling treatment of the new M. When the 3-Series coupe came out, everybody round here instantly started worrying about how the M3 would look. And those fears were partly justified.

Gone are the meaty, flared arches and shark's gill side vents. Inside there's no hint of carbon or Alcantara either. Instead what you get is a bloody great bonnet bulge to house the extra cylinders, a carbon roof to lower the centre of gravity - and seduce estate agents all over again - and grown-up miseries like i-Drive.

There's no denying that the M3 still has a certain menace at the kerbside, but it's a conservative effort, especially next to an RS4.

I'm not going to dwell on the technicals of the M3, not after Heston Blumenthal dissected the engine for us months ago, and Tom Ford slid the whole thing around Spain last issue. What needs highlighting here is just how real- world this car is.

Everything else we took to the Isle of Man was in some significant way flawed, even Jeremy's beloved R8 that neither Bill nor I could change gear in comfortably because the clutch travel is hampered.

But the BMW is perfect in every respect. Good looking and respectable with the Wanker Factor set low, easily the most usable with four seats, big boot and a comfortable ride, and, of course, at any given time or place, astonishingly fast.

But here's the Litmus test. After a week of camping, 15-hour days of fairly solid driving, immodest levels of drinking and not really much in the way of sleep, the drive home didn't look like fun.

Arriving at Liverpool docks at 9pm, with the M6 ahead and London feeling as adjacent as Vladivostock, there was absolutely no car for any money better suited to the task of 'Home, James.'

The drive was indeed low on fun, but it was Lear Jet comfortable, comparatively fuel efficient and, when space allowed, devastatingly fast. Proper car this.

Porsche 911 GT3
Posted by Paul Horrell

On the issue of hot 911s, I've always felt like the scaffolder with vertigo or the aetheist priest.

Item one on the motoring hack's job description is that anything out of Stuttgart with GT3 or GT2 or RS on the decklid is to be revered and adored. But I can't comply.

I've always hated the way they crash around over bumps and bounce their noses so you can't really steer them on the upland roads that I love. And then are things like the old GT2 with no traction control.

What do you think I am? Skilled? Brave? No siree. Give me a regular Carrera 4 any day. And then this snorting yellow monster turns up on the Isle of Man. I've been telling everyone it'll show itself up.

I am life-changingly wrong. I have had an epiphany.

See, the usual thing with 911s is that because the engine weight is see-sawed out beyond the back axle, when you hit a bump the tail goes down and the nose rises and the front tyres have absented themselves from the road. Not ideal when you want to steer a semi-race Porsche projectile.

And it's worse in the hard-sprung hot 911s than the regular variety. But this time was different. Something about the way the dampers and the springs work together maybe? Different steering geometry? Voodoo, for all I know. Works for me anyhow.

So now you're plumbed into this amazing, alive device as it nuances you the movement of weight and force around the four tyres, movements that change at your bidding.

You can enjoy the staggeringly consistent controls: clutch, brakes, throttle, stick, wheel - all of them perfectly weighted, matched, proportional, utterly robust. An engine that feels far bigger than its 3.8-litres, all deep lungs and jungle bellow.

There is one second when I want it with the engine in the middle not the rear. I am on the brakes into a cresting corner and I feel the weight of the engine wanting to overtake me. But it doesn't and it probably wouldn't - I just don't like the feeling that it wants to.

On the other hand, this thing comes with Porsche's brilliant stability electronics. Even navigation and aircon actually. It's not silly.

People tell me I'm argumentative. I've always said I like arguing because sometimes the other party says something that changes my mind, and having your mind changed is a very exhilarating thing. This GT3 won its argument with me. Easily.