| Author | Message | ||
| Andrew Menasce (Amenasce)
Intermediate Member Username: Amenasce Post Number: 1834 Registered: 10-2001 |
i wonder how many times they used the terms " worlds greatest supercar " in the last few month... | ||
| tony hopkins (Tonyh)
Member Username: Tonyh Post Number: 294 Registered: 12-2002 |
Carrera GT test from EVO...... Super Ferry Animal The Carrera GT not only promises to be the greatest Porsche ever, it could just be the world's greatest supercar November 2003 Porsche Carrera GT orgive me if I forget the Carrera GT's carbonfibre chassis. Cut me some slack if I ignore its 604bhp V10 engine. And please be patient if I overlook the innovative, ever-lasting ceramic composite clutch, fade-free brakes and forged magnesium wheels. I'd like I draw your attention to what I believe is the Carrera GT's defining detail: a perfectly simple, palm-filling sphere of laminated birch. At this point those of you wearing anoraks will be smiling at the significance of a wooden gearknob, the rest of you left wondering if by plonking a chunk of tree in an otherwise carbon car Porsche has somehow lost the plot. If you're amongst the latter, trust me: the GT's apparently out-of-place arboreal appendage tells you all you need to know about the car and the people behind it. How? Well, rising as it does from the ashes of a Le Mans race development programme aborted in 1998, the Carrera GT has the heart of a racecar, and rightfully inherits the legacy left by Porsche's 240mph, Le Mans-conquering monster, the 917. A car, in case you didn't know, that sported a gearknob fashioned from balsa wood, it being the optimum weight-saving material in a time before carbonfibre existed. As subtle, knowing homages to glories past go, the GT's glossy, birch interpretation of the 917's soft balsa ball is as cool as they come. That groovy gearknob can also be taken as a metaphor for Porsche's whole outlook on this, its first genuine wheels-up supercar. With one fistful of ergonomically-shaped wood Porsche has succinctly, respectfully doffed its hat to the competition department's finest hour. By contrast, Ford is disguising the engineering achievements contained within its sporting flagship, not to mention defacing its history, by labouring over a shameless pastiche of the similarly sacred GT40. Porsche's product bravery has paid off because viewed in the carbon there is much to commend the Carrera GT. Harm Lagaay and his design team have tackled a tough task with the confidence and understatement that befits Porsche's corporate character. A true supercar needs presence in spades, but a Porsche simply wouldn't look right dressed in the kind of extrovert curves that give Lamborghini and Pagani such visual swagger. Naturally the sheer scale of the Carrera ensures it commands your undivided attention, but rather than making a statement of its own, the shrink-to-fit bodywork shuns extravagance and instead concentrates on emphasising the long wheelbase and low centre of gravity. The result is a busy shape that borrows only lightly from the current Porsche range and yet could only ever be a Porsche. Splice this with the efficient, functional menace of a racing car and you've got a seriously seductive car. There's more definition and detail when you're stood close by: the deeply sculpted doors, complete with Ferrari 355-style hidden handles sunk deep within the air intakes; the NACA ducts sliced into the cheeks of the engine cover; and the shimmering domes of perforated, satin-finish honeycomb alloy providing a V10 peepshow for passers-by. The interior architecture is similarly clean and confident, and although you can see the car is made from carbon, thanks to bare sills and footwells, the proliferation of leather upholstery, that big old Porsche steering wheel and an instrument binnacle packed with familiar faces doesn't create the air of exclusive otherworldliness you might expect from an outlay of �325,000. In fact it's all rather normal-looking. It is pleasing, however, not to be confronted with a car that slavishly follows the fads of Formula 1. Flashing lights, steering wheel paddles, steering wheel buttons and minimal luxuries suit the Ferrari Enzo down to a tee, but Porsche's old-school approach, characterised by analogue dials, an H-pattern stick shift and a steering wheel devoid of buttons, is refreshingly straightforward. It's not adventurous - hell, there isn't even a starter button - but at least staying a step or two back from the cutting edge is likely to ensure the cockpit doesn't date too rapidly. I'm especially pleased to see a gear lever sprouting from the centre console, and not only because it's topped with that birch wood ball. Paddle-shifts have their place, but as far as I'm concerned you can't beat the control, finesse and tactile rewards offered by a well-sorted manual gearbox. The Carrera GT's is a new transverse-mounted six-speeder, designed to be as compact as possible and sit low in the chassis without impinging on the all-important underfloor aerodynamics. Mated to the new 'box is one of the Carrera's technical highlights, in the shape of a ceramic composite clutch (see panel), and it's this hapless component's job to transmit all 604bhp and 435lb ft of torque developed by the mammoth, mid-mounted 5.7-litre V10 engine. The driving position is fantastic, as you'd expect. The pedals are works of art in their own right, a trio of sleek vertical alloy sculptures, floor-hinged to ensure they're compatible with the low-slung, straight-legged seating position. The gearlever is but a hand's span from the steering wheel, and moves through the gate with a strong, spring-loaded central bias. To start you simply dip the clutch and twist the ignition key... Any self-control you may have held in reserve on first acquaintance is sure to evaporate when the V10 catches into life. It sounds quite unlike any other supercar you've ever heard; sharply vocal with instant throttle response and a honey-coated bark, it has an unmistakable motorsport throatiness several steps above a Vanquish or Murci�lago. To hear it as we were lucky enough to on the launch (both in-car and from a distance), flat-out in sixth down a disused tree-lined runway, homing-in on 200mph, is a rare and unforgettable privilege. That clever clutch might be tough as old boots, but it's a tricky thing to master when pulling away from a standstill. The Porsche engineers recommend slowly feeding in the clutch while keeping your right foot well away from the throttle, which works reasonably well if you're not under too much pressure or in any particular hurry, but when confronted with a busy T-junction the grabby engagement and tight limited-slip differential can make for a juddery, amateurish getaway. Once up and running, however, the clutch is fine. Our test route takes us through the endless pine forests of the former East Germany, and comprises a series of ridiculously long straights linked by lazy, sweeping bends. The roads are quiet and smooth: ideal for unleashing a 600bhp supercar in a straight line, if a somewhat limited test of its cornering ability. I glance across at photographer Kenny P, shoot him a look as if to say 'I'm-going-to-accelerate-as-hard-as-I-can-until-one-of-us-runs-out-of-nerve', slot second and squeeze the throttle to the floor. What happens during the following 20sec or so is as intense and sustained a sensation as I have ever experienced, for the Carrera GT simply lunges through successive gears in voracious fashion, pulling to the 8400rpm redline in fourth and fifth as keenly as it clipped the limiter in second and third. There's nothing else on the road, and we're barely halfway into the straight, but what had been countless individual pine tree trunks lining either side of the road has now melded into a solid, rushing wall of bark and splinters racing past the side windows at 170mph. There's another gear to go and Fearless P hasn't even flinched but, fearing a scene resembling the speeder-bike chase in Return of the Jedi, I ease off the throttle and submit to the chest-flooding rush of adrenalin. This is a ridiculously rapid car, a machine that naturally settles into a 150mph cruise, seemingly on all but the shortest straights. It might sound crazy, irresponsible even, but when you've got such instant acceleration and incredible 380mm ceramic composite brakes with the best ABS in the business, the Carrera GT makes such speeds feel like the most natural thing in the world. Even more shocking is the duality of its delivery. Happy to howl to 8000rpm and beyond, the V10 is also happy to flex its big-cube muscle. Just tickling it up through the gears is enough to get into three figures. Perhaps its finest party piece (demonstrated at the decomissioned airbase) is to hook sixth gear at 30mph or so, floor the throttle and feel yourself consumed by an ever-increasing swell of accelerative g as the indescribably muscular V10 hauls you to 200mph in one unbroken, intoxicating stride. As you'd hope, the Carrera GT has feel to spare. The steering requires muscular input but rewards your effort by relaying nuggety, detailed feedback about the road surface and how those fat front Michelin Pilot Sport 2s are coping. Uniform, consistent and present from the moment the wheels start turning, it's a level of tactile communication the likes of which an Enzo driver would kill for. The damping is another source of information, thanks to its depth, suppleness and unflinching control. It breathes with the road surface and absorbs lateral loads effortlessly, allowing only fractional roll through corners and quashing pitch under acceleration and dive under braking. Despite this lack of conventional reference points, you can sense the GT beginning to work harder, which in turn enables you to build a picture of what it has in reserve. It's a vivid, transparent sensation that empowers you to push on with confidence. That's rare in any car, let alone one wearing such broad rubber. It's agile too, more than you'd ever credit for a car with such a big footprint. It turns with thrilling immediacy at low and high speed, with none of the initial reluctance that can feel so disconcerting in a 911, but more encouraging still it never feels overly pointy either. There's always a rounded edge to the steering's response, an early pointer from which you can base the rest of your mid-corner decisions. Consequently you can feel the GT begin to flow from the moment you turn the wheel. A little more self-centring would make it even better from apex to exit, but that's just nit-picking, for overall the GT feels involving, entertaining and fantastically exploitable. Super Ferry Animal Porsche Carrera GT As a die-hard Porsche enthusiast, I knew what I wanted the Carrera GT to drive like, and I'm pleased to say it has lived up to my expectations. We need to drive it more extensively on representative roads and in the company of the supercar elite to make a definitive judgement but, based on our initial impressions, it's going to take some beating.     | ||
| Andrew Menasce (Amenasce)
Intermediate Member Username: Amenasce Post Number: 1832 Registered: 10-2001 |
Hubert the CGT produces less downforce than the Enzo and the laps time recorded were done by Walter Rohrl, he supposedly drove both the CGT and the Enzo around the ring and the he said that the CGT was 1 sec faster than the Enzo..but then he works for Porsche... | ||
| allan fiedler (Allanlambo)
Intermediate Member Username: Allanlambo Post Number: 1571 Registered: 6-2002 |
Yes Hubert i agree the Porsche is awesome. I have pictures of a red one and its incredible. In the Evo magazine there is an article on the Porsche also, and they noted it was not quite as fast as the Enzo. Either way, since im just a Poorboy, i cant afford any of them. I have to stay within the ranks of the 250,000 cars. If only i were rich.... | ||
| Hubert Otlik (Hugh)
Intermediate Member Username: Hugh Post Number: 1640 Registered: 1-2002 |
on a similar note. the new CAR has a feature on the carrera GT. short end of it is: the GT is slower on acceleration tests and top speed v. the enzo, but will actually lap a track quicker (thanks to greater downforce), but a definate margins/given tracks were not furnished. btw- it's a gorgeous car with the top on! | ||
| allan fiedler (Allanlambo)
Intermediate Member Username: Allanlambo Post Number: 1570 Registered: 6-2002 |
The new Evo has a 3 way combo between the Enzo,Pagani and Koenigsegg. The article did not gather any real tests, but seemed to favor the Enzo, while the Koenigsegg was the fastest. Hard to judge where they put the Pagani, as they complimented virtually every aspect of the car. 2nd test was of the Gt40 and 360, a semi track test, no real laptimes. According to the author, the Gt40 bettered the 360 in every aspect, substantially. |