Some manufacturers from around September of each year make/plate their cars the following year so while he was making a joke, he had a point.
I would never buy a car in the lat 3 months of the year due to the stigma of it being the previous years car in a short period of time.
Which is why Australian Design Rules require the build date of the car to be placed on the vehicle identification plate, separate to the compliance plate, so that a 2010 build car can't be passed off as a 2011 build car. The change to the ADR's being caused by Alfa Romeo in Australia who had a lot of unsold Alfettas in the early 80's that were hard to shift. They held onto them, then complianced the cars as required in order to get a nice shiny recent-date compliance plate on effectively a two year old car.
hang on, lambo and co place 2011 or something to that affect, ferrari have a letter for the year i think on their VIN though the cars are built in 2010. so what you are saying doesn't work.
Nice pic of the car on the Gorge, also a smart arrangement for the front rego plate, I was wondering how that would work. Also, when did they put the slow point in on that particular road??
More than happy to be corrected. Model year changes on Euro cars generally start around August (such as Paris or Frankfurt motor shows), the 10th figure of an ISO VIN is the model year reference. But on an Australian complianced car since 1983ish (as opposed to private import etc) a car will still have the build date as the actual date of contruction on the vehicle ID plate (or as a separate tag with the build date (MMYY) in some cases).
The chicane is pretty new. In fact, there are 2 of them. Ash and I visited the road (back of Lobethal) a couple of years ago to shoot my LP640, and they weren't there then. This time, I noticed 3 black crosses in 2 different spots and a newly scarred tree. I'd say the council responded to the neighbours' pleas to do something to save the local lads from succumbing to the temptation to achieve lift-off. It is/was a spectacular roller coaster of a road.
mm yes.. steering never works well once the front wheels have left the ground.. pity about the black crosses.. some things should never be attempted open public road.
Yes thanks James. The car is amazingly good. The suspension is uncanny with a smooth ride combined with exceptional body control. Progress is very rapid without using the top end power. Turn-in is so quick it feels darty until you learn to trust it; it handles flip-flop turns like nothing I've driven - it just feels lurch-free. It's hard to nominate one best feature as its skills are so broad. Engine, gearbox, handling, ride, brakes, sound - all the boxes are ticked. Criticisms are few....it doesn't give as much feedback mid corner as a Porsche (what does?) - although roadholding is excellent - and the dash displays could be more useful. After that I'm scratching.
