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Saturday, March 29, 2008

2009 Nissan GT-R

For years Nissan has been holding back it's flagship, techno masterpiece Skyline from the U.S. market. Little was known in the states about the Skyline series Nissan until the hugely popular video game "Grand Turismo" took off like a Zero in the late 1990's. Instantly the Nissan Skyline became the must have car for the playstation generation.

For years many in the U.S. begged and pleaded with Nissan to release it's previous generation Skyline (R34) in the U.S. market. Top exec's and Nissan still couldn't believe the U.S. market was ready for a 70K plus econo box with more digital gizmo's than a Las Vegas tech convention. Another problem that Nissan engineers realized was it was just to costly to reconfigure the car for left hand drive.

Finally after all these years, your dreams of a $70K+ Nissan have arrived!! And the beast from the east has affectionately been named the Nissan GT-R!! At first glance this car plays proportion tricks with the eyes. Body lines seems to abruptly start and stop at random. There are very few design hints from it's older Skyline GT-R R34 cousin. But, if you look really hard, it still looks like a Skyline. At first the design wasn't my favorite. Over time though, from when I first saw the concept drawings for this car, it really has grown on me.

The interior keeps with Skyline tradition with no over the top luxury items. Basically it's a sea of plastic, nobs and digital read outs telling you everything from oil pressure and G's pulled, to your most recent high score. Power is delivered from a rear mounted (remember the Porsche 928?) dual clutch (Audi DSG anyone?) 6 speed flappy paddle gearbox. Mated with a ultra high tech All-wheel drive system, the new Nissan GT-R is living up to it's techno showcase badge so far.

Now comes the real business of this car. Gone is the longtime inline 6 cylinder turbo from the previous R34 Skyline. Instead Nissan has elected to go with a twin-turbo, twin intake, 3.8 liter V6 pumping out an understated 480HP & 430 ft. lbs of torque. I emphasize understated because this car weighs in at over 3900 lbs! According to Car and Driver, the Nissan GT-R ran a 0-60 time in an eye popping 3.3 seconds!!!! finishing off the quarter mile in a mere 11.5 seconds at 124 mph. This is Enzo territory folks.

Nissan may have changed everything with the 2009 GT-R. If 70K can now buy you that kind of performance, it will have every fiery Italian car designer scratching their head. If your only concern is pure performance, and badge appeal with matching hand sewn luggage is not on your list of top priorities, I can't see why anyone would elect for anything other than this playstation racer dream come true!




(Thanks to Bryan for the great image from the Philly auto show!)

A great 5th Gear test video of the Nissan GT-R!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

2004 Mystichrome Mustang Cobra dyno video

I know it's been long enough.. so finally here is some good ole American muscle! This happens to be my cousins amazing Mystichrome Cobra! As you will see by the dyno results this car is a screamer!!! Wowsers what an animal! And the best part is.. This car is currently being tuned and will be pumping out more than double those specs very shortly!!! More to follow on this bad boy stang...


Mystichrome Dyno Thrash

Sunday, March 16, 2008

1991 Mercedes-Benz 300SE

From previous post I've done, most of you may know how big a fan I am of the Mercedes-Benz 126 chassis cars. It was a time when Mercedes build quality was the finest in the world. Here is a challenge to my readers, take notice next time your on your daily commute. See how many 126 Mercedes you see on average over the week. I can guarantee there are more of them on the road than any other car from that era!

Towards the end of the long run of the 126 Chassis, Mercedes brought to the U.S. some non V8 powered 126 cars. From 1989-1991 Mercedes offered the 300SE & 300SEL for sale in the U.S. With a bullet proof, 3.0 Liter strait 6 engine, the 300 series cars offered all the prestige and quality of it's top of the line 500 series brothers, without the high gas bills. The 3.0 wasn't a slouch on power either, pumping out around 180hp and 190lbs ft. torque. Good by even modern standards.


These are just fantastic cars, and you really don't see a lot of the 300 series around due to their short production run for the U.S. A very special thanks to Chelsea for sharing her beautiful 1991 300SE featured in the pics below! This car is her baby, and has seen much TLC over the years. A labor of love and that is what these cars are all about!!! (oh ya, and check out those Euro lights!!)


As always, if anyone has a car they'd like to share.. drop me an email at cartestride@yahoo.com