The Big Picture

“CHARACTER IS COOL WHEN YOU’RE NOODLING DOWN TO THE LOCAL CAR SHOW IN YOUR DETOMASO MANGUSTA, NOT WHEN YOU’RE CHASING TENTHS OF A SECOND ON THE NÜRBURGRING NORDSCHLEIFE. ”

a question of character

What really makes a supercar great

THEY SAY you never forget your first Ferrari. I’ll never forget mine, though for all the wrong reasons: My first Ferrari was an eviltempered bitch of a thing that tried to kill me on an English country road in .

The gorgeous red (of course) Ferrari tb had sulked all the way out of central London as I wrestled with a shifter so stiff and tight I feared I’d snap the thing in half. And then, as we raced across the empty moors, it went all Glenn Close on me, teasing with provocative, intoxicating, -rpm foreplay before—without warning—turning into a bunny boiler…

The steering wheel squirms uneasily in my hands as the front of the car weaves and darts nervously across the contours of the road. The undergrowth in the periphery of my vision is a bucking, bouncing, bright-green blur. Corner! Hard on the brakes and back two gears, heeland-toeing on the downshift. Brap! Brap! The V- responds instantly to the throttle. I can feel the shudder of the ABS working as the car pitches and bounces even more frenetically over the lumps and bumps on the entry to the left-hand turn.

Off the brakes and into the corner. Initial turn in is race-car sharp, body roll negligible. Now comes the balancing act. I wait until I feel the front wheels begin to bite, and then squeeze on the gas pedal to transfer weight to the rear. The Ferrari digs in and…suddenly spits sideways.

The synapses snap: Don’t lift! Grabbing an armful of opposite lock is simply a reflex action, but it takes a determined, conscious effort to maintain the pressure on the gas pedal. The Ferrari grumpily comes back into line. As my heart rate comes back off the rev-limiter I glance down at the speedo and am mildly disappointed to find we’re doing barely  mph. It certainly felt a lot quicker…

I remember writing at the time that an Acura NSX or Nissan GT-R (the all-wheel-drive, twinturbo R version had just been launched) would have been way faster along the same road with much less effort. Ah, said some of my colleagues, but what about those sensual scarlet curves, the glorious snap-crackle throttle response of that baby V-, the decades of myth and magic behind the cavallino rampante on the steering-wheel boss? Surely you can forgive the flaws because this Ferrari has something the Japanese pretenders will never have: character.

Character. I thought about that as I blasted through the Mojave Desert in our long-term Nissan GT-R last month, reveling in the relentless, urgent, seamless surge of power from the twin-turbo V- as I fanned the paddle shifter, and delighting in the marvelously planted feel of the chassis as we chased the horizon. The massive Brembos shrugged off the speed with easy assurance whenever the road suddenly jinked left or right, and only a gentle squirming of the steering wheel betrayed the furious calculations constantly routing and rerouting the torque to all four wheels as we punched past their apexes. It was a satisfyingly rapid run, accomplished with neither of us breaking a sweat. Make no mistake, the Nissan GT-R is a supremely competent supercar. But is it too competent? Is the GT-R— whisper it—a sanitized supercar for a videogame generation, a digitized speed experience that lacks grit and soul and…character?

I’ll take competence over character every time when it comes to driving truly fast machinery. Character did not excuse that cold knot in the pit of my stomach every time I hustled a pre- Porsche  hard on a wet road nor having to take fast corners in old big-banger Lamborghinis like I was riding alongside a Mafia hitman with a bad temper and a hair trigger. Character did not excuse that psychotic Ferrari  (and even Maranello knew it—today’s Ferraris, like the delectable  Italia in this issue, are supremely predictable and surprisingly reliable, thanks, I would suggest, to the example set by Japan’s user-friendly early ’s supercars like the NSX and the R GT-R).

Character is cool when you’re noodling down to the local car show in your DeTomaso Mangusta, not when you’re chasing tenths of a second on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

The crisply calculated Nissan GT-R may not have the rosso romance of a Ferrari Daytona, the charming idiosyncrasy of a Porsche , or the aw-shucks muscle of a Corvette ZR. But in form and function it is a supercar that deftly defines its era and its origin. All gigabytes and manga attitude, the GT-R is a supercar like no other, a supercar that only Japan could have created. I’d call that character. ■

(the team) MOTOR TREND

THE WORLD’S #1 AUTOMOTIVE AUTHORITY

editorial

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Angus MacKenzie

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matt Stone EDITOR AT LARGE Arthur St. Antoine DETROIT EDITOR Todd Lassa EUROPEAN EDITOR Paul Horrell SENIOR EDITOR Ron Kiino SENIOR EDITOR Edward Loh ASSOCIATE EDITOR/COPY Allyson Harwood SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Brian Vance EDITORIAL ASSISTANT/PHOTOGRAPHER Julia LaPalme

technical

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Frank Markus TECHNICAL EDITOR Kim Reynolds ROAD TEST EDITOR Scott Mortara

art

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Andy Foster ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Tom Donchez ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Mike Royer

production

COPY CHIEF Jacqueline Manfredi MANAGING EDITOR Rusty Kurtz ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Cherrie Pilot

contributors

CORRESPONDENTS Ben Barry, Stephen Bayley, Steve Campbell, Sherri Collins, Mike Connor, Vic Elford, Gavin Green, Jeremy Hart, John Matras, Phil McNamara, Richard Meaden, Bob Nagy, Ben Oliver, James Tate, Nick Trott, Alistair Weaver PHOTOGRAPHERS Wesley Allison, Ingo Barenschee, Mark Bramley, Gayle Brock, Peter Brock, Easton Chang, James Cheadle, Nick Dimbleby, Bobbi Fabian, David Freers, Jerry Garns, Gus Gregory, Rick Guest, Simon Harsent, Barry Hayden, Evan Klein, Regis Lefebure, Henry Leutwyler, Andrzej Liguz, Dan MacMeden, Andy Morgan, Richard Newton, Wynn Rujiraviriyapinyo, Sisley & Sisley, Anton Watts, Scott Williamson ARTISTS Atomos, Maximilian Bode, Dav Bordeleau, Mick Brownfield, Nigel Buchanan, Josh Cochran, Doug Cunningham, Doug Fraser, Wade Harris, Ryan Heshka, Steve Hewett, Nathan Jurevicius, Glenn Lumsden, Damon Moran, Lionel Portier, Jason Raish, Mark Stehrenberger, Pol Turgeon, Radovan Varicak

motor trend online

ONLINE EDITOR Michael Floyd ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rory Jurnecka ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kirill Ougarov ASSISTANT WEB PRODUCER Nate Martinez ASSISTANT WEB PRODUCER Scott Evans ASSISTANT WEB PRODUCER Carlos Lago WEB PRODUCER TRUCK TREND Melissa Spiering

motor trend television

VIDEO PRODUCER Mike Suggett VIDEO PRODUCER Jim Gleason VIDEO PRODUCER Gordon Green

SVP, GROUP PUBLISHER Ira Gabriel VP, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Eric Schwab

advertising sales

CHICAGO 500 N. Dearborn, Suite 1100, Chicago, IL 60610 312/396-0609

Bert Peterson

DETROIT 31700 Telegraph Road, Suite 250 Bingham Farms, MI 48025 248/594-5999

Patrick Cannon, Joe Didato

LOS ANGELES 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245

310/531-9900 Mark Dewey, Bill Foy, Alan Reed, Scott Timberlake AFTERMARKET SALES Bernice Sanders (Director)

NEW YORK 261 Madison Ave., Sixth Floor, New York, NY 10016 212/915-4000

Janet Catallo, Craig Mura, Adam Mayerson

consumer automotive group

VP, SALES OPERATIONS Warren Kosikov EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Angus MacKenzie GROUP OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Amy Diamond SENIOR OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Pauline Atwood MARKETING DIRECTOR Shawn Higgins GROUP CREATIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR Peter Cooper MARKETING COORDINATOR Heather Stein SENIOR FINANCE DIRECTOR Jenny Lee ASSISTANT TO SVP, GROUP PUBLISHER Peggy Medina

officers of source interlink companies, inc.

CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Gregory Mays PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER James R. Gillis PRESIDENT, SOURCE INTERLINK DISTRIBUTION Alan Tuchman CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Marc Fierman GENERAL COUNSEL Cynthia L. Beauchamp

source interlink media, llc

PRESIDENT OF DIGITAL MEDIA Greg Goff CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Chris Argentieri SVP, CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER Alan Alpanian SVP, CHIEF REVENUE & MARKETING OFFICER Brad Gerber SVP, DIGITAL John Cobb SVP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Jacqueline Blum SVP, MANUFACTURING & PRODUCTION Kevin Mullan VP, FINANCE Colleen Artell

consumer marketing, source interlink media, llc

SVP, SINGLE COPY Rich Baron VP, CIRC PLANNING & OPERATIONS Arlene Perez

consumer marketing, enthusiast media subscription company, inc.

VP, CONSUMER MARKETING Tom Slater

motor trend radio

PRODUCER/HOST Bob Long NEWS EDITOR Jeff Bressler

motor trend auto shows

SENIOR VP, GENERAL MANAGER John F. Marriott VP, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Steve Freeman

Subscriptions: E-mail address changes to motortrend@emailcustomerservice.com, write to P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235 or call 800/800-6848 (U.S.), 386/447-6383 (international). Include name, address, and phone number on any inquiries. Occasionally, our subscriber list is made available to reputable firms offering goods and services we believe would be of interest to our readers. If you prefer to be excluded, send your current address label and a note requesting exclusion from these promotions to Source Interlink Media, LLC, 261 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016, Attn.: Privacy Coordinator. Sub rates: U.S. and possessions: 12 issues for $18. Canada $31 (includes surface mail postage to Canada and GST tax). All other countries $33 in U.S. funds. Back issues: To order back issues, log onto www.simbackissues.com or write to Source Interlink Media Back Issues, 2900 Amber Lane, Corona, CA 92882. Cost: $7 each, plus $3 shipping and handling. Please specify which magazine and issue date. If this is not specified, your check/money order will be returned to you. Allow three to four weeks for delivery. Copyright © 2010 by Source Interlink Magazines, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED/PRINTED IN THE USA.