With this video Nissan takes us inside their clay modelling studio in Atsugi, Japan. It’s quite an interesting look at the way clay is still used in the design and development of new cars.
I only wish they spoke a little about what the clay is applied to. I’ve always imagined the models are hewn from a solid block of clay, but know that wouldn’t be the case.
Whenever you read pissing competitions on automotive internet forums you’ll often hear the phrase, “Yeah, but if I chip my car it will be as fast yours.”
The inference being that someone can buy a cheaper car, a Golf GTI for example, get an off the shelf Stage 1 tune from APR/GIAC/Revo/whoever, and end up with performance on par, or thereabouts, with a Golf R. Of course, such discussions usually end up in a massive tanty and probably a banning or two as well.
Thankfully, then, we have an adult to try the comparison for real. The adult, in this case, is respected motoring hack Chris Harris and the cars in question are the Audi S4 Avant, with a supercharged 3.0 litre V6, and the RS4 Avant, roaring with a naturally aspirated 4.2 litre V8.
Harris has already filed a great review of the B8 RS4 and has, at various times, shared his appreciation for the supposedly lesser S4. Here, then, in a relatively simple comparison Harris shows us how the effects of some aftermarket trickery from Revo can improve the performance of his recently purchased, well used and poorly cared for S4.
True, we don’t get the exact details of all the mods Harris has done to the car, so as a scientific comparison take this with a grain of salt. As usual, though, Harris has made sure the comparison is worthwhile viewing.
Yesterday would have been Ayrton Senna‘s 53rd birthday. To celebrate and remember all the good things he gave the world of motorsport here is another awesome video montage from Antti Kalhola.
In his latest video Chris Harris tells us he’ll be driving the 464kW Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series before gleefully adding “and we’re not paying for tyres!”
However, rather than just heading straight out onto the Paul Ricard circuit and behaving like a child, he spends some time taking us through all the nerdy bits that separate the Black Series from a regular SLS AMG.
It seems it’s all the rage these days to thrash exoticars on dirt roads, film it and lob it onto YouTube. So far it seems to be working quite well. This time we’re seeing a Lamborghini Gallardo getting muddy, it’s not as good as the Ferrari Enzo clip, but with the promise of two more Gallardo videos to follow perhaps the best is yet to come.
For his weekly installment Chris Harris takes a look at the Bentley Continental GT Speed. Fair enough, too, it’s got over 600 horsepower and 800Nm of torque on tap from its 6.0 litre W12 engine. But at 2300kg the Speed represents a bit of a quandary. Does all that power go to waste?
Extending the reach of his investigations Harris brings the Audi S4 Avant into the equation. Aside from a steering wheel and four tyres there’s not a lot else in common between these two. On the figures mentioned in the clip the Bentley is £180,000 and the S4 a comparatively paltry £40,000. And yet there are, according to Harris, some very similar traits between the two cars. The overarching link, of course, being the shared ownership of the two manufacturers by Volkswagen.
So, as Harris puts it in his YouTube intro: “Not a natural pairing, but a quick drive in both got me thinking about how VW manages its various brands in terms of character and driving behaviour. All very grown up, I know—but we can’t skid the shizzle out of stuff every week.”
It’s this slightly left of centre style of review that Harris does well at, so if you’re into your cars you should enjoy the thinking behind this comparison.
The new MINI John Cooper Works GP has arrived in Australia and it might be about to kick a few goals down under. That’s certainly the case if this video from Evo magazine is anything to go by. Perhaps for local relevance the cars they tested the GP2 against are not very worthy, but as an outright measure of capability this surely has to stack up.
Against the MINI we see two former greats tackle two new hot hatches. From Ford we have the awesome looking Focus RS 500, while Renault provides the track-day special Megane R26.R. Two excellent cars that serve to provide a handy benchmark. To see if they can beat the old timers the MINI was joined by the limited-edition Audi A1 quattro.
Okay, we’ve probably already given away the result but it won’t make the clip any less enjoyable. And you can have the GP2 in your garage for around $60K. Not bad, huh?
[Thanks to Wayne for the tip]
Spare a thought for driver Leigh Gotch and co-driver John McCarthy who spectacularly crashed out of Rally Canberra on the weekend. The incident happened at the notorious Mineshaft jump where discretion is usually the better part of valour. It’s fair to say Gotch made a meal of the jump, even though the in-car footage (see video after the break) looks relatively tame.
Gotch explained he wanted to take a conservative approach to the jump but an equipment failure complicated things, “I was trying to judge my speed, I wanted to take it at about 60, but our speedo wasn’t working, so I just had to guess what 60 felt like,” he said.
“Later on when I looked at the race GPS it showed we were doing 75. That is what the problem was, we just took it too fast.â€
Thankfully Gotch and McCarthy escaped unharmed but their Subaru Impreza WRC STi was unable to continue. The rally was won by Honda driver Eli Evans.
As the creator of this excellent video, Antti Kalhola, reminds us:
When the flag drops, the bullshit stops.
[Thanks to Chris for the tip]
The Porsche Cayman S is very close to the top of our Lotto wish list. Chris Harris, in perhaps not his best review ever, does a pretty good job of explaining why.
You’ll enjoy this one.
YouTube guru Mattzel89 brings us more motor racing joy with his latest Racing in slow motion clip. For his latest installment he has gone back to the glory days of DTM racing in the early 1990s.
Of course, Ferrari isn’t really going to enter the WRC, but this equally pointless and excellent video makes us think that it could be fun if they did.
The uptight will cringe at this clip, for sure. If that’s you, just breathe out, relax and loosen up. Then imagine how much fun it would have been to be the chap behind the wheel.
[via Jalopnik]