De Tomaso Panthera Redesign, Lotus Evora Pricing, Heffner Performance Audi R8, Cadillac CTS-V Wagon, FLDetours Corvette Grand Sport - 11/17/2009

This is great, I love the fact that I invoked a response from you, even if it is incoherent with sentences that don't complete a thought or even make sense, and still shows your not really thinking. The Caterham? Really you compare an open wheel race car, to a fully daily drivable automobile? The Caterham better be fast and good with having practically no body, interior, and plenty of power! I don't know anyone who would drive one daily, including me, since no where in my comment did I make statements akin to what you are trying to say, must not have that good of reading comprehension either! apples to apples, not Oranges to Apples buddy! The corvette, any of the modern vettes are not strictly about 0-60 or straight lines, and you have obviously not really driven many real performance cars. These cars handle well, hence the ZR1 corvette beating the Nissan GTR and 911 Turbo around the Nurburgring. last I checked, one of the benchmark tracks in the world, and more turns than you can probably count, and it is comfortable enough to drive away from that track on a daily basis without killing your back, and doing it daily without breaking down or breaking the bank with fuel cost. if you do not want people to read your comment do not write them, they are there for the public to read, not for self gratification! If you are trying to get off, go knock one off by your self! Finally the point I want to leave for everyone to read and for you personally is that if you do not know what your are talking about and if what you are saying does not help, then don't say anything, it will actually make you look more intelligent!

The CTS-V wagon is designed to compete in Europe with the likes of the Audi RS6, the BMW M5 wagon, and the future Mercedes E63 wagon. Development was already in progress because Caddy is sold in Europe now The Vet's top of the line badge is the ZR-1, and the Grand Sport package is an amazingly expensive body-kit and suspension upgrade (downgrade if you drive a sports car not made in America, though technically, its not a leaf spring) As for the naturally aspirated V8, who cares? Its a push-rod engine! That design is nearly as old as the almost leaf springs you mentioned. As for the supercharger, I'd rather turbo an RS4, and then you'd get passed by 4 people in one car! Finally, Comaros suck. Always have, always will.

WTF is a Comaro? There is a reason that the push rod engine and the leaf spring are still being used... They work great! Corvettes are the car that GM does go all out in, and they wouldn't stick with the leaf spring if it didn't work better than new suspensions, and GM's LSx engines are lighter and more powerful than the competition's equal displacement engines. For the money, you're not going to find a better performing,better looking, and more reliable car than the Corvette Z06, but if you want a slower, boring car to blend into the crowd with, an Audi is a great choice.

I am just surprised that the Corvette isn't two stroke, two valve per cylinder.

here here! and I almost passed out

WOW, your an amazingly opinionated, but totally under educated person when it comes to cars! First off the pushrod motor in question is the gm small block v8, probably at this point one of the most Researched and developed motors in the world. Yes pushrods are old technology, but in this case it does not mean bad technology. They are nearly perfected, capable of tons of power. Point is even the ZR1 motor is a derivative. Many of the niche and coach builders that are building super cars right now, choose to use this motor as a base. One of them is bulding a 1300 hp version for a super car to compete with the likes of the veyron, ccx, ssc, and such. If you paid attention this was even reported on FLD. Next as for mileage, can a ferrari get nearly 30mpg on the highway? Ask a modern vette owner, and they will all tlee you they get at least 25 mpg, even the ZR1 beats the european anf the Nissan GTR in the mileage department by far. Do some fact checking. Oh yeah this same pushrod V8 is in chevy and GMC trucks, and they all get better gas mileage, and put out more power at thye same time than a Toyota Tundra! That truck had billions in wasted R&D, and has pretty much failed compared to American trucks. The corvette is torsion bars, not leaf springs, and are actually used on performance cars often, because they allow for less side to side movement in the rear than coils! The problem with people like you is that instead of educating themselves, or experiencing for themselves, or even giving something a shot, and not j8udging everything, by one experience, is that you do believe the media and think companies like Toyota are still innovative and on top. They have been doing the same thing as the big three for years and getting away with it. IE: Lexus are badge engineered Toyota models, they are just dressed up versions of Toyota Models. There gas mileage is beat by both Ford and GM at this point. GM is ran bad, but they can build a better car now. The Prius is a joke, it causes more nearly three times more green house emissions during producing one, and has more materials that will be dangerous in the future than your average fuel efficient vehicle. If you do the math the emissions for producing added to the emissions it puts out over the life cycle, make have a larger carbon footprint than just an average non-hybrid with average fuel consumption. Yeah that makes sense! Toyota is living on their name and reputation, and not the truth of their products. The Prius is just a marketing exercise and the lemmings are buying in, because it makes them feel good. people are to lazy to actually find out the truth, and to stupid to realize that most information is mis-information, or in other words propaganda and marketing to get you to buy or believe what someone is selling/telling you!!! You must dig deep, research and experience for yourself, think about the entire subject before just assuming something is what it is!! The BMW Z4M is an amazing car, I own and love BMW, but in most cases the performance of the Z4, will not compare to the Grand Sport, it a fact. The Lotus Evora, amazing car I want one, but that being said, i do not see their track time at the Nurburgring coming close to a ZR1 or 911 Turbo, it honestly probably would not even hang with the Grand Sport. Lotus's are traditionally underpowered even with their low weight, and what seems to be a good power to weight ratio. talk about serious comfort, and bad interiors! BMW is known for good handling, but not all BMW's are track stars. There are not just a few good American Cars their have been and are many, many Good American Cars. I have owned 4 jeep Cherokkes, the current one with almost 300,000 miles, very little in repairs ever. Good maintenance, and all this in a vehicle that I have tortured off road, hauling, and heavy daily driving. yes its old and it gets horrible gas mileage. The point is I would have never tortured a Japanese vehicle, or European vehicle the same way, except maybe an old Toyota Landcruiser, forerunner pre mid 1990's, or a Landcruiser Defender series. Guess what those vehicles were loud, unrefined gas guzzlers, with bad emissions just like my Jeep. I have driven or been in all the above. So next time maybe actually know what you speak is true before opening your mouth.

Dudes right about the prius as with most electric / hybrid cars they use rare earth metals such as Lanthanum and Promethium. Never heard of em? Exactly the problem. Forget hybrids and electric and concentrate on Hydrogen fuel cell cars. Not completely without their own problems but I think a better route to go down.

You can get a regular vette, for cheaper, with better performance, especially if you put the difference in money in tuning and such, and still save money.

i am sorry for 70 grand the could have game me adjustable suspension.

Really you think all &)k sports Cars have adjustable suspension? Not So Much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agreed, the corvette interiors are improving, but they are not great, and the cars emphasis is performance. Audi is well known for the interiors in their segment.

wghat wuld vette dogs half to say about u? huh? morone

thank you! why is it ok to have such low expectations when it comes to american cars!?!?!?!?!?! It is NOT OK!!!!!! Not for 70 Grand man! I mean if you buy any Euro sports car for 70 grand you get all the bells and whistles including great interiors so why do we not hold ourselves to the same standard? Another thing.... when top gear put the mustang on blast for claming the Shelby mustang had 500 horses when only having like 455, they stepped up and made sure the new shelby put 500 on the road! i can't wait to see them with a Camaro ss

Right and Wrong again. The Cadillac CTS-V for 70,000.00 has some of the nicest seats in the world for a sedan! Guess who makes them Recaro!!!! It a GM Product. the Jap and Euro cars you are talking about are specialty cars. The EVO is a compact car that cost more than two Chevy Malibus, it is meant as a 4 door sports car, a track car, and still be reliable enough to drive daily for the 20-somethings buying them. I would hope it have Recarros, but do not know if you noticed, besides the seats the rest of the interior is cheap and plasticky just like a lower cost American Car. Buick does not have cheap, ugly all plastic interiors, neither does Cadillac. There are some vette interiors that are nice, if the right interior package is optioned on them, I believe the x-51 package on a Z06, and like someone else said best performance bang for buck on the planet. Not all Jap and European cars are good, matter of fact they have horrible failures too! Most new Nissans, GTR Excluded. Horrible ugly tail lights going half way up the rear quarter, bulbous curvey bodies without no real bodylines to define any real shape. The Maxima, Rogue, and Altima are hideous! They ruined the winning stle of the Infiniti FX series, those awful Headlights. Toyota, Toyota, The Camry is horriblly Vanilla and stodgy unless optioned out with sport packages, the interior is standard, nothing special, as are the fabrics, and plastics. well disguised for the average Joe who cares nothing about cars, just needs point A - B transport. No real car Guy would own one. Toyota at this point makes more SUV Gas Guzzlers than any other manufacturer, do they get a free pass? They actaully get worse mileage than their American made counterparts. European cars i have a love affair with, but they are not innocent either. First odd VW, is either hit or miss depending on Model! The jetta interiors used to fall apart as do the modern beetle, engine problems in the Beetle and so fourth. Mercedes, have you looked at their reliability ratings. In the last couple years they made improvements, but a few years back, they were worse than any American car. Pretty interiors with expensive materials, are still cheap when they fall apart. I will not rag on Audi interiors, they are great. BMW are nice, but even BMW is in a design rut, they are trying to make all these weird croos overs and hybrid truck/car type vehicles, and they really are not appealing, and very un BMW like. Do I even need to bring up Italian, French, or English cars, and even Top Gear would Agree. Horrible reliability, until they were owned by American car companies, for example Jag, until Ford! The French and Italian Normal cars failed here, because they did not meet American standards for quality, they did not hold up under American driving. People forget we drive more miles on Average than Europeans, on more types of roads, with more cargo, in heavier traffic. We are harder on our cars. I could go on, but the point is, someone forgot to pay attention to anything except what they are told by the media, for those of us that know, we will be better off.