A special modern era of supercars?

Hello ACF crew,

Not sure how closely you all follow the state of the high-end automotive industry but I certainly often harbor delusions of grandeur and keep an eye out. And I postulate that we're in a golden age of supercars at the moment that may eclipse even the venerable F40, Countach, and 959 of my youth. I'm referring to the Maclaren P1, Porsche 918, and Ferrari LaFerrari of course. And one more that just caught my attention - the BMW i8.

Forgive the hyperbole, but when I see a host of production vehicles near the 1,000 bhp realm, I get a bit excited in a Le Mans 917 long tail sort of way. But what is far more intellectually curious is the variety of philosophies that the top end vehicles appear to embody. The P1 has an angry turbo-charged V8 with electrons to fill in the torque-gap for a raw driving experience that still has the drama of turbo-lag. Who knew the torque-gap was even a thing that could be filled until now? The 918 also fills the torque-gaps with electrons but also makes sure to be as day-to-day civil as an ultra supercar has any right to be. The LaFerrari eschews any notion of electricity-fueled silence and composure for all-out, massive performance. The electric motors apparently are always being either charged back up or being discharged so that your rear tires are screaming for mercy. I know what my favorite philosophy of the three is, but you can choose your own. And then the i8 sneaks in and puts out a far more reasonable ~250bhp with a madly turbocharged three cylinder motor and uses electrons to bump it up to about 350bhp for a car so oddly usable in all situations that it puts the Tesla into the shade in performance, purpose, economy, and even looks.

So I propose that despite my initial (rather intense) dislike of hybrids mostly due to their disingenuous positioning as "saving the environment", I'm rather smitten by the prospect of using electrons to augment the powerband of the gasoline engine. As a way to make the overall driving experience better and more enjoyable, I say the more the merrier. I love trees like everyone else, but trading CO2 for coal-fired powerplants and mining heavy metals never made much sense to me. When we can use that power to do what automobile manufacturers have been doing since cars began - making better cars - then I say, "good on ya, mate".

Should you need a bit of data to refute my opinions, I'll point you to the reviews: Maclaren P1, Porsche 918, Ferrari LaFerrari, BMW i8 - and a bonus: the ludicrous Koenigsegg One:1. 

In more current news, I must apologize for not sending a reminder for the 4/27 ADSI autocross event. It was a blast as usual. The class in the morning was a bit less useful for practice, but the long 1.5 hour track walk did reveal a bit about the course itself that would otherwise have remained a bit of a high-speed mystery. A certain un-named member with a blue WRX STi pulled off a trio of 1:32 times that are enviable. A Toyota Corolla with only a few bolt-on minor modifications and some decent tires was running 1:40!!! For reference, my best time last year was a 1:42 in a car that is quite a bit more aggressive than a Corolla. It once again proves that this autocross course favors the good driver far more than the fast car. Ultimately, we all had a great time and hope more of you will join us for the next event which looks to be shaping up for 6/1. The 5/18 event conflicts with the RI Air Show and has been cancelled. 

For those of you who did not order shirts and want them (and for those whose order I mangled!), I'll soon place another order. So let me know what you want and I'll try to get it straight this time. School will soon be ending, believe it or not, and summer will be upon us so I imagine that email is going to be the best way to stay on top of events and happenings so I'll do my best to keep the communication rolling.

Take care and slide sideways!

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5 responses
Bah, hybrids are just like everything else the system tries to ram down the population's throat, a means to greater profit. Carbon? What BS, another excuse to encourage the population to be forced to a lower standard of living which in reality is happening due to the private control of currency, think Federal Reserve system and debt based currency. If you ask a child to give him your ice cream cone, he will tell you to pound sand. But people are by nature stupid, lazy, and fearful, perhaps made more so by media, schools, internet and any other propaganda the system can employ, you can motivate them to adore this toxic agenda of being financial slaves way better than just "importing Negroes from Africa". If you tell them God will damn them to hell and build big churches that look impressive and "make them believe" from the hovels they live, or be able to predict solar eclipses and tell them the world won't end if they give up lots of cattle, crops and their virgin daughters, they'll feel happy to accept the misery your taxation brings them. Create stories that the ice will melt and oceans will rise to swallow their cities if they don't pay more taxes or accept living in ever smaller houses, ever smaller cars, ever smaller everything and they believe it, you can take everything away from them while those at the top prosper. Tell them if they don't question it all, Jesus (or Allah or Jihad or Yahweh or whatever Santa Claus/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy of choice works) will save them from their miserable existence that you are creating for your subjects, they will not protest or look into your evil.  Green.... I say brown, stinky brown, fertlizer type stinky brown. Me likes the smell of unburned hydrocarbons from un-catalyzed vehicles better, not to mention the throttle response! Batteries are good for lighting your flashlight or better yet, occluding where the sun don't shine of misguided tree huggers, the bigger and more toxic (and hybrid batteries are very toxic) the better. Speaking of happier topics, anti-green measures can be employed on your car to not just decrease gas mileage precipitously (sadly to the benefit of power players like Dutch Royal family, IE Shell or Royal Dutch Shell), like a 4cyl getting worse gas mileage than a big V8, but also power, like a 4cyl getting more power than a big V8, tee hee. Of course this is for track only cars as it is not street legal of course. One must respect the laws that Big Brother maketh.  Just saying, I'm old enough to have driven old cars with not very powerful engines yet without emission controls running high compression w/ leaded gasoline, and they were amazingly responsive. Crazily, catalytic converters required lead free gas, and to get the octane, the gasoline contained MTBE, or Methyl-tert(iary) butyl ether which is totally naturally occurring in fossil fuel. Notice I say contained, not "needed addition of" despite unleaded gasoline costing more. Ah, the profits of the ruling class, 1984 comes to mind! Now particulates really were a problem, so a high flow catalytic converter in the larger aftermarket downpipe might still be a good idea. It gives enough of a pleasant, hydrocarbon smell to the exhaust to make it more palatable to the enthusiast (not to mention power/throttle response), but inside the car won't stink like a catless downpipe at a light. But to run way too much timing and lean out the mixture so the ECU has to constantly retard timing, the end result of which is actually efficient gas mileage wise, but very slow, hesitant, herky/jerky power delivery, well sucks! So why not make a 4 that performs like an 8, no electrons necessary, all that needs be done is some exhaust work and at the very least reflashing the ECU? Save it for the track only and avoid paying registration fees or insurance as it's not smog legal, trailer it in, and have a blast with it while you commute around in a Corolla which, with enough training available at ADSI High Peformance Driving school, will be just as fast! Just saying the 4 cylinders ruled the roost at ADSI. Some were street legal, some were not. The fastest 8 cars this Sunday were not street legal for sure, all of them. They were scary fast, but the interesting element was that only 1 of them had 6 cylinders, and the rest were all 4's. The Corvette's and Mustangs, many of which were truly street legal (though some were not and trailered in by their owners!) all had the worst times. If anything the fancier/bigger/most powerful cars, even big powerful BMW M3's or other luxury marques all had the consistently worst times.  I have to say that you Sterling were very, very fast. You were not the fastest time out there as there were some mighty drivers ahead of you, but you were definitely ahead of me or any Corolla (but not by much!). Macchiavelli, there is no ethics, right or wrong: anyone desiring domination lest be prepared to do anything it takes to stay on top. Those in power who would behave by moral code limiting what can be done to win will be weak, as the first individual to be willing to take the next step will topple them. The biggest fish always win, but I don't mean size because Supah-chahged 7 Liter Corvette bigger ain't better or faster. Smarter, stinkier, craftier, and willing to do what it takes is.  Live free or die! Attilio
— Alberto Savoretti
Even tho I'm sporting a miserable 6 cylinder and my ride has minimal mods, I like my chances at the next Autocross in June which feels very far away :(...starting time of 1.41 at the March Autocross on a wet track, needs much improvement for sure but it should be all upside from there, right? Sterling, you are an automobile poet! Alberto, you are crazy in a Machiavellian kind of way, love your perspective! See you around the FASRI block!
— Alex the novice
Alex: we're soon going to be counting on you to uphold the honor of the six-cylinder motor! And - gasp - naturally aspirated at that! Attilio will soon leave me in the dust so get ready to drive that thing like you stole it. And Attilio: you made a great point about how the 4's - especially in turbo-charged form - look to be the kings of the autocross. The fastest S2000, which I didn't inspect too closely unfortunately, is presumably front-engine rear drive. And the next fastest STi was front-engined AWD (until it blew up, of course). I'm thinking that the compact dimensions of the 4's in size and weight really help to keep the inertia to a minimum to maximize handling. And adding the turbo vanquishes any advantage displacement might bring. In sprints, like ADSI and autocrosses in general, this certainly appears to be the recipe for speed. Ferrari used to run big-bore 4's alongside their 12's to hedge their bets on reliably finishing races - like 4 liter 4's. But they didn't have turbo's back then. The current F1 crop are now 6 cylinder turbo-charged and electrically assisted beasts of complexity. But many of the Group B cars had mid-mounted V6's...and 4's that had both turbos and superchargers at the same time!!...and 5's in the case of the Audi. This all makes me wonder how well a turbocharged Cayman would do at the autocrosses. And word has it that a turbo 4 may soon be put into that chassis - just for the Attilio Stig, of course. The crazy 818 kit car that was there last sunday should ultimately be the perfect weapon...but it looked like the brake bias was too rearward for some reason and then it blew a rear tire and was done for the day. Sure did look nice though. It looks like we have a philosophy battle brewing between 4's and 6's that will ultimately have to be settled on the track. Turbos versus natural aspiration. The 8's are so far well off the pace, although Anthony's Mustang may beg to differ with us. But we do all of this "research" in the name of science! -S
— A posthaven user
Alex there is nothing we can do, humanity is doomed from the outset to be manipulated. The best thing to do is tend one's own garden and ignore the media etc trying to do the best one can in their immediate life. 1:41 is pretty damn good on a wet track for someone who was new at it. Damn, I did the whole morning session and the best I could pull on 3-30 was a 1:39. Mods are not really necessary. The more you mod your car, in some ways it becomes more durable, but in other ways it introduces little odds and ends to your car that in some ways may be charming, in other ways not. It's not for the faint of heart that's for sure. Try to wrangle as much seat time as you can, you have a very good car out of the box. There may very well be an Autocross on 6-1-14 if interest is high enough. If so I will be there.
— Alberto Savoretti
Sterling; For max performance in general yes a 4 cylinder that is turbocharged has advantages due to weight savings and better control. That said the new LS1 and LS2 motors for example are lighter than many 4cyl's of yore, it all comes down to design. AWD is helpful in high power applications, but IMHO the fastest car for an autocross would be a well driven one, preferrably with good, but not huge power, light weight, and ability to rotate. The group B cars were all over the place, but there was only one 6 cyl and one 5 cyl and the only superchargers were on Lancias. Well, Opel had the Manta 400 which really was Group 4 and that was N/A 4 cyl. The Porsche 959 or Ferrari 296 never made it to actual group B status. I think an N/A Cayman would do very well at such an autocross, but looking at the Turbo Miata, meh; I think it was lacking an LSD which for that level of power (200whp on a 2000lb RWD car) is critical. Honestly given that the Corolla's times were so good, you can have any motor or wheel drive you want, if you're a bad driver you will have lousy times. If you're a good driver, you will get fast times no matter what you brung to rung.
— Alberto Savoretti
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