Because there are people in this world for whom the words “Money is no object and I want one” is their easily enforceable motto. They want a real race car with the optional radio, they will gladly part with $1.2M for one.

The VIPER is fundamentally flawed in that it is made mostly of steel, But I would expect the next VIPER to made mainly of Aluminum and more advanced materials, similar to the CORVETTE. I would take notes from the Mosler MT900. The Car weighs 900 Kilos or just under one ton and started around $147K (I think they are up to over $200K now). GM took notes Chrysler could stand to do the same.

Corvette ZR-1, Nissan GTR, Lotus Exige Cup, Ariel Atom, Porsche Kayman, Dodge Viper ASC, 2-Snowmobiles, 2-Honda CR500Rs, a sandrail,1-24′ Ski-Nautique boat,2 KTM moto bikes and 2-525XC enduros, a used Cesna, a GMC 4dr 1-ton dually and toy hauler. And lets just use the 100K for track time tire and fuel.

jonmiles: “loving the comedy guys, but you’re going to make me lose my job b/c I’m laughing my ass off while I should be working.”
I have that same problem. It’s al deantj’s fault!

G: You’ve got to keep driver skill in the equation.

“With Motortrend claiming the information on their “sources” I wouldn’t trust it 100% due to the ambiguity…” I wouldn’t trust it much, because it’s Motor Trend.

http://www.motortrend.com/future/spied_vehicles/112_0712_2008_nissan_gt_r/

With Motortrend claiming the information on their “sources” I wouldn’t trust it 100% due to the ambiguity…however they do seem pretty sure of that by the tone of the article. It’d be nice if they revealed something about their source(s) to qualify them…

I read somewhere they’re considering trying to beat the Carrera GT time, so hopefully they go for it and we’ll see some reliable source on that…I’d think that they’d probably need to make another “Nur” spec model for that though. I’m pretty sure the ZR-1 will have a good run at the Carrera GT time as well, so if Nissan wants to take and hold the top spot for more than a few months, they’d have to put a cushion in below that time…which would definately require a Nur-spec again.

and i see the appeal also includes BMW Sauber, so yeah, that would make Hamilton champ if they disqualified three cars ahead of him. On the one hand, if the allegations against Williams and Sauber are true, they should be punished in some way, because if it’s OK for them to cheat using cooler fuel why isn’t OK for McLaren to cheat by stealing Ferrari technical documents? That being said, it’s not fair to punish Raikkonen and Ferrari, or reward Hamilton and McLaren, for infractions committed by other teams that essentially had no bearing on either the Ferraris or the McLarens. The FIA should just strip them of their points (for the single race, not the entire season) and leave everyone else untouched.

And in regard to the Williams challenge, wouldn’t that only bump Hamilton up one place and add one point to his total? Which would then tie him with Raikkonen on points, but Raikkonen would still get the championship by virtue of having more wins than Hamilton, would he not?

Ummm…first off, I wasn’t the one who posted that the GTR “whooped its ass” around the Ring, I was just posting the link to the source for the GTR’s lap of 7:35 vs the SLR 722 GT’s 7:38, so don’t direct your “lol” at me.

Second, the reason I posted it in response to you was because you replied to the whooping-ass post saying, and I quote: “LMAO what Nissan are you comparing this to??” I was just filling you in, since you obviously aren’t very knowledgeable about the state of the autoworld. I say this because whether you like the GTR or not is irrelevant to this point, as it is simply a car that any autofan MUST know about. In case you care to argue that, it was the frontpage headline everywhere including Motortrend and Car and Driver, with loads of coverage and discussion.

Third, what do you mean it will look better and go faster? Correct me if I’m wrong…as my math might not be so good, but a 7:35 lap IS faster than a 7:38 lap, isn’t it? And look better? Did you take a look at that pic up there? The SLR 722 GT AND the GTR both look like crap, if you ask me.

And if you’re trying to argue that MB is more upmarket, has more heritage, etc than Nissan… nobody’s arguing with you… though those ugly ass B-class cars I’m seeing aren’t doing much to help that.

It’s funny how far prejudice will go…people will argue against fact even when it stares them in the face, as the lap times are now. The gap is so close that the cars are obviously very evenly matched, and to me and many others they’re both ugly cars.

And yet you somehow seem to be suggesting that I’m biased here towards Nissan, when I and my family have never owned a Nissan, but we do own an MB…and we had another one before that.

The cars that compete in GT races are pretty much always derived from road cars, as opposed to formula or prototype cars which have little if anything in common with any road-going cars. Although it is a given that, as they are race cars, they may share very little in common with the cars on which they are based.

One of these reasons these cars are designed to compete in longer endurance races is because their road going counterparts are designed to be useful for long distance journeys, hence the moniker “grand tourer.” As such, yes they do sacrifice some speed for comfort. In this way they’re different from a lot of more traditional sports cars, some of which can be uncomfortable on short trips and damn near undrivable for long ones.

Gran Turismo, Grand Touring? Tomato, tomato. Which came first, the car or the race? The fact is that these terms are pretty much interchangeable and forever intertwined, regardless of whether or not some manufacturers apply the name to cars to which it arguably doesn’t apply. English is a brutally democratic language, and as long as people equate these terms–and I have yet to see any etymological evidence to support the fact that they don’t–they are equal.

If you want further proof, you’ll notice that it’s called the FIA GT Championship, where GT is an abbreviation for nothing. http://www.fiagt.com

Hopefully I can catch a rerun.

Way to go Kimi! What a brilliant comeback that was! I’m really happy with that result… of all 4 drivers that had cars actually able to win the championship, he’s my favorite driver…though I didn’t used to like him.

And also, after McLaren got caught stealing secrets from Ferrari this year, I’m really happy they didn’t win the championship. Cheaters deserve nothing.

Congrads to Kimi For his champion win.

Gran Turismo is racing and is generally meant to expound endurance racing and a car that is fast, agile and enduring as to be able to complete and win a long race. Not every car with GT in the name fits this, look at all the cars on the market that have “GT” attached to their names. Very very of them actually deserve it. It is just a trim level.

Grand Touring is usually seen as sporty but comfortable but not all together a fast car. In this the “GT” attached to most cars is acceptable. But this still only serves to dilute the meaning of the those two letters in the Auto world.

Sony/Polyphony uses “Gran Turismo” for the name of their game but those words have real meaning in the car world. In America we will use “Grand Touring” but it does not have the same meaning as “Gran Turismo”, which at much higher on the automotive food chain. It’s weird, but true. In this case, the language you use determines the meaning and level of importance.

It is Grand Touring i just check it on google, i put in grand turismo and it just came up with the game but when i put in grand touring it came up with all the cars that have the GT logo on it.

The SLR is one of the finest cars ever made. The GT version, GT meaning Gran Turismo (not the game but an actual type of racing and car) refers to endurance racing like the 24-hours of Lemans.

It would seem Mercedes-Benz is looking forward to a new stab at the gold ring again. Unfortunately, I do not see the GT-R qualifying for that race. Plus a densely packed turbo-boosted engine bay does not make for a good endurance racer. Unless Nissan opts to use liquid nitrogen for coolant.

Also complaining about the myriad versions of the SLR sounds a bit hypocritical. The 911 has about a dozen versions on sale now. Multiple versions to fit multiple types of people. If the company can put out that many types and make money on it, why not?

LMAO what Nissan are you comparing this to??
-Comment by Commodore, posted on October19 at 6:22 pm
)))

Ummm…how about this Nissan, numbnuts…?
http://www.motortrend.com/future/spied_vehicles/112_0712_2008_nissan_gt_r/

7:35 around the Nordschleife, and rumor has it they may try to top the Carrera GT. Someone’s going to reply and say that it’s not a big feat to top the GT in this day and age, but it sure is for ~$80k!

BTW, it looks like a Batmobile in black, way over the top but really cool.