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Porsche 911 Bags Top Sports Car Commendation

Consumer Reports, one of the most valued authorities when it comes to reviews and comparisons regarding different models of cars has announced the top high-performance sports car – Porsche 911. The commendation was released after a number of reviews and comparisons were pored over and analyzed.

Consumer Reports made an in-house testing laboratory. It also considered several aspects aside from the aforementioned. Other aspects include the car’s actual performance, acceleration, braking and other capabilities and features.

The famous magazine used different scoring system than that of the accustomed system used to rate minivans, sedans and other vehicle. This fact was stated by David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center. Champion added “While the scoring was still heavily weighted toward safety, including emergency handling, factors like acceleration were given more importance than, for instance, trunk space.

Consumer Reports has also anonymously purchased all the vehicles it tested from retail auto dealers. This is to preclude qualms involving the results of the testing. Though the scoring system employed was different from that of the customary, said scoring is reliable and more efficient.

According to the testing Porsche 911 beat the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, the Dodge Viper and 11 other high-performance luxury sports cars. It was mentioned in CNN that the prices of the cars used ranged from $45,545 for a Lotus Elise to $105,855 for a Mercedes-Benz SL550.

The impressive award is nothing new to Porsche. In fact, said automaker has also bagged the first place as the most prestigious luxury automobile brand. Said award was given by Luxury Institute, New York. The survey of the Institute was conducted in May this year.

Porsche is continuing its legacy as the most luxurious brand and its models complement said label. For Porsche that is the way to go – and the way up is still favorable to said automaker.

Jenny McLane is a 36 year old native of Iowa and has a knack for research on cars and anything and everything about it. She works full time as a Market Analyst for one of the leading car parts suppliers in the country today.

Porsche Bags 4th Straight Wins

As Penske drivers Ryan Briscoe and Sascha Maassen claimed the manufacturer’s fourth-straight overall win, both being second in a row, in a thrill-a-minute race around Lime Rock Park’s cramped confines, Porsche maintained its winning round in the American Le Mans Series.

With the late introduced 2007-spec LMP2 air restrictors, Porsche’s RS Spyder lost 5 percent of its engine power for this race. Nonetheless, it was still the car to have around the 1.54-mile Connecticut venue. The LMP1 Audi R10s, which was much heavier, weren’t at home on the narrow and bouncy circuit. Moreover, Porsche appeared to extend its advantage over its Acura LMP2 rivals.

The second Penske Porsche mainly led the two-hour, 45-minute race. Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard led the first two hours. But the latter was caught behind two slower cars.

After both cars went off track, the Audis ended up nowhere. Allan McNish spun twice avoiding a slower prototype. As a result, he ended up fifth overall along with co-driver Rinaldo Capello. Marco Werner crashed the other R10 massively.

Ahead of Chevrolet Corvette teammates Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen, Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin won GT1. Their winning was essentially decided when Beretta ended up 0.01 second quicker in free practice, given that overtaking between the two cars was banned, before rain that canceled qualifying.

Porsche got its first ALMS GT2 victory of the season over Ferrari. The three F430 GTs of the race came together in one incident, thus allowing the Flying Lizard Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister and Johannes van Overbeek to win the class.

Porsche is not only dedicated to building ordinary cars or Porsche 911 parts. It also indulges in racing activities.

The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) gave all drivers and teams since 1999 the probability to compete for a whole racing season with the legendary 24-hour race of Le Mans. The ALMS regulations, which are issued by IMSA (International Motor Sports Association), are based on the long-distance classic. These are the two prototypes and two GT classes drive at the same time in a single race; meaning, the spectators watch four races in one. Year after year the ALMS satisfy its fans with enthusiasm due to the presence of many notable manufacturers and prominent drivers at this very open and attractive race series. One of the many manufacturers is Porsche.

Porsche got a double champion in the 2006 season. It succeeded as the first manufacturer to win the championship title in two different classes. Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr won the manufacturer’s class, while team (Penske Motorsports) and driver titles were won in the LMP2 class. In, Jörg Bergmeister won the manufacturer’s and driver titles in the 911 GT3 RSR (996) in the GT2 class.

The 2007 racing calendar has been increased from ten to twelve races. Porsche will face this challenge with the advanced RS Spyder, 911 GT3 RSR (997) models and several top class teams, including Penske Racing, Dyson Racing, Flying Lizard, Tafel Racing and Rahal Letterman Racing.

Rain Stockton is an engineer by profession. He is a motorsports fanatic, especially F1 and NASCAR. He seldom fails to attend major car racing events. A frustrated race car driver, he spends some of his free time working in one of the largest automotive shops in Indianapolis.

Lamborghini Sports Cars – Automotive Legends Both in Styling and Vehicle Performance

For the legendary Lamborghini sports car stable of fantastic ultra high performance and styled vehicles it all started with ordinary Fiat automobiles and tractors.

Mr. Lamborghini – fully named – Mr. Ferruccio Lamborghini got his start with Fiats and then went on to a large successful manufacturing concern that grew from a small manufacturing shop into a major producer of tractors. However at a certain point in every person’s life they search out to complete what their real passion is. In the case of Lamborghini was finely styled and crafted motor cars. At 60 years of age, an established manufacturer of agricultural tractors – Mr. Lamborghini – decided that he could a better job of building a high end, beautifully styled, performance racing automobiles than either of the two dominant Italian auto firms of that auto industry sector – Ferrari and Maserati.

The first product out of the door had a chassis that was multi-tubular; the engine was front mounted sporting a 3.5 liter 12 cylinder V-12 engine. The V-12 engine itself was fitted with six Weber carburetors and ran four overhead camshafts. It all clocked at 360 ultra smooth horsepower with the transmission drive being through five speed stick shift. Suspension involved a coil and wishbone independent suspension set up. In one word it was wow – both in terms of performance of the hop as well as the automotive styling.

Although the styling of those early Lamborghini models may be considered standard Italian sports car design – designs which have worked their way into the so called standard “sport scar designs “and “sport scar flair”, at the time it was new and innovative and for the most part if was twenty five years ahead of anything produced in the good old U.S.A. . The one American sports car which might be considered an exception to that point was the Chevrolet Corvette. For years to come nothing else really matched or was similar to the clean aerodynamic lines and styling of the early Lamborghini classic autos.

Even then Lamborghini had such innovative products the establishment and reputation of the Lamborghini product line was no easy road to hoe. Although the first cars were produced in 1963 it was not for two years later – at the Turin Motor Show that the car began to attract solid interest and for the reputation of the car and its studio to grow and begin to become accepted for what it should be.

The first real product of record for Lamborghini was what was marketed as Miura T 400 model automobile. Its first year of manufacture was the 1966 model year. The basic layout and design of the Miura T 400 was a mid-engined coupe with a slightly larger version of the overhead cam engine – the classic V-12 laid out transversely behind the two seats of the car. The rear wheels were then driven by this engine through” spurs gears”. Interestingly the gear boxes and rear axles were Lamborghini products all by themselves -so they shared a lineage that was unique and not the same as any other of the competitor’s models.

What was performance of this little cat? The V-12 engine could pour out a total of 385 barrel horsepower. Top speed of this little coupe was over 180 miles per hour. It could more than carry its weight with the local Italian contenders – even the famed Ferraris.

If the was one complaint from drivers or riders it was of noise levels in the car’s cockpit. It can be said that this was the price to be paid for success or in this case speed and performance. If you cannot stand the heat don’t stay in the kitchen. Certainly the buyers of Lamborghini fine motor cars who bought the product and established the revered name for its performance and advanced styling and forgo this small shortcoming or foible as the car as an assumed fact – even a luxury.

The next model in the Lamborghini stable was introduced approximately two years later. The entire life of the production run of the popular Miura model was nine years – with two cars being produced a week ( a production figure of only 100 or so cars a year). The name of this vehicle was the Espada. For the new Lamborghini model, the Espada, Lamborghini went back to a more standard front engine layout. Perhaps this was in response to concerns over noise levels in the cockpit of the Miura and the need to produce a more “standard” or “civilized “vehicle product. No one really knows what went on in the mind of the genius Ferruccio Lamborghini. However what was retained for sure were the Lamborghini basics – the four liter V-12 massive highly tuned engine with whizzy overhead cams and multiple choke carburetors all putting out massive automotive performance and handling.

In the end it can be said that the Lamborghini automotive and automotive styling and performance legends are more than unique and reek of power, thrust and acceleration.