Look out. There's another earth shattering grunge match afoot. I just finished writing about the spectacular competition in the sports bike world, now I want to visit the sports car world. As just about every automotive enthusiast knows, Nissan has recently introduced the biggest thing to happen to performance cars since... I don't even know, but something huge. That thing happens to be the Nissan GT-R. Ever since rumors of incredible Nurburgring lap times hit the net the car has been a legend in its own time. People either love it or you hate it, but (based on tests so far) everybody should respect it. The car seems to be legitimately amazing at all things fast. Nobody can quite figure out how such a heavy car underpowered car (relatively) can easily beat lighter more powerful cars. Like the sports bike rivalries I couldn't wait, and still can't, for an epic show down between the GT-R and the established players. Some tests abroad have been conducted, but they're quite what I was hoping for. The Porsche 911 Turbo, Corvette Z06, Dodge Viper, Ferrari 430, and Lamborghini Gallarado are on my comparison wish list. So far though it seems these cars aren't going to cut it. Sure you could upgrade. There's the Porsche 911 GT2, Dodge Viper ACR, Ferrari 430 Scuderia, and the upcoming Lamborghini Gallarado LP560 all basically racer versions of the previously mentioned vehicles. But keep in mind there is a new and improved GT-R on the way too, the V-Spec. And while I'd absolutely love a test with any and all of these souped up sports cars there's on that is more exciting than all of them.
The Corvette ZR1, the final production version of the mythical "blue devil", is supposed to be the best sports car for the money since the Corvette Z06. That was until Nissan came out with their GT-R. Suddenly a storm begins to brew. A battle royal is about to erupt between Nissan and Chevrolet over the best bang for the buck title. Funny thing is these cars will probably wind up beating everything regardless of price. This then becomes a battle for the overall fastest, absolute supremacy, two cars enter one car leaves. On paper these cars are nothing alike. The Corvette is a two seater front engined rear drive with a supercharged V8 and about 637hp. The GT-R V-Spec is a four seater front engined all wheel drive with a twin turbo V6 and speculative 530hp. Now the ZR1 will have more power, a lot more power. And it will probably weigh less too. But the secret to the GT-R's success is traction, ridiculous traction. Something the Corvette will likely struggle with. So far the reported GT-R's lap times have have put it ahead of the estimated ZR1 times, as well as just about everything else. The ZR1 has been unofficially clocked at much slower times, but General Motors has publicly sated that the ZR1 will post numbers in the 7:20's, right where the GT-R can be found. Whether you like Nissan or Chevrolet, Japanese cars or American, or if you like any other type of vehicles you have to realize this is going to be one hell of a showdown.
If there ever was a sports car world war this would likely be one. You can find participants form the USA (Corvette, Viper, Ford GT) Japan (GT-R, upcoming LF-A and NSX) Germany (911 turbo, 911 gt2, upcoming R8 v10) Italy (430, Gallarado) UK (Aston Martin DBS-a bit of a stretch) and probably more. This gets me wondering were there any past world sports car wars? There was the first, or maybe second, wave of Japanese sports cars in the 90's. Cars like the NSX, GT3000, and Supra were challenging cars like the Viper, 911, TR12, and once again Corvette ZR1. In the 50's and 60's you had Aston Martin vs. Jaguar vs. Ferrari vs. Mercedes. I'm sure there are many other examples which is why I think cars are so fun. They come from such different back grounds yet they end up so closely matched. Its amazing to read about these beautiful machines going head to head. To me it doesn't matter so much who the winner is, rather how good the fight is.
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