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gangajas
02-21-2007, 11:42 AM
Ten of the greatest cars ever, reviewed by evo mag:

McLaren F1
A decade ago it redefined the word supercar. There's still no other car like it

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Question: which car has the better power-to-weight ratio: the Bugatti Veyron or the McLaren F1? Answer: the car with the carbon monocoque that was designed to take it into account.

The F1 might no longer be the fastest supercar ever made but it clearly remains the car that does the most with its power. The Bugatti’s 521bhp/ton is impressive but the McLaren’s 559bhp/ton is more telling, especially when you consider that the Veyron has 1000bhp at its disposal and the Macca a ‘mere’ 627bhp. So, even though the Bug has twice the torque of the Mac (479 plays 922lb ft), it’s just 12mph faster flat out and 0.8sec quicker to 100mph. Let’s look at it another way. Each of the Bugatti’s bhp delivers 0.25mph and each of the McLaren’s 0.38mph.

But then the F1’s prodigious performance was a consequence of its sublime design and engineering and not the starting point. And that’s why the F1 still delivers such a pure and exhilarating driving experience that reaches far beyond the initial hit of its fabulous acceleration. The central driving position requires effort and a certain gymnastic dexterity to access but that’s only right. This isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) a car you leap into, fire up and fling the taps wide open. You savour the moments. All of them.


Ferrari F40
Ferrari's riposte to the Porsche 959 stands the test of time, and is the only Maranello product in the top 10

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Is the F40 the greatest road- going Ferrari of them all? Arguably, it’s the most exciting, focused and rewarding. It’s also the most fabulously functional, shorn of everything that doesn’t add to its speed or dynamic acuity. It gives the notion that ‘less is more’ new impetus. But that’s what makes it so enduringly desirable. The lean provisions, the absence of veneer, the hardcore conviction of it all.

Ferrari threw together the F40 in 12 months. Officially, it was to commemorate its 40th birthday, but everyone knew it was really revenge for Porsche’s audacious act of one-upmanship in making the 959. Ferrari’s counter punch could have been shoddy and unresolved – all power and no purpose. But the (comparative) speed and passion with which it was created and constructed worked powerfully to the F40’s advantage.

Powered by a twin-turbo 2.9-litre V8 developing 478bhp, the 1100kg F40 can just about crack 200mph but, with the supercar high end now defined by the Veyron, its acceleration stats no longer seem so special. It doesn’t matter; the F40’s manic delivery makes it fast in a way even drivers of a modern supercar hero such as the Murciélago won’t understand. Supercar motoring comes no more intense than this.

Pagani Zonda C12S
Now safely entrenched in the supercar firmament, this relative newcomer is so good, the man who started evo bought one...

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The vision of a slight, bespectacled, quietly spoken Argentinean called Horacio Pagani, the Zonda is a labour of love. Pagani spent more than 25,000 hours in the conceptual phase, exploring the style, the carbonfibre chassis, the suspension – all are his clean-sheet creations.

The same originality and attention to detail suffuses the interior. The dash, made from an aluminium casting, is linked to the steering column, which can be adjusted both for reach and height. The circular brake and clutch pedals can also be adjusted to tailor the driving position even more precisely. Designed by Modena Design and made from carbonfibre, the seats have generous fore-aft travel and can be adjusted for height, too.

The Zonda, you see, isn’t a substitute Ferrari or Lamborghini. The usual shapes and sensations have been shown the door. This is a stockier, shockier, more heavily muscled supercar that looks tough enough to chew on a Ferrari 430 between meals and not spoil its appetite. Even if you strip away the exotic curves and the aura of awe that envelops the Zonda wherever it goes, just the sight of the 7.3-litre V12, built by Mercedes’ AMG go-faster department, sitting in the cradle of the steel spaceframe is enough to make grown men weep.


Lancia Delta Integrale
The early 90s legend, destroyer of both Audi's rally dominance and Porsche's on-road air of superiority

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This is the car that buried the Audi Quattro, both in the World Rally Championship and on the road. Of all the hormonally-engineered mainstream metal lumped under the ‘affordable supercar’ heading, the Lancia was the most super of its generation.

Usual Modenese suspects apart, there aren’t many Italian cars that command more respect than the holy ’Grale. But the lumpy little Lancia was a hero to thousands, a genuine slayer of giants. Imagine it, a car that cost the same as a junior executive saloon that would run down a Porsche 911 on a demanding road.

Even by modern standards, it doesn’t seem to matter how extreme you get with a ’Grale Evo, how ludicrous the liberties you take on the edge of adhesion, it always seems to have a few tricks in reserve that will pull you through. Driving one is an education. Accelerate hard on the turn and it finds acceleration where lesser cars find wheelspin or a close encounter with the hedge on the other side of the road. There may be faster cars in a straight line, ones that can pull more lateral g on smooth, dry tarmac. But very few dispatch real roads and uncertain conditions with such confidence. The harder you drive the Lancia, the better it gets.

Bugatti Veyron
Not really a car in the sense of anything else here. Better described as a brief taste of omnipotence

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To understand the Veyron you have to experience it. Like some frighteningly abstract cosmological concept, you struggle to get a handle on its capabilities, trying to imagine what accelerating to 100mph in 5.5 seconds or travelling at 250mph might actually feel like.

But here’s a clue for anyone who’s ever felt the sledgehammer thump of Mercedes’ 500bhp SL55 AMG. The Veyron weighs about the same but is twice as powerful. It has almost twice the torque, too. And it feels roughly twice as fast. That’s twice as fast as the fastest car you’d ever need. A Veyron will dust an Enzo without trying.

Then again, there is a whiff of the absurd about the Veyron. It has as many turbochargers as it has driven wheels (four apiece), two clutches, a seven-speed gearbox and 1000bhp. It gets to 60mph in the time it takes its driver to gulp. It’s about as sensible as a body-builder’s 21-inch neck. Veyron drivers who flex their right ankles too enthusiastically may well end up with the same.

But my guess is no Veyron will ever be driven at 250mph by its owner. What matters is the psychology of wielding such colossal potential. The Veyron’s top speed is so high, no one needs to go there. The advantage is all in the mind. And that’s probably the greatest power of all.

Honda NSX-R
Still widely regarded as Japan's finest automotive hour, and the first supercar you really could use as a runabout (not that you would of course)

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A road-going racer designed to kick Skyline and Supra butt in Japan’s JGTC race series, the NSX-R never officially made it to the UK, which was a tragedy. Lighter, harder, faster and hornier than the standard item, it would have been the perfect repost to the 911 GT3 and Ferrari 360 CS. We’ll certainly never forget our time behind the wheel.

According to Honda, the quicker (4.4sec) 0-60 time was purely due to weight savings and slightly shorter gearing which, incidentally, knocked the top speed down to 168mph. The 3179cc V6 was rated at an identical 276bhp. Our guess was a bit more. The motor was balanced and blueprinted after all. Certainly, the sharper throttle response and more ‘urgent’ feel suggested more gee-gees than Honda would admit to.

The NSX-R got the job done like no other sub-300bhp supercar on earth. Traction off the line was stunning, the short, rifle-bolt action of the six-speed ’box so fast and accurate you could dazzle yourself with your own hand speed. And jeez, what a noise: a howl so hard-edged it could chisel granite. The steering was alive with feel, just the right amount of weight and damping smoothing off the rough edges. The confidence it gave was astonishing. Much like the car itself

Porsche 997 GT3
The ultimate, hard-edge Porsche. The GT3 continues to find your limits before you find its

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All hunkered-down traction, nuggety bump management and lightning responses, the 997 GT3 attacks roads that would cripple the conviction of lesser cars, digging hard into bends, nose bobbing subtly as stiff suspension and stubby profile tyres overwhelm the tail-biased masses to pile on speed through sheer tenacity and talent.

Of course, the GT3 is shockingly fast. That’s its day job, after all. The weight-paring measures of Porsche’s Motorsport Department have delivered a formidable power-to-weight ratio of 298bhp-per-ton. The car will top 190mph and hit sixty in four seconds. And yet, thanks to the wonders of PASM, nestling beside this weapon-like fitness for purpose is a pliant, civilized character that broadens the GT3’s appeal to that of comfortable, mile-munching GT at the flick of a switch.

But then Porsche knows the middle ground between road car and racer perhaps better than any other car maker. It’s hard to think of another road car that nails the sweet spot between raw-edged trackday tool and everyday usability with the precision of the new GT3. Just the right number of comfort layers have been peeled away to reveal the harder, sharper 911 beneath.

Another year, another GT3. And they just keep on getting better.

Porsche 911 2.7 RS
34 years old, small and low-powered by today's standards, but still delivers the quintessential 911 experience

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The defining 911 of its era, the Carrera 2.7 RS was created as an homologation special. All 500 examples of the initial batch were sold within a week of the car’s international debut at the 1972 Paris Show. As a design, it was an object lesson in economy of purpose. With its appropriately fat tyres and duck-tail spoiler, it made later models look fussy and clumsy. It was the first 911 to bear the RS moniker and, for many, it continues to encapsulate and project the 911 experience more cogently than any other.

Lean and hard, with no hint of the excess that blunted the edge of some subsequent models, its 2.7-litre flat six developed a solid 210bhp: enough to propel that lightweight body (under 1000kg) to 60mph in comfortably under 6 seconds.

The car still makes most modern 911s feel aloof. Drive a 2.7 RS and the nerve endings in your fingertips tingle with small but critical details. The surface of the road is etched out in digital-sharp resolution, uncorrupted by compromise damping effects. It jiggles, it kicks, it writhes – bristling with feedback. There’s so much pure feel, it’s still difficult to think of any other car that’s as satisfying to drive hard. Or, indeed, another engine that takes such complete control of the small hairs on the back of your neck

Honda Integra Type-R
A simple premise, brilliantly executed, makes the ITR arguably the best front-wheel-drive car ever, and a cult classic

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The Honda Integra? An unlikely hero to be sure. But its job description was clear enough. All it had to do was be strong, light, taut, responsive, grippy and controlled enough not to impede the driver’s enjoyment of that four-pot Type-R. And what an engine: 187bhp at 8000rpm, 8400rpm red line, scalp-prickling noise.

The requirement, then, was for a front-drive chassis of exceptional talent. It had one. The Integra R was one of those rare cars that didn’t have to sacrifice control for comfort. Its firmness kept its sticky Bridgestone Potenzas planted to the tarmac but didn’t allow sharp inputs to upset the body’s composure. The Civic Type-R that followed kept the spirit of the Integra alive but not the brilliance of its chassis. Which is why the Integra is the true cult classic.

Back in issue 095, we brought together the 15 greatest front-drive cars of recent times. The Integra was the overall winner. As Meaden concluded, ‘It’s a car as sweet and all-consuming as any I’ve experienced at any price, and as pure and focused in its own way as any Porsche RS. Forget the accolade of greatest front-wheel-drive car. The Integra Type-R ranks as one of the truly great drivers’ cars of any kind.’

Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R
Four-wheel-drive and four-wheel-steering helps the brutal Skyline make any drive interesting. Oh and don't forget the g-meter...

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What we loved about the Skyline R34, the thing that set it apart from other Japanese rocket-sleds (apart from its butch, angular appearance – if a car could grow stubble…) was that it owned one of the most technically sophisticated and absurdly talented four-wheel- drive/steer chassis ever to cling to a twisty road. Never mind that it was called ATTESA E-TS Pro, what mattered was that it put all the drive through the rear wheels until the road conditions dictated that some torque should be directed to the front.

It sounds like a blast and it is. At first, though, it’s unnerving. The R34 has an entirely different feel to a Scooby or an Evo. It feels like an altogether tougher, bigger, heavier car. And those SUPER HICAS four-wheel steering responses appear to be artificially darty. At the same time, other aspects of the package feel curiously old-fashioned: hard-riding, slow-revving, conspicuously turbocharged. But then much of the high-tech hardware is designed to make it feel old-tech simple and honest. The only real disappointment was the rather tacky interior. A warrior-class performer nonetheless with a compelling mixture of raw stonk and PlayStation-esque all-drive chassis wizardry.

dutchmasterflex
02-21-2007, 11:48 AM
:good: Good list. But I fear all hell will break loose here soon since no American muscle was mentioned.. but then again, this IS evo and not MotorTrend.

TNT
02-21-2007, 11:49 AM
that is a very good list. i agree with most of it, well maybe all.

ViperASR
02-21-2007, 12:00 PM
:good: wow, I completly agree with that list. I love all of those cars, although I would probobly trade the Lancia for an F430. Thats dang close to what my dream 10 car garage would look like.

SPEEDKILLAR
02-21-2007, 12:12 PM
WHAT??!!! what about the CLK DTM AMG :x or the GTR? :x :x :x

gucom
02-21-2007, 12:15 PM
its about the 10 greatest icons, the F430 will simply never cut it as an icon compared to the integrale... great list imo :D

sentra_dude
02-21-2007, 12:16 PM
A great list, and nice job Honda...two cars in the top ten! A nice surprise that they would pick an NSX as well as an Integra. 8)

:good: Good list. But I fear all hell will break loose here soon since no American muscle was mentioned.. but then again, this IS evo and not MotorTrend.

Not to mention that they included the F1 in their list. :D

sentra_dude
02-21-2007, 12:24 PM
WHAT??!!! what about the CLK DTM AMG :x or the GTR? :x :x :x

LOL! Do you mean this GTR?

http://i19.tinypic.com/4cv2e1f.jpg

The ten worst cars we've ever tested
You've read about the greatest icons from the last 100 issues. Here are the dogs

3. Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR
"I remember the CLK-GTR being dreadful. It had an awful transmission that combined paddle-shift with a clutch pedal, which demanded you had the hand/foot rhythm of John Bonham. It also had horrible turn-in, power-on and lift-off oversteer. It also broke down during the test. Still, at least it didn’t take off"
- Richard Meaden

Ahahahahah, face it...Mercedes doesn't have the knack for making serious sports-cars. :P

The rest of the article: http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/cargrouptests/204917/ten_worst_cars_tested.html

SPEEDKILLAR
02-21-2007, 12:28 PM
WHAT??!!! what about the CLK DTM AMG :x or the GTR? :x :x :x

LOL! Do you mean this GTR?

http://i19.tinypic.com/4cv2e1f.jpg

The ten worst cars we've ever tested
You've read about the greatest icons from the last 100 issues. Here are the dogs

3. Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR
"I remember the CLK-GTR being dreadful. It had an awful transmission that combined paddle-shift with a clutch pedal, which demanded you had the hand/foot rhythm of John Bonham. It also had horrible turn-in, power-on and lift-off oversteer. It also broke down during the test. Still, at least it didn’t take off"
- Richard Meaden

Ahahahahah, face it...Mercedes doesn't have the knack for making serious sports-cars. :P

The rest of the article: http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/cargrouptests/204917/ten_worst_cars_tested.html


Well that is their opinion, and don't know about the car's condition when they tested it, there's bound to be a car with some diseases.

And your comment about MB not having a "knack" for making serious sports car, I'll just ignore.

ViperASR
02-21-2007, 12:37 PM
its about the 10 greatest icons, the F430 will simply never cut it as an icon compared to the integrale... great list imo :D

good call. I forgot it was about icons when I posted :oops:

TopGearNL
02-21-2007, 01:57 PM
Nice list and I really enjoyed reading it so thanks for that! :D

Nice top 10, my 1 and 2nd would definately have been the same!

sameerrao
02-21-2007, 02:01 PM
That's a good list, although I'd change the Integra for a 288 GTO or 250 GTO :wink: not sure about the Skyline either... there're more iconic cars out there like the E30 M3 than the japanese :?

Anyway, it was a good read... probably the longest ever article on Evo :P

The list is based on voting by the readers and general public. The 288 featured lower don the order.

The Big Mac had a huge number of votes relative to the next highest placed car.

silentm
02-21-2007, 04:54 PM
^imo the integra is a bit out of place here.. but i can agree with the rest. the list is very good. i was very surprised to find the 'Grale ;) so far up the list

ae86_16v
02-21-2007, 05:32 PM
Good list. . . nice read. Gotta agree with most of the picks there.

Thanks!

Vansquish
02-21-2007, 05:59 PM
I think they left out a few notables. I hate to bring the Mustang into this, but it deserves a slot, as does the Miura, and probably the Jaguar E-type as well...

Pokiou
02-25-2007, 07:47 PM
its about the 10 greatest icons, the F430 will simply never cut it as an icon compared to the integrale... great list imo :D

i 2nd that notion.

blue8
02-26-2007, 12:29 PM
No Carrera GT :? I hope Evo came up with their own list as well -- would have been more interesting...