Category Archives: Cars

Motorsport Books — The Cruel Sport by Robert Daley

The companion piece to Robert Daley’s seminal Cars at Speed, The Cruel Sport is ostensibly more of a coffee table picture book. With its oversized dimensions featuring beautiful black and white photos of Formula 1′s golden era taken while Daley was a correspondent for the New York Times in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, The Cruel Sport captures the romance and danger of Grand Prix motor racing during its mythic past. Shots of the greatest drivers of the era — Phil Hill, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Dan Gurney, Jackie Stewart, et al — doing what they do best make up the bulk of this great tome with the text secondary and spare.

Scene from 1964 GP of Holland (Photo by Robert Daly)

Scene from 1964 GP of Holland (Photo by Robert Daley)

The fantastic record of the state-of-the-art cars of this era — thin, gasoline-filled aluminum monocoques surrounding the driver like a casket with a giant engine newly moved to behind his back — pay tribute to the beauty of the Ferraris, Lotuses, BRMs and all the other land rockets of the pre-safety, pre-downforce era. Interspersed throughout are brief profiles of the drivers and circuits written in Daley’s inimitable wry, Hemingway-esque prose. Showing through, as in all his writing on motorsport, is the paradoxical ambivalence of at once being highly attracted to the derring-do of the men’s wondrous achievements as pilots and revulsion at the wonton waste of life inherent during this era of Formula 1, when the death of drivers and spectators was nearly guaranteed several times a season.

Death of Lorenzo Bandini, Monaco, 1967 (Photo by Robert Daley)

In fact, the footnotes to the photos in the closing “Photo Identification” section are practically another book unto themselves, with detailed ruminations about the deaths of Graham Hill by plane accident in the 1970s and Jim Clark at Hockenheim in a Formula 2 race in 1968, among many other anecdotes. And Daley’s quietly devastating recounting of the death of Lorenzo Bandini in a Ferrari at the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix and his journalistic need to photograph it (the horrifying shot of Bandini trapped beneath his burning Ferrari is the fitting endpaper of the book) makes for essential reading in and of itself as a shattering piece of self-reflective journalism, motorsports notwithstanding. In short, along with Cars at Speed, The Cruel Sport is a must have volume for any serious racing fan and anyone who cherishes the bittersweet history of Formula 1 and the men who lived & died it in its most glorious years, as told by its finest, most clear-eyed chronicler.

Check out more of Robert Daley’s life and work at his website, robertdaleyauthor.com.

Cars we want — Porsche 911 Carrera S

Conservatism in automobile design is a rare concept. A new Mercedes, Audi or Ferrari looks nothing like a model from 20 years ago. But look at a 2014 Porsche 911 Carrerra S and you can easily make out the iconic profile and styling that debuted way back in 1964. Of course, that is also a common knock on the 911 — as Jeremy Clarkson so famously cavils, a new 911 will always look pretty much the same as last year’s 911 and one has to be a Porsche-phile to notice any subtle changes. But whether one interprets this consistency as boring repetition or virtuous traditionalism, there is one thing about a Porsche that is certain: it will never be dull to drive.

The design that started it all -- the legendary 1964 911

The design that started it all — the legendary 1964 911

That truism is more than apparent in the 2014 Carrera S. With its beefed up but classic 3.8 liter flat six aluminum block engine it achieves 400 horsepower and 350 foot-pounds of torque for a seriously fast top speed of 188 mph. Those stats don’t change whether you opt for the 7-speed manual transmission or the dual-clutch automatic Doppelkupplung (DPK). The DPK will launch you slightly faster: 0-60 in 3.9 seconds with the optional Sport Plus package vs. 4.3 for the stick. And while the 2014 edition is slightly heavier than its predecessor at about 3100 pounds it is also sleeker looking and handles better. That infamous Porsche tail snap is long gone: even with the non-intrusive traction control turned off, you really have to work to get this 911 out of shape. The rear-engined icon is now so well balanced and the rear wheels and suspension so grippy that one no longer has to be strictly a “Porsche man” to enjoy the experience. And carbon-ceramic breaks allow for crisp and quick stops when necessary.

2014_porsche_911_coupe_carrera_s

Fuel economy is surprisingly decent for such a high performance ride — about 19mpg in the city and 27mpg on the highway. The Carrera S is also available in a highly attractive Cabriolet for a bit more money and a sublime open top experience. Which brings us to price. As always, the 911 is not cheap. The Carrera S has an MSRP of just under $100k and the Cabriolet version starts at around $111k. It goes without saying that those prices do not include any of the delicious options one can add, which can easily balloon the car into the $120k+ range. So obviously, it’s not speed on the cheap. That being said, for our money the Carrera S is the best bang for the buck in the 911 line. It has cleaner lines than the wide-hipped Carrera 4 and while it lacks the all wheel drive of that variation that can also be regarded as a virtue to the rear wheel drive purist. Of course the elite Turbo models jump into a whole different cost bracket at $150-200k. And frankly, if you’re not a track enthusiast or accomplished high speed driver, the Turbos’ 500+ horsepower is probably more than most are going to be comfortable trying to tame on an Interstate. Besides, for most mortals, the Carrera S has plenty of giidyup — just check out this Drive Network test drive:

The Carrera S finds the sweet spot between performance and price, classic 911 design and seductive modernity. Yes, it looks similar to its illustrious predecessors that have emerged from the Stuttgart factory over the past 5 decades. But for the true believer that is also a large part of its considerable charm. And when you put your foot down you’ll know what all the fuss is about.

Carrera S

One of the hairiest crashes you will ever see…

…occurred relatively early in last month’s Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, the inaugural race of the new Tudor United Sports Car Championship. And both drivers, Memo Gidley in the Gainsco Corvette Prototype and Matteo Malucelli in the Risi Competizione Ferrari, survived.

Truly, we are living in a golden age of race car safety. Yes, things can always be improved. But just 15 years ago one of these drivers probably would have perished. The fact that neither did is testament to the efforts of motorsports as a whole and to safety pioneers like Sid Watkins and Jackie Stewart. Every driver should say a word of thanks to those persistent crusaders for the ever-improving safety of their road going cars but especially if they are weekend racers, semi-pro or professional.

Cars we want — Jaguar F-type

At long last, Jaguar’s fabled E-type gets a successor: The stunning and sleek new F-type roadster.

2013_jaguar_f_type-3

The F-type is available with 3 levels of power plant, all of them exhilarating: a “standard” Supercharged V6 with 340 horsepower, an “S” version of the same engine that bumps the power up to 380 HP and the big daddy 5-liter V8 “R” version, which maxes out at a powerful 495 HP and is “restricted” to a blazingly fast 186mph.

jaguar-f-type-2

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Cars we want — SRT Viper

2014-SRT-Viper-TA-front

Dodge’s legendary Viper comes stomping out of mothballs and gets back to the business of tearing up the asphalt at face-melting speeds with 3 new SRT reincarnations for 2013-14. Yes, you can call it a crude American muscle car. Yes, it’s a brutal answer to the more nuanced and larger production Corvette. And yes, it’s expensive with an MSRP of around $100,000 before the massive array of performance options that can make this street legal car a sinister and legitimate super car slayer. But with it’s relatively limited production run and defiant rebuke of smaller, turbo charged engines, the new Viper has “rebel” tattooed on its distinctive snarling snout. In fact, one could say that its awe-inspiring normally aspirated V-10, which delivers 610 horses and a brutal 600 pounds of torque, is not so much defiant of the trend towards smaller engines and improved fuel economy as it is a slap in the face and a challenge to a fist fight.

2013_srt_viper_gts_r_race_car_alms

All you have to do is add up the minuscule gas mileage that the Viper achieves in trade off for all that available performance — a puny 12 mpg in the city, 19 on the highway — and the lack of creature comforts for anyone who does not spend all day turning fast laps at the track — it does not come in an automatic and is as stiffly sprung as a Springfield rifle — and you have the definition of “acquired taste”. But if that taste runs to pure unbridled speed and power on demand, the Viper’s massive power train and minimum available weight of just under 3300 pounds will satisfy that craving in spades. Do the math on that power-to-weight ratio and you come up with 0-60 in 3.1 seconds in GTS trim a top speed of 206 mph. This beast is designed to do one thing: blow away any street car you care to put up against it. That sounds like good fun to us.

After a very good second half in the final season of the ALMS series, the Viper will get its chance to take on all comers on the track, including Ferrari, Porsche & Corvette, in the maiden season of the Tudor United Sports Car Challenge in 2014. It is also highly likely that SRT teams will compete again at next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, where they will look to improve on last year’s results and return to their glory days of dominance at that legendary race.

For bonus gearhead grins, here’s the previous generation ACR-X bitching it around the Nurburgring in 2011 and setting the lap record (since broken by an $800k Porsche 918 Spyder–not exactly apples to apples in MSRP):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e48df97st2s

For more on the rebirth of the SRT Viper check out this classic and laugh out loud funny take from Ezra Dryer at the New York Times. Also worth a read: this LA Times review by Aaron Bragman.