[DeTomaso] NPC: A slow forum day and a dose of Dan Neil

[Jack Donahue]

Good article;
I had a 1978 - 935 (twin turbo) - FAST - a neck-snapper.
Jack
> On Oct 16, 2016, at 3:06 PM, Charles Engles <cengles at cox.net> wrote:
> 
>   Dear Forum,
> 
> 
> 
>                       Dan Neil reviews the Porsche 911 Turbo S.
> 
> 
>                     Excerpts from today's WSJ.
> 
> 
> 
>                   "Every time I drive a Porsche 911 Turbo ---in S trim,
>   with the big turbos, best served cherry-red--I think, "This has got to
>   be it, right?"  The best overall sports car on the market?  Smarter
>   than Kant, sharper than the Brunhilde's horns, tighter than the buns of
>   the Stuttgart football club, and oh so schnell, the 911 Turbo S tops a
>   short list of German things that are wildly entertaining.
> 
> 
>                   Pedigree?  Check.  Porsche is the reigning Le Mans
>   champion, with 18 wins overall.  Provenance?  All Turbos are built at
>   the mother ship in Zuffenhausen, with conceptual roots as far back as
>   the 1930s and Dr. Ferdinand Porsche himself.
> 
> 
>                   Performance?  Puh-leeze.  As always when a new one
>   comes out, the 2017 Turbo S lays down some dazzling markers, like 0-60
>   mph in 2.8 seconds.  This kind of acceleration actually hurts, the sort
>   of ungentle transition from still to moving that draws a flag in the
>   NFL.  The Turbo S will churn out quarter-mile passes in the low 10s
>   until the drag strip turns the lights off.  Top speed is given as 205
>   mph, runway not included.
> 
> 
>                  So naturally, if Dame Fortune or Lady Lotto should
>   extend a pass to one great sports car, the decision tree could only
>   branch, rationally and inevitably, to the proverbial ass-engine Nazi
>   slot car.
> 
> 
>                    So I've always thought.  Maybe I'm wrong.  There are
>   many, vastly cheaper and more expressive sports-car choices.  If all
>   you seek is a track-day toy, try a used Dodge Viper ACR, with its
>   cowl-rattling V-10 and six-speed manual gearbox fabricated by the
>   village smithie.
> 
> 
>                      For about 15% more quid than the Turbo S, you could
>   have yourself the new brill Brit, the Aston Martin DB11, and could
>   parade around in a kilt, wearing a wolf's head as a sporran, which is
>   equally subtle.
> 
> 
> 
>                  Compared with these lewd displays, the Turbo S is
>   practically invisible.  This is good or bad depending  on the emotional
>   needs of the would-be owner.  It's pretty clear Lambo owner weren't
>   hugged enough as children.
> 
> 
>              Let's kick the tires of this yellow one: a rear mid-mounted
>   twin-turbo 3.8-liter flat-six engine (580 hp and 553 ft-lbs of torque
>   at 1.950 rpm), all set on hair trigger; the familiar seven-speed PDK
>   gearbox; a water-cooled all-wheel drive transfer case; rear torque
>   vectoring; adaptive suspension; active body-roll compensation; ceramic
>   composite brakes that would stop a meth-addled elephant; and four wheel
>   steering.  The Sport Plus mode includes a new track-only routine that
>   allows drivers to pitch the car around good and sideways (large deltas
>   in yaw rate)  before it tugs the appropriate brake to set things
>   right.  Of course, the driver can't feel it, so he thinks he is a
>   genius behind the wheel.
> 
> 
>             Ditto the car's four-wheel steering.  A little late on your
>   braking and heading into the short grass?  Take another bite of tiller
>   and four-wheel steering is there for you, bro.
> 
> 
>               You can't even row your own gears.  The seven-speed PDK is
>   equipped with paddle-shifter, of course, but the transmission -control
>   algorithms are now so precise, so predictive, that shifting by hand
>   would be quite a bit slower.
> 
> 
>               "I just leave it in D" said Mr. Hurley Haywood.  "It's
>   smarter than you are."
> 
> 
> 
>                            Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles
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