[kismetcapitan]

there should be some very interesting developments in the next year or two. I'm sure the world's automakers are paying close attention to this car, which is basically the intent of the GT-R. Nissan won't pay the bills selling these things - they gotta move Micras and Sentras and Altimas and whatnot. But the publicity, and the fact that the GT-R will spur the Europeans to try and better it. Ferrari already has the Scuderia ready. Chevrolet (a shit brand if there ever was one, yet you can see the halo effect of the Corvette, especially as its gotten to be a good car) prepping their ZR-1. How will Porsche improve on the current 911 Turbo? Will Toyota be able to come up with something comparable?

Sports cars are a lot more powerful than they were 15 years ago, but I think it's going to take advances in handling technology to beat the GT-R, and in general, the direction sports cars ought to go in. I seriously doubt a twin-turbo Viper, for example, would post much of a decent time on the Ring. I saw a video this morning of the Corvette ZR1 testing at Laguna Seca, and no doubt, supercharging that 7 liter V8 is creating an ungodly amount of power, but the car didn't seem that fast, as it looked like it had trouble holding its line through the curves.