After hitting Porsche below the belt a few days ago with their controversial advertising stunt, Nissan decided that they weren’t quite finished expressing themselves. Their most recent scathing attack was aimed at their more stable competition, the Audi TT.
With cut throat competition in the sports coupe segment, Nissan has embarked on a serious marketing strategy of winning new European converts. This goal was evident in London, where the Japanese company took an Audi TTS bearing the slogan "More expensive, slower and less powerful than a Nissan 370Z" around the streets of London.
Adding salt to the wound, the branded Audi TT was trailed by another branded Porsche Cayman with the words "I dream of being as fast as a Nissan 370Z". Talk about being aggressive!
With Nissan’s changing fortunes, the company has been churning award winning vehicles, challenging even the top tier. The company has launched a series of media campaigns highlighting the fact that both sports cars are better in terms of performance yet cost less than their equivalent European rivals. According to Nissan’s marketing director, these campaigns are targeted to alter the perception that only German sports cars are the benchmarks for measuring performance and quality.
With all this rooftop declaration, we are sure you would be interested in the performance of the 370Z in relation to the German trio, so we have included a picture that displays these specs, courtesy of Nissan. Enjoy!
The first rumors on a high-performance version for the Porsche Cayman appeared in 2009, but today we can finally offer you more details on the future sports car.
Called the Clubsport, the new version Cayman will be powered by the same 3.4 liter flat six engine only tricked to deliver between 320 and 330 HP. Engineers will also focus on reducing the car’s total weight as much as possible, most likely by applying the same treatment as with the Boxster Spyder. All of this will allow the Clubsport to make the 0-60 mph sprint in less than five seconds and reach a top speed of 155 mph.
Next to the improved engine, the future Cayman Clubsport will also offer a sport suspension, a new brake system, a lower center of gravity, and Porsche’s latest PDK double-clutch gearbox. The base version will come equipped with the Sports Chrono package, while the high performance version will get an aerodynamic package.
Price will be in the $60K area (at the current exchange rates).
Earlier, at the Michelin Tuning and Bespoke auto manufacturer’s day at the Nurburgring in Germany, Porsche outfitter and tuning outfit, RUF, fetched along the mighty looking Ruf CTR 3 and allowed me a few passenger laps. Like all RUF models, the CTR 3 is Porsche based, but the origin of its chassis has never been disclosed. I suspect 60% of the chassis to be reconstructed from the front wing and slightly longer wheelbase to accommodate repositioning of the twin-turbo flat-six boxer engine. The CTR3’s ambition and heritage was to replace the now legendary 469bhp CTR ‘Yellow Bird’ and the 520bhp CTR2 that followed a decade later.
Using essentially the same motor as Ruf’s 911-based Rt 12, but with an additional 50hp, the CTR3’s 700bhp is supported by a jaw thumping 656lb ft of torque at 4000rpm. Therefore directing all the power to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gear box. This thrusts the CTR3 to 0-124mph in 9.6sec. However, no matter what the figures tell you, on the Nordschleife in Germany, I expected it to be restrained in the many uncompromising corners of the northloop.
This definitely was not the case. Immediately after leaving the car park and cruising down through Tiergarten, I realized this was no normal press lap. Hatzenbach and Quiddelbacher were a blur and I was overwhelmed by the power and low end lagless power delivered by the twin turbochargers.
The Porsche Cayman Interseries may not be one of the most popular racing series in the world, but if you’re a Porsche-loving fanatic, it’s about as close as it gets to enjoying all the Porsche Caymans your heart desires.
What makes it even more appealing, as far as a spectator is concerned, is that the car owners racing their Caymans are required to outift their cars with pre-selected classic liveries. What does this mean? It means that if you’ve been a fan of Porsche racing for a long time, you’re going to recognize all those timeless liveries that these Caymans are adorned in. From the Rothmans Porsche to the Gulf Oil Porsche to the Martinis Porsche to the LeMans 959; you can take your time checking out all the liveries you recognize. And for what’s it worth, the race itself was also pretty exciting.
It’s been a while since we last saw the RUF CTR3 in action, so when word got around that one of these rare supercars went out to stretch its legs on a race track, we just had to scoop up any form of video evidence of the CTR3.
Much to our delight, the car still looks insanely awesome and still comes with that unmistakable power underneath its hood. In case you’ve forgotten, the RUF CTR3 comes with a twin-turbocharged 3.8 liter flat six cylinder engine, which produces an output of 700hp at 7,000rpm. The car can also accelerate from 0-100 kmh in only 3.2 seconds and comes with a topspeed of 375 kmh.
