Monster Machine

Supercar Engine Bays

2008-10-10T00:52:00.000-07:00

BMW Vs Jaguar

2008-01-30T22:18:00.000-08:00

Road Test: 2005 BMW 530i vs. Jaguar S-Type 3.0 vs.

Like you, we frequently encounter disconnects between perception and reality when it comes to the driving experience. More often than not, images of a single car moving briskly down an invigorating stretch of road through breathtaking scenery contrast with what's beyond the windshield--an unrelenting SUV going 10 mph slower than the flow of traffic in the fast lane, driver with cell-phone planted firmly in ear, blocking the forward view. Urges to clip apexes and wind out the engine through each gear are supplanted by slogs through exurbia, where clipping cell-phone text messages and winding out the surround-sound stereo seem like more productive and satisfying activities. We feel your pain.

Today's mid-luxury sport sedans attempt to have it both ways by attending to our desire for an invigorating driving experience and the need to stay comfortable and electronically connected.

Carrot Top and an Aussie beefcake troupe known as Thunder from Down Under pass for culture in the devil's den of Las Vegas. We skipped both. Passed on Penn and Teller, too, and although "wacky, avant-garde, percussion-driven entertainment from blue-hued performers" sounds freakishly tempting, we blew off the Blue Man Group.

Instead, we drove the 2007 Jaguar XK Coupe and 2006 BMW 650i Coupe from L.A. to Vegas to visit the Neon Museum, which doesn't really exist, but we're told it will. Plans call for an exhibit gallery, research library, store and café along with classrooms and banquet facilities. In the gallery will be refurbished neon signs, a classic Las Vegas art form, from the past seven decades.

Until funding for the above is donated through loopholes in the tax code, you can tour "The Boneyard," a couple of sizable dirt lots north of the Strip. The Louvre it ain't. Both lots are surrounded by 8 feet of chain-link, but beyond the fencing are more than 100 unrestored signs and bona fide Las Vegas culture, if there is such a thing.

Why drive two $80,000 luxury coupes 300 miles to a neon graveyard? Because it beats walking to one, that's why. Plus, the all-new 2007 Jaguar XK and the bigger-engined 2006 BMW 6 Series would look oddly out of place at some seedy massage parlor.

Too-cool coupes
Long hood, short deck, two doors and a fixed roof. It's a design as timelessly desirable as Steve McQueen and the banana split. Only sadomasochists and mothers of septuplets fantasize about additional room for the kids. Sure, there have been some epic sedans over the years, but the car of your dreams, the one you stay up nights lusting after, the one you secretly shop on eBay for while the wife's asleep, surely has two doors.

These two rear-wheel-drive coupes are certainly worth a few late-night lust sessions. The BMW 6 Series, with its acquired-taste style, has been around since 2004 as the 645Ci. For 2007, it's been given a shot of the same stuff that's made Barry Bonds such a home run machine. BMW has replaced the car's 325-horsepower, 4.4-liter V8 with a 360-hp, 4.8-liter V8 and changed its name to 650i Coupe. Although a six-speed manual is available, our Alpine White example had a six-speed automatic transmission. It also wore the Sport Package and a few other sundries that drove its sticker price up to $81,140.

The Bimmer's additional muscle is fortuitously timed, because of Jaguar's complete redesign of the XK. The 2007 version of the sexiest cat is sexier than ever and powered by a 300-hp 4.2-liter V8, also backed by a six-speed automatic. A few options, including the $8,125 Luxury Aluminum Package, took its as-tested price up to $86,460.

Aside from the 750-mile round-tripper from Santa Monica to The Boneyard and back, we lived with these two leather-lined two-doors for 10 days. They endured everything from heavy-metal romps through the Malibu mountains to hard-core slogs through some of the nation's worst traffic. We even made some of our friends ride in their ridiculously small backseats. Sure, we laughed as they shoehorned themselves back there, but automotive evaluation is a serious business and the risk to decade-long relationships was worth it. Oh, and we also took them (the cars, not our friends) to the test track, which was also fun, but not as funny.

Still the ultimate
After all that driving, laughing and testing, we crunched the numbers, asked ourselves which one we would spend our cabbage on, and chose a winner. Although we would like to say it was a tough call, it wasn't. The 2006 BMW 650i Coupe took this one by several car lengths.

It's not that the Jaguar is without appeal. This is a drop-dead gorgeous machine that performs well and offers high comfort. If its lines have you in a magnetic tractor beam, write the check. This car will make you happy.

No one would call the 650i drop-dead gorgeous, although its profile has caused a few passers-by to actually drop dead. The Alpine White paint didn't do our tester any favors either. But the BMW performs much better than the Jag, costs less than the Jag, is quieter than the Jag, has a much more usable backseat than the Jag and offers a significantly larger trunk than the Jag. It's also more comfortable, more refined and built with superior fit and finish.

In the end, it's that unique depth of engineering that gave the BMW the win. She may not be all that much to look at, but, boy, she sure can cook.

Supercar Showdown

2008-01-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

Porsche Vs. Ferrari Vs. Lambo

The following article is abridged from an article originally appeaing in the August 9 issue of Autocar magazine. –Ed.

We went to Wales, to one of our all-time favorite roads, no less, to find the answer to one very simple question. Is the new 911 Turbo – all 473hp, and 193mph worth of it – really as good as they say it is? If so, it should have few problems taking care of its opposition here, which comes in the form of the fabulous Ferrari F430 and the revised-for-2006 Lamborghini Gallardo.

If not, well, Porsche’s decision to charge so much money for its beloved flagship might well hit a brick wall – because at $184,000 (UK price) the 911 Turbo can no longer be considered a bargain beside its rivals. Especially not when that price jumps to a whopping $202 grand in the case of the test car, which was fitted with no more than most of the options most 911 Turbo owners will specify anyway (such as PCCB brakes, an electric sunroof and the Sports Chrono pack, which provides an extra 50lb ft of torque).

If somehow you’ve missed what the new 911 Turbo is all about, here’s a recap. As per the last two incarnations it’s four-wheel drive, but this time it uses a whole range of active electronic systems to keep it glued to the road and out of the undergrowth, many of which were pioneered by Porsche when developing the Cayenne.

It also has a variable geometry twin-turbo version of Weissach’s venerable 3.6-liter flat six and, in this instance, that means more power (473hp at 6000rpm), more torque (457lb ft between 1950 and 5000rpm, rising to 502lb ft for 10sec bursts if you specify the Sports Chrono pack) and more performance than ever before.

How much more? Try 0-60mph in 3.6sec, 0-100mph in 8.0sec dead, 0-150mph in 19.6sec and a decidedly pessimistic official top speed of 193mph. In reality, 198mph is more like it once tire expansion is taken into consideration.

Yet the new faster-than-ever 911 Turbo is, according to Porsche, also the most civilized so far. Gone is the rock-hard ride and the will-it-won’t-it personality of yesteryear. Nowadays the Turbo is a refined all-’rounder designed for (very fast) everyday use – a car that’s as refined on the highway as it is incisive carving its way across a deserted back road. A car, indeed, to make the rest of the world look second rate.

Not that this is quite how Lamborghini or Ferrari see the situation. The F430 is about as cutting edge as it gets at this sort of price ($224,500 with a manual gearbox or $236,000 with the paddle-shift F1 gearbox as tested). Fast, too, which means no one in their right mind would bet against it competing against a rival as traditional as the 911 Turbo without putting up a monumental performance.