November 30, 2022 • 50 mins
In round one of our tournament to determine the car of the year, Eddie is joined by Matt Farah to debate the various merits of the Corvette Z06, Nissan Z, Toyota Corolla GR, and Porsche 718. What does the future hold for this coveted but shrinking segment? Plus, Matt tells us about the saga of ordering his frozen-berry metallic Boxster, and why it might be better than a 911. Eddie then takes us for a spin in the winner.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Welcome back Car Show fans for a very special
season of the podcast people have called listenable and a
podcast about cars. We do love our fans here at
(00:36):
Car Show, which is why this short five episode run
will be devoted to picking a car of the year,
all geared toward helping you make a totally irrational purchase decision. Yep,
just like the big time car magazines and websites, we
will take the measure of all the great vehicles we've
driven in twenty twenty two and come up with a
winner no one's ever heard of. And just like the
(00:59):
big time sporting conferences, in each episode, these cars will
be subdivided into brackets sports cars, sports adds, electric vehicles,
and SUVs, where they'll face off to pass through to
the final round. The winning car of the Year will
be determined by the best science on the subject, which
is basically me talking to a bunch of other car
(01:21):
nerds to land on a favorite, and at the end
of each episode will take a drive in the winner.
Oh my God, and the ride is really good. It
sort of floats over the road. The listener that smokes,
my goodness, I'm your host, Eddie Alterman without further ado,
(01:47):
here's the sports cards bracket with my friend and Rodent
Track contributor Matt Farrah. Matt also hosts the wildly popular
Smoking Tire podcast Matt Farah, Thank you for being here.
Matt Farah invented automotive podcasting. I don't mind saying, but
I'll take it yet or popular or made it legit
(02:10):
or whatever allow us to do what we do here.
So thank you, my friend, and thank you Ed. I
thought you'd be the perfect person to get on here
to talk about sports cars and the most interesting sports
cars we drove this year. You come by it honestly.
You have a kuntash do so you know pain. You've
(02:32):
experienced pain and joy. And you have a Boxer Spider
sevent eighteen on its way, so you know what's up.
In our conversation, Matt and I throw out a bunch
of fancy terms and acronyms. Let me take a moment
to define them. The first is p Cody. That's p
(02:54):
c O t Y. This is an acronym for Rodent
Tracks Performance Car of the Year award, which recognizes the
finest weapons grade mega car every year. Naturally, aspirated refers
to an engine that breathes without the aid of a
supercharger or turbocharger. Enthusiasts generally prefer naturally aspirated engines because
(03:19):
they usually sound better, rev higher, and respond in a
more linear fashion. The tenth system, Matt says, one of
the cars is still fun at five tenths. Enthusiasts use
the tenth system to describe how hard they are driving
and how much of the car's capabilities they're using. Five
(03:42):
tenths means driving at about fifty percent of your or
the car's limits. Some cars even go to eleven. The
acronym SEMA stands for Specialty Equipment Market Association. They do
an annual car accessory show in Las Vegas, and it
could only happen there. Imagine a million square feet of
(04:04):
gigantic chrome wheels, sewer line exhaust pipes, and trippy custom cars,
and you're still a few acid tabs shy of reality.
Final drive ratio This refers to the last gear set
between the engine and the driven axle. This ratio represents
how many times the transmission needs to turn the drive
(04:26):
shaft in order to rotate the tires once, so a
numerically higher final drive ratio means the final gear set
is spinning faster and delivering more torque to the wheels,
though not changing in the ultimate torque rating of the
engine itself. Did I just make that worse? Before we
(04:47):
get into the cars themselves, I want to talk about,
very briefly what a sports car should do. Do you
have any thoughts on the matter. You know, what I
really think a sports car should do is feed the
emotions of driving. You know, real sports car driving is
tapping into your bodies per set of sensations. And those
(05:11):
sensations can be in the form of how we feel
g forces, whether that's acceleration and breaking or lateral g
forces that come with handling and grip, but also your site,
how the car not only looks when it's parked, but
how it looks from the driver's seat, out over through
(05:32):
the windshield and out over the hood. How it sounds
the engine sings, the intake noises, the mechanical noises, the
exhaust noises, and then also how it tingles you, you know,
the the actual frequency that the engine and the gear
train and whatever vibrates at, and the way that certain
(05:55):
cars send those vibrations through the seat and the wheel
and your hands, and it's it's a sort of a
harmonious balance of those factors that lead to a great
sports car, and it's very rare that a manufacturer gets
all of them right. But to me, it's about providing
(06:17):
a sensory experience that is overwhelmingly pleasant, enjoyable, and in
some ways addictive. Yeah, yeah, I think you did a
good Bill ni style job of explaining that. And you, yes,
and a great sports card needs to engage all the
senses and yes, trigger happy emotions and good and there's
(06:40):
plenty of cars that can engage one or two. I mean,
particularly when it comes to g forces. I mean, there's
plenty of cars out there that go stop and turn,
you know, really well. And so we might say that
on paper objectively, and people like us for who work
for magazines are partially to blame for the focusing on
(07:03):
beyond paper statistics, because that's that's one way to show improvement,
an objective way, but it's certainly not everything, and it's
some of the reasons that, in my opinion, the best
sports cars aren't always the fastest cars. That's right. You know,
numbers are a great way of ordering the world, giving
(07:23):
you a sense of sort of concrete stability and an idea,
but it's not the same as feeling something. I don't
personally spend my own hard earned money, and I don't
encourage other people to spend their hard earned money on
the car with the fastest numbers. If you think about
(07:44):
how often that metric it really is useful, it's very
very rarely. It's like, yeah, it's like boasting about glove
box volume. Yeah, it's like it's it's somewhat equally irrelevant.
But I think a cool way of saying that is
that there's no story without the data, but the data
(08:05):
is also meaningless without a story. Sure, And I think
sports cars are kind of the pointy end of the
car business. It's where we see that dichotomy between numbers
and field most greatly, and so I think it's a
good place to get into it. And I think the
one we should start off with is sort of a
(08:26):
controversial car. It's the new Chevrolet Corvette ZEO six. The
all new Corvette zero six is based on the eighth
generation Corvette, aka the C eight. It starts at around
one hundred and ten thousand dollars and it's five point
(08:48):
five liter V eight engine makes six hundred and seventy horsepower.
What's controversial about it, Eddie, I'm just wondering what your
definition of controversial. It seems pretty awesome to me. You know,
we're pretty spoiled over at road and tracks. So I
got to do probably thirty thirty five laps around Manicello
(09:09):
and then I got a couple of hours of road
time with it as well. I don't know, I don't
know a lot of people are like, oh, yeah, I
think it's gonna be a punker job. Well, maybe controversial
is the wrong word, but I think that there are
some people who are upset that doesn't have a manual transmission.
Well yeah, there are some people who look at the
(09:32):
pricing and say, this thing can almost hit one hundred
and sixty grand. I think the one we drove at
pe Cody was over one hundred and sixty grand. I
think it was like one hundred and sixty six. Okay,
so it's it's a ton of a ton of money
for a Carvette that's always been sort of like the
budget supercar in a way and the world beater. But sure,
(09:53):
against all that, you have a vehicle in the C
a Corvette both in the base car, and in zero
six that is just one level higher than any Corvette
that's gone before it in terms of its ambition, in
terms of its capabilities, in terms of it's late Like
theight to me was such a brilliantly tuned vehicle because
(10:15):
it was an everyday supercar, you know, it was a
managing car that sort of like a McLaren seven twenty s.
It was silky smooth, you know, in terms of its
power train, great transmission, great, great suspension. You could drive
it year round, put snow tires on it in a
Michigan winter and you're fine. And when you get to
(10:35):
the Zeo six, you're in another league entirely from past
Ceo sixes that were front engine. This car is really
really worked over. I mean from the suspension to the engine. Yeah,
I mean the zero six proves that with enough allocated
resources and dedicated smart people working on it, it is
(11:00):
possible to reverse engineer a Ferrari four five eight Special
and bring it to market in about six years. I mean,
I think that that's pretty much what they've proved here
with that engine, which has all the revs but also
doesn't give up on its torque and in general what
I think Corvette is always meant to do is democratize
(11:23):
what the high end European stuff is doing for approximately
a third of the price, and one hundred and sixty
thousand dollars is very expensive, and that's a pretty loaded
up zero six. You can get into one for about
one hundred and twenty five that'll have some decent options
on it. The one we drove at p Cody had
the zero seven package with the carbon fiber wheels and
(11:44):
so ours was about as expensive as it gets. But
you do the math, and although many people out there
might think of a Ferrari, Fa Tributeau or two nine
six is being a three hundred thousand dollar car, the
truth is it's a four hundred thousand dollar car. And
so the zero six does get you that level of performance,
(12:05):
and it approximates that amount of style. It doesn't it's
not quite as elegant as the Ferrari, but it's mid engine,
it is good looking, and it is usable. I mean,
there's very little about the zero six specifically that takes
away its everyday usability versus the base C eight on
the road. I mean they're doing something that the big
(12:28):
Italians and the Europeans really aren't doing anymore, which is
naturally aspirated rev happy V eights, which is a phenomenal achievement.
You know, we were with a GM engineer at the
track when we were doing our Pea Cody thing and
we heard this zero six fly by with one of
our editors driving it, and the guy from GM left
(12:51):
and he goes, can you believe Ferrari had this? And
when you know what, let's move by exactly. No. I mean,
that's that sensory experience of the zero six is extreme.
It's not that low burbling V eight you might expect.
It's that harsh bark of an exotic and that's to
me one of those elements that really separates it from
(13:11):
a run of the mill corvette. Sure, this is an
instance where going backward to a naturally aspirated, non turbocharge
flat plane crank VA really pays off. And I think
that their focus was absolutely dead on that. They picked
one of the best ferraris of all time, that four
or five eight specialty and really honed in on it.
(13:33):
But they also, to your point, they made it much
more livable, much more of a four seasons supercar, and
to sort of tie up the zero six in a
bow because we want to move on some other cars.
This is a car that I think nails a lot
of the sensory aspects. You know, it sounds incredible. The
(13:55):
front end bite on this car is insane, Like the
Sisteria response is amazing, and the thing just feels so
stout and you know, you feel like you could drive
it through a brick wall. Yeah, and the gearbox. You know,
there are people whom lane about the lack of a manual,
and I do understand. I like driving stick on my
fun cars, and I hear them. But the fact is
(14:16):
this car is so fast that you'd never be able
to keep up with it with a stick. It's it
grips so hard and it does what it does so
fast that you really need to have two hands on
the wheel to drive it quickly. And what it does
really well is despite its air quotes focus for track
and lap times, it is fun at five tenths. It
(14:39):
is a lovely car at five tenths. And you don't
have to get the crazy zero seven package to enjoy
it on the road. You know, you put it in
drive and just regular automatic mode, and it is very
refined and very pleasant and they've done a phenomenal job
the body panels. You know, you parking next to a
(15:00):
Porsche and some of the panel gaps were a little
yet wonky, but it's such a good performance value and
when you're driving it, um, it's clear where the resources
have been allocated. Yea. And the fact like that you
said that that this is a car that you can
drive at five tenths and really enjoy it and you
don't have to get to the limit with it, that
(15:22):
you know, puttering around at forty five miles an hour
or sixty miles an hour and just a winding road
still incredibly fun and incredibly responsive. It's it's an unbelievable achievement,
no question about it. Oh yeah, I mean if you
if you think, if you like the concept of it,
you'll like the execution. I don't know anybody who would
(15:44):
be is into the concept but not the execution of
this car. It's it's not going to disappoint anyone who's
got an order in keep your order. It'll it'll bowl
your mind, no question. When we come back more sports
cars with Matt Farrow. So let's move on to car
(16:11):
number two, which is not quite at the level of
the zero six Corvette, and that is the Nissan Z.
The Nissan z j Z, not two eighty Z or
three hundred ZX like back in the day, is a
relatively straightforward rear drive sports coup It has a four
(16:33):
hundred horsepower twin turbo V six and starts just north
of forty thousand dollars. So the Z is an evolved
version of the old three seventies Z. But this is
not how which is an evolved version of fifties But
can I just say that this is not how evolution
is supposed to work. Evolution means that something is more
(16:57):
adapted to its moment than before. And I don't feel
like this Z is. I think it looks great, but
it just feels coarse and rough and not fully realized,
not fully you know, sort of executed. And have you
spent a bunch of time in the thing decent? I
(17:18):
went on the launch, I drove it on the track
and I did you know, one hundred and fifty two
hundred road miles on it, and then drove it again
about a month later for a little bit. You know,
I hear you on your criticisms of it. On the
other hand, I think that we have a real problem,
not just in this country but globally of having so
(17:43):
many choices for the very rich. There have never been
more choices. If you want a seven figure car, you've
got like twenty different options to choose from. But if
you want a fifty or sixty thousand dollars great sports car,
you have fewer options than ever before. And that is
a real sad reality of not just our world for
(18:06):
the consumers out there, but someone who makes videos about
sports cars. It's really and man, I hear that, But
I don't think that this thing feels like it's worth
fifty grand. Yeah, it might not feel like a forty
or fifty thousand dollar car. And that's totally a valid
point because it is fairly basic. It has knobs, it
(18:28):
has you know, fairly it doesn't have some fancy schmancy
I mean, it does have a touchscreen, but it's not
like a great one. It's got the old seat adjuster
on the inside of that, the old school seat adjusters.
Yeah no, and I hear you. On the other hand,
it's reasonably quick. There is going to be a fantastic
(18:49):
aftermarket for it. The measuring session for Sema was like
so popular they had to extend it to a third day.
So I imagine this year's SEMA show will be packed
full of modified zs. There are a lot of people
who are looking for a relatively simple, tunable, um daily
(19:10):
drivable sports car option. And while Nissan has never made
the most refined engines other than the Skyline, the R
R series thirty two, thirty three four Skyline and that
one of the best engines of all time, but they're
V six is have never exactly been inspiring to me.
But in a world where the eighty six twins are
(19:34):
nice cars. But but what does a Subaru mean versus
a Toyota and the Supra and the Z four, they're
both nice cars, but the Toyota one is such a
BMW in every way that that matters. But it's so
but it's so good, it's like tune better. Yeah, no,
it is, it's it is, but and it's more expensive.
(19:55):
It's it's you know, spec for spec. It's probably ten
twelve percent more expensive than the Z. And so, to
go back to what I started this conversation with, what
I like about the new Z is that it is itself.
If you're buying a Z it's a z and it
has some interesting throwback details that are blended with modern
(20:18):
style in a way. I like it is usable every
day as an only car. It's gonna be tunable, and
Nissan is friendly with the aftermarket like that, and it's
got its own character. Now whether or not you like
that character, well, that's up to you, fine. But having
met the people who build it at the launch and
(20:41):
talked about their passions for keeping it its own thing,
I really like that they've done that, and I think
although it may not objectively lead to the best car possible,
you know, if they sourced to BMW in line six,
it might be a little less rough and gruff. And
there are some areas where the car can be a
(21:03):
little unrefined, that's for sure. But for the amount of
money you spend, it is fast. It is tossable and
small and doesn't look bloated, and it doesn't have a
bunch of crap piled into it, and you can turn
the traction control off with just one button. From my perspective,
it gets credit for it being itself and existing more
(21:27):
so than it gets credit on being better objectively than
some of its competitions. And I do agree with all that,
and I love the way it looks, and I think
it's a great sort of makes of retro and kind
of future styles and it's more than just sort of
applied styling cues. Right, No, it don't. It doesn't blow
my mind. Oh the platform goes back to two thousand
(21:49):
and three, It doesn't feel that old. They've done enough
to it to make it feel like a mostly new product.
It does have that turbocharged engine which does have a
pretty linear power band, and there will be options for
the aftermarket and from Nismo themselves. I hope it sounds
(22:09):
or with those aftermarket pieces, because it sounds like a pathfinder.
They had one. They had one at the launch with
a prototype Nismo exhaust on it, and it did sound
pretty pretty nice. I guess my issue with it is,
you know, a sports car needs to be about sensitivity.
You know, the car is sort of in conversation with
you sure, and that car to me was not. You know,
(22:31):
it felt a little cold, and then when you really
pushed it hard, I felt like the thing fell apart.
It does well, you know, that car is the same
as like a Mustang GT. You know, if you really
want it to be its best you kind of have
to finish it yourself. You're gonna have to tune it
with a maybe a slightly different tire and wheel set up.
(22:54):
You know, you're gonna have to do a little bit
because it's got to be everything to everybody, you know,
it's got to be the kind of thing that a
person who doesn't really care that much about cars but
likes how it looks is going to drive it in
the city and on bumpy roads and doesn't want it
to ride like crap. And then and and you need
that person just as much as the enthusiast to sell
(23:17):
cars to. And same thing with MUSTANGT. MUSTANGT is a
great package, but you wouldn't want to take one off
the showroom floor and start doing track days with it.
It would be a little sloppy, but it rides well
on bumpy roads. So if you really want to, you
don't even want to take it to a car's of
coffee now, But if you want to, if you want
(23:38):
to narrow the focus, the option is there for you
to do that in the in the aftermarket. And those
are the choices that they've made. These are good points.
I think you turned me around a little bit on
the sea. So let's move on to a car that
I feel is unexpectedly and fully resolved and just blew
my mind when I drove it. And it was a
(23:58):
Toyota Corolla, specifically the GR Corolla in the Marizo Edition.
The GR stands for because Zoo Racing, which encompasses Toyota's
motorsports division and builds its hottest road cars like the Supra.
This special Corolla has a turbocharged one point six leader
(24:21):
three cylinder engine pumping out three hundred horses. It only
comes with a stick and all wheel drive, and the
extra special Marizo Edition climbs to north of fifty k.
Let's talk about what this thing is. The Toyota Corolla,
you know, is a rolling tab of ambient in base form. Right,
(24:41):
it is like the cure for Insombia, the most boring
car of all time. But you know what, credit to them.
It's not a bad car. The newest Corolla I've rented them.
I drove the press car, actually, the the regular car.
It's got great seats, it's built really well. I mean,
it's it's just if you said car, you know, it's
(25:03):
it's a great car. It's not a Toyota does they
do the best research of anybody. Okay, so they're gonna
get eights across the board, an engine, seating, comfort, trunk space,
but that results in a pretty bland car. You want
some ups and downs. The gr Corolla, on the other hand,
is all ups and downs, and it is just wildly
(25:25):
exciting and explosive. Yeah, it's a wild it's a wild package.
I drove it on the track before I drove it
on the street, so literally I sat in it and
straight out of pit road onto the track and within
two corners I went Bro. They're not messing around. It's
really designed to assault your senses, and you have to
(25:49):
drive it hard to really appreciate it. Especially the Marizo
edition is so stupid. I mean it's it's stupid in
the kind of way that people like us, the real nerds,
you know, appreciate. You know, Oh, let's take out the
rear window regulators and the rear speakers and the rear
wiper to save you know, three pounds, Like bro, Like,
(26:10):
come on, I know, and this is a car that
gets better than where you hammer on it, like it
engine only really wakes up above three thousand rpm and like,
so this is just such a weird little car, a
turbo three cylinder that produces three hundred horsepower and it's
(26:30):
it sounds like nothing else. And you can adjust the
front rear traction bias through the car and it's pretty vivid.
You can tell the novel does things. It does work. Yeah,
And I got out of an RS three Audie and
into this car. Sounds like, oh my god, this thing
sounds so much better. It's so much more responsive to steering,
(26:53):
so much better than that really expensive Audie. And so
that's why I put it on this list. To me,
it's a sports car. It's a car that is really
driving a lot of those sensory inputs. Yeah, you know,
oh for sure. Well it's definitely a sports car. There's
no question about that. I mean, this thing is. This
thing is liquid hot fizz on the track. It is
(27:15):
really really fun. I mean to to just huck it
and smash the throttle, you know, and do a nice
big four wheel slide. It's very controllable at and beyond,
you know, the limit. So I haven't driven the regular one,
and I've been trying to get ahold of Toyota to
(27:37):
drive the base but variant because it's not just the
weight reduction with the Marizo. It also has the Marizo
has more torque. It also has different of different final drives,
so shorter gear ratios, which when you've got such a
peaky engine it does. That makes a big difference. And
they're only making two hundred of the Marizos. But other
than hardcore collectors, I don't know anybody that really wants
(27:59):
a fifty four thousand dollars hatchback with no back seat.
It's a little dumb, but it is incredibly engaging. The shifter,
the pedals, the wheel, the seats, I mean, all of
those inputs are as good as you'll find almost anywhere.
It's clearly a focused product. It's clearly the most exciting
(28:23):
car that Toyota has given us in quite some time,
and they just get all the credit for that. Having
said that, I drove it also on the street, and
when the road is less than perfect, it was quite
bouncy and it really beat me up a lot, and
I was really hoping the suspension would act a little
(28:45):
more like a rally car and a little less bouncy,
and maybe the regular one is different and a little
more compliant on the street, and that's why I'd like
to drive it because I felt the Marizo Edition was
so exceptional when the tarmac was very good, but really
really brutal when the tarmac was bad. And that's not
(29:07):
what I want out of a hatchback, even a very
well uh focused one. You know, yeah, I hear that,
right is so important no matter your age or body
mass index. I mean, look, the best, the best sports
cars I've ever driven in my life, right, great? You
know the McLaren seven twenty different various nine to elevens
and Cayman's Fosters and a Corvette. You know, even my
(29:32):
Lamborghini Kuntash have have beautiful, uh compliant rides. Lotus is Lotus,
the Lotus of Oora Masa GT. These cars are not harsh.
They have beautiful rides. And so if you've got a
really stiff ride, sometimes you're trying to cover up some
other poor handling trait and sometimes you're doing this sort
(29:54):
of motorsport theater thing where it's like regular folks that
aren't his fine tuned to their senses will do a
test drive for ten minutes and feel a stiff car.
Go it's stiff, it's sporty. You know, there's a macho
to that kind of yeah to that, like brutal sportedness
and like, oh yeah, it must be really really fast
(30:14):
and really like hardcore. But the gr Corolla to me
is like, you know, they're making up for their past transgressions,
their past camera transgressions. Totally. It's a special, special little car.
And to me, it's it's worth it's a Vivot experience.
It's worth the money. And those are those kinds of
Vivot experiences are like vanishingly rare nowadays. Yeah. Yeah, And
(30:37):
my hope is, and again I say it's without driving
the base one, but my hope is they will offer
the final drive, the lightweight wheels and the extra torque
on a variant that also has you know, a back
seat and a full radio and more suspension compliance exactly.
And they took away the rear wiper and oh, by
(30:57):
the way, I drove it in the rain for pe Cody,
the rear window is like covered in road Schmutz. And
I'm just going, yeah, you know what I'd like right
now in this hatchback is a rear ripe exactly. It
asks a lot of its driver, Yeah it does, but
it's a it's a it's a pretty badass little ride,
(31:17):
and Toyota gets points for building it as well as
they have. It shocked to me, it shocked all of us.
When we come back, Matt tells me about the one
car in this bracket that he spent his own money
to buy. I'm Eddie Altraman, and this is car show.
(31:41):
Let's talk about a car that I think is near
and dear to both of us, and Carlin does ride great,
still feels special, and to me, it's sort of the
acme of that thing you were talking about earlier, which
is harmonious feedback, kind of maxed out feel, a car
(32:02):
that feels like it's just been sanded down and honed
and honed and like worked and worked over until everything
was absolutely perfect, and the feel of the shifter matched
the responsiveness and action of the clutch pedal, and the
body movements matched the steering perfectly. At the transitional behavior
(32:25):
you know, was almost like a giant slile and skier.
This thing could change directions so expertly and just filled
you with joy. I'm talking about the Porsche sevent eighteen
now the Porsche seven eighteen, also known as the Boxer convertible,
and the Cayman Hardtop are not technically new, but they're
(32:47):
so good that I just had to put them on
this list of best cars I've driven this year because
they were I like mine with a four lead flat
six engine, which is available in Boxer Caman GTS and
higher trims. I do love these cars. I think they
are the best cars that Porsche makes. Great balance, great inputs,
(33:11):
great use of space. It's a very spacious car, but
it doesn't take up very much space on the road.
I liked it so much I bought one. I own
a Boxer Spider, but at the same time, with my
car is modified a little bit, is not exactly left alone.
(33:32):
But why did you decide to go that extra step
and modify the car? And tell me what you did
to it. Well, just because a car is one of
the best sports cars on the market, it doesn't necessarily
mean it's perfect. I feel, and I've said it very
consistently over the last five or six years that although
(33:54):
the Cayman GT four and Boxer Spider are the best
cars that Porscha makes, they don't make them as good
as they could. And they do it for a variety
of reasons. One is to keep people buying GT threes
say more about that, well, I call it the Cayman complex,
which is where any manufacturer holds back on one model
(34:18):
in order to maintain a hierarchy with a higher model.
And it's just my theory. Portia has never officially corroborated it,
but I felt like if they started putting nine to
eleven engines like the GT three engine into the Caymans
and Boxers, that they would significantly cut into the nine
(34:39):
to eleven sales because they're the power and the performance.
But here's the thing that I sort of take issue
with in that kind of scenario is that the nine
to eleven person doesn't want to be in a canon.
The Cayman person, I think, is a truer sports currenthusiast
(35:04):
than your average nine to eleven person. I think the
nine to eleven is more about show. Now it's gotten
so big, it's really a nine twenty eight with the
engine in the back, and I don't think it's quite
as I don't think it's the driver's car that the
Cayman is. And I think that a lot of the
(35:27):
sort of hardercore Porsche folks who who love the lighter
weight nine to elevens find themselves in the ismad engine
Cayan Boxers because it's not for them about display. It's
about what is the most satisfying, most feedback heavy sports
car I can get, And it ain't the nine to eleven. Now,
(35:49):
I agree with you. I mean, look, I've driven, with
the exception of the new RS, I've driven every other
nine to eleven that's on the market right now, and
I have a lot of miles in them. And I
could have bought one of those. I mean, I could have,
but I but I bought the Boxer Spider because I
think that's the best car Porsche makes. I think it's
the right size for the roads. You know, our roads
(36:11):
haven't gotten bigger, the cars have gotten bigger. The roads
are the same size. And I think it has the
best balance on the street. I think it has a
great shifter. I think it has good room inside and
good practicality and is a great, great sensory experience, probably
the best sensory experience that you can buy right now period.
(36:36):
I live in California. I love driving with the top down.
I love experiencing that the outdoors around me while while driving.
I think that's the best car. They make Why did
I modify mine? Because I can make it better. Every
time I've driven a Cayman g T four or a
Boxer Spider, I've said the same two things. The chassis
(36:59):
is perfect, the inputs are perfect, the breaks are perfect,
the steering is perfect. The size, shape, weight are perfect.
But it could be even better if it had a
bit shorter gear ratios. It's interesting that the car comes
from the factory with more chassis than engine, and that
(37:20):
leads me back to what I call the Cayman complex.
You know, Porsche can, and they now do. But they
could build faster versions of the Cayman and the Boxter,
they would still be drivable and usable as street cars.
So let's let's let's stack them up here. I think
(37:42):
of the four most interesting sports cars I drove this year,
we drove this year, I think the Z is the
least interesting. It gets points for being an affordable sports
car with a great aftermarket and a great platform to
(38:03):
to finish yourself and make a weekend canyon car track
toy daily usable a reasonable price, but it's in very
tough company here, very very good effort, but fell short.
I think my third pick. I hope you agree is
the GR Corolla for many of the same reasons, the
(38:26):
relative affordability of it, the kind of piquant nature of
the driving experience, and just how how real and how
alive that thing is and how much fun it is,
just like the sounds, the smells, the looks just awesome.
And then so you know, drum roll, I think the
(38:48):
runner up in this bracket is zero six. Would you
agree or would you not? Interesting? No, you know, actually
I'm gonna disagree with you. I would put the zero
six on top and the GT four Boxer Spider under
underneath it, mainly because if the box Spider and the
(39:09):
GT four came out this year as new product, maybe
it's just because I'm used to them. Maybe it's because
I don't see the Boxer Spider and GD four as
being brand new, revolutionary, game changing product right now. Yeah,
I'm just basically stuff I drove this year, though, okay, sure,
scientific well, we had you know, we had the g
(39:32):
T four RS at p Cody and and for me personally,
it was a tough a tough toss up between the
zero six and the four RS, especially on the t R.
The four RS was a little more expensive as as
equipped there are. I think the one we had was
one ninety, and they can get as high as like
(39:53):
two forty. I think, to go back to the point,
I think the zero six is such an engineering achievement
that has so few flaws, downsides, sacrifices, compromises. I don't
think there's anything on the zero six that they didn't
make as good as they possibly could. They've done a
(40:17):
really good job of the interior. I still am not
sold on the square steering wheel, but the fit and
finish of the interior, the metal, the leather, the seats
I thought was exceptionally well put together on our test car. Okay,
so what we're talking about. It's a difference in you know,
(40:38):
hundreds or thousands, you know, at the sort of ragged
edge of performance. And yes, yeah, I can see, like
the zero six, this is a much greater achievement, without question,
much more important car. You know. They they created something
that's probably better than a Ferrari. It's more fun than
(41:00):
the last two generations of Ferrari's mid engine project. It's
got a better interior, it doesn't have all the cheap
shit they you get it, it actually does. The current
Ferraris are not the I mean, twelve is pretty good,
the roma is pretty good, but the F eight was
not not great. And so if you look at this
sort of arc of corvats going from these sort of
(41:23):
you know, the blue Flame six and the fifties, so
these lightly engineered you know, sort of C three's and
always sort of in the shadow of European performance. Now
with the mid engine car like the Zero six, it
is fully at the level of a Ferrari, a Lamborkini.
There's no there's no excuses to be made, no apologies.
(41:48):
It is absolutely there for a third of the price,
and holy shit, like yeah, okay, okay, in a lot
of the ways, it absolutely is. I mean the only
thing that still lacks is like body panel fit and finish.
I mean, that's really the one thing that fiber guys, Yeah,
I mean, it's the one thing they've never really managed
(42:10):
to quite get all the way there with and and
and and that's the difference. You know. It's like here
I am on a show with you saying that the
most exciting car I drove, the sports car drove this
year was the Zero six, And meanwhile, the one I
spent six figures on to take home and keep for
(42:30):
the next twenty years, you know, is the Porsche. And
part of that is because in my own life versus
in the service to our viewers and our readers, I
want to drive stick, I want to take the top down,
I want that precise level of quality and attention to
detail at every level. Yeah. So it is an astonishing achievement.
(42:56):
And I think what it comes down to in your
choice of the Boster Spider versus a zero six, which
are to most people's thinking, different levels of cars. In
a way, I think it comes down to do you
like Porsche's Are you a Porsche guy or are you
a Corvette guy? Because hey man, these are avatars for
(43:18):
who we are. They reflect who what we want to
say to the world. And if you don't want to
say you're a Zeo six wide body Corvette person and
you want to say, hey, you know what, I have
a much more measured approach to automotive performance and the
stuff that you can't see is sort of what's important
to me on the inside, then then your boxer person
(43:41):
I happen to align with that way of thinking, and
that's why I had seven eighteen as my top pick.
But considering everything you're saying, considering the breakthroughs that they've
made in every area in Corvette and going from a
Corvette that was, you know, really impressive, like a zero
six that was really impressive for a front engine car,
(44:03):
to a no excuses, Oh my god, absolutely at par
or over and above the Italian exotics. Yeah, okay, let's
give it to the zero six. Beautiful car. It's phenomenally
(44:26):
done and it's not like you're gonna go wrong with either.
And I'm, by the way, the car I've kept the
longest in my whole life. I had a C five
Corvette that I bought new in nineteen ninety eight and
I sold it in twenty sixteen, and I had it
for eighteen years, and I and I was a Corvette
guy and I became a Porsche guy. And the zero
six is the kind of car that might one day
(44:47):
bring me back to being a Corvette guy. And I
think they're going to get a lot of what they
call conquest sales, where there's people that don't necessarily see
themselves as Corvette people, but this is a different product
and it might it might bring some of those folks back,
and so, um, you know, kudos to them. Yeah, great,
job GM. Having crowned a winner of round one, I'm
(45:10):
off to take a drive in the twenty twenty three
Corvette zero six. All right, I'm starting up the Corvette
zero six sufficiently loud, that's from the driver's seat. But
(45:36):
let me close the door here much quieter. But when
it idles down and warms up a little bit, I
will goose the throttle. Let you hear that mean. So
(46:10):
when you sit in this thing, you're sort of packed
into the front of the car, you know, with your
feet pretty close to the front wheels, the engine and
transmission behind you. It's got these big strikes down the side,
big openings in the side to give air to the engine.
And it's pretty badass looking. This one's brown, which I
(46:36):
kind of like. It's sort of stealthy. It's also a
convertible version. In front of me is a squarish sort
of steering wheel. It says zero six and the number
plate on the bottom of the wheel in the six
o'clock position. All right, tons of engine presence in this
(46:56):
thing from the get go. It's just very very aggressive sounding.
The base Corvette is a lot mellower and it's much
more sort of every day supercar. This thing feels and
sounds a lot more exotic. The steering is really responsive.
(47:20):
It's not jittery, but it's responsive. You know. It's interesting
that this car has six hundred and seventy horsepower. That's
the exact number that the NASCAR racing stockers make, and
I think that's intentional. This five point five leader V
eight makes that number as a sort of nod to
(47:43):
its competition aspirations. Ultimately, this is a car for the track,
as good as it is on the street, with its
flat cornering and its insane grip and the power everywhere.
This is a car that can only really appreciate its
full capabilities on a race track. It's just it's staggering
(48:04):
that it can be so civilized and do the things
that it can do on a road circuit. I just
loves to run. It's amazing, Oh my god. And the
ride is really good. It sort of floats over the road,
but listen to that whole smokes my goodness. And the
(48:29):
shifting is very smooth. I mean, you could drive this
thing every day. It's it's not too darty. It's not
going for you know, the crown in the road. It's
not it's not busy under your hands or under your feet.
It's just, you know, you feel like you're using maybe
(48:52):
one twentieth of its capability, even when you're exceeding the
speed limit by a gross amountain. But man, it's good. Yeah.
I could drive this thing every day. All right, here
we go. Oh my god. Just loves to step out. Yeah,
(49:15):
it always wants to step out sideways. The traction control
and feathering of the throttle helped keep it in line.
But listen to that. It's just so wild. So Untamed.
(49:40):
Car Show is written and hosted by me Eddie Alterman.
It's produced by Emily Rosstad and Jacob Smith. Our editor
is Karen Shakergee. Original music and mastering by Ben Holliday.
Our executive producer is Mia Loebell. Our show art was
designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed by Greg la Fever.
(50:01):
Our patron Saints as always are We, Tom Allad and
Justine Lange. Car Show is a production of push In Industries.
If you have this show and others from Pushkin Industries,
consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast
subscription that offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening for just
(50:23):
four ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on
Apple Podcasts subscriptions. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Pushkin. Welcome back Car Show fans for a very special
season of the podcast people have called listenable and a
podcast about cars. We do love our fans here at
(00:36):
Car Show, which is why this short five episode run
will be devoted to picking a car of the year,
all geared toward helping you make a totally irrational purchase decision. Yep,
just like the big time car magazines and websites, we
will take the measure of all the great vehicles we've
driven in twenty twenty two and come up with a
winner no one's ever heard of. And just like the
(00:59):
big time sporting conferences, in each episode, these cars will
be subdivided into brackets sports cars, sports adds, electric vehicles,
and SUVs, where they'll face off to pass through to
the final round. The winning car of the Year will
be determined by the best science on the subject, which
is basically me talking to a bunch of other car
(01:21):
nerds to land on a favorite, and at the end
of each episode will take a drive in the winner.
Oh my God, and the ride is really good. It
sort of floats over the road. The listener that smokes,
my goodness, I'm your host, Eddie Alterman without further ado,
(01:47):
here's the sports cards bracket with my friend and Rodent
Track contributor Matt Farrah. Matt also hosts the wildly popular
Smoking Tire podcast Matt Farah, Thank you for being here.
Matt Farah invented automotive podcasting. I don't mind saying, but
I'll take it yet or popular or made it legit
(02:10):
or whatever allow us to do what we do here.
So thank you, my friend, and thank you Ed. I
thought you'd be the perfect person to get on here
to talk about sports cars and the most interesting sports
cars we drove this year. You come by it honestly.
You have a kuntash do so you know pain. You've
(02:32):
experienced pain and joy. And you have a Boxer Spider
sevent eighteen on its way, so you know what's up.
In our conversation, Matt and I throw out a bunch
of fancy terms and acronyms. Let me take a moment
to define them. The first is p Cody. That's p
(02:54):
c O t Y. This is an acronym for Rodent
Tracks Performance Car of the Year award, which recognizes the
finest weapons grade mega car every year. Naturally, aspirated refers
to an engine that breathes without the aid of a
supercharger or turbocharger. Enthusiasts generally prefer naturally aspirated engines because
(03:19):
they usually sound better, rev higher, and respond in a
more linear fashion. The tenth system, Matt says, one of
the cars is still fun at five tenths. Enthusiasts use
the tenth system to describe how hard they are driving
and how much of the car's capabilities they're using. Five
(03:42):
tenths means driving at about fifty percent of your or
the car's limits. Some cars even go to eleven. The
acronym SEMA stands for Specialty Equipment Market Association. They do
an annual car accessory show in Las Vegas, and it
could only happen there. Imagine a million square feet of
(04:04):
gigantic chrome wheels, sewer line exhaust pipes, and trippy custom cars,
and you're still a few acid tabs shy of reality.
Final drive ratio This refers to the last gear set
between the engine and the driven axle. This ratio represents
how many times the transmission needs to turn the drive
(04:26):
shaft in order to rotate the tires once, so a
numerically higher final drive ratio means the final gear set
is spinning faster and delivering more torque to the wheels,
though not changing in the ultimate torque rating of the
engine itself. Did I just make that worse? Before we
(04:47):
get into the cars themselves, I want to talk about,
very briefly what a sports car should do. Do you
have any thoughts on the matter. You know, what I
really think a sports car should do is feed the
emotions of driving. You know, real sports car driving is
tapping into your bodies per set of sensations. And those
(05:11):
sensations can be in the form of how we feel
g forces, whether that's acceleration and breaking or lateral g
forces that come with handling and grip, but also your site,
how the car not only looks when it's parked, but
how it looks from the driver's seat, out over through
(05:32):
the windshield and out over the hood. How it sounds
the engine sings, the intake noises, the mechanical noises, the
exhaust noises, and then also how it tingles you, you know,
the the actual frequency that the engine and the gear
train and whatever vibrates at, and the way that certain
(05:55):
cars send those vibrations through the seat and the wheel
and your hands, and it's it's a sort of a
harmonious balance of those factors that lead to a great
sports car, and it's very rare that a manufacturer gets
all of them right. But to me, it's about providing
(06:17):
a sensory experience that is overwhelmingly pleasant, enjoyable, and in
some ways addictive. Yeah, yeah, I think you did a
good Bill ni style job of explaining that. And you, yes,
and a great sports card needs to engage all the
senses and yes, trigger happy emotions and good and there's
(06:40):
plenty of cars that can engage one or two. I mean,
particularly when it comes to g forces. I mean, there's
plenty of cars out there that go stop and turn,
you know, really well. And so we might say that
on paper objectively, and people like us for who work
for magazines are partially to blame for the focusing on
(07:03):
beyond paper statistics, because that's that's one way to show improvement,
an objective way, but it's certainly not everything, and it's
some of the reasons that, in my opinion, the best
sports cars aren't always the fastest cars. That's right. You know,
numbers are a great way of ordering the world, giving
(07:23):
you a sense of sort of concrete stability and an idea,
but it's not the same as feeling something. I don't
personally spend my own hard earned money, and I don't
encourage other people to spend their hard earned money on
the car with the fastest numbers. If you think about
(07:44):
how often that metric it really is useful, it's very
very rarely. It's like, yeah, it's like boasting about glove
box volume. Yeah, it's like it's it's somewhat equally irrelevant.
But I think a cool way of saying that is
that there's no story without the data, but the data
(08:05):
is also meaningless without a story. Sure, And I think
sports cars are kind of the pointy end of the
car business. It's where we see that dichotomy between numbers
and field most greatly, and so I think it's a
good place to get into it. And I think the
one we should start off with is sort of a
(08:26):
controversial car. It's the new Chevrolet Corvette ZEO six. The
all new Corvette zero six is based on the eighth
generation Corvette, aka the C eight. It starts at around
one hundred and ten thousand dollars and it's five point
(08:48):
five liter V eight engine makes six hundred and seventy horsepower.
What's controversial about it, Eddie, I'm just wondering what your
definition of controversial. It seems pretty awesome to me. You know,
we're pretty spoiled over at road and tracks. So I
got to do probably thirty thirty five laps around Manicello
(09:09):
and then I got a couple of hours of road
time with it as well. I don't know, I don't
know a lot of people are like, oh, yeah, I
think it's gonna be a punker job. Well, maybe controversial
is the wrong word, but I think that there are
some people who are upset that doesn't have a manual transmission.
Well yeah, there are some people who look at the
(09:32):
pricing and say, this thing can almost hit one hundred
and sixty grand. I think the one we drove at
pe Cody was over one hundred and sixty grand. I
think it was like one hundred and sixty six. Okay,
so it's it's a ton of a ton of money
for a Carvette that's always been sort of like the
budget supercar in a way and the world beater. But sure,
(09:53):
against all that, you have a vehicle in the C
a Corvette both in the base car, and in zero
six that is just one level higher than any Corvette
that's gone before it in terms of its ambition, in
terms of its capabilities, in terms of it's late Like
theight to me was such a brilliantly tuned vehicle because
(10:15):
it was an everyday supercar, you know, it was a
managing car that sort of like a McLaren seven twenty s.
It was silky smooth, you know, in terms of its
power train, great transmission, great, great suspension. You could drive
it year round, put snow tires on it in a
Michigan winter and you're fine. And when you get to
(10:35):
the Zeo six, you're in another league entirely from past
Ceo sixes that were front engine. This car is really
really worked over. I mean from the suspension to the engine. Yeah,
I mean the zero six proves that with enough allocated
resources and dedicated smart people working on it, it is
(11:00):
possible to reverse engineer a Ferrari four five eight Special
and bring it to market in about six years. I mean,
I think that that's pretty much what they've proved here
with that engine, which has all the revs but also
doesn't give up on its torque and in general what
I think Corvette is always meant to do is democratize
(11:23):
what the high end European stuff is doing for approximately
a third of the price, and one hundred and sixty
thousand dollars is very expensive, and that's a pretty loaded
up zero six. You can get into one for about
one hundred and twenty five that'll have some decent options
on it. The one we drove at p Cody had
the zero seven package with the carbon fiber wheels and
(11:44):
so ours was about as expensive as it gets. But
you do the math, and although many people out there
might think of a Ferrari, Fa Tributeau or two nine
six is being a three hundred thousand dollar car, the
truth is it's a four hundred thousand dollar car. And
so the zero six does get you that level of performance,
(12:05):
and it approximates that amount of style. It doesn't it's
not quite as elegant as the Ferrari, but it's mid engine,
it is good looking, and it is usable. I mean,
there's very little about the zero six specifically that takes
away its everyday usability versus the base C eight on
the road. I mean they're doing something that the big
(12:28):
Italians and the Europeans really aren't doing anymore, which is
naturally aspirated rev happy V eights, which is a phenomenal achievement.
You know, we were with a GM engineer at the
track when we were doing our Pea Cody thing and
we heard this zero six fly by with one of
our editors driving it, and the guy from GM left
(12:51):
and he goes, can you believe Ferrari had this? And
when you know what, let's move by exactly. No. I mean,
that's that sensory experience of the zero six is extreme.
It's not that low burbling V eight you might expect.
It's that harsh bark of an exotic and that's to
me one of those elements that really separates it from
(13:11):
a run of the mill corvette. Sure, this is an
instance where going backward to a naturally aspirated, non turbocharge
flat plane crank VA really pays off. And I think
that their focus was absolutely dead on that. They picked
one of the best ferraris of all time, that four
or five eight specialty and really honed in on it.
(13:33):
But they also, to your point, they made it much
more livable, much more of a four seasons supercar, and
to sort of tie up the zero six in a
bow because we want to move on some other cars.
This is a car that I think nails a lot
of the sensory aspects. You know, it sounds incredible. The
(13:55):
front end bite on this car is insane, Like the
Sisteria response is amazing, and the thing just feels so
stout and you know, you feel like you could drive
it through a brick wall. Yeah, and the gearbox. You know,
there are people whom lane about the lack of a manual,
and I do understand. I like driving stick on my
fun cars, and I hear them. But the fact is
(14:16):
this car is so fast that you'd never be able
to keep up with it with a stick. It's it
grips so hard and it does what it does so
fast that you really need to have two hands on
the wheel to drive it quickly. And what it does
really well is despite its air quotes focus for track
and lap times, it is fun at five tenths. It
(14:39):
is a lovely car at five tenths. And you don't
have to get the crazy zero seven package to enjoy
it on the road. You know, you put it in
drive and just regular automatic mode, and it is very
refined and very pleasant and they've done a phenomenal job
the body panels. You know, you parking next to a
(15:00):
Porsche and some of the panel gaps were a little
yet wonky, but it's such a good performance value and
when you're driving it, um, it's clear where the resources
have been allocated. Yea. And the fact like that you
said that that this is a car that you can
drive at five tenths and really enjoy it and you
don't have to get to the limit with it, that
(15:22):
you know, puttering around at forty five miles an hour
or sixty miles an hour and just a winding road
still incredibly fun and incredibly responsive. It's it's an unbelievable achievement,
no question about it. Oh yeah, I mean if you
if you think, if you like the concept of it,
you'll like the execution. I don't know anybody who would
(15:44):
be is into the concept but not the execution of
this car. It's it's not going to disappoint anyone who's
got an order in keep your order. It'll it'll bowl
your mind, no question. When we come back more sports
cars with Matt Farrow. So let's move on to car
(16:11):
number two, which is not quite at the level of
the zero six Corvette, and that is the Nissan Z.
The Nissan z j Z, not two eighty Z or
three hundred ZX like back in the day, is a
relatively straightforward rear drive sports coup It has a four
(16:33):
hundred horsepower twin turbo V six and starts just north
of forty thousand dollars. So the Z is an evolved
version of the old three seventies Z. But this is
not how which is an evolved version of fifties But
can I just say that this is not how evolution
is supposed to work. Evolution means that something is more
(16:57):
adapted to its moment than before. And I don't feel
like this Z is. I think it looks great, but
it just feels coarse and rough and not fully realized,
not fully you know, sort of executed. And have you
spent a bunch of time in the thing decent? I
(17:18):
went on the launch, I drove it on the track
and I did you know, one hundred and fifty two
hundred road miles on it, and then drove it again
about a month later for a little bit. You know,
I hear you on your criticisms of it. On the
other hand, I think that we have a real problem,
not just in this country but globally of having so
(17:43):
many choices for the very rich. There have never been
more choices. If you want a seven figure car, you've
got like twenty different options to choose from. But if
you want a fifty or sixty thousand dollars great sports car,
you have fewer options than ever before. And that is
a real sad reality of not just our world for
(18:06):
the consumers out there, but someone who makes videos about
sports cars. It's really and man, I hear that, But
I don't think that this thing feels like it's worth
fifty grand. Yeah, it might not feel like a forty
or fifty thousand dollar car. And that's totally a valid
point because it is fairly basic. It has knobs, it
(18:28):
has you know, fairly it doesn't have some fancy schmancy
I mean, it does have a touchscreen, but it's not
like a great one. It's got the old seat adjuster
on the inside of that, the old school seat adjusters.
Yeah no, and I hear you. On the other hand,
it's reasonably quick. There is going to be a fantastic
(18:49):
aftermarket for it. The measuring session for Sema was like
so popular they had to extend it to a third day.
So I imagine this year's SEMA show will be packed
full of modified zs. There are a lot of people
who are looking for a relatively simple, tunable, um daily
(19:10):
drivable sports car option. And while Nissan has never made
the most refined engines other than the Skyline, the R
R series thirty two, thirty three four Skyline and that
one of the best engines of all time, but they're
V six is have never exactly been inspiring to me.
But in a world where the eighty six twins are
(19:34):
nice cars. But but what does a Subaru mean versus
a Toyota and the Supra and the Z four, they're
both nice cars, but the Toyota one is such a
BMW in every way that that matters. But it's so
but it's so good, it's like tune better. Yeah, no,
it is, it's it is, but and it's more expensive.
(19:55):
It's it's you know, spec for spec. It's probably ten
twelve percent more expensive than the Z. And so, to
go back to what I started this conversation with, what
I like about the new Z is that it is itself.
If you're buying a Z it's a z and it
has some interesting throwback details that are blended with modern
(20:18):
style in a way. I like it is usable every
day as an only car. It's gonna be tunable, and
Nissan is friendly with the aftermarket like that, and it's
got its own character. Now whether or not you like
that character, well, that's up to you, fine. But having
met the people who build it at the launch and
(20:41):
talked about their passions for keeping it its own thing,
I really like that they've done that, and I think
although it may not objectively lead to the best car possible,
you know, if they sourced to BMW in line six,
it might be a little less rough and gruff. And
there are some areas where the car can be a
(21:03):
little unrefined, that's for sure. But for the amount of
money you spend, it is fast. It is tossable and
small and doesn't look bloated, and it doesn't have a
bunch of crap piled into it, and you can turn
the traction control off with just one button. From my perspective,
it gets credit for it being itself and existing more
(21:27):
so than it gets credit on being better objectively than
some of its competitions. And I do agree with all that,
and I love the way it looks, and I think
it's a great sort of makes of retro and kind
of future styles and it's more than just sort of
applied styling cues. Right, No, it don't. It doesn't blow
my mind. Oh the platform goes back to two thousand
(21:49):
and three, It doesn't feel that old. They've done enough
to it to make it feel like a mostly new product.
It does have that turbocharged engine which does have a
pretty linear power band, and there will be options for
the aftermarket and from Nismo themselves. I hope it sounds
(22:09):
or with those aftermarket pieces, because it sounds like a pathfinder.
They had one. They had one at the launch with
a prototype Nismo exhaust on it, and it did sound
pretty pretty nice. I guess my issue with it is,
you know, a sports car needs to be about sensitivity.
You know, the car is sort of in conversation with
you sure, and that car to me was not. You know,
(22:31):
it felt a little cold, and then when you really
pushed it hard, I felt like the thing fell apart.
It does well, you know, that car is the same
as like a Mustang GT. You know, if you really
want it to be its best you kind of have
to finish it yourself. You're gonna have to tune it
with a maybe a slightly different tire and wheel set up.
(22:54):
You know, you're gonna have to do a little bit
because it's got to be everything to everybody, you know,
it's got to be the kind of thing that a
person who doesn't really care that much about cars but
likes how it looks is going to drive it in
the city and on bumpy roads and doesn't want it
to ride like crap. And then and and you need
that person just as much as the enthusiast to sell
(23:17):
cars to. And same thing with MUSTANGT. MUSTANGT is a
great package, but you wouldn't want to take one off
the showroom floor and start doing track days with it.
It would be a little sloppy, but it rides well
on bumpy roads. So if you really want to, you
don't even want to take it to a car's of
coffee now, But if you want to, if you want
(23:38):
to narrow the focus, the option is there for you
to do that in the in the aftermarket. And those
are the choices that they've made. These are good points.
I think you turned me around a little bit on
the sea. So let's move on to a car that
I feel is unexpectedly and fully resolved and just blew
my mind when I drove it. And it was a
(23:58):
Toyota Corolla, specifically the GR Corolla in the Marizo Edition.
The GR stands for because Zoo Racing, which encompasses Toyota's
motorsports division and builds its hottest road cars like the Supra.
This special Corolla has a turbocharged one point six leader
(24:21):
three cylinder engine pumping out three hundred horses. It only
comes with a stick and all wheel drive, and the
extra special Marizo Edition climbs to north of fifty k.
Let's talk about what this thing is. The Toyota Corolla,
you know, is a rolling tab of ambient in base form. Right,
(24:41):
it is like the cure for Insombia, the most boring
car of all time. But you know what, credit to them.
It's not a bad car. The newest Corolla I've rented them.
I drove the press car, actually, the the regular car.
It's got great seats, it's built really well. I mean,
it's it's just if you said car, you know, it's
(25:03):
it's a great car. It's not a Toyota does they
do the best research of anybody. Okay, so they're gonna
get eights across the board, an engine, seating, comfort, trunk space,
but that results in a pretty bland car. You want
some ups and downs. The gr Corolla, on the other hand,
is all ups and downs, and it is just wildly
(25:25):
exciting and explosive. Yeah, it's a wild it's a wild package.
I drove it on the track before I drove it
on the street, so literally I sat in it and
straight out of pit road onto the track and within
two corners I went Bro. They're not messing around. It's
really designed to assault your senses, and you have to
(25:49):
drive it hard to really appreciate it. Especially the Marizo
edition is so stupid. I mean it's it's stupid in
the kind of way that people like us, the real nerds,
you know, appreciate. You know, Oh, let's take out the
rear window regulators and the rear speakers and the rear
wiper to save you know, three pounds, Like bro, Like,
(26:10):
come on, I know, and this is a car that
gets better than where you hammer on it, like it
engine only really wakes up above three thousand rpm and like,
so this is just such a weird little car, a
turbo three cylinder that produces three hundred horsepower and it's
(26:30):
it sounds like nothing else. And you can adjust the
front rear traction bias through the car and it's pretty vivid.
You can tell the novel does things. It does work. Yeah,
And I got out of an RS three Audie and
into this car. Sounds like, oh my god, this thing
sounds so much better. It's so much more responsive to steering,
(26:53):
so much better than that really expensive Audie. And so
that's why I put it on this list. To me,
it's a sports car. It's a car that is really
driving a lot of those sensory inputs. Yeah, you know,
oh for sure. Well it's definitely a sports car. There's
no question about that. I mean, this thing is. This
thing is liquid hot fizz on the track. It is
(27:15):
really really fun. I mean to to just huck it
and smash the throttle, you know, and do a nice
big four wheel slide. It's very controllable at and beyond,
you know, the limit. So I haven't driven the regular one,
and I've been trying to get ahold of Toyota to
(27:37):
drive the base but variant because it's not just the
weight reduction with the Marizo. It also has the Marizo
has more torque. It also has different of different final drives,
so shorter gear ratios, which when you've got such a
peaky engine it does. That makes a big difference. And
they're only making two hundred of the Marizos. But other
than hardcore collectors, I don't know anybody that really wants
(27:59):
a fifty four thousand dollars hatchback with no back seat.
It's a little dumb, but it is incredibly engaging. The shifter,
the pedals, the wheel, the seats, I mean, all of
those inputs are as good as you'll find almost anywhere.
It's clearly a focused product. It's clearly the most exciting
(28:23):
car that Toyota has given us in quite some time,
and they just get all the credit for that. Having
said that, I drove it also on the street, and
when the road is less than perfect, it was quite
bouncy and it really beat me up a lot, and
I was really hoping the suspension would act a little
(28:45):
more like a rally car and a little less bouncy,
and maybe the regular one is different and a little
more compliant on the street, and that's why I'd like
to drive it because I felt the Marizo Edition was
so exceptional when the tarmac was very good, but really
really brutal when the tarmac was bad. And that's not
(29:07):
what I want out of a hatchback, even a very
well uh focused one. You know, yeah, I hear that,
right is so important no matter your age or body
mass index. I mean, look, the best, the best sports
cars I've ever driven in my life, right, great? You
know the McLaren seven twenty different various nine to elevens
and Cayman's Fosters and a Corvette. You know, even my
(29:32):
Lamborghini Kuntash have have beautiful, uh compliant rides. Lotus is Lotus,
the Lotus of Oora Masa GT. These cars are not harsh.
They have beautiful rides. And so if you've got a
really stiff ride, sometimes you're trying to cover up some
other poor handling trait and sometimes you're doing this sort
(29:54):
of motorsport theater thing where it's like regular folks that
aren't his fine tuned to their senses will do a
test drive for ten minutes and feel a stiff car.
Go it's stiff, it's sporty. You know, there's a macho
to that kind of yeah to that, like brutal sportedness
and like, oh yeah, it must be really really fast
(30:14):
and really like hardcore. But the gr Corolla to me
is like, you know, they're making up for their past transgressions,
their past camera transgressions. Totally. It's a special, special little car.
And to me, it's it's worth it's a Vivot experience.
It's worth the money. And those are those kinds of
Vivot experiences are like vanishingly rare nowadays. Yeah. Yeah, And
(30:37):
my hope is, and again I say it's without driving
the base one, but my hope is they will offer
the final drive, the lightweight wheels and the extra torque
on a variant that also has you know, a back
seat and a full radio and more suspension compliance exactly.
And they took away the rear wiper and oh, by
(30:57):
the way, I drove it in the rain for pe Cody,
the rear window is like covered in road Schmutz. And
I'm just going, yeah, you know what I'd like right
now in this hatchback is a rear ripe exactly. It
asks a lot of its driver, Yeah it does, but
it's a it's a it's a pretty badass little ride,
(31:17):
and Toyota gets points for building it as well as
they have. It shocked to me, it shocked all of us.
When we come back, Matt tells me about the one
car in this bracket that he spent his own money
to buy. I'm Eddie Altraman, and this is car show.
(31:41):
Let's talk about a car that I think is near
and dear to both of us, and Carlin does ride great,
still feels special, and to me, it's sort of the
acme of that thing you were talking about earlier, which
is harmonious feedback, kind of maxed out feel, a car
(32:02):
that feels like it's just been sanded down and honed
and honed and like worked and worked over until everything
was absolutely perfect, and the feel of the shifter matched
the responsiveness and action of the clutch pedal, and the
body movements matched the steering perfectly. At the transitional behavior
(32:25):
you know, was almost like a giant slile and skier.
This thing could change directions so expertly and just filled
you with joy. I'm talking about the Porsche sevent eighteen
now the Porsche seven eighteen, also known as the Boxer convertible,
and the Cayman Hardtop are not technically new, but they're
(32:47):
so good that I just had to put them on
this list of best cars I've driven this year because
they were I like mine with a four lead flat
six engine, which is available in Boxer Caman GTS and
higher trims. I do love these cars. I think they
are the best cars that Porsche makes. Great balance, great inputs,
(33:11):
great use of space. It's a very spacious car, but
it doesn't take up very much space on the road.
I liked it so much I bought one. I own
a Boxer Spider, but at the same time, with my
car is modified a little bit, is not exactly left alone.
(33:32):
But why did you decide to go that extra step
and modify the car? And tell me what you did
to it. Well, just because a car is one of
the best sports cars on the market, it doesn't necessarily
mean it's perfect. I feel, and I've said it very
consistently over the last five or six years that although
(33:54):
the Cayman GT four and Boxer Spider are the best
cars that Porscha makes, they don't make them as good
as they could. And they do it for a variety
of reasons. One is to keep people buying GT threes
say more about that, well, I call it the Cayman complex,
which is where any manufacturer holds back on one model
(34:18):
in order to maintain a hierarchy with a higher model.
And it's just my theory. Portia has never officially corroborated it,
but I felt like if they started putting nine to
eleven engines like the GT three engine into the Caymans
and Boxers, that they would significantly cut into the nine
(34:39):
to eleven sales because they're the power and the performance.
But here's the thing that I sort of take issue
with in that kind of scenario is that the nine
to eleven person doesn't want to be in a canon.
The Cayman person, I think, is a truer sports currenthusiast
(35:04):
than your average nine to eleven person. I think the
nine to eleven is more about show. Now it's gotten
so big, it's really a nine twenty eight with the
engine in the back, and I don't think it's quite
as I don't think it's the driver's car that the
Cayman is. And I think that a lot of the
(35:27):
sort of hardercore Porsche folks who who love the lighter
weight nine to elevens find themselves in the ismad engine
Cayan Boxers because it's not for them about display. It's
about what is the most satisfying, most feedback heavy sports
car I can get, And it ain't the nine to eleven. Now,
(35:49):
I agree with you. I mean, look, I've driven, with
the exception of the new RS, I've driven every other
nine to eleven that's on the market right now, and
I have a lot of miles in them. And I
could have bought one of those. I mean, I could have,
but I but I bought the Boxer Spider because I
think that's the best car Porsche makes. I think it's
the right size for the roads. You know, our roads
(36:11):
haven't gotten bigger, the cars have gotten bigger. The roads
are the same size. And I think it has the
best balance on the street. I think it has a
great shifter. I think it has good room inside and
good practicality and is a great, great sensory experience, probably
the best sensory experience that you can buy right now period.
(36:36):
I live in California. I love driving with the top down.
I love experiencing that the outdoors around me while while driving.
I think that's the best car. They make Why did
I modify mine? Because I can make it better. Every
time I've driven a Cayman g T four or a
Boxer Spider, I've said the same two things. The chassis
(36:59):
is perfect, the inputs are perfect, the breaks are perfect,
the steering is perfect. The size, shape, weight are perfect.
But it could be even better if it had a
bit shorter gear ratios. It's interesting that the car comes
from the factory with more chassis than engine, and that
(37:20):
leads me back to what I call the Cayman complex.
You know, Porsche can, and they now do. But they
could build faster versions of the Cayman and the Boxter,
they would still be drivable and usable as street cars.
So let's let's let's stack them up here. I think
(37:42):
of the four most interesting sports cars I drove this year,
we drove this year, I think the Z is the
least interesting. It gets points for being an affordable sports
car with a great aftermarket and a great platform to
(38:03):
to finish yourself and make a weekend canyon car track
toy daily usable a reasonable price, but it's in very
tough company here, very very good effort, but fell short.
I think my third pick. I hope you agree is
the GR Corolla for many of the same reasons, the
(38:26):
relative affordability of it, the kind of piquant nature of
the driving experience, and just how how real and how
alive that thing is and how much fun it is,
just like the sounds, the smells, the looks just awesome.
And then so you know, drum roll, I think the
(38:48):
runner up in this bracket is zero six. Would you
agree or would you not? Interesting? No, you know, actually
I'm gonna disagree with you. I would put the zero
six on top and the GT four Boxer Spider under
underneath it, mainly because if the box Spider and the
(39:09):
GT four came out this year as new product, maybe
it's just because I'm used to them. Maybe it's because
I don't see the Boxer Spider and GD four as
being brand new, revolutionary, game changing product right now. Yeah,
I'm just basically stuff I drove this year, though, okay, sure,
scientific well, we had you know, we had the g
(39:32):
T four RS at p Cody and and for me personally,
it was a tough a tough toss up between the
zero six and the four RS, especially on the t R.
The four RS was a little more expensive as as
equipped there are. I think the one we had was
one ninety, and they can get as high as like
(39:53):
two forty. I think, to go back to the point,
I think the zero six is such an engineering achievement
that has so few flaws, downsides, sacrifices, compromises. I don't
think there's anything on the zero six that they didn't
make as good as they possibly could. They've done a
(40:17):
really good job of the interior. I still am not
sold on the square steering wheel, but the fit and
finish of the interior, the metal, the leather, the seats
I thought was exceptionally well put together on our test car. Okay,
so what we're talking about. It's a difference in you know,
(40:38):
hundreds or thousands, you know, at the sort of ragged
edge of performance. And yes, yeah, I can see, like
the zero six, this is a much greater achievement, without question,
much more important car. You know. They they created something
that's probably better than a Ferrari. It's more fun than
(41:00):
the last two generations of Ferrari's mid engine project. It's
got a better interior, it doesn't have all the cheap
shit they you get it, it actually does. The current
Ferraris are not the I mean, twelve is pretty good,
the roma is pretty good, but the F eight was
not not great. And so if you look at this
sort of arc of corvats going from these sort of
(41:23):
you know, the blue Flame six and the fifties, so
these lightly engineered you know, sort of C three's and
always sort of in the shadow of European performance. Now
with the mid engine car like the Zero six, it
is fully at the level of a Ferrari, a Lamborkini.
There's no there's no excuses to be made, no apologies.
(41:48):
It is absolutely there for a third of the price,
and holy shit, like yeah, okay, okay, in a lot
of the ways, it absolutely is. I mean the only
thing that still lacks is like body panel fit and finish.
I mean, that's really the one thing that fiber guys, Yeah,
I mean, it's the one thing they've never really managed
(42:10):
to quite get all the way there with and and
and and that's the difference. You know. It's like here
I am on a show with you saying that the
most exciting car I drove, the sports car drove this
year was the Zero six, And meanwhile, the one I
spent six figures on to take home and keep for
(42:30):
the next twenty years, you know, is the Porsche. And
part of that is because in my own life versus
in the service to our viewers and our readers, I
want to drive stick, I want to take the top down,
I want that precise level of quality and attention to
detail at every level. Yeah. So it is an astonishing achievement.
(42:56):
And I think what it comes down to in your
choice of the Boster Spider versus a zero six, which
are to most people's thinking, different levels of cars. In
a way, I think it comes down to do you
like Porsche's Are you a Porsche guy or are you
a Corvette guy? Because hey man, these are avatars for
(43:18):
who we are. They reflect who what we want to
say to the world. And if you don't want to
say you're a Zeo six wide body Corvette person and
you want to say, hey, you know what, I have
a much more measured approach to automotive performance and the
stuff that you can't see is sort of what's important
to me on the inside, then then your boxer person
(43:41):
I happen to align with that way of thinking, and
that's why I had seven eighteen as my top pick.
But considering everything you're saying, considering the breakthroughs that they've
made in every area in Corvette and going from a
Corvette that was, you know, really impressive, like a zero
six that was really impressive for a front engine car,
(44:03):
to a no excuses, Oh my god, absolutely at par
or over and above the Italian exotics. Yeah, okay, let's
give it to the zero six. Beautiful car. It's phenomenally
(44:26):
done and it's not like you're gonna go wrong with either.
And I'm, by the way, the car I've kept the
longest in my whole life. I had a C five
Corvette that I bought new in nineteen ninety eight and
I sold it in twenty sixteen, and I had it
for eighteen years, and I and I was a Corvette
guy and I became a Porsche guy. And the zero
six is the kind of car that might one day
(44:47):
bring me back to being a Corvette guy. And I
think they're going to get a lot of what they
call conquest sales, where there's people that don't necessarily see
themselves as Corvette people, but this is a different product
and it might it might bring some of those folks back,
and so, um, you know, kudos to them. Yeah, great,
job GM. Having crowned a winner of round one, I'm
(45:10):
off to take a drive in the twenty twenty three
Corvette zero six. All right, I'm starting up the Corvette
zero six sufficiently loud, that's from the driver's seat. But
(45:36):
let me close the door here much quieter. But when
it idles down and warms up a little bit, I
will goose the throttle. Let you hear that mean. So
(46:10):
when you sit in this thing, you're sort of packed
into the front of the car, you know, with your
feet pretty close to the front wheels, the engine and
transmission behind you. It's got these big strikes down the side,
big openings in the side to give air to the engine.
And it's pretty badass looking. This one's brown, which I
(46:36):
kind of like. It's sort of stealthy. It's also a
convertible version. In front of me is a squarish sort
of steering wheel. It says zero six and the number
plate on the bottom of the wheel in the six
o'clock position. All right, tons of engine presence in this
(46:56):
thing from the get go. It's just very very aggressive sounding.
The base Corvette is a lot mellower and it's much
more sort of every day supercar. This thing feels and
sounds a lot more exotic. The steering is really responsive.
(47:20):
It's not jittery, but it's responsive. You know. It's interesting
that this car has six hundred and seventy horsepower. That's
the exact number that the NASCAR racing stockers make, and
I think that's intentional. This five point five leader V
eight makes that number as a sort of nod to
(47:43):
its competition aspirations. Ultimately, this is a car for the track,
as good as it is on the street, with its
flat cornering and its insane grip and the power everywhere.
This is a car that can only really appreciate its
full capabilities on a race track. It's just it's staggering
(48:04):
that it can be so civilized and do the things
that it can do on a road circuit. I just
loves to run. It's amazing, Oh my god. And the
ride is really good. It sort of floats over the road,
but listen to that whole smokes my goodness. And the
(48:29):
shifting is very smooth. I mean, you could drive this
thing every day. It's it's not too darty. It's not
going for you know, the crown in the road. It's
not it's not busy under your hands or under your feet.
It's just, you know, you feel like you're using maybe
(48:52):
one twentieth of its capability, even when you're exceeding the
speed limit by a gross amountain. But man, it's good. Yeah.
I could drive this thing every day. All right, here
we go. Oh my god. Just loves to step out. Yeah,
(49:15):
it always wants to step out sideways. The traction control
and feathering of the throttle helped keep it in line.
But listen to that. It's just so wild. So Untamed.
(49:40):
Car Show is written and hosted by me Eddie Alterman.
It's produced by Emily Rosstad and Jacob Smith. Our editor
is Karen Shakergee. Original music and mastering by Ben Holliday.
Our executive producer is Mia Loebell. Our show art was
designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed by Greg la Fever.
(50:01):
Our patron Saints as always are We, Tom Allad and
Justine Lange. Car Show is a production of push In Industries.
If you have this show and others from Pushkin Industries,
consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast
subscription that offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening for just
(50:23):
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Apple Podcasts subscriptions. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on
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