What a great time to be a car guy

[chickenwafer]

Taking all the information in, I have realized that we are living in the mist of one of the greatest motoring decades (or longer) in a very long time. Sure, gas prices are outreagous and the environmental tree-huggers keep winning the "war on emissions" (espeically in California), but the cars auto companies are producing today are some of the greatest to grace God's creation. Here's just a few that I think stand out- feel free to pitch in your own ideas:

Ferrari Enzo - Need I say more? This is without a doubt one of the greatest Ferrari's, or car for that matter, ever to be built. It has a price tag to match, but the performance is unrivaled.

Porsche Carerra GT - Holy Zufenhasuen! A comet smashed into the rear of a 911 turbo and created this morphed holy grial of Porsche enthusiasim. A screaming V-10 and one of the fastest laps at the 'Ring- ever. Porsche will have a handful out-doing itself again on this one.

Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZO6 - Without a doubt the best car for the money. 505-bhp 7-liter V-8. Tremec T56 6-speed manual. 3147 pounds of lightweight aluminum. 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and the 1/4 mile in 11.6 seconds (as tested by Motor Trend ). For only $65,000 and change, you can have one of the worlds most volitale sports cars. It power-to-weight ratio puts it in some high company- better power-to-weight than a $400,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, better than the new Ford GT, Ferrari F430, or Dodge Viper SRT-10. Eat your heart out.

Bugatti 16/4 Veyron - It's finally here: 16 cylinder, 4 turbochargers, 1001-bhp and 987 foot pounds of torque paired to a 7-speed DSG sequential transmission and all-wheel drive. 0-60 mph in under 3 seconds and a top speed of at least 250 mph and a starting price of $1.3 million. Get out'a town.

And there's a lot more. The new Honda Civic Si returns in coupe form with 197-bhp and a 6-speed gearbox. The NSX has been retired which will giveway for a V-10 powered updated version in 2007 (yet to be named). The Jaguar XK coupe is knocking at the door with a new 4.2 liter, DOHC 300-horse V-8 and an all-aluminum chassis. Audi is going to be selling the V-10 Le Mans R9 soon as well.

We can't forget the Japanese turbo terrors, including the screaming Subaru WRX STi, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, Mazdaspeed6, and more. Of ocurse the RX-8, the Nissan 350Z (which gets 300-bhp for 2006), and the Honda S2000 are players too.

Yes, indeed, it is a good time to be a car guy.

Dave

[jmortensen]

I hate Forbes's slideshows, but here's a few to add to the list: http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/08/29/fastestcars-luxury-vehicles-cx_dl_0829feat_ls.html?partner=rss