Hello traders. Todays post has nothing to do with trading but as so many of you have an interest in cars I wanted to share some more pictures with you.
Over the last two days we have had the Nissan GTR and so been busy driving the roads of London and the local counties.
The GTR is not due to be released until March 2009 at the earliest in the UK but we had a Japanese import to play with and what a thrill it was. The car does 0-60 in 3.3 seconds although we didn't quite manage that it was still neck breakingly super fast.
The GTR has a Start button which has to be pressed 3 times with your foot on the break before it starts. This took us a few minutes to work out but once this car started up you could feel the energy. You only have to press the throttle slightly before the GTR tears up the road in real anger. Shortly afterwards we worked out it was in comfort mode which we then switched off and now this beast was even more powerful.
The car for speed is faster than the 911 turbo and like none other I have driven (so far) but it just does not have the fun quality the Porsche's have. Truth be told, it was actually a boring car to drive. Yes it is fast and pushes your senses to the limit whilst accelerating but it doesnt not do much else. Cornering is quite lame (although I would imagine with traction control off I may have had a different opinion) and the braking is excellent. When the turbos kick in it sounds thrilling and exciting but still a little tame even though it is storming past every other car on the road.
In traffic through Bond Street many tourists decided to take photos of this car but I think that is more to do with most people not seeing it before on UK roads as opposed to the stunning looks which I think it certainly happens to lack.
The interior is full of plastic and looks very cheap but that is not as much of a problem as the noise is. Driving at any speed it seems to pick up a lot of road noise but the most irritating noise from the car is the squelching sounds of plastic. This noise was consistent and we just could not work out where it was from so decided to just live with it. Due to the car being a Japanese import all the controls and functions were in Japanese so we could not manage to drown out the noise with the radio.
The car at £55k is half that of a 911 turbo and again faster than the turbo but acceleration aside, it does not drive like a turbo. As Nissan keep comparing it to the Porsche 911 I will go as far as to repeat what Javid had said which is no different to what Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear had said about the Porsche Boxster some time ago "it is a poor mans Porsche 911".
The GTR is unrefined and with all the noise inside it is also unpleasant but for thrills it is unprecedented. That is why Javid is likely to get one. It is all about the speed so he is placing an order for the car soley for driving it around race tracks.
Our next car will be the Audi R8 which certainly does have the good looks. I will post some pictures of the car next week.
Merry Christmas
Anne Chapman
Currency Analyst
