The 370Z Roadster is still fast, fun and cozy comfy for two. But there are others that do it better and have a bit more room without feeling it, blogs Dan Scanlan.
Yutaka Katayama, best remembered by media as consummate enthusiast, Mr. K, may not have been thinking “topless” when he birthed the original 240Z in 1970. But Nissan was when it revived the Z in 2002. It was a real convertible version of the iconic two-seat sports car - smaller and lighter than the last generation and not saddled...
Read More
Driven By Dan Scanlan
‘15 JOHN COOPER WORKS MINI: SIZE MATTERS!!
This is my favorite adult go-kart, but its price, and hard suspension on some surfaces on SPORT – not as much fun, blogs Dan Scanlan.
When Alec Issigonis designed the first MINI in 1959, it was a tiny 120-inch-long coupe. Then racer and tuner John Cooper got hold of one in 1960 and made it a tiny terror on race tracks and rally courses around the world.
Fast forward millions of MINIs later, and its family has grown in variety as well as size. But despite the MINI Paceman, Countryman and Cl...
Read More
‘16 CADILLAC ATS-V: TORQUE IS KING!
The ATS-V Coupe’s aggressive looks plus a nimble chassis and powerful high-tech V-6 make it a match for BMW’s M, blogs Dan Scanlan.
The holy grail of sports coupedom is the BMW M4 – 425-horsepower and 60-mph from a standstill in 4.1 seconds, and the dance moves of a prima ballerina combined with a cheetah. And until now, maybe only Mercedes-Benz’s varied AMG products could take on the Bimmer for the golden ring of sports coupes. That was until now. Say hello to my new best friend – the ‘16 Ca...
Read More
‘15 FORD MUSTANG 5.0: SIXTH-GEN ROAD WARRIOR!
'This is a GT that can do daily commuting as well as weekend play, although it is more grand touring than some other muscle cars, blogs Dan Scanlan.'
This isn’t the first Sixth-Gen Ford Mustang GT I’ve tested. Nope - instead of starting with the 435-horsepower 5-liter Mustang, my first one was the Whipple-supercharged 725-horsepower Galpin Fisker Rocket with a dramatically restyled carbon fiber body penned by Henrick Fisker and a hand-finished Italian leather/suede interior. Now comes this ...
Read More
’15 ALFA ROMEO 4C: A GO-KART FOR ADULTS!
It’s got the speed and razor-sharp reflexes of a racecar with just enough leather and luxuries to live with. It talks loudly and carries a big heart, blogs Dan Scanlan.
A.L.F.A. began in 1910 as "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili in Milan. When Nicola Romeo took over, the name changed in 1920 to Alfa Romeo. Now it’s part of FCA – Fiat Chrysler Alliance – and the first Alfa to hit our shores since the 1990s is a baby exotic like nothing Alfa has made before.
Revealed in 2011 as a C...
Read More
’15 M-B S65 AMG: KING OF THE ROAD!
Dan Scanlan finds the S65 AMG to be an amazing car – half ultimate flagship and the other half muscle car king. And both halves behave beautifully.
Doing a smoky burnout in a luxury flagship that can cocoon its passengers in massaging heated or cooled seats with a sound system that rivals most homes, seemed sacrilegious. Yet a tap of the right alloy pedal and our ‘15 S65 AMG spun its rear rubber and did a classic muscle car doughnut, then launched to 60-mph only 7/10ths-of-a-second slower t...
Read More
‘15 NISSAN GT-R: GODZILLA IS IN THE HOUSE!
Godzilla is far happier being driven like a sports car - use it like it’s meant to be and the music sounds solid gold, blogs intrepid tester, Dan Scanlan.
Godzilla is a noisy beast. The run-flat tires rumble, the turbos and wastegates whistle and chirp, and the all-wheel-drive gearing on our 15,000-mile-old test car grumbles as the car rolls off. There’s wind noise. Bose Active Noise Cancelation was added, plus more sound deadening. The result is a car that works OK for daily commuting, st...
Read More
‘15 RC-F COUPE: MUSCLE CAR WITH A LEXUS HEART!
The aero-inspired RC-F wears Lexus’ angriest face yet and has the horsepower to back it up, blogs Dan Scanlan.
The “F” stands for Fuji Speedway, where Lexus conducts high-speed testing and development. And with 467 horsepower available, some straight roads became speedways when we let the RC-F howl.
We thought the IS-F was the king of the Fs with its 5-liter V-8’s 416 horsepower, a bellowing basso exhaust note over 3,500-rpm, then 60-mph in 4.8 seconds and 100-mph in 10.8 seconds. Then ...
Read More
ROCKET MAN: HENRIK FISKER’S MUSTANG ROCKET!
Dan Scanlan test-drives the 725-horspower boosted, bad and mega-priced Mustang from Galpin Ford.
Henrik Fisker, right, couldn’t leave it alone.
As Ford was teasing the sixth-generation Mustang, Fisker was thinking of how to give it more “pure emotion,” he said. The result is the Galpin Fisker Rocket - Galpin Auto Sports, Henrik Fisker and an apt name for a 725-horsepower Ponycar. They unveiled it at the Los Angeles Auto Show: a low-volume carbon fiber-bodied super-Mustang. Then I became on...
Read More
’15 NISSAN 370Z: BUTTON-DOWN SPORTS CAR!
Dan Scanlan road tests the 370Z NISMO and delivers the good news…and bad!
It was a good news/bad news kind of test. First, I got a ‘15 Nissan 370Z NISMO Coupe the same day that they released info on the new NISMO Roadster Concept before its debut at the 2015 Chicago Auto Show. The radical roadster is no surprise since the current iteration of the iconic Z dates back to 2009, and the test coupe looked and drove like the roadster will if it’s made.
The bad news? Yutaka “Mr. K” Katayama, once he...
Read More