2012 Porsche Carrera vs. 2013 Porsche Boxster S

Porsche has really done a great job with the new 991 generation 911 and the all new Boxster. As Chris Harris pointed out in his review of the new Boxster, the performance gap between Porsche’s entry level car and their bread and butter 911 has become minutely small. The Boxster has sold well enough through the previous two generations that Porsche no longer blatantly neuters the car to protect 911 sales. That begs the question of exactly how large is the performance gap between the Boxster and the 911 now if it even still exists? Car and Driver’s European correspondent, Jethro Bovingdon, pits the two cars against each other. To make the comparison interesting, they test the fastest (S model with active suspension and torque vectoring differential) but still significantly cheaper Boxster vs. a bare bones 911 Carrera at the drag strip and at the very technical Landlow circuit. I won’t spoil the results, but the take away here is that Porsche is on the money with both cars having gained a massive performance boost with their redesigns.


Source: Car and Driver on YouTube

Wiesmann GT MF5 – Car and Driver Abroad

Jethro Bovingdon is back or Car and Driver Abroad. This time around they take a tour of Wiesmann’s gecko shaped factory and take their GT MF5 halo car out for a spin. It’s wide body roadster with a steel space frame and the 4.4 liter twin turbo V8 from the BMW X5M and X6M under the hood. I think the final result can be summed up as the German take of a modern Shelby Cobra.


Source: Car and Driver on YouTube

Nissan Juke-R vs. Porsche 911 GT2 RS – Car and Driver Abroad

Nissan Europe teamed up with the RML Group last year to build a custom Juke-R. It was basically a Nissan Juke body put on top of a shortened GT-R chassis and drivetrain. It’s kind of funny because Nissan Japan only found out about the car after it had been built and were a bit unhappy about having somebody crossbreed their flagship car with an economy crossover. The Juke-R was a big enough success that several people, whom I assume are Abu-Dhabi oil barons, have asked to buy Juke-R’s. Nissan Europe has decided to do a limited run of them at $590,000 a piece. Now that the cars are being sold, that means they have to go through a legitimate review with the press. This is the first one that I’ve found outside some random hooning videos. Jethro Bovingdon of Car and Drive Abroad puts the Juke-R up against a pretty high performance benchmark with the Porsche 911 GT2 RS.


If you’ve got some time to kill, here’s some bonus videos that Nissan Europe released last year as the Juke-R was being built. There were 10 short videos that this YouTube user has thankfully condensed into two. Continue reading

Ferrari F12 Berlinetta – evo

Between his role as “European Correspondent” for Car and Driver and this review for evo, Jethro Bovingdon is quickly becoming one of my favorite car reviewers. He takes Ferrari’s newest front engine V12 monster for a spin around Fiorana test track and then on Italy’s mountain roads. Jethro also brings along a 599 GTO as a benchmark comparison for the new car.


Source: evo TV on YouTube

48 Hours with a Lamborghini Aventador – Car and Driver

I am really enjoying the videos by Car and Driver’s European correspondent, Jethro Bovingdon. This time he takes the Lamborghini Aventador out for a spin. He addresses concerns that Lamborghini’s halo car has gotten soft under Audi’s influence and talks about what makes the car special. There’s a touch of oversteer action, but it’s not the main focus.


Source: Car and Driver on YouTube