Good point. The current 6-speed auto is pretty meh. The new 8-speed may be popular enough to eventually cause extinction of the 7-speed manual. Likely not for the C7, which will probably be shipped for 4-5 years.

Oh, yes, sorry, I bet that you're right. It almost certainly was the 2-liter version. My friend did a maximum speed determination on a very empty stretch of freeway (motorway) with me in passenger seat once, and it was 120mph indicated (probably 112mph or so true). I miss those days....you could do that in the UK with…

I bought one of these just 3 weeks ago, and it's 75% of a Ferrari 458 for 20-25% of the cost. But there will be tens of thousands of the things sold and it'll stick around for ever. And the C8 will be better, as will the C9. Now, the Z06 variant coming early next year.....that's a different matter.

A friend of mine had a GTV 6 as his company car in the UK, around 1978, I think. It was rusty when he got it (new), and proceeded to oxidize before his eyes over the subsequent 12 months, until it more-or-less fell apart. So, yes, rare. Great fun to drive, and I'll always remember the odd-shaped rear-view mirror that…

I agree. I saw two unsold ones in the holding garage at a local dealer just last month. The next-gen Z06 Corvette is likely to kill demand for Vipers almost completely IMHO, and will, as a side effect, turn the Viper into a rare classic.

Possibly, just possibly, the Ferrari 458 family (Italia, Spider, Speciale). These are likely the last naturally-aspirated V8 Ferraris, as the next generation moves to turbocharging, and then turbo/electric hybrids. The 458 replacement is likely to have 600+ hp and be insanely fast, but may lack the glorious sound and…

The "gap" drives me insane, too. I've been two weddings where the bride was constantly talked about as being "so fanatically organized". In my experience, that's someone who appears to be organized with lists, clipboards and crap, but has no vision of the big picture. In both cases, the gap was caused by an apparently…

Hey, honey, why don't we splurge on a party that almost everyone will forget a month later, because it's like all the other weddings, instead of putting a down payment on a house, or paying down our student loans, or buying a car?

Good point. The racial stereotypes maybe moved around over the years. I was distracted by the whole "pro-consul", "senator" Roman thing.

Klingons=Soviets

There aren't any screen controls on the wheel, but there are a bunch on the left and right pods. Did you find the six controls on the back of the wheel? Volume up, volume down, pause, next track, prior track, change mode. Nice Easter Egg if you don't read the manual. Like the Porsche heated steering wheel button on…

My mind is clearly too puny to comprehend the 458 controls as quickly as you :-). But I drive mine mostly on the street, so use the car differently from you. While the steering wheel controls are quick and easy to learn, and the turn signals are definitely in the best place, the non-steering wheel controls are a pain.…

No fair. Some F-car drivers do use turn signals. The Ferrari steering wheel is confusing at first, but then becomes natural and works very well. The other controls? Not so much.

Those reviews you linked are for their noise-cancelling headphones. They cancel noise very well. They're based on the Bose Aviation Headset X, which was a milestone product for pilots and still rules the roost. They eliminate background noise extraordinarily well.

All I know is that mine had the engine out three times for various recalls, fortunately under warranty.

All Ferraris ever, with some worse than others <cough> Testarossa <cough>. As @DougDeMuro will eventually discover, pretty much anything you want to do to a 360 requires dropping the engine. It's quite an interesting operation to watch, unless you're paying for it.

I agree about the Boxster. I had one as a service loaner a few weeks ago. Maybe I have a puny mind, but I couldn't find how to access the engine at all. I was just curious to take a look at it. For all I know, there's a Mr. Fusion somewhere in there driving a little electric motor, and a subwoofer making vroom vroom…

Ah, interesting that the UK includes all those ancillary items. The US, much as I love it, seems incapable of listing the actual price for anything. It's always the most base of all base pricing. For example, rental car rates are for amusement only, because the rental company will tack on all kinds of BS charges,…

I'm perfectly willing to accept that I may be wrong, and that my perception is not reality. The sad fact is that manufacturers play games with models and options to make it hard to compare like with like. I suspect that the truth is that some cars/models are marked up more than others for UK markets.

Yes, in some cases. About a third of the world's population lives in RHD countries, and two-thirds in LHD. But RHD is skewed towards emerging markets, e.g. India, with the notable exceptions of the UK, Japan and Australia. Almost every car is designed for easy LHD/RHD manufacturing, so this shouldn't be a big factor,…