That time doesn't sound impressive until you realise it includes the F1 circuit as well as the Nordschleife.

People soon figured out that you had to let off the clutch with your foot completely clear of the gas pedal to get the car to trundle away. Porsche eventually figured out some kind of fix and the later cars weren't such aggressive stallers.

Let me start by saying Porsche has a long and often-overlooked history as an F1 engine manufacturer. The company powered two constructor's championships and three diver's championships in the 80s with over two dozen wins to their name.

The Z accelerates to 60 MPH in about five and a half seconds, and that's great. With your foot all the way down, you really feel it. With 332 horsepower and 270 horsepower out of Nissan's venerable "VQ" V6 engine that they pretty much put in everything these days, it's a hoot.

If there was ever a time to think "fuck it", and just mount the curb ...

Clarkson uses a very similar metaphor about the F50, funnily enough:

Ferrari enlarged that 3.5 liter engine up to 4.7 liters out of the cast iron block in a somewhat vain attempt to get more torque and better drivability out of the thing. Final figures were a claimed 513 horsepower, 347 ft-lbs of torque.

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your eyesight.

Not everybody is a fan:

Having the engine bolted to the chassis does nothing for driver comfort, however.

Yeah, Coast to Coast had the courses from Outrun 2 and SP, but with SP's game mechanic tweaks - slipstreaming, shunting traffic out of the way, and less penalty for running onto the grass.

Late '88/early '89 plate.

I still think Outrun 2 was better than SP/Coast to Coast. Especially the XBox version.

So ... complicate and add lightness?

True. But the average Porsche driver doesn't want a sports car, they want a luxury vehicle with a sports car badge. Lotus's conundrum is that they can never capture that audience without compromising everything they are.

But he did so much to enhance their premium lifestyleness premiumosity! Nobody really wants lightweight sportscars, they want fatuous D-list celebrities hanging around near mockups of six new premium lifestyle product lines!

Exactly my sentiments about the frequently-mooted VW Alfa takeover.

The Huayra doesn't even look as good as the Zonda.

The stereo? Oh, yeah, that's good. Not awesome, not terrible.

If you want to go faster, third gear will automatically wake up the internal combustion engine. You can also choose it to come alive at lower gears as well, giving you all the power in what they call "Weekend Mode".