Top Gear: LFA vs. Aston Martin vs. Gen V

SoCal Rebell

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Anyone see this last night they had 3 top cars, a Lexus LFA, a Aston Martin V12 and a Viper Gen V. After drag races in Vegas "the boys" went to Willow Springs my home track. I was dying to see of my Gen IV ACR time was better then the Gen V which I was sure it was given the drivers, but all they did was play a game of aerial tag, very disappointing and did not portray the Gen V in a very favorable light. :nono:
 
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SoCal Rebell

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Yeah Hammond loved the car but that was the only positive thing I saw. The Viper was always in the back, even on the strip during burnouts it was last and the angles it was shot at were not very flattering. They should of used a better color car the black hid the lines somewhat.
 

01sapphirebob

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They should of used a better color car the black hid the lines somewhat.

The car wasn't black. It was "Shadow Blue Pearl." Favorite color for the GEN V. I may be a little partial though. :D

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hou99gts

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Yeah Hammond loved the car but that was the only positive thing I saw. The Viper was always in the back, even on the strip during burnouts it was last and the angles it was shot at were not very flattering. They should of used a better color car the black hid the lines somewhat.

X2. Hammond only liked the car because he likes raw cars adapted for street duty (911 GT3 is one of his favorites also). May and Clarkson hated it. The Viper got beat from a stop and doing roll on's, unless Hammond was not driving it properly. The other 2 cars are more expensive, but the Viper was the most powerful. I was not surprised with their thoughts after watching Top Gear for years.
 
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SoCal Rebell

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X2. Hammond only liked the car because he likes raw cars adapted for street duty (911 GT3 is one of his favorites also). May and Clarkson hated it. The Viper got beat from a stop and doing roll on's, unless Hammond was not driving it properly. The other 2 cars are more expensive, but the Viper was the most powerful. I was not surprised with their thoughts after watching Top Gear for years.

Aston Martin Zagato V12 $520,000

Lexus LFA $340,000

Viper GTS $120,000
 

Indy

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Hopefully they do a Power Lap in those cars along the season. Would be nice to actually see the lap times of all three. I'm sure the Vanquish would be last, weighing more and having less power than the rest. LFA is also way overpriced for the image it has....looks nice, but not more exotic than a GTR and would be in the same class if price wouldn't play a role.
 

vancouver-gts

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LFA is also way overpriced for the image it has....looks nice, but not more exotic than a GTR and would be in the same class if price wouldn't play a role.

The GTR doesn't come close in looks when you see them in person but I agree, it's way too much money for what it is.
 

sween

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Aston Martin Zagato V12 $520,000

Lexus LFA $340,000

Viper GTS $120,000

That was a Vanquish, not a Zagato. It's $282,000. I agree with ViperSmith's post. the review really was not bad, it was more teasing Hammond then giving the viper a bad review.
 

Policy Limits

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yeah the car is the "mystique" dark blue one, not black. if they had it some place in front under the light you should've seen hues of blue over the curves but it does look black without being in the light hence the name "shadow blue pearl." I too am biased in liking the color. Andretti and Leno seemed to really like the car and they have a lot more credibility than Clarkson in my book.
 

DMan

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Hammond said the viper wasn't fastest with them due to his user error, but on paper it's faster, so he had some trouble with it and man enough to admit it, gotta like that lil guy.
 

ViperGeorge

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Got to watch the episode last night. Thought it was good. Agree that James and Jeremy were more busting Richard's chops than busting on the Viper. I really don't understand the marketing folks at SRT though. Why did they provide the very dark blue car? That was stupid. It did not look anywhere near as good in that color as the LFA or Vanquish. I would have gone with Stryker Red or Blue/White. Good to see that they had a Stryker Red in England at the Top Gear studio, I assume the Stig will drive it soon.
 

rw99

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First off, Aston Martin just dropped a bomb on that comparo by providing the Vanquish in nuclear blue. Gutsy decision. I couldn't take my eyes off it.

Top Gear UK both entertains and frustrates me; it's clearly meant for a much more diverse audience than we, the enthusiast people. Why on earth take performance sportscars to Willow Springs and then just goof off? When they have serious cars, they should shift toward more serious automotive journalism. Go ahead and break it up with a Hammond hazing and a trip to Mexico, sure, but at the very least provide in depth impressions from each host on each car. Disappointing. But certainly true-to-form for the show; they clearly slant these features this way on purpose... from which I infer that they're targeting an audience that has only limited interest in even the most exotic cars.

They do a much better job with the in-studio "home" features, like last week's piece on the Pagani Huayra. As always, fantastic art direction, production, and camera work... and much more in-depth and interesting commentary. And, of course, actual track evaluation by the Stig.
 

ACRJUD

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They tend to favor european car just like we tend to favor american cars. There is no doubt the viper will vastly out-perform the others on the track in pretty much every perf category. I wish they would have let the stig take the cars around the track. LFA and vanquish would be fighting for a distant 2nd place. I cant beleive they said the viper looks just like the old one, the DB9, DBS, Vahquish and virage all look pretty much exactly the same. The color on the aston was awesome. Wish they would have brought the cool red color for the viper.

If you think about it, lexus spent a decade creating the LFA, Aston's top of the line vanquish, but they struggle to hang with a gen3 viper. Those cars should be a lot faster for the money.
 

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I don't think the Gen V is capable of "vastly" outrunning the LFA unless you are only referring to straightline acceleration. Around a track the Viper, the way its tuned right now, will be lucky to beat the LFA around tracks like LS, Willow etc by a 1/2 sec. That LFA is tuned to the gills for track work. The brakes, suspension, balance etc are all in sync. Not so the Viper. In the future I'm sure it will vastly outrun a lot of the top cars out. But not as it stands now. I think the LFA did a 1:36 flat iirc. That is right there with the Gen V.

The Aston should not have a prayer against either the Viper or the LFA on a track though. But it sure was a beaut in that blue hue.
 

Policy Limits

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What % of Viper owners race their cars? What % have been on a track even once? What % use the car as a sunday cruiser on the street? What % use the car as a daily driver?

I don't know the answer to these questions but I know I've seen less than 5 from all generations on the public road in my lifetime, and I doubt its because they're on the track. I suspect less than 10% really take the car on the race track if we're being honest; I suspect less than 10% are used as daily drivers and I suspect about 80% are sunday drivers or weekend fun. Thoughts?
 

SnakeBitten

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^^Not sure if you are trying to make the excuse for the Viper because most owners aren't going to track the car. An employer looking for a new employee considers his/her track record[pun intended] against his/her former employers via their resume and even references before deciding who to hire. This is behavior is an integral part of human society in all aspects. Even buying a simple toothbrush one can look at comparo's.

It may not matter to a small amount of you how the Viper does on track against its main rival and peers but to SRT and to the majority of the public it most certainly does matter hence the prominence given to racing in SRT's name, along with Ralph's tweets and also the cool reception, internet-wide, that the Viper is getting after its initial testings. The car as it is is more than good enough for a sports car and I got no problem seeing that some don't care about its performance against its peers and thus will purchase one. Great. But to suggest its track loss doesn't matter is to stick your head in the sand Ostrich style imho.

I'm glad SRT and Ralph do not share this view and are actually trying to rectify the results. I hope they succeed.

I've read arguments like yours before from forum xyz when its car losses etc so I assumed you may be heading down that same road. If I read your post wrong PL my apologies.
 

Policy Limits

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again, only questions. and again, i dont have the answers (still). just curious is all. yet another question is what % arent on the road becuase they've been totaled? Regardless of the answers to these questions, I'm sold on the product as my order is in. I do plan on giving the track a try with it; it will also particiapte in several exotic supercar rallies. just seems like a street legal race car such as this would mostly be used, well, on the street. not stating or implying that racing isnt important. In fact I love knowing that the regular production car actually has more HP than the GTS-R :D
 
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