Fast car magazine

Most other makes of supercars and exotic cars have top speeds around 180-200 mph, with some going up to 250 mph, which in my book is quite irrelevant. To reach 255 mph, the SSC Ultimate Aero TT, which is a bit lacking in the luxury side, needed a 9 mile stretch of road to be closed to reach this speed. The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 needed the longest test track in Europe - owned by the VW Group - to reach 252 mph. The Koenigsegg CCR managed 242 mph round a long, heavily banked track, and the dirver had to work quite hard to reach this speed.

My point is this: if these very fast cars - with 800 to 1,170 bhp - needed all this space on unrestricted roads to reach these speeds, then the fact that the car will do 248 or 253 mph or whatever is quite irrelevant. The question is whether this is an all-round fast car.

For example, one of the most brilliant exotic cars is the Pagani Zonda F. This is a superb car that corners as if on rails, giving the driver great feedback, is very fast round circuits like the Nurburgring, accelerates with a real smack in the back, and yet is a beautiful car. Top speed? About 215 mph, only of concern to those who are a bit lacking in self-esteem and so must have the fastest car in the world.

The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is another exotic car which is very fast without being ridiculous, like the more exciting Porsche Carrera GT. The SLR McLaren is front-engined and has a great long hood to prove it, while the Carrera GT is a classic mid-engined car with over 600 bhp, and a detachable hardtop.

The Ford GT is also a fantastic exotic car, my choice over any of these other ones. The top supercars and exotic cars are all you will find at Fast-Autos.

Among supercars, the Aston Martin DBS, Audi R8, Bentley Continental GT ( GT Speed for extra power), Ferrari F430, Jaguar XKR, Porsche 911 Turbo, or TVR Tuscan 2 are all exciting in different ways.

Some supercars, like the Ultima GTR are a bit spartan. The Ultima GRT 720 is amazingly quick, though, being the fastest production car in the world to 100 mph, and also the fastest from zero to 100 mph and back to zero.

More spartan still is the Caparo T1, which is really a two-seat racing car which is street legal. Despite having much less power than most of its competitors, the Caparo T1 broke the lap record on the British TV program, Top Gear, previously held by the 806 bhp Koenigsegg by 7 seconds - 1min 11 seconds to 1 min 18 seconds. This is an incredible margin over such a short track, achieved thanks to very light weight and massive downforce allowing the car to corner and brake at up to 3g.

More down-to-earth, but equally exciting too drive are the 430 bhp Noble M400, the Ferrari F430, Audi R8 and Lamborghini Gallardo. In fact, there are lots of supercars to choose from at fast-autos.

Sports cars used to be two-seaters, but right back at the beginning of the motoring era some were four-seaters. Then came the 2+2, which is neither a two-seater nor a four-seater.

2+2s come in different shapes and sizes. For example, the Maserati GranTurismo, is a practical 2+2. It has enough room for two adults in the back, but as with every other 2+2 you need to be fairly agile to get in the back. The overweight among us will need to sit in the front. Still, this means that two children can sit in comfort, you have luggage space, and you still have the power and performance of a supercar.



Maserati GranSport a terrific 2+2

In fact, thanks to good suspension and a superb 4.2 liter, 395 bhp V-8 engine, the Maserati GranTurismo is very sporty indeed. So this is a great 2+2, if a little heavy. Strangely, Maserati has now introduced another 2+2, the GranTurismo, although they say it is a four-seater. It is actually a shorter version of the Quattroporte four-door sports sedan.

Why do I say strangely? Because the GranSport is an excellent 2+2, and the Quattroporte a full four-seater, if not quite a limousine in the space for the back-seat passengers. Also, the gap in the Maserati line-up seems to be for a true two-seater version of the GranSport.

One reason that this has not happened is that Maserati is still wedded to old-fashioned manufacture based on all-steel bodies. Aluminum structures are much more suitable for low-volume production of sporty cars. One of the benefits is that it is fairly easy to build cars of different lengths with aluminum compared with steel.

Corvette and Viper two-seaters

Of course, both the American supercars from the majors, the Corvette and Dodge Viper SRT-10, are unashamedly two-seaters. It would not be too difficult for Chevrolet to build a 2+2 Corvette, owing to the chassis construction used, but at present GM has little time to devote to frivolities like that. Anyway, people seem to like them as two-seaters - I do.

Over in the UK, Aston Martin builds its cars on aluminum frames and is producing two-seaters and 2+2s with the same basic frame. Not far away, Jaguar, too, is building the delectable XK and XKR sports supercars with aluminum bodies - a slightly different technique from Aston Martin - so they are a good deal lighter than their competitors. What sort of cars are these? Well, 2+2s.

Jaguar XK between two-seater and 2+2

Are they good 2+2s? No, not at all. Even a slim 5-foot 2-inch tall person has a job to get into the back, and once there has to sit with her chin on her knees so deep and unseatlike is the seat. Obviously, someone lost the plot at this point, and forgot the advantage of the aluminum body structure in producing variants of the same basic car. That too is odd, because they already do it with the XJR - there are long and short-wheelbase versions. Maybe the bosses in Dearborn would not allow the extra capital cost.

What they could have done was to make a two-seater, which really would have brought back the glory of the 50s. It would have been even lighter than the XK and XK, and more nimble - mind you, the XKR is up there at the top when it comes to handling, as you can see at Fast-Autos - Supercars.

Then , they could have built a proper 2+2, which would be 6-9 inches longer than the present car so that it had adequate space for two adults for short journeys, or two children for long journeys and more luggage space.

Tis surely a pity they did not do that, but even so, the Jaguar XKR is a superb car, as is the Maserati GranSport in a different way.