Road & Track

1_XLR

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Interesting to see the XLR show up in a comparison of "muscle" cars,
it's an impressive group to be running with.
(see the thread in the CTS/V section)

The XLR however is a Luxury Roadster, and this Road & Track
article properly compares it to the competition
and ranked them as follows:

1st Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet
2nd Cadillac XLR
3rd 4th Jaguar XK8
4th Mercedes-Benz SL500
5th Maserati Spyder GT
5th Lexus SC 430

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=735&page_number=1
 
didnt the R&T on spike did a show on those cars? i believe the line up looked almost the same as yours, but if i remember correctly the benzo won! you know the R&T people they love to blow benzo! seems like they have nothing bad to EVER say about them. XLR is defiantly a beautiful car, i really wish lincoln can do something like that for the new mark! but i really dont see them doing it!
 
Sifrino3 said:
GM would never let an off brand beat the Vette in there house.

Huh?!
You DO know that the CTS-V already equals or beats the Vette in several tests, right? In the past, I think GM made sure that no other GM product would threaten the Corvette but nowadays, Corvette will NOT be the king of the hill at GM. Face it, as GM opens new markets that are way up-scale of the Corvette price point, they cannot afford to limit the performance capabilities of those cars just because somebody with a Corvette might get their feelings hurt. This SHOULD be the case with the XLR to be honest. Considering the price difference, the XLR SHOULD be able to out-perform a Corvette. Maybe this is a business case for a new "ultra-performance" GM car (maybe a Chevy but doesn't have to be)?
 
The XLR-V will out proform the Vette and the Z will out proform to V and the V Plus will ......and so on and so on.
You will always have the option to upgrade, it's the name of the game, and they can play them off each other.
:bash: :F argue2


...And in the end they both win :Beer
 
The bar has been raised so fast in the industry now that by the time the ZO6 comes out, it's NOT going to be a big deal. That's GM's biggest problem, and has been for years. Product gestation is too long. Hell, look how long it took them to bring the XLR to production, let alone to the customer in any volume. I mean, come on, the car spent over 5 years on the drawing board!
 
The Buick Grand National regularly wasted the Chevrolet Corvette of that era. Then GM put an end to that. Also, the 4th gen Pontiac Trans Am WS6 was knocking on the door of outrunning the Corvette (I think it was seriously a muffler upgrade away). Look at where the Trans Am is now :)

But I think that GM has given up on the Corvette as their poster boy. The new GTO will be a roadway rapist.
 
CaptainZilog said:
The Buick Grand National regularly wasted the Chevrolet Corvette of that era. Then GM put an end to that. Also, the 4th gen Pontiac Trans Am WS6 was knocking on the door of outrunning the Corvette (I think it was seriously a muffler upgrade away). Look at where the Trans Am is now :)

But I think that GM has given up on the Corvette as their poster boy. The new GTO will be a roadway rapist.

I don't know. . . They put a lot of time into this new Vette, for what. One of there own taking the top spot?
 
You gotta get that kind of thinking out of your head. GM has definately expressed an interest in moving upscale in several ways, specifically with Cadillac. So get used to Corvette being out-gunned. If GM trys to market a car along the lines of the new M5 or any of the AMG cars, the performance will have to be on par wit those cars, at least. And THAT will put Corvette at a definate disadvantage. You just can't raise the price of a Corvette enough to justify the hardware needed to compete. If GM is going to offer a $100K performance car, it damn well better be able to dust a $40K 'Vette! That's why I mentioned either an "Ultra-'Vette" or some sort of ultra-sport Chevy that will take on the ultra sports cars, or maybe bring back the Camaro to take the place of the Corvette in the mid-priced performance segment so Corvette can move up-scale. Either way, as is, the Corvette is destined to be out-gunned in the near future. The Cadillac V-series cars, the GTO, and possibly a new Buick will be at or above the Corvette performance level, mark my words.
 
Okay, here is my thinking. You don't buy a Vette. If you are just going to get waxed (Killed) by a cadi!

Heres how your outcome will play out:
Cadi is sitting at stop light. . .
Vette pulls up next to the Cadi. . .
Cadi revs or whatever. . .
Vette like grandpas car, come on!
Cadi lays it down. . .
Vette is looking at tail lights

THE NEXT MORNING
Vette goes to GM show room and says, "WTF!"
 
That would happen ONLY if the Vette owner was a dumb kid but since chances are he's a fairly well off middle aged guy, he realizes that he paid $40K for his Vette and the Caddy owner paid more like $50-$60K (or more) and that is what you get for the money.
Like I said (which you're obviously not getting), as long as Cadillac was mainly focusing on "luxury", they only needed to provide "adequate" performance, but once the focus is on performance, all bets are off. They MUST deliver a level of performance equal to or better than the competition in that market segment. And in this case, that level of performance is higher than a standard Corvette, and maybe even higher than a ZO6! You're kidding yourself if you don't think there are Ultra-Luxury marques out there that are selling cars faster than Corvettes, and THAT's what Cadillac will be competing against. If they're not willing (or able) to ascend to that level of performance, they need to rethink whether they want to play with the big boys in the first place. Like they say, "if you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch".
 
Im saying, you don't buy a perfromance car just so you can get beating. If its like that. Why even buy that car. It can't even do the ONE thing its suppose to do. . .
 
Dude, come on. He wrote it all out for you. The Corvette just cannot compete with the E55 AMG, M5, SLR, etc... The Luxury Sports Car market is in a renaissance right now. Those cars have over 450HP and for the price, the Corvette cannot compete. Cadillac will make cars that can outrun the Corvette, and directly compete with those cars, or they won't exist as a division for much longer.
 
yeah for about another 60grand more for a e55 AMG or CL55 AMG it better beat a vette! not to hate the vette i love american muscle, amg is sick, but i bet if you match up a lingenfelter corvette against an the one of those, the vette will make the AMG look silly.
 
Oh, most definitely. A Ligenfelter TT 427 Corvette will turn 0-60 in under 2 seconds. But then again, we're talking stock machines :)
 
hmm... AMG is not stock either, (or is it?) i just thought they just slap on a supercharger and mod certain things up, to me AMG is just a performance add-on, just like how saleen is to mustang!
 
CaptainZilog said:
Dude, come on. He wrote it all out for you. The Corvette just cannot compete with the E55 AMG, M5, SLR, etc... The Luxury Sports Car market is in a renaissance right now. Those cars have over 450HP and for the price, the Corvette cannot compete. Cadillac will make cars that can outrun the Corvette, and directly compete with those cars, or they won't exist as a division for much longer.

All im saying. If other cars can out run the Vette. Then there is no need for a performance based car. Calm Down. . .
 
Sifrino3 said:
All im saying. If other cars can out run the Vette. Then there is no need for a performance based car. Calm Down. . .

I hate to say it but that's stupid. You're saying that just because a performance car gets beat up by a few cars that are twice it's price, it's useless to build?! That's silly. That's like saying that because Vettes can beat up on Mustangs, they're useless.
 
Katshot said:
The bar has been raised so fast in the industry now that by the time the ZO6 comes out, it's NOT going to be a big deal. That's GM's biggest problem, and has been for years. Product gestation is too long. Hell, look how long it took them to bring the XLR to production, let alone to the customer in any volume. I mean, come on, the car spent over 5 years on the drawing board!

Few cars will touch the new Z06. There are even Porsche buyers with orders for the new Z06. Plus, some new 2005 911 suffer from RMS (rear main seal) leaks. This has been going on since the 1997 Boxster (the previous GT2, GT3, and Turbo didn't suffer from this leak)!
 

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