nytimes

December 30, 2007

Reasons to Embrace a New Year


By EZRA DYER
HERE are some incentives for auto enthusiasts to go on living in 2008:

ALFA ROMEO 8C COMPETIZIONE Alfa makes its return to the United States with this gorgeous 450-horsepower supercar. With a more proletarian lineup to follow, it’s interesting that the quarter-million-dollar 8C marks the beginning of an era when Italian cars will not be just for the rich.

BMW M3 AND 135I The new M3 packs a 414-horsepower V-8 and will be available in a sedan — rear-seat passengers may be terrified, but they won’t be inconvenienced. Perhaps more exciting is the new 135i coupe, which shrinks the 3 Series package but retains the 306-horsepower twin-turbo motor. The fact that the 135i doesn’t wear an M badge hints that even more wicked things might be on the way for the little coupe.

NISSAN GT-R With a 473-horsepower twin-turbo V-6, all-wheel-drive and a dual-clutch sequential manual transmission, the GT-R delivers Porsche 911 Turbo performance for the price of about five and a half Nissan Versas (around $70,000).

RALLY CARS If you can’t swing a GT-R, but still want an all-wheel-drive turbo monster, Subaru has a redesigned STi ready to go wheel-to-wheel with Mitsubishi’s new Lancer Evolution.

DODGE CHALLENGER SRT8 Some people call it the space cowboy, some call it the gangster of love. And some call it the most unapologetically retro car of 2008. Woo-hoo! The base sticker of $40,095 looks appealing, but with only 5,000 Challengers to go around, in this case M.S.R.P. might stand for “minute segment of real price.”

CHEVROLET CORVETTE ZR1 The new ZR1 is so powerful that if you point it due west and floor the accelerator at high noon, the sun will set immediately because you just sped up the rotation of the earth. This car is just that powerful. How powerful? Chevy isn’t saying, but admits that the ZR1 makes at least 620 horsepower and will break 200 m.p.h.

SMART FORTWO Even if you don’t buy one yourself, the mere fact that other people are going to buy them means more parking spaces for everyone.

HYBRID S.U.V.’S Hybrid versions of the Porsche Cayenne, Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon, Cadillac Escalade, Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen won’t save the planet, but they will bring hybrids further into the mainstream, and that’s a good thing no matter how cynical you are about the environmental credibility of 5,000-pound trucks.

 

I think all of us have embraced this year, particularly Feb, for the past several years. The best part of this new year for a bunch of us, inclusive of myself who'll be hardly patient the remainder of the year as we wait for '09's to come around, will be when we become the very proud owners of the coolest looking new to car to hit the streets, the Dodge Challenger. Hoorah for 2008!!!!