
Granny driving
I've had faster shits than that
The Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid has made its public driving debut at the annual Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races - barely a year and a half after first being unveiled as a concept. With Fisker chairman Bernhard Koehler behind the wheel, the Karma completed a single lap of the infamous Laguna Seca race circuit in …
A decent range on electric only for your workaday commutes, and the trousers to do a proper job on longer runs when required. Makes the new-gen Prius look a bit rubbish by comparison, considering Toyota's muscle. Now all they have to do is sell it for half the price and I'd seriously consider it.
Probably neither. The guy was likely told to take no chances given the value of the vehicle, and putting even an incredibly exciting street car on a race track is a recipe for boring. Even a pretty fast Porsche is dull on a quick track - which Laguna definitely is.
Hair-raising on the street is doze-inducing on a race track which is quite a bit wider than your usual 2-lane road.
Regardless, that was a truly awful marketing move - they've taken what might actually be a pretty fun car to drive on the street, and made it look like it's abjectly awful - and chosen a shot of the driver that drives the point home! Smooth...
Reality check: My 8 yr old Maxima will still do 140 mph, 0-60 in under 7 sec, and seats 4 comfortably with only 225 HP, gets an honest 28 mpg highway (if I behave myself), has one of the cleanest exhausts around (CA spec), has at least another 50K miles in it and all that with a current blue-book value less than $10K. Wake me when they start selling something other than hype and an "excellent experience". If I want the latter, I'm only a 5 hr drive from Las Vegas (and 2 hrs from Hollywood) where I can find much better hype and experiences for the $75K "value" difference. And, keeping mine is much greener and kinder on the planet (considering full life-cycle cost) than scraping it and buying that, electric plug-in notwithstanding.
Ok, OK, it's a better babe-magnet, but that's about it. On second thought... :-)