Car Club Blog

They are flashy. They are fast. And they are very, very expensive. They are the exotic sports cars, the ultimate icons of speed, style and money. Exotic sports cars are built using cutting-edge technology and designed from a purely aesthetic point of view. Hence, they often ignore considerations of fuel economy and practicality in regards to storage, seating and their design and operations. As a result, they are either made-to-order, or manufactured in limited editions, sparing no costs. Only a select few can afford these exotic cars.

These T-Rexes of the motoring world can boast of engines that run on massive outputs of power, anywhere from 500 to 660 horsepower. Ferrari’s Enzo, its latest limited-edition offering, tempts the sports-car lover with its promise of Formula 1 experience. With acceleration from 0 to 60 in as little as 4-5 seconds, these exotic cars are in a league of their own in terms of pure power and performance. Plush interiors and exclusive accessories make these cars sought after by car collectors all over the world.

While exotic cars are at the very pinnacle of the auto aristocracy, they should only be bought after careful consideration. These supercars not only burn a hole in your pocket when you buy them, they are equally expensive to maintain, requiring specially trained mechanics for repairs, custom-ordered spare parts and gallons of fuel for optimum performance. They are delicate, and can be troublesome when the smallest part malfunctions. These beauties must be handled with extra care, as their tremendous power can go wrong in the hands of an inexperienced driver.

Nevertheless, they are the stuff that car legends are made of. The exotic car brands that have become legends over time have included Italian manufacturers like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Maserati; German companies like Porsche and Mercedes-Benz; the English carmaker Bentley, and American stars like Ford, Aston Martin and Dodge.

The open-top version of Audi’s R8 range-topping coupe has been caught virtually undisguised in Germany near, where else, the Nurburgring. Were it not for the flat-black paint, the Audi R8 Spyder (an official name has yet to be announced) could easily be mistaken for a production car.

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The Audi R8 convertible’s canvas roof looks to have forced the removal of the R8’s signature off-color side body panels and a redesign of the engine cover was also apparently necessary. The fuel filler cap has also been moved onto the rear quarter panel from its original position on the long B-pillar. For safety, rollover protection bars have been added, though these are not visible unless the top is down. Audi may also add air intakes located behind the seats and the chassis is said to have been strengthened to improve rigidity. With the roof up, the convertible has a very similar shape to the coupe, especially when viewed from the side.

The R8’s 420 horsepower 317 pound-feet 4.2-liter V-8 should be unchanged for the convertible. The upcoming V-10 variant of the R8, which is expected to make its debut in October at the Paris Motor Show, will debut as a coupe and may remain so, but it is possible it may also come in ragtop form, as the vehicles are more or less the same other than the obvious engine difference.

Our spy photographers have caught a glimpse of what looks to be the next Acura NSX testing near Germany’s Nürburgring.

The spied car bears a striking resemblance to the Acura Advanced Sports Car concept that we’ve seen at several auto shows. But Honda claimed the ASCC was just a design study, and rumor was that its icy reception necessitated a return to the drawing table. This spied car looks ready for production, though, having missed its original 2008 target.

Honda has already confirmed that the new NSX will be a front-engine supercar. The first-generation NSX, sold in the U.S. until 2005, had a mid-mounted 3.2-liter V-6.

Given their visual similarity, we expect the new NSX will use the same powertrain as the ASCC, which would mean a 5.0-liter V-10 engine paired with the automaker’s Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system. That could put the NSX on par with the likes of the Nissan GT-R.

Although it shares the same basic shape as the concept car, the NSX sports a higher roofline to allow more space in the cockpit, as well as smoother lines over the rear. The tiny headlamp slits from the concept have given way to real, normal-size headlights and there’s an extra center grille to help feed air to the engine.

At the rear, a pronounced trunklid spoiler and rear splitter look set to keep the NSX planted. LED taillights that spanned the entire rear of the concept car have been replaced by more conservative, production-ready LED housings. The concept’s dual stacked exhaust tips remain.

All this adds up to a car that doesn’t appear to be far from production while looking far more aggressive and track-ready than the concept car. We can’t wait to get our hands—and test gear—on one.

Let’s just get this out of the way. Yes, the beaky nose on the new Acura TL looks odd. Maybe it’s just the shock of a new look; maybe it really is weird-looking. We’ll need more time to gaze critically upon it before we decide. We can, however, testify that it looks better in the flesh than in photographs and that the rest of the TL’s angular, modern shape is assuredly handsome, especially in the pointed shape of the trunk. And while it might look odd, the car’s grille carries a familial resemblance to the rest of the Acura lineup. Puns aside, the TL stands out as the face of the brand. It spearheaded Acura’s sales resurgence in the late ’90s and remains Acura’s bestselling car.

The success of previous TLs centered on two aspects: a powerful V-6 engine and lots of standard equipment. The new TL predictably sticks to that playbook but adds another page with the addition of optional all-wheel drive. The standard TL’s V-6 gets a displacement enhancement from 3.2 liters to 3.5; power is up 22 horsepower to 280, and torque grows by 21 pound-feet to 254. Both numbers are, however, slightly lower than the output of the 3.5-liter in the old TL Type-S. The all-wheel-drive TL, dubbed SH-AWD and equipped with the same rear-wheel torque-splitting system found in the RDX and MDX, comes with a 3.7-liter engine rated at 305 horsepower and 275 pound-feet of torque. It’s basically the same powertrain as in the updated RL [C/D, September 2008], with variable intake- and exhaust-valve timing and lift all on a single cam. Both TL engines are mated to a five-speed automatic, which seems outdated in a segment where six and seven speeds are common. Visually, the SH-AWD model is differentiated by the functional front brake ducts next to the fog lamps, four exhaust tips at the rear, and 18- or 19-inch wheels and tires.

As before, the TL is based on the Accord, although this one doesn’t share any major dimensions with the Honda. Exterior dimensions are all bigger than the outgoing model’s, with length growing a full six inches, to 195.3. The bigger size doesn’t translate directly to the interior, though. The front seat is slightly smaller, while the rear seat is a little bigger (legroom is up 1.3 inches). Trunk space is bigger by just less than one cubic foot.

As for the rest of the Acura playbook, the TL still boasts an impressive amount of equipment. The Technology package, an option box that 70 percent of TL buyers are expected to tick, adds to a long list of standards: keyless entry and ignition, a 10-speaker ELS surround stereo with 12.7-gigabyte hard drive, and a navigation system. That nav boasts real-time traffic information, specific lane routing for multilane highways, and an industry-first Doppler radar weather-map feature.

The insides share a familiar look with other Acuras, but the multifunction controller knob and the bevy of buttons that surround it seem less confusing and cluttered than in the RDX. Material qualities are first-rate, and this car feels far more upscale than the previous one did.

Driving the TL back-to-back with its predecessor makes it clear that major improvements have been made, with one exception. Body motions are better controlled, road and wind noise have been all but eliminated, the brakes feel solid, and the TL corners with a more level attitude than its compliant ride would suggest. Torque steer, long a TL drawback, is far better managed. On the other hand, steering feel has lost the plot. The new TL uses electronic power assist, as opposed to the old hydraulic unit. It’s more precise on-center, but the old car’s steering was better weighted and offered much more feel.

Despite about 250 pounds of added weight, 32-percent-stiffer springs, and increased damping force, the SH-AWD rides better than the standard TL. The engine note is slightly throatier, and the handling is more responsive, too, thanks in part to optional 19-inch tires shod with Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires.

Saleswise, this is Acura’s most important car, and even with prices holding steady (starting at about $35,000 and moving up to $42,000 for a loaded SH-AWD), it’s possible that potential buyers could be turned off by its funny face. Which is a shame, because everywhere else (except for the steering), the TL is the most focused and best executed car in Acura’s lineup.

The K-1 Attack is one Slovakian’s vision of a hunkered down, slash-cut, sexed-up, air-scooped atomic-bombed crustacean, and you either buy it or you don’t. We do. The K-1 Attack has got it all going on, but at a stiff price.

The Slovak in question, Dick Kvet?anský, started K-1 Styling & Tuning (now called K-1 Engineering) in the suburbs of Bratislava around 1990 to produce fiberglass faux-exotic body kits for the GM F-body Chevy Camaro/Pontiac Firebird. The kits included the Turborossa (Ferrari quickly sued), the K-25 Anniversary (a Countach knockoff), and the Evoluzione, which perhaps avoided legal trouble because it blended Ferrari themes with those of other cars, including the C4 Corvette and Huggy Bear’s pimpmobile.

After all that, the Attack was K-1’s next project, and a great leap forward it was. Styled by Kvet?anský’s pal Juraj Mitro, the Attack is a two-seat roadster—there’s no top—built on its own steel-tube space frame and clad in a stiletto-shaped fiberglass body with Lamborghini-style scissors doors (motorization is an option) and a carbon-fiber belly pan. Except for a few Grand Canyon-sized panel gaps, the whole car has the highly teased styling and factory-finished polish of an auto-show concept car.

Much of the credit for that goes to Jay King at Ultimate Kit Builders in Danbury, Connecticut, who took over the build of this car from a distraught customer and had war stories to tell of hieroglyphic instructions, ill-fitting parts, and missing vitals such as the emergency brake, which King fabricated from scratch (builders can exchange info at the K-1 forum www.attackforums.com). Still, King became so enamored with the Attack that he signed up to be the U.S. distributor and is currently in negotiations with K-1 to buy the tooling and make the kits for the U.S. market.

The engine and the front suspension of a front-drive car are grafted, struts and all, onto the rear quarter of the K-1 behind the cockpit. In Europe, the preference is for 2.5-liter V-6 Ford Mondeo units; however, our test car had a 220-hp, 2.2-liter Honda H22A four-cylinder from a circa-1995 Japanese domestic-market Prelude hooked to a five-speed manual from a 1998 Accord. The front suspension is K-1’s own design, using pyramid-shaped control arms levered on inboard Audi shock absorbers. The shocks poke through holes in the nose cone, allowing the driver to watch the front suspension twitch and spasm as the 18-inch Moda wheels and Goodyear Eagle F1 tires (225/40 front, 275/35 rear) roll over bumps.

Neon-blue Dakota Digital gauges and hard-shell seats sporting a funky dog’s-paw-pad arrangement augment the car’s futuristic weirdness. But the Attack is unexpectedly comfortable and capable on the road. The dynamics are well sorted, with the mid-engine layout, quick steering, and competent suspension tune keeping it stable and stuck in corners up to 0.95 g on the skidpad. The body roll is restrained, and the chassis swallows road blight without shedding pieces, not always a given in kit cars. Except for some slop in the pedals, the Attack’s overall sophistication is surprising.

The basic Attack kit is $25,000, which buys the frame, the unpainted body shell, a big baggie of unmarked fasteners, and a couple years’ worth of headaches. If King’s deal happens, the Attack will sell for $45,000 as an assembled and unpainted rolling chassis with the major problems sorted. King, whose main business is tuning Japanese cars, figures a fully finished Attack will attack its owner’s wallet for at least $75,000, or up to $100,000 for a supercharged version making 300 horsepower.

The 2369-pound Attack sheared one of its relatively new aftermarket half-shafts after just a few charges up the drag strip. Bad metallurgy was the possible culprit. The 60-mph run in 7.0 seconds and the quarter in 15.3 seconds at 89 mph might have been fleeter were there more time to discover the best launch technique. In almost every other aspect, the Attack is hard to assail except on price, which at least purchases absolute novelty, something that is rarely cheap.