GT5 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

Here is GT5's 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (19-inch Wheel Option).

Pictured in Crystal Laurit Silver and parked at Ahrweiler Gate.

First manufactured in 2003, production ended in 2009.

Mercedes-Benz has claimed that the SLR McLaren is a limited edition of just 3,500 cars.

It uses carbon fiber everywhere except the engine bay which is aluminum.

That's a long carbon monocoque body!

GT5 1989 Nissan Fairlady Z 300 ZX TT 2 Seater (Z32)

A treat for you today! A Nissan Fairlady Z 300ZX TT 2 Seater (Z32) in my GT5 pictures.

Wearing a coat of White Pearl and parked at San Galgano Abbey.

My Fairlady! No Rex Harrison or Audrey Hepburn in sight... but Paul Newman did drive the earlier Z31 version on the track.

The Fairlady name was/is used only in Japan where it had begun with the Fairlady Z in 1970. Elsewhere it was known as Nissan 300 ZX.

And the Z32 is the second reincarnation of the Nissan 300 ZX, the first being the Z31 which actor Paul Newman drove on a race track.

 

The Z32 itself appeared in 1989.

Nissan however soon hit a black patch and the Z disappeared.

When Carlos Ghosn became president of Nissan, he announced the return of the Z.

However, the new Z looks nothing like the old Z.

The letter "X" in ZX denotes "increasing luxury" the car being not just a sports car but a luxury GT.

GT5 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400 Bertone

Another post on the GT5 Lamborghini Miura P400 Bertone Prototype CN.0706.

But this time it is actually in my garage, and cost me Cr. 15,000,000 too! So more closeups this time.

Parked now at San Gimignano - Town Square. 

However, my major complaint is the thing the GT camera does to orange - turning it into cheap yellow in the sun.

"Eyelashes".

The Miura is the "world's first genuine supercar".

Housekeeping 1

Housekeeping notice No. 1 on this blog.

I have amended all posts by adding labels for photo travel locations and race tracks to those for cars.

You can see my list of labels on the right-hand panel which is now titled My Garage, Photo Travel Locations and Race Tracks.

It's a bit of a mashup now but still navigable, and the positives here outweigh the negatives as this blog is now not just a catalogue of (my) cars in GT6, GT5 and soon GT4 but also a catalogue of the photo travel locations and the tracks where I shot those cars.

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GT5 1990 Nissan Silvia K's Dia Selection (S13)

Today's car is this 1990 Nissan Silvia K's Dia Selection (S13) in my GT5 pictures, with no post-PS editing.

Wearing a coat of Lime Green Two-Tone and parked at Siena - Piazza del Campo again.

This K's version is a high performance version of the Nissan Silvia S13 coupe which was the fifth-generation model of the Silvia specialty coupe from Nissan.

The S13 won the Japan Car of the Year award for 1988.

Now just enjoy the pictures however imperfect they may be.

Love this car.

GT5 1942 Volkswagen Schwimmwagen Typ 166

Here is another something from GT5.

In desert paint and parked at Bern - Marktgasse is a 1942 Volkswagen Schwimmwagen Typ 66.

The creation of Dr. Porsche himself.

I don't know what they were thinking at Gran Turismo when they included this particular "bug" in the game and one other like it.

It looks like Anschluss all over again but this time in Schweiz.

See? This dude is already surrendering...

Description:

"A revolutionary amphibious vehicle maximizing the merits of a rear-engine layout."



Motivated by how well the Kübelwagen was, the German Army ordered the development of an amphibious vehicle based on the same car to Dr. Porsche in 1940.

The powertrain of the Volkswagen really proved its worth here. At the rear end of a bath tub shaped body was mounted the horizontally opposed 3 cylinder engine. With the transmission mounted in front of this, along with another transfer mechanism, it was turned into a four wheel drive. This is a layout which is basically the reverse of Subaru's symmetrical AWD system.

Dr. Porsche succeeded in proving good traction in a rear wheel drive, but when moving from water to ground it was necessary to also drive the front wheels. And yet the Schwimmwagen still had one more item that needed to be driven - the propeller for movement in water. The propeller protruding from the rear end of the body was driven by the addition of a minimum number of gears from the engine. This car truly utilized all the merits of a rear engine layout. Because it was an amphibious vehicle, it was heavy and harder to control, but it also served as a trainer to teach driving skill. It was a car that required a complex mechanism, but it was easy to produce, and was the most mass produced amphibious vehicle in World War II.

The top speed of 50 mph on flat ground and 6 mph on water was high performance for its time, and with the added off road performance of the four wheel drive, it greatly improved the mobility of the German Army (not that it helped much - this blogger).

The fan propeller. The 2J Chapparal has nothing on it.

That's the exhaust.

Look, another dude is surrendering to our German overlords.

The bathtub body.