I think for the sake of debate there really is no right or wrong answer to the question I posed. It seems that driver ability or inability coupled with the extreme driving dynamics of the CGT has been the root cause of many of these recent incidences. The question was asked to gain as much information as possible to see why we've had a rash of crashes lately....specifically up here in the PNW.

Personally I love the fact that when I get out of my CGT.....no matter how much time I just put in, I'm drenched with sweat from shear concentration and effort. For me, its "not" an easy car to drive.........I have to really work at it. And next to the F40, I've found there is no other car in recent memory where I've had to work so hard to drive and drive well. That right there is the reward for me. I have others that I can get into if I want to just zone out behind the wheel.

 

Right... A scud, 16M, GT2, 360CS, and who knows what else... Real "zoning" cars!!

 

I don't see the point of the debate about design flaw. I don't think Porsche would be worried nor would public care. Ferraris burst in flame and it's selling like hot cakes. No pun intended

At least porsche didn't offer a paddle shift on it. This way, at least you don't have celebrities that can't drive manual roaming around in these.

 

 

It's not really a design flaw from Porsche. Most high performance cars display some sort of instability when being pushed whether that be understeer or oversteer. In the case of the Porsche and it being a so called race car for the road it will have these traits too, especially if the driver lifts off mid corner. Also due to the generally higher speeds involved with a car such as the cgt the dynamic loadings are increased thus a small change has a big effect. As anyone who has tried to set up a race car will know generaly when the fast times come the car often feels a handfull to drive and a bit loose. It does come down to the driver being comfortable in being able to handle the car. Traction controll was invented in race cars to aid forward propulsion but unfortuantly has been adopted by the public as a safety feature.

 

Not the GT2

 

I still have the 2003 Top Gear issue in which Clarkson's first roadtest of the CGT is published. He loves the sound and ferocious power of the car but wonders whether the handling is flawed because as he puts it, he never gets to drive it around a corner. Apparently the test location was an old German airfield and after a French journalist destroys one CGT the others including Clarkson are ordered to only test it on the (public) road. Which 'coincidentally' is the 'straightest road ever'.

Whether or not the CGT's tricky handling is a real flaw is debatable though, I think it sort of comes with the territory. Nobody who has a rudimental understanding of physics should be surprised that for example a pick up with a high center of gravity is more prone to rollovers than a regular car. Similarly, if you expect a 600+ hp rwd thoroughbred supercar to be as easy to drive as a Boxster you probably shouldn't be anywhere near a car like the CGT.

 

^^ In the episode where they drive the CGT before the lap with the Stig, Clarkson tells that it took the Stig a few tries to complete a solid lap because the Stig spun it out a few times. And how unforgiving the CGT is.

 

subscribing because I hope to own one of these one day. This was 68 posts and almost every response added to the conversation rather then the opposite. subscibed if for nothing else an opportunity to follow an actual intelligent conversation

 

Seriously, Mark.. what's stopping you???