Submit a POTD

[Spastik_Roach]

I submit a photo I took at the local track. Sorry about the quality, I was using a pretty bad digital camera.

[Mustang]

[BUFU-ZH]

[Mustang]

Mmmm i love that red

[CdocZ]

of course im gonna submit a........

[Rebirth of Xar]

heres a pshop i made
________
Rolls-Royce Camargue

[BUFU-ZH]

Diablo's in Zurich

[\\\wso816]

hello

[henk4]

hello

aas??

[6'bore]

Waht kind of a post is that. and whats the title of it all about?

[Pinin]

Mini...

[cmcpokey]

ooh, i want a mini....


oh wait

[Esperante]

here's my contribution

[Esperante]

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mx512p]

This picture is taken on the Stelvio pass (2770 metres) looking in an eastern direction. I have done virtually all Alpine passes, and this one stands out as one of the highest and most challenging. For the Stelvio I came from the other side, but did not descend here, just turned around and turned on to another road which took me over the Umbrail pass. Very interesting landscapes here.

Yep, you're right, henk4. That picture is taken on the Stelvio Pass and it's from Evo Magazine. (I've got that issue!!! )

Read this:

Cliff Hanger
Credits: Evo Magazine, September 2003

Two fabulous new street racers, Porsche 911 GT3 and Ferrari 360 Stradale, meet on one of Europe's most challenging roads, the dizzying Stelvio Pass

Porsche 911 GT3 v Ferrari 360 Stradale

Fierce creature, the 360 Challenge Stradale. Stripped back, pared down and pumped up, it stops, steers and accelerates like no 360 has ever done before. Enzo aside, it is the most exciting production car to come out of Maranello in a very long time. But then it has to be take the fight to Porsche's previously impregnable 911 GT3. Super-quick and scalpel-sharp, Stuttgart's second-generation rear-engined road-racer is also one of the finest driver's cars in existence. Grudge match? You bet your life.
Which is how we find ourselves converging on the magnificent, awe-inspiring Stelvio Pass for one of the most eagerly awaited skirmishes of 2003. Altitude sickness isn't normally a consideration during a road test, but then the Stelvio isn't a normal road. The second highest stretch of tarmac in Europe, at 2758m the summit is more than a mile and three quarters above sea level. According to medical text books, that puts it well into the danger zone.

Apparently it's not your fitness level that decides how well your system copes at altitude - if it was I'd surely be confined to a bungalow in Brighton - but the speed with which you make your ascent from sea level to the clouds. The more time you have to acclimatise, the more comfortable the transition. As there are few faster ways of ascending a mountain pass than at the wheel of a GT3 or 360 Stradale, we could be in trouble.

It's been a truly international effort to bring these two cars together. Roger Green has flown to Munich this morning with Gary Williams, friend of evo and owner of the GT3, to collect his car from the dealer who supplied it, while Marco Della Monica, contributor to evo Italia, is bringing the Stradale up from Maranello for an afternoon rendezvous. Meanwhile, Gus Gregory and I have flown to Milan, hired a particularly flaccid Peugeot 307 and mercilessly thraped it to the top of the pass in search of prime photo locations. The scenery is mind-blowing, but the Pug isn't, so having completed our recce we leave the miserable rental hatch groaning in the car park and go in search of scoff.

It's not long before Marco arrives, but he's at least five minutes behind an epic wall of noise that's been bouncing off the rock faces like a sonic pinball. Onlookers, of which there are many, seem relieved when the livid red Ferrari skims into view, happier still when they see it's driven by a friendly Italian, and not, as the thunderous sound effects suggested, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Half an hour later the 911 makes a more restrained entrance, surprisingly restrained given that it's being piloted by Revvin' Roger Green, and slots in next to the 360.

As both cars are based on familiar shapes, you don't perhaps expect either to look radically different from their more humdrum stablemates. How wrong can you be? Both the Stradale and GT3 are transformed, thanks to the shrewd deployment of arch-filling wheels and tyres, ground-hugging body addenda and ruthlessly reduced ride height. The resulting stance and simmering aggression lends each a ling aura of heightened ability. It's impossible to see either of these and not feel your synapses tingle with approval, and for a few magic moments the Stelvio comes to a standstill as passers-by become rooted to the spot.

The Stradale is the most brazen of the duo, scarlet paint shrieking in the sunlight, sharply chiselled nose and sills bringing menace and muscle to the standard 360's delicate bone structure. Our test car lacks the Stradale's optional stripe, which we're disappointed about, but the cross-spoke alloys, carbonfibre mirrors and mesh-grilled tail are fitting pointers to the Stradale's race-bred nature.

Finished in stark white, the GT3 should appear anaemic next to the red Ferrari, but the lack of attention-seeking hue only works to emphasise the Porsche's impressive musculature. The high-rise wing sticks out like a sore thumb, protruding from the otherwise soap bar-smooth shape. The nose looks cleaner, tidier and more businesslike without the gaping intakes from the GT2, particularly with the extra black lip extension that squeezes a little more lift-reducing energy out of the airstream.

Both cars are packed with exotic materials and cutting-edge engineering aimed at reducing weight and increasing responsiveness. For example, the Stradale is suspended on springs fashioned from titanium and has a blueprinted motor; the GT3 utilises super-lightweight pistons, conrods and valvegear that contribute to a 3.5kg reduction in moving masses within the engine. Both also have carbon discs, which save the best part of 20kg.

Odd, then, that the GT3 actually weighs more than a standard Carrera, thanks to its bodyshell being based on that of the torsionally stiffer Carrera 4. In fact, at 1363kg the Porsche is carrying an passenger's worth of excess weight compared with the skeletal Stradale, a deficit compounded by a 45bhp shortfall. It's a significant disadvantage, and although the Ferrari needs to scream 1100rpm beyond the GT3's 7400rpm power peak before all 420 horses are galloping, it musters all but 9lb ft of the Porsche's 284lb ft torque peak at 4750rpm, some 250 revs earlier. In the propaganda war at least, Ferrari leads the way.

We'll find out how it shakes out on the road once Gus has a few shots in the can, the first of which is a static that requires the two cars to be perched perilously close to a knee-trembling drop. It's now that the sheer scale and drama of our surroundings begins to sink in. This truly is the roof of Italy: so high you can ski here in the middle of summer, thanks to a cable car that takes you the final 700m or so up onto the adjacent glacier. To a heart and lungs more used to an oxygen-rich sea-level atmosphere, the thin, vapid mountain air is like a weak gruel, feeding your body the bare minimum it needs to function. At best you feel a bit peculiar, like you've stood up too fast after a long sit down. Sometimes just standing still is hard work.

Not enjoying the sensation of suffocating in slow-motion, I grab the Ferrari's lipstick-red keyfob and decide to high-tail it for the valley floor. Pulling at the -sized door latch, the door swings open with minimal effort. It's shockingly light: the earliest possible signal that the Stradale has been subjected

ADVERTISEMENT

to a serious weight-loss programme. For the record, it's a whopping 110kg lighter than the standard Modena, weighing-in at an impressive 1280kg. To give you some perspective, that's just 20kg more than the 360 Challenge race car, or the same as a Focus RS.

The interior shines with carbonfibre. The entire door casings are fashioned from the stuff, as are the centre console, seat shells and even the gearshift paddles. The dash-top is upholstered in a felt-like material, the floor bare apart from a coat of black paint and a pair of rubber mats. There's no radio in our test car either, but the spec stops short of the optional Lexan windows, which is probably for the best. Surprisingly, the overall ambience is still relatively luxurious, thanks mainly to the leather-upholstered seats and lavish carbon panels.

The seats may look like refugees from a race car, but once you're strapped in they're not as all-encompassing as you'd hope, particularly around the shoulders. The leather feels a bit slippy too, and the relationship between the height of the seat and steering wheel never feels just-so, no matter how much you fiddle with the adjustment. It's not disastrous, but it could be better.

The key doesn't start the Stradale, it merely primes the electrical system in readiness for a prod of the prominent starter button nestling between the seats. Button pressed, the flat-plane-crank V8 bursts into life and instantly settles into a fast, resonant idle. It's a purposeful noise, not yet raucous, but you can sense aural is just a throttle blip away.

continues.....