A friend of mine who writes car reviews found himself in a game of oneupmanship with a friend of his. My friend was given a Jaguar Super V8, 2008  to review. His friend drove an Audi A8, W12 Quattro, 2008.

The Audi won if for no other reason than the base sticker price. The Jag goes for $95,000. The Audi has a sticker price  $140,000!!!  Of course, that price includes

$6,300 for the Bang & Olufsen sound system  

$3,200 for the 20-inch alloy wheels and summer performance tires

$2,500 for the Palace Blue exterior paint

$2,100 for the adaptive cruise control

$1,500 for the rear-seat refrigerator

$790 for solar sunroof

$200 for heated steering wheel

$1,700 for gas-guzzler tax

My friend, Bill, tells the story of when he was in China. He was being driven in a Red Flag Chinese car on a road with no speed limit. The speedometer was tick-tick-ticking to the far right at about 220kph. Thinking to himself that he was going to die if the driver lost control he looked out the window to keep himself distracted. Suddenly, an Audi went flying by. Perhaps it was a predecessor to this 6.0 liter, 12-valve, 450 horsepower 2008 Quattro.

Oh, to own an Audi.

It seems that Pontiac hasn’t rolled out a full-size, rear-wheel drive sedan in more than 20 years. Twenty-two years to be exact. Enter the Pontiac G8. (This is not to be confused with the G8 Summit happening in Toyako.) The G8 will replace the Bonneville and the Grand Prix as well as the V8-powered GTO coupe. One trim has a 256 horsepower V6 engine, standard with a 5-speed automatic transmission. The other trim has 361 horsepower V8 and 6-speed automatic. Can you say 60mph in 5 secs?

Airbags, 6 of them, traction control, stability control, dual tailpipes 18″ alloy wheels, sports body kit….ah, and a 7-speaker audio system. The driver can’t hear the Vrroooom of the engine over the beautiful tunes. Pontiac says this car is the most powerful car in the U.S. available for less than $30K. Test driver James Raia at TheWeeklyDriver says the car’s shortcomings are no navigation system and finding the emergency brake. Bumper to bumper, 3 years/36K, drivetrain warranty, 5 years/100K, and corrosion 6 years/100K. Pontiac obviously thinks this car will look good while it lasts a long time.

Ferarri just unveiled their latest F1 Championship car for 2008, it’s the 54th so far, and changes totally the aerodynamics with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa giving it the thumbs up. The main competitors will be McLaren and BMW, the pilots said, but they are confident that even if the car will be more complex to drive, to win.

2008 brings a lot of changes when it comes to safety, materials and others so everyone had to change.

Just hours, after Ferarri, McLaren unveiled their MP4-23 (Hamilton is 23 years old) which will be powered by the Mercedes-Benz FO 108V engine, based on the 2007 FO 108T that never failed in the last season. It’s a 2.4L 8-cylinder engine, that goes up to 19,000 rpm on the 7-speed sequential gearbox and the two pilots, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen are both excited about the car.

Formula 1 in 2008 will bring a nice addition. Night racing in Singapore.
Let’s wait for Sydney in March before we know who’s better.

The FIA has confirmed the 2008 Formula One calendar, including the world championship’s first night race at the new Singapore track.

The schedule issued following today’s World Motor Sport Council matched the provisional calendar released earlier this year, but with Canada, Singapore and Valencia all confirmed, and Singapore specified as the first floodlit evening Grand Prix.

The Montreal race had remained provisional on the previous schedule, while the new tracks in Singapore and Valencia (which will hold the European Grand Prix) were both subject to circuit approval.

Although it had always been anticipated that the Singapore GP would be run at night, the FIA wanted to be certain that it could be achieved safely before providing official confirmation.