All Entries Tagged With: "Pictures"
Nissan’s Understated GT-R
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Found on Carzi.com
JALOPNIK posted an interesting comparative pic.
Captured for your amusement were a Nissan GT-R and Acura NSX parked side by side, both trimmed in polar white finishes. In stature, the tall Nissan dwarfs the low profile Acura; a two door 90s sports car that owed much stylistically to designs originally penned by Giugaro and Pininfarina.
Yours witnessed his first GT-R in person this week. Funny thing was, I almost didn’t notice it.
Jet black, it advanced quietly through traffic (there was no loud exhaust to grab my attention from the opposite lane) the GT-R seemed the ultimate in Japanese discretion.
Not a bad thing, per se. Nissan doesn’t need to make a sports car that shouts its arrival.
The aforementioned NSX borrowed so many Ferrari cues, that it drew most of its attention from pedestrians who thought they just saw a Ferrari. Rival Toyota molded the last generation Supra into a unique shape, but, it wasn’t universal in its stylistic appeal.
The Nissan really doesn’t offend and yet it’s anything but milquetoast. The car appears to have genuine visual character all its own.
But it does blend a little…
Shots From Brochures Past: Benz 560SL
By Gunnar Heinrich
PHOTOGRAPHY being the artful demarcation of time and place that it is, there’s something about this image that’s at once period and on the other hand, indelibly timeless.
Pictured above is a 1986 Mercedes-Benz 560SL shot in the great American West in red over cream; popular for topless Teutons of that era.
These three SL photos are scanned facsimiles from an old US S-Class brochure that a friend gifted me nearly nine years ago.
The brochure itself is a testament to an unapologetic era of status assertion.
It reads as follows:
“The legendary SL Coupe/Roadster has earned its unique niche in the motoring world by blending two rich automotive themes: the lure of a lithe and eager top-down sporting machine and the reassurance of a strong, secure, supremely livable Mercedes-Benz. For 1986, the most confirmed SL advocate will revise his opinion upward.”
Much of the rest of the promotional text talks with the same über confidence that can only come from successfully selling a model line that sold virtually free from competition in the US market for two decades.
Timeless, indeed.
[Linked: March 1994 R&T Review of R107 Line]
