Supercar
I hate doing this one because it involves me trying to chose a car over many that I've seen and wanted to own, but I'm awarding this to a quintessential supercar, one that is the breed. It's going to the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Performante. Notice how the name is almost the entire length of this line? Why the Gallardo and not the Aventador I hear you ask? Pretty simple to be honest with you. Where the Aventador went and tamed the V12 Lambo genre the Performante only proved that the Gallardo is still pure theatre and ultimately that's what a supercar needs to be.
Big Car
Might as well be the Brutus. You see this is a car that wasn't designed to prolong the life cycle of the Earths tree population and nor was it designed to ease the demand for oil but it was designed to be dramatic. I guess it helps when you have a BMW engine from an aeroplane and a bicycle style chain driving the rear wheel but not even the great Dickie Shakespeare could out drama the Brutus. It's only a minor shame then that the Brutus is unreliable, spectacuarly slow and a one way ticket to hell in the corners!
Small Car
I'm giving this award to the BAC Mono. This is a single seater road car which happens to be the prettiest thing I've seen this year. It has a pleasant sculpted look similar to the X-Bow. Unlike the Bow and Arrow to the Knee (for some reason I couldn't keep the Skyrim joke out of the review of the year) it isn't fat at the rear and nor is it plain odd. It is very well built with many little details to help you go quick like for example; push rod suspension straight from F1, a Duratec Cosworth engine also designed to race, a pre load semi automatic gear system right outta F3 and a steering wheel that looks like the ones you see in, guess what type of car. It's one of those cars that's fit for purpose and is all the more beautiful for it.
Eco Car
This goes to the tech project from Mclaren, the MP4-12C. Right about now you're probably thinking what in the blue sky in heaven has got into him? The MP4 is a supercar I know and supercars are to economy what ducks are to counting from -200,000,000 right the way to some sort of billion zillion and then teaching this skill to dead people. In case you got lost in that metaphor and you probably did what I'm saying is the MP4 shouldn't be the eco car of the year but it is. No it's not economical compared to the Fisker Kharma or the Honda CR-Z Mugen or the Ford Focus but it is economical for a supercar and in my blog where fairness and rationality take back step to surprises this earns it CAOECOTY award. Thank the twin turbocharged V8.
Unveiled but not Released Car
A tweaked version of concept car and is awarded to the Pagani Huayra. It is to be released this year in 2012 if I'm not mistaken and is stunning. It made it's public debut in Forza Motorsport 4 this January if you don't count Need for Speed which I don't because the cars there are arcade fantasy versions of the real things. In Forza it is quick and corners like a mental. Fortunately it is easy to predict what's going to happen because it always goes sideways. With exceptional attention to detail that I talked about in a previous blog the Pagani is my UBNRC car of the year. It's pronounced (Hu-why-ruh) by the way.
Overall Car of 2011
This is supremely difficult as I have a criteria that has to be met. I'm not allowed to pick any cars that have already been awarded something because this car has to transcend boundaries and be a standalone act, one that batters everything and become a genre of car all on its own. After many hours of staying awake last night trying to make this decision I have the answer. If I could have a drumroll I would be very grateful, but I can't because this is a blog........ sooooooo da da the Red Bull RB7. This is the car that allowed Vettel to streak away from all the others in the drivers title and more importantly break all the records despite the fact that (objectively speaking) Jenson Button was the best driver. No matter what Jenson did the RB7 rarely gave an inch and has gained itself a spot in the nightmares of the opposition. Red Bull, Adrian Newey and Sebastien Vettel all say there are still lessons to be learnt and next year they should be stronger, oh dear lord really?
Driver of the Year
Finally we arrive at driver of the year and after what I said in CO2011 there isn't any point in drawing this out and creating suspense. In light of this the award goes to Ayrton Senna! If you're thinking this guy is deliberatly trying to annoy me you're most certainly wrong. Even though he's been dead for 17 years going on 18 Senna has hit an all time high for popularity. This probably had very little to do with the fact that in 2011 he was the very first driver to have a full length feature documentary made about his career and life. The truth is Senna is a legend to the point that calling him a legend seems rather unfullfilling to his memory. If you want to read more of what I think of Ayrton then follow the link at the bottom of this page but for now I leave you with Ayrton Senna as driver of the year 2011.
I warned at the top of this blog that fairness and diplomacy don't matter here. Now that I look back I am happy with my list of awards and their winners despite maybe ruffling a few feathers. In any case here comes that link and thankyou very much for reading this blog and please come back again soon.
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