Karakaze Review
So here I am, sipping tea while watching BBC Breakfast, and I look out of my window. Sitting outside my house, there’s a behemoth of a car in my drive way, with a note on the window. (I blanked out the return address)
Dear Sir/Madame,
You have been chosen to review this car
If you crash it, you owe me £160,000.
After your review, you are to return it to me, in perfect condition at ---------------.
Yours Sincerely,
@ramthecowy
Well, looks like I’ve got a car to review. It’s probably best not to crash it into anything, I don’t have £160 grand in my bank account.
Styling
From the outside the car looks superb. The curves and the styling are top notch. The headlights looks modern, and is to European standards, with daylight driving lights and fog lights. Getting in the car, the hand-made interior is amazing!, The five luxury seats were so comfortable that I had a hard time forcing my self to get out of the car. The car has a large boot, allowing the rich business men (who are probably the intended market) to store all their golf clubs, with enough space to fit a picnic basket and anything else rich people buy.
Engine
So now that I managed to get out of the seat, I’ll pop open the hood…oh…wow…a huge V12. So the V12, is a 6.86L V12 with DOHC 4 valves, VVL, VVT and twin turbos, and DFI fuel injection. I don’t think turbo and luxury don’t usually go well together, but considering everything else, it might just work. Looking closely, running it on the dyno, the engine redlines at 7000 revs, reaching maximum power (561.6 kW) at 6500 RPM and max torque (8500 Nm) at 5000 RPM. Looking at these performance characteristics, it appears that something has it have been sacrificed. Sadly that would be fuel economy. Not that it would be a problem for some, but in an age where fuel economy is becoming more important, some might be turned off. But as this is for the super-rich, it wont’t affect the sales at all.
How does it drive?
This will be the first time, I’'l be driving a luxury car like this, and considering that it costs £160,000 I better take care when driving.
So, the handling of the car is very good, it navigates corners well, and all the driver assists make the drive very comfortable. The car accelerates very quickly, no thanks of course to the 7 speed double clutch sequential gearing, 0-62mph in 3.7s and has very good brakes, stopping the car from 62mph in about 31m. The top speed of the car is very good for such a heavy car, 228 mph for a car that weighs around 2.5 tonnes. Testing the car in a local race track, the car managed to clock in a very good time, better than most cars that went around the track on that day. The only cars that went around the track faster were dedicated sports cars and tuned cars.
Verdict
Overall, this car is a very nice luxury car. It does what it needs to do perfectly, and no corners were cut in the design of the car. The new modern styling is very nice, and the interior is very good. If I were to have any real problem with this car, it would be the fuel economy. Normally, I would be fine with a sporty car with less than 40mpg, however, 18.9mph is rather low, and considering that the car uses premium 95 RON fuel, it makes the fuel costs skyrocket.
Pros
-Good Handling
-Great Interior+interior styling
-Great Styling in general
-Fast for a heavy car
Cons
-Quite bad fuel economy
-Rather high running costs (mainly due to bad economy)
I give this car a good 9/10
p.s. Don’t mind the small scratch on the driver side door, I totally did not scrape it into a gate on the way home…