Review: Need for Speed Shift

"Rebooting" franchises seems to be all the rage right now. First it was Batman Begins, then J. J. Abrams did it with Star Trek - and now EA has done it with Need for Speed.

The series has something of a checkered past, with successive releases erratically bouncing up to soaring highs (like the original The Need For Speed, Hot Pursuit and Porsche Unleashed) then swooping down to sputtering lows (like Need for Speed II, Hot Pursuit 2, Carbon, ProStreet and Undercover).

Back in the late 1980's there was a very popular racing game by the name of Test Drive, developed by a Canadian studio called Distinctive Software Inc (DSI). DSI was acquired by EA and became EA Canada in 1991.

A few years later they released The Need For Speed, which was really an evolution of Test Drive, putting you behind the wheel of an expensive performance car and letting you loose on a scenic open road for a point-to-point race while avoiding being stopped by police. It attempted to realistically simulate the look, feel, sound and handling of the nine vehicles on offer, right down to each car's dashboard and even the sound of its gear shifter.

Subsequent games in the Need for Speed series drifted significantly from this premise however, with the emphasis moving away from realism and more toward arcade action racing - to varying degrees of critical and popular success. Lately that success seems to have been lacking, with the last few games all receiving relatively poor reviews.

With Need for Speed SHIFT, EA is putting that checkered past behind it and waving the chequered flag to signal a fresh start.
 
It has the same name, but this NFS bears only passing resemblance to its forebears. SHIFT was developed by the lads at UK-based independent Slightly Mad Studios, who have some serious racing sim credentials - under their former guise of Blimey!

Games they developed (in collaboration with SimBin Studios) GTR2 and GT Legends, two respected racing simulators. So in SHIFT we are finally seeing the series move away from arcade racing and back towards the realism it originally strived for.

But while realism may be back in, this is not a "returning to the roots" story at all; NFS is headed in an entirely new - and promising - direction with SHIFT. What you get here is a curious hybrid between a straight-up motorsport racing game bred together with some strands of NFS's arcade racing DNA, the two combining in a delicate balancing act.

The first time you start up SHIFT, you are asked to drive a test lap so the game can assess your driving ability. Based on how you do, it then picks a "handling model", AI difficulty level, ABS, Traction Control and Stability Control settings to suit you (you can adjust them if you want to).

The handling model is either Casual, Normal, Experienced or Professional; this directly determines how realistically the cars behave when you're driving. At lower levels the controls are more forgiving and you get steering and braking assistance - at Casual level you barely need to brake at all - while at Pro level it's set up for realism (a wheel is recommended for Pro level).
 
How realistic? Well, it's no GTR2. This is not a pure simulator. For the most part the driving model compares favourably with Forza or Gran Turismo, but SHIFT is let down somewhat by a tendency toward oversteer.

At times the cars seem to have only a tenuous grip on the tarmac, and it requires a light touch on the controls to avoid power sliding around every corner (at least when playing with a PS3 controller - it might be a different story using a wheel, but we didn't have one available to test). Overall though, the driving model is good and it's a huge step forward from previous NFS games.

In keeping with SHIFT's motorsport slant, the tracks you'll be racing on are mostly real-world motor racing circuits, including Silverstone, Nordschleife (Nürburgring), Brands Hatch, Spa Francorchamps, Laguna Seca, Road America, and quite a few others - most with one or several variations. Many of these tracks will be familiar to players from other racing games, and they are faithfully rendered here.

Also faithfully rendered in SHIFT are each of the 72 fully licensed cars. These are organised into four tiers and you start the game by purchasing a Tier 1 car from a selection of potentially affordable models including a BMW 135i, Ford Escort RS Cosworth, Honda S2000, Mazda MX-5, Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R (C10), Toyota AE86 or VW Golf GTi.

As you play the game you unlock further tiers, moving on to higher performance vehicles in Tier 2 like an Audi RS4, BMW M3, Chevrolet Camaro SS, Mazda RX-7, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX (or X), Nissan Silvia Spec-R (S15), Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34), Porsche 911 GT3 RS and Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

In Tier 3 you get supercars including an Aston Martin DB9, Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Dodge Viper SRT10, Ford GT and Nissan GT-R Spec-V (R35), then Tier 4 takes you into hypercar dreamland territory with the Aston Martin DB9R, Bugatti Veyron 16.4, Koenigsegnigggseginiggggsegg CCX, Lamborghini Reventon, Maserati MC12 GT1, McLaren F1, Pagani Zonda R and Porsche Carrera GT.
 
Although SHIFT's car selection may seem small compared to, say, Gran Turismo's Sultan-sized garage, there is plenty of variety here (Ferrari's marque being the most glaring omission). And it's probably more vehicles than you'll ever bother to drive, because this is most certainly not a Gran Turismo-type car porn game; SHIFT does little to encourage any fascination with the cars it has on offer or make you want to build a car collection.

You'll be much better off buying the best car in each tier and spending any spare cash on upgrades than chucking it away on extra cars. Just pick your weapon and get out on the track.

Nevertheless the cars in SHIFT are modelled in gorgeous detail, with particular emphasis on each car's cockpit - which is the default view when racing. You'll really be missing out if you switch to another camera view (of which there are the usual options), because the accurately modeled interiors add tremendously to the experience of driving each car.

The cockpits have fully functional speedo, tacho and boost gauge (where applicable) - and having driven a couple of the game's cars in the real world, I can assure you they look just like the real thing. You also see your driver's hands turning the wheel and reaching for the gear stick when you shift.
 
SHIFT does some unique things to further add to the driving experience, helping to make you feel like you're actually in the car.

To simulate the movement of your head, the camera and the HUD get jounced around when you go over a bump, or take a corner - or even just rev the car from idle, rocking it from side to side. Reach 150km/h and the game simulates "concentration" by blurring out the cockpit, focusing all your attention on the road.

If you crash, you see your driver's helmeted head fly forwards toward the windscreen, then get arrested back by his seatbelt, while your entire vision blurs and becomes black and white. In particularly brutal accidents you'll even hear your driver cry out in pain. (Sorry mate - where did that tyre wall come from?)

Although SHIFT has a comprehensive visual damage model, deforming your car into all kinds of shapes - even smashing the windscreen - when you crash, this doesn't seem to have much effect on your car's performance. The damage model can be selected between "visual only" and "full", but with it set to "full", smashing into a wall at 200km/h just seemed to put the wheel alignment out, making my car list to the left slightly.

The performance upgrades available for each car are relatively basic, with less options and none of the tuner brand sponsorships seen in past games. Instead, you simply have a more sober choice of generic upgrades in three stages, e.g. Stage 1 Brakes Upgrade, Stage 1 Tyre Package, Stage 2 Engine Upgrade, and so forth.

The later stages only become available as you progress through the career mode. Once you have installed all the upgrades available, some vehicles can for an additional cost be "Works Converted" which gives them full race preparation and squeezes out every ounce of performance.

Some basic visual upgrades are also available, allowing you to customise your car's paint job, install different alloy rims (from a range of real wheel brands like BBS and Work) and apply vinyl decals. Pimp My Ride and ricer-style rubbish like neons, ridiculous body kits and carbon fibre body panels are all thankfully missing.

SHIFT's Career mode is also relatively basic. You start in Tier 1 with access to a limited selection of events. With each race you have a chance to earn stars; in order to unlock more events and move on to the next tier, you need to earn a specified number of stars.

Most races have six stars on offer, three for placings on the podium, two for achieving particular numbers of Driver Profile points (we'll come to that in a moment) and one for a race-specific special objective (such as performing a clean lap, owning 75 percent of the racing line or holding a drift for 4 seconds). What this means is you can potentially earn stars from a race (and thereby advance your career) even though you finished in last place. Curious.
 
Even curiouser is the Driver Profile system, a gimmick upon which the game places far too much emphasis. This is where NFS SHIFT's delicate combination of serious racing pretensions and arcade accessibility ambition starts to smell a bit off.

While you're racing around the track you pick up Driver Profile points in one of two categories: Precision and Aggression.

Precision points are earned for things like sticking to the racing line, making a clean overtake, mastering a corner, doing a perfect launch or achieving a best lap or sector time. Aggression points are earned for things like sliding around corners, doing a dirty overtaking maneuvre, drafting, blocking an opponent or "trading paint".

Fill up the points meter at the top of the screen and you start earning double points for a short time. Your points are added up at the end of each race and your totals determine whether you are a "Precise" or "Aggressive" driver on your Driver Profile.

The trouble is, Aggression points reward drivers for doing things they shouldn't really be rewarded for. It's incongruous and detracts from the game's otherwise straight-faced approach to motor racing.

And it doesn't stop there either. As you gain more and more Driver Profile points, you level up and gain Driver Levels which reward you with bonus cash and access to Invitational events. These events usually give you a chance to race in a car beyond your current career level.
 
But that's not all. You also earn "Badges" for things like trading paint (crashing) with a particular number of opponents, or loyalty to Japan, Europe or USA by driving a particular distance in cars from that region, or doing a particular number of perfect launches.

Once you've earned all the minor badges of a type, you gain the major badge. These are further split into silver, gold and epic badges. If that all seems a bit pointless, well, it is.

It's an orgy of rewards for rewards sake, desperately trying to create extra motivation for you to keep coming back to the game. If you are the sort who obsessively collects all the trophies or achievements in each game you play, you might like it though.

Fortunately, the whole Driver Profile and reward system can be safely ignored if you choose. Putting that aside, the career mode is well paced, and with cash and stars to be earned there's still plenty of motivation to win. With so many tracks on offer, the range of events feels quite varied.

As well as straightforward races (either on one track or as a series across multiple tracks, with endurance, manufacturer and driver duel variations), there are also hot lap and time attack events (where you compete to set a best lap time), car battles (where two iconic cars are pitted against each other - such as a Mitsubishi Evo vs. Subaru WRX), eliminator races (where after each lap the last place driver drops out) and drifting events.
 
I found the drift events initially frustrating, as the objective is the opposite of circuit racing, and the car handling is set up differently. Presumably it's meant to simulate an oiled road surface, but the cars slide so easily it's actually difficult to hold a straight line - simply apply too much throttle and you'll lose the back end.

You win by scoring more style points than the AI opponents, and style points are earned by drifting around a corner at the sharpest angle, as close to the clipping point marker and at the highest speed possible.

Once I figured out that chucking it up to fourth gear and feathering the throttle enabled me to maintain some control over my Nissan S15, I started winning the events and warmed to them a little, but I still feel they add little to the game and would have been happier not having to slog through them.

The AI opponents in SHIFT are competent drivers who will react to you - not just parade around the track like the zombies in Gran Turismo. Sometimes they make mistakes, braking too late and running off on corners, but mostly they provide a good challenge.
The AI difficulty level can be switched between low, medium or high if you find them too hard or too easy.

Once you outgrow the AI opponents you can go online and match wits with fleshy ones. Unfortunately we were not able to test SHIFT's multiplayer functions for this review, but several modes are available: ranked and unranked "Versus" races with up to eight players and a head-to-head Driver Duel ladder mode.

EA has succeeded in jumpstarting Need for Speed back to life with SHIFT. Despite numerous flaws, underneath the confused body work of a game that can't decide if it wants to be a simulation or an arcade racer, there is a solid engine and, most importantly, a fun racing game.

Vintage cars race for charity

John Shirley is 69-years-old and shows no signs of abandoning a sport formerly favored mostly by the young.

But he will be far from the oldest at this weekend's Charity Challenge at Infineon Raceway, a gathering of vintage car racers organized by the Classic Sports Racing Group to benefit the Sonoma Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities. More than $400,000 has been raised from the event over the past five years and one of the weekend's drivers will be 80-year-old Mike McNally of Sacramento, who will drive his 1931 Riley 4 Port Ford. McNally blew a gasket during his maiden Sonoma foray in 2007 and hopes to do better this year, but for most vintage racers winning takes second place to having fun. McNally claims that racing keeps him in shape due to the physical inspection he has to pass each year. McNally's ancient Ford and Shirley's 1954 Austin Healey 100 Le Mans will join more than 200 other vintage racers for two days of competition and auto ogling beginning Saturday at 7 a.m.

Included in that field are 600-plus-horsepower CanAm Series cars, along with open-wheel, production and sports-racing cars from the 1930s through 1970s. The groups will feature many well-known marques, including Ferrari, Aston-Martin, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Shelby, Corvette, MG and Jaguar. Drivers will race around Infineon's 12-turn, 2.52 road course at speeds that will probably surprise some spectators, given the priceless, almost irreplaceable value of some of the cars.

A special opportunity for speed-crazed spectators will be the chance to take a three-lap, 120-mile-an-hour ride around the world famous course with one of the competitors in a historic CanAm sports racer or other vintage car.

For a $75-to-$100 donation to Speedway Children's Charities, passengers will receive the thrill of a lifetime, as long as they're wearing close-toed shoes, long pants, long-sleeve shirts and a helmet, which can be provided. Passengers must be 16 years or older to participate in the ride-around, which will be offered on both Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 11:30 a.m., on a first-come basis, so plan to arrive early. All proceeds will benefit Sonoma County youth groups.

In addition to the racing, representatives of local car clubs, including Porsche, Ferrari, Audi and Alfa Romeo will display their cars on the paddock, and there will be a special selection of classics for sale and viewing. .

The Sonoma Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities distributes money to qualified youth groups in Sonoma County and has given out more than $3 million since 2002, creating a positive impact on more than 150 youth organizations in Sonoma County. There are eight chapters of Speedway Children's Charities nationwide.

Admission to the event is $20 for a weekend pass; youths 12 to 16 are $10 and children under 12 are admitted free,

On Saturday, Sept. 26 the gates open, 7 a.m.; practice begins at 8:30 a.m. and the first of eight 30-minute feature races begins at 1 p.m. Sunday times are the same as Saturday, with the first of nine feature races again beginning at 1 p.m.

For more information, visit www.csrgracing.org , call (888) 268-7126 or e-mail marketing@csrgweb.org.

That Ain't No Clunker! Federal List Shows Some Inexplicable Trade-Ins

That Ain't No Clunker! Federal List Shows Some Inexplicable Trade-Ins

Posted: Sep. 25, 2009 10:09 a.m.

The 1997 Bentley Continental R was a piece of junk. Barely worth $3,500. The 1997 Aston Martin DB7? Worth as little as an old Ford Explorer. The 2006 Roush Ford F-150? With its 450 horsepower V8, it was worth about as much as a 1996 Dodge Caravan.

At least, that's what somebody somewhere seems to have thought.

Motor Trend reports, "Before the government's CARS 'Cash for Clunkers' program opened its doors, many car enthusiasts voiced opposition to the plan, fearing that rare and collectible cars would be at risk of government-funded destruction. Now that all is said and done, it turns out they were, to some extent, right." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which managed the government program, "recently released a list of every vehicle submitted to the program, which in turn gave their owners a $3,500 or $4,500 voucher towards a new car that was substantially more fuel-efficient depending on the trade-in's efficiency. While the list is heavily populated with trucks and SUVs, many of them hailing from Detroit, there are a few oddballs, and worse, a few tragedies."

That Bentley Continental, for instance. It's listed as a trade-in that was destroyed under the program - meaning it was exchanged for a government voucher, worth a maximum of $4,500, used to help purchase a new car costing less than $45,000. The Continental itself cost more than $300,000 brand new.

It's doubtful, in fact, that its value could have slipped under $4,500. Howard Krimko, past chairman of the Atlantic region Rolls Royce owners' club, told the New York Times that he "could not imagine a scenario in which a ‘97 Bentley R would be worth only $4,500. Even if it's a total disaster, it has to be worth significantly more than $4,500. The seats for the car would be worth more than that."

The same should be true of the Aston Martin DB7, an exotic drop-top sports car that cost over six figures brand new.

Some vehicles made valuable by their scarcity were apparently destroyed. Jalopnik cites a 1987 Buick GNX - prized by American muscle car lovers, this was a standard Buick Grand National converted with the help of supercar builder McLaren with a beastly supercharged engine and retuned suspension. Only 547 were built, and a functioning example today is said to be worth more than $50,000.

Some of the reported clunkers weren't too exotic to believe - they were too new. The Detroit Free Press reports, "2008 model year vehicles deemed clunkers ranged from a Scion xD to 10 Mercury Grand Marquis sedans to two copies of special edition F-150 pickups, sporting 450-hp V8s and Chip Foose-designed paint jobs."

At which point, we start to question these reports. The Scion xD, you see, wasn't eligible to be a Cash for Clunkers trade-in.

Program rules required trade-ins to be rated for less than 18 mpg in combined driving. The least-efficient xD built managed a 28 mpg rating. Other non-qualifying vehicles on the list include a 2008 Hyundai Accent (29 mpg) and a pair of Ford Aspires (700 mpg, if we remember correctly. The Aspire was a cardboard roller skate with a 4 horsepower engine, right?).

Autoblog comments, "We find it hard to believe that many vehicles" on the list "were actually destroyed through the Cash for Clunkers program, and while they may be officially on the list, their inclusion is more likely explained by an error in the submission process, typos or dealerships that managed to game the system."

The New York Times notes, "The report doesn't list details on the car's condition or where it was turned in, a catastrophic hurdle for anyone looking for an explanation." Program rules required the clunkers to be in running condition - but in the early days of the program, dealers were required to disable the cars' engines with a silicate solution before even applying for Uncle Sam's voucher, so there is no way to verify that some of these cars were actually functioning before their engines were demolished.

Motor Trend also notes, "The list specifically notes that the cars listed have been submitted to the program but not necessarily approved or even reviewed yet." Some may be declined, or may be simple data-entry errors that will be clarified as the government process the Cash for Clunkers paperwork.

If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.

REPORT: Aston Martin to develop all-new LMP1 car for 2011

on Sep 25th 2009 at 9:58AM

Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 - click above for high-res image gallery
For its current Le Mans prototype racing program, Aston Martin has teamed up with veteran chassis builder Lola to create a car powered by a race-ready version of its production V12. But the current 6.0-liter twelve-cylinder won't be allowed under the new Automobile Club de l'Ouest prototype rules that go into effect for 2011, so a new powerplant will be required.

To that end, AutoWeek is reporting that Aston Martin chairman Dave Richards has revealed that the British firm has begun work on a successor – and this time, the work is being done in-house, with the new car slated to be powered by an all-new bespoke race engine. Details are slim, however, with Richards only confirming that the engine will be powered by gasoline.

Work on the new car has been ongoing for more than two months. However, the team opted not to run the new chassis in 2010 because the gas-diesel equivalency rules are still unfavorable. Richards has also confirmed that financing for the new car has already been lined up.

Gore-Backed Car Firm Gets Large U.S. Loan

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Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Fisker's Karma hybrid sports car, above, will initially cost about $89,000.

The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.

"This is not for average Americans," said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. "This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It's status symbol thing."

DOE officials spent months working with Fisker on its application, touring its Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., facilities and test-driving prototypes.

Matt Rogers, who oversees the department's loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said Fisker was awarded the loan after a "detailed technical review" that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed.

"It's the ability to drive significant change in fuel economy across a large market segment" that swayed the department to approve the Fisker loan, Mr. Rogers said. "We got quite excited."

Henrik Fisker, who designed cars for BMW, Aston Martin and Tesla before starting his Fisker Automotive in 2007, said his goal is to build the first plug-in electric hybrids that won't sacrifice the luxury, performance and looks of traditional gas-powered luxury cars.

The Karma will target an exclusive audience -- Gore was one of the first to sign up for one. Mr. Fisker says all new technology starts out being expensive. He pointed to flat-screen televisions that once started at $25,000 but are now affordable to the mass market.

The four-door Karma, powered by a lithium-ion battery, will be able to run solely on electric power for 50 miles, and will achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg over the span of a year, the company says. Production is scheduled to start in December, with about 15,000 vehicles a year expected to hit the U.S. market starting next June.

Many of the 1,500 people who have made deposits on the Karma are former BMW and Mercedes owners who want an environmentally friendly car without sacrificing luxury, Mr. Fisker said.

He said he pitched the Karma to Mr. Gore at an event hosted by KPCB last year, and that the former vice president almost immediately submitted a down payment for the car.

Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gore, confirmed that the former vice president backs Fisker and purchased a Karma. "He believes that a global shift of the automobile fleet toward electric vehicles, accompanying a shift toward renewable-energy generation, represents an important part of a sensible strategy for solving the climate crisis," she said in a statement.

Fisker's top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a veteran Silicon Valley venture-capital firm of which Gore is a partner. Employees of KPCB have donated more than $2.2 million to political campaigns, mostly for Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions.

Officials at Kleiner Perkins didn't return requests for comment.

Asked whether Mr. Gore had any influence on Fisker's application, the DOE's Rogers said, "None at all."

"This is a very attractive, very across-party-lines kind of vehicle," Mr. Rogers said. "All of the detailed due diligence [was] done by independent review teams."

Other Fisker investors include Eco-Drive (Capital) Partners LLC, an investment consortium, and Qatar Investment Authority, a state-run investor based in Qatar.

Fisker's government loans will come from a $25 billion program established by Congress in 2007 to help auto makers invest in the technology to meet a new congressional mandate to improve fuel efficiency. In June, the DOE awarded the first $8 billion from the program to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Tesla, which are all developing electric cars.

Some companies that have been turned down for loans from DOE say they did not get much feedback from the department about their applications. O. John Coletti, president of EcoMotors International of Troy, Mich., said his company applied for a $20 million loan from the agency last December, and last month got a one-page rejection letter from the loan program's director, Lachlan Seward. EcoMotors' lead investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner and a longtime campaign contributor to Republicans and Democrats alike.

"I don't have an issue with the winners … it's possible somebody has better ideas than us," Mr. Coletti said. At the same time, he said, "More feedback from DOE on a timely basis would be wonderful. When you're running a business you'd like to know whether you're going to be able to take advantage of this opportunity."

Mr. Coletti's company -- which makes diesel engines and is still waiting to hear from the Department on a separate loan application to help it build a manufacturing facility -- isn't without politically well-connected patrons, either. Its major investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner who has donated to campaigns.

Scott Redmond, CEO of XP Vehicles Inc., said he met with DOE officials twice in Washington after applying for a $40 million loan to develop a $15,000 to $25,000 hybrid, and that both times he was told his application looked good. Since receiving a rejection letter from DOE in August, Redmond said, he has been unable to get a full explanation as to why his request was turned down.

Mr. Rogers said he was not at liberty to discuss individual applications that had been turned down, but said the process has been handled fairly and objectively.

Write to Josh Mitchell at joshua.mitchell@dowjones.com and Stephen Power at stephen.power@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B6

Driving Aston Martin DBS Volante captures all senses

As should be expected, not everything goes exactly to plan. But when that change affords you the opportunity to get behind the wheel, who can complain?

Drive an Aston Martin? No, you can't be serious? Yes, they were most sincere and determined. Well, no one has to be asked twice to get behind the wheel of one of the most distinctive sports cars ever made.

With a price tag of $288,000, the 2010 Aston Martin DBS Volante, which means "moving with light rapidity," is, like most of its sister Aston Martin models, often revered to as automotive artwork. Even approaching the vehicle, it somehow emits the same feelings one might experience in a museum when a beautiful painting touches your soul. This is truly a luxury sports car whose pedigree has been refined over 95 years of classic coach craftsmanship and racing-inspired engineering.

"The DBS Volante encompasses 75 percent rigidity of the coupe," said Gary Hyman, Aston Martin North America regional after-sales market manager, noting Aston Martin's bonded all-aluminum structure. "A stiff chassis simply means better handling."

The Volante also weighs less than 4,000 pounds, thanks in part to a carbon-fiber hood, front wings and decklid (bonnet), Hyman added.

Starting the DBS Volante experience from the passenger seat was wise because most of your senses are already completely overloaded. Of course, sight is a given. This example was painted lightening silver with a tricoat metallic finish. The signature Volante fabric and motorized convertible top was a bold red that matched the hand-stitched interior. Getting in, one immediately feels and smells the full-grain, leather seats, and immediately notices the extra touches like carbon-fiber-trimmed door panels and dash.

"Each car is still assigned one interior craftsman," said Paul Jarrett said, Gaudin's Aston Martin manager, noting the long-standing Aston Martin tradition of handmade quality. "They take pride in knowing their names are forever associated with the vehicle they produce."

The front bucket seats are roomy and supple. The "2+2 occasional" rear seating compartment probably couldn't accommodate much more than a briefcase or laptop, but that's really not a consideration, is it? What's important is driving, so Jarrett inserted the Emotional Control Unit (a device used like a car key) to start the Volante and instantly there was that distinctive Aston Martin rumble, which, believe it or not, was enhanced even more when Jarrett switched exhaust modes. There's really nothing like it and we hadn't even left the dealership.

Top down, seatbelts fastened, Jarrett eased the DBS Volante into gear using the optional six-speed "Touchtronic," with electronic shift-by-wire control system transmission, bringing the hand-built, all-alloy, 6.0-liter, 48-valve, V-12 engine to life. The question, though, was could we unleash all 510 horsepower? Honestly, we never came close, although Jarrett was able to demonstrate the limberness and responsiveness of the power plant that also produces 420 foot pounds of torque and is capable of reaching a top speed of 191 mph. As if that's not impressive enough, the Volante's short-distance specs also boast zero to 62 mph in 4.3 seconds.

From the luxurious confines of the Volante, the streets surrounding Gaudin's west Las Vegas location never looked like this. Perfect top-down weather combined with ultimate performance rouses all the senses. Imagine what would happen on open road? Why imagine?

Just then, Jarrett safely signaled the Volante to the curb and we switched seats. Once comfortable, which is easily achieved with all the electronic adjustments (memory seat, steering wheel, mirrors), we slid back into traffic. Trying to absorb Volante's character and spirit was almost an exercise in futility. But, we did manage to find enough room to click through all six gears, both in up-shifting and down-shifting modes, while navigating tight and sure footing in the turns. Nothing really comes close to matching the experience of piloting something so dynamic and directly descended from thoroughbred race car lineage.

Driving an Aston Martin, specifically the DBS Volante, is a partnership between the individual behind the wheel and the vehicle itself. Using the Adaptive Damping System, the car automatically adjusts the suspension to driving conditions, sensing throttle position, brake position, steering wheel rotation and vehicle speed.

Back at the dealership and safely parked, we reflected on a couple of things drivers often take for granted, like braking. In the DBS Volante, front and rear systems include ventilated carbon fiber-discs with six-caliper piston calipers. Anti-lock braking system is, of course, standard, but the Volante also features traction control, which for the uninitiated, may take some instruction and practice.

What we didn't get a chance to hear was the Bang & Olufsen BeoSound audio system, which comes standard on the DBS Volante and features 13 speakers. Keeping in line with the Volante's driver/vehicle partnership, the Bang & Olufsen component is tuned to sense when the roof has been retracted and adjusts the sound to compensate for extra wind noise.

According to Hyman, about 30 percent of Aston Martin's sales are in the United States. "There is huge potential here for our cars." Hyman noted the British manufacturer's goal is to produce 1,500 units this year.

Gaudin's current inventory, according to Jarrett, includes two 2009 DBS coupes, but he's expecting a 2010 DB9 coupe as well as a Vantage Roadster. Currently, Jarrett is awaiting delivery of two custom-ordered Volantes.

"We're proud to represent Aston Martin and bring the DBS Volante to our Las Vegas customers," Jarrett said. Several stopped by, but the clients who weren't able to see the car during its short visit will soon be rewarded when their new Volantes arrive in the coming weeks. And, when they do take possession of their cars, Jarrett promises they'll be the proud owners of one of the most potent production Aston Martins ever made.

"The DBS Volante is the ultimate combination of engineering excellence and design perfection," Jarrett said.

For more information about the 2010 Aston Martin DBS Volante, stop by Gaudin Jaguar Porsche Aston Martin at 7200 W. Sahara Ave., call 284-7000 or access www.jplv.net.

Crushing: The Tragedies of Cash for Clunkers

While there are several painful trade-ins on the list to choose from, the most egregious has to be a 1987 Buick GNX. GM produced less than 550 of the turbocharged, Corvette-beating super Buicks in the mid-1980s and we can't believe what kind of condition this car had to be in to prevent the owner for getting more than $4,500 for it. Considering the fact that CARS regulations required trade-ins to be registered and insured by the current owner for at least one year, we have to think that this owner simply didn't know what they had. We imagine it's the same case for the person who traded in a 1992 GMC Typhoon. Unfortunately, the GNX isn't the only high-profile casualty on the list. While we can believe that the owner of the Buick may not have known what a special car they had, it's hard to think that the owner of the 1997 Aston Martin DB7 Volante didn't. Like the GNX, we'd love to know what kind of shape this car was in to lead the owner to believe that CARS was the best way out. Same goes for the person who traded in a 1997 Bentley Continental R. Other high-profile trade-ins that tugged at our gasoline-soaked heart-strings included several Maseratis. To be fair, all those traded-in were 1980s models -- not the brand's peak. While one owner of a BiTurbo gained notoriety for trading-in his car after no one would pay him more than $4,500 for it, he was only one of four who made that call. An old Quattroporte and a 222E suffered the same fate.