On the other hand, the Porsche 918 Spyder will deliver super sports car performance.
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More, it could preclude the introduction of new useful technologies which detect distracted driving and give off an alarm (based on car performance or eye movements).
The McLaren P1 is, essentially, a road car with the performance of a race car that can also drive like a zero-emissions electric vehicle for short distances.
Kovalainen was running with a new diffuser and front wing in Hungary and he was quick to make the most of the updates which gave Hamilton's car a performance gain of about 0.8 seconds a lap in Germany two weeks ago.
The new car is much more of a pure performance car.
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Hamilton, who endured a frustrating race in Mlebourne last weekend, was naturally delighted with his car's performance.
Otherwise, the 458 Spider remainsas much a rolling masterpiece of automotive art as it is a high-performance car.
"It looks like a performance car when you get in, " says Mr. Braver.
The team will assess the new car's performance at the second winter test, which begins in Jerez on Thursday.
Consider the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing: It was the first of its kind, and a singular performance car in its day.
The result is truly an American designed, engineered and manufactured four-door performance car that rivals such models as the Porsche Panamera and Aston-Martin-Lagonda Rapide.
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While these alterations are almost invisible to the average driver, Renault hopes they will improve the car's performance, and ultimately its survival in the marketplace.
Luxury and performance car makers typically build increasingly extreme and ridiculous versions of cars that are coming to the end of their design cycle, just to keep the press going.
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Over a plate of Argentine beef cooked on a tabletop grill at a fashionable Sao Paolo restaurant, he proudly shows his card authorizing him to drive a high-performance car on an amateur track.
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"It's early days to be making any claims about the car's performance, but we're very confident from the analysis and simulation we've already done that the car will definitely be quick, " he added.
Williams, like Ferrari and many of the other teams, are using this test to try out new aerodynamic parts aimed at improving their car's performance at the first race of the season in Bahrain on 14 March.
General Motors is also introducing the Cadillac ELR, similar to the extended-range plug-in Chevy Volt, that GM describes as guilt-free motoring in a high-performance luxury car.
Testing rarely gives outside observers any clues to a car's true performance but the wet weather in Portugal meant gathering any sense of relative pace was difficult even for the teams.
This year, auto makers used the L.A. show to unveil 24 cars for the first time anywhere, and 25 for the first time in the U.S. About a dozen of the premieres were from luxury brands, reflecting Southern California's status as one of the biggest luxury- and performance-car markets in the country.
Fueleconomy.gov lists reports from 65 owners of the new Ford C-Max hybrid, who have together averaged 39.1 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving not the 47 mpg that Ford advertises based on the performance the car recorded in the five-part fuel-economy test program required by the EPA. Among those drivers reporting, some achieved as much as 56 mpg, and others as few as 28 mpg.
The California battery car start-up, Tesla Motors, bet on the performance factor when it made its first car to market the 2-seat Roadster.
Each car was scored for its performance in terms of air pollution, fuel efficiency and carbon footprint ratings.
After coming so close to pole position, Alonso said he was pleased with another step forward in performance from his car.
"The performance of our car and our tire management were generally good in Canada, however our competitiveness was compromised by reliability problems and mistakes, " said Brawn.
He was clearly upset with the performance of his car following the race, telling reporters that he had been driving his "heart out" for no reward.
We guess buyers with either model will just have to settle for traditional luxury-car virtues like styling, performance and ownership cachet to justify their vehicular investments.
Button qualified only fifth in Spain, and a poor first lap put him down to ninth, from where he was not able to use the full performance of the car.
At the centre of the group's financial crisis is the performance of the car division, which accounts for some 40% of sales, and which made a whopping euro429m operating loss in the first quarter alone.
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