While automotive enthusiasts are always excited about the latest high-powered, stick-shift, wagon-bodied car that probably won’t even make it to North America, here’s a Canada-only original that gets me all excited in a different way. It’s the return of the plucky little Nissan Micra.
My university roommate had one of the originals. We named it “Mikey” and it was extremely slow. Seriously, you couldn’t pick a fight with a kid in a Power Wheels Jeep.
It was, however, almost comically fuel-efficient: “I gotta go put gas in Mikey.”
“What, is it March again already?” Also, it was a fun little thing to drive, easy to park and ideally suited for the urban environment. The new one, based on the Nissan March, looks fantastic, with some of that old Nissan spunkiness. It’s got a perky little 1.6-litre engine, an available five-speed manual and it costs less than $10,000 for the base model.
It also marks the demise of the Versa Sedan, which wasn’t really a bad car at all, just a little less sensible than buying a small hatchback. The Micra is also cheaper than the Versa Sedan, so visitors to Nissan showrooms will be able to have their pick of two economical hatchbacks — go for the Versa Note for more space and comfort, or keep an eye on the bottom line with the Micra.
Last, just because I always have to throw out the request for something with a little more sporting prowess, it should be noted that you can get the March in a Nismo variant overseas. While I’d argue that we keep power levels the same for frugality, it’d be pretty neat if Nissan offered suspension and exhaust tuning packages for cheapskates who want to speed skate.
Venom is the world’s fastest car
The Hennessy Venom GT, if you haven’t heard of it, is a Lotus Elise with a twin-turbo V-8 swapped in that makes 1,244 horsepower.
It has a manual gearbox and, as you can imagine, is a tad tricky to drive.
Imagine an angry rhinoceros attached to one of those harness racing buggies and you get the general idea.
Now, Hennessy performance can claim the much vaunted title of world’s fastest production car, having run down the tarmac at the Kennedy Space Center at more than 435 kilometres per hour (270 miles per hour). For the record, that’s quicker than Bugatti has been able to get their cars to run.
Unfortunately, this was only a one-way run, and because just 29 Venoms are being built, that’s one run and one car short of the necessary limits required to go down in the Guinness Book of World Records. The Venom does have a standing record as the fastest car to 300 km/h, so should you be hanging around in a pub with a Veyron owner, there’s always that argument to be made.
However, let me throw down a gauntlet here, as unlikely as it is that John Hennessy is going to find himself reading a community newspaper in British Columbia. I have a challenge for you, good sir, and it’s one for the history books.
Last year, Hennessy ran a nitrous-powered Stingray Corvette past the 320 km/ h mark on a new Texas toll road. Don’t worry - the road wasn’t open yet, and the cops were on hand to clock the speed, not to hand out a whopping ticket.
