UPCOMING NEW CARS

What weights ten tonnes and costs more than US$240,000? If you said, “a gold plated bulldozer”, you’d be close but no cigar. The answer is three sub-100k supercars: the Chevy Corvette Z06, Ford Shelby GT500 and Nissan GT-R. These three industry titans, with nameplates stretching as far back as the 1960s, were the recent subjects of an epic comparison test by MotorTrend. Here are three would-be-supercars – over 500hp and 3 second 0 to 60 mph times – that don’t command the supercar price tag.

The US$55,330 GT500, US$90,950 GT-R and US$98,010 Z06 are all within the budgets of most mid-life crisis suffers (providing you sell the house, the kids and the dog) and offer the sort of performance that was once the sole reserve of great Italians like Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

And they’re not stripped out racers either. The Z06, for instance, comes with such luxuries as heated leather seats, Bose audio, Bluetooth and sat nav. You can’t buy a second-hand Lamborghini with that sort of equipment for US$98,010.

If you want to find out who wins this legendary battle, you’ll just have to check out the video. Even if you don’t care who wins you should check out the video anyways for a sweet-as drag race between the Z06, GT500 and GT-R. Now that’s something you don’t see everyday...

Back in 2009, Nissan GT-R owners had to face an odd dilemma: even though the car came with a launch control system, using it meant voiding the warranty. In the ensuing controversy, the Japanese maker simply dropped it for the 2010 model year, stating that it doesn’t want to deal with the “warranty nightmare” anymore.

We always enjoy watching cars lapping the Nurburgring's famous Nordschleife circuit but it's even better when you get the chance to see a supercar like the Nissan GT-R. This video, which was shot with an inboard camera, is from the 2010 GT-R's latest record breaking lap time of 7min 26.70 seconds that was achieved on April 23, 2009. The driver behind the steering wheel is Nissan's Chief test driver, Toshio Suzuki.

Leaving the oh-so-boring Nurburgring lap time records aside for a moment, Nissan's European arm announced that the new GT-R has made its way into the Italian edition of the "Guinness Book of World Records". The Japanese supercar set a world record for the fastest 0-100km/h (62mph) acceleration by a four seater series production car with a sprint time of 3.5 seconds. We remind you that in April, Nissan revealed the GT-R established a new lap time at the Nordschleife circuit in Germany with 7min and 26.7 seconds.