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We owe everything to Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferdinand Porsche. The 911 Carrera is justly regarded as the greatest sports car of all time, a fantastically well rounded, tasteful and luxurious automobile, a flawless Olympian that just keeps getting better and faster every four years. It is the standard, the reference. Mad respect for Weissach.
我們的一切都是工程學(xué)榮譽(yù)博士費(fèi)迪南德•波爾謝(Ferdinand Porsche)給予的。保時捷“911 Carrera”被理所應(yīng)當(dāng)?shù)匾暈槭飞献詈玫呐苘嚒Ｋ且豢畛墒烊妗⑵肺妒愕暮儡嚕且幻昝罒o瑕的奧運(yùn)會選手，它每隔四年就變得更優(yōu)、更快。它是標(biāo)桿，是參考。向魏斯阿赫(Weissach)工廠致敬。
But. If I wanted to drop $100,000 on a sports car today, it'd have to be the Jag. That's what we in journalism call the nut graf.
但是，如果我今天想拿出10萬美元（約合61.5萬元人民幣）買輛跑車，那就只能是“Jag”。它是我們新聞行業(yè)所說的“核心段落”。
The Jag is the new Jaguar F-Type─I like mine with the big V8, thank you─and it is thrilling. It's also a huge surprise. Personally, I didn't think Jaguar was prepared to go this deep into sports-performance territory with this car, which looks the part of a merely gorgeous, superbly upholstered grand tourer (the ragtop version hit the U.S. market in May, with the coupe likely arriving by year's end; base engine is an also-formidable 3.0-liter supercharged V6, with either 340 or 380 hp.)
“Jag”就是捷豹F-Type的新款（我喜歡帶V8大型發(fā)動機(jī)的這款，沒有理由）。它令人興奮不已，也讓人大感意外。但我個人曾以為，單憑這樣一款車，捷豹還沒有做好深入運(yùn)動性能領(lǐng)域的準(zhǔn)備。它僅僅像一款外觀漂亮、內(nèi)飾精良的雙座旅行轎車的縮小版。（敞篷版5月份在美國上市，四門版可能會在年內(nèi)上市；簡版發(fā)動機(jī)是一臺也很強(qiáng)大的3升增壓式V6，分340馬力和380馬力兩種。）
The V8 roadster with the Sport package, the V8 S ($92,000 MSRP), our test car, is essentially a factory tuner: lower, on bigger tires, and brakes with the stopping power of death rays.
我們測試用的是帶V8發(fā)動機(jī)和Sport套裝的V8 S（廠商指導(dǎo)價9.2萬美元，合人民幣56.37萬元）。它在本質(zhì)上是一輛工廠改裝車：底盤更低，輪胎更大，制動器的制動力有如死亡射線一般。
If you flip the right switches, the V8 S transforms into something quite belligerent and intense, a British aristocrat well off his meds: The steering grows keen and twitchy, the adaptive suspension gets stingy, the throttle antsy, the torque-vectoring differential goes to work and pretty soon all four tires are chirping and squeaking madly around canyon hairpins. At this point, m'lord is hauling the royal mail.
如果換擋對路，V8 S就變得相當(dāng)好斗、急切，像一名性情乖張的英國貴族：方向控制變得靈敏而焦躁，自適應(yīng)懸掛變得吝嗇，油門坐立不安，扭矩矢量分配差速器發(fā)揮作用，很快四個輪胎就繞著峽谷大彎道瘋狂地尖叫。這個時候，英國貴族就像是在運(yùn)送皇家郵件。
And raising a royal ruckus, thanks to the Jag's woolly exhaust note, for which it will live in noise-ordinance infamy. For some years now, Jaguar has been experimenting with engine and exhaust sounds, tuning their cars' exhaust systems almost musically, using a variety of actuated drums, cockpit-selectable bypass valves and silencers to evoke what they hope will be a brand-specific aural experience: deep, restrained, resonant notes at low rpm and bright, emotional notes at high rpm. Growl and purr, if you like.
而由于Jag粗獷的排氣管聲音，它又引起一陣騷動。這將使它因?yàn)檫`反噪音管制條例而一輩子聲名狼藉。幾年以來，捷豹一直在試驗(yàn)發(fā)動機(jī)和排氣管的聲音，幾乎是像調(diào)校樂器一樣來調(diào)校其車輛的排氣系統(tǒng)。他們使用了一系列剎車鼓、駕駛室可選的旁通閥和消聲器，希望喚起一種專屬于這個品牌的聽覺體驗(yàn)：低轉(zhuǎn)速下聲音深沉、克制、帶共鳴，高轉(zhuǎn)速下聲音明亮而情緒飽滿。如果你喜歡的話，把它說成是狗的和貓的呼嚕也可以。
With the F-Type V8 S, rabies has set in. If the car's active sport exhaust is set to 'Dynamic Mode'─which it will be, if you possess any red blood cells at all─the F-Type just bellows with feral, straight-pipe aggression right out of the Junior Johnson hymnal. On throttle, the supercharger's whine plays over the exhaust's whacking, resonant staccato. Off-throttle, rolling into a corner, the car's quad exhausts ignite in waves of snapping overrun, like firecrackers in an oil drum.
有了F-Type V8 S，狂犬病也就流行起來。如果該車的主動運(yùn)動型排氣系統(tǒng)設(shè)為“動態(tài)模式”──就如同你有血紅細(xì)胞，那就是動態(tài)模式──F-Type就發(fā)出兇猛的直管排氣聲音，如一首致小約翰遜（注：Junior Johnson，美國全國汽車比賽協(xié)會(NASCAR)最早的車手和創(chuàng)始人）的贊美詩。踩下油門的時候，增壓器的轟鳴疊加在排氣管的巨大共鳴斷音之上。松開油門拐彎時，車輛的四根排氣管便溢出口啪聲的浪潮，像在油桶里點(diǎn)燃了鞭炮。
