捷豹新跑車直逼保時捷霸主地位(1)
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榮譽博士費迪南德•波爾謝(Ferdinand Porsche)給予的。保時捷“911 Carrera”被理所應當地視爲史上最好的跑車。它是一款成熟全面、品味十足的豪車，是一名完美無瑕的奧運會選手，它每隔四年就變得更優、更快。它是標杆，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大型發動機的這款，沒有理由）。它令人興奮不已，也讓人大感意外。但我個人曾以爲，單憑這樣一款車，捷豹還沒有做好深入運動性能領域的準備。它僅僅像一款外觀漂亮、內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上市；簡版發動機是一臺也很強大的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發動機和Sport套裝的V8 S（廠商指導價9.2萬美元，合人民幣56.37萬元）。它在本質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就變得相當好鬥、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，自適應懸掛變得吝嗇，油門坐立不安，扭矩矢量分配差速器發揮作用，很快四個輪胎就繞着峽谷大彎道瘋狂地尖叫。這個時候，英國貴族就像是在運送皇家郵件。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.
而由於Jag粗獷的排氣管聲音，它又引起一陣騷動。這將使它因爲違反噪音管制條例而一輩子聲名狼藉。幾年以來，捷豹一直在試驗發動機和排氣管的聲音，幾乎是像調校樂器一樣來調校其車輛的排氣系統。他們使用了一系列剎車鼓、駕駛室可選的旁通閥和消聲器，希望喚起一種專屬於這個品牌的聽覺體驗：低轉速下聲音深沉、剋制、帶共鳴，高轉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。如果該車的主動運動型排氣系統設爲“動態模式”──就如同你有血紅細胞，那就是動態模式──F-Type就發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會(NASCAR)最早的車手和創始人）的讚美詩。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。鬆開油門拐彎時，車輛的四根排氣管便溢出口啪聲的浪潮，像在油桶裏點燃了鞭炮。
