ramp #67 Friends with Benefits

In popular culture, the matter has been clear since the early 1930s: “A friend, a good friend, that’s the best thing there is in the world,” actor Heinz Rühmann sang in the German musical film The Three from the Filling Station. Friends are important for us. People who have good friends live twenty percent longer, are more confident and are considerably happier. Friends allow us to see life differently and make our lives easier. Or more exciting. Friends with benefits, for example, are there to help us fulfill our desires, especially when we’re in the mood. A good personal connection, with the occasional romp in the sack thrown in for good measure.

From the perspective of an enlightened car culture magazine, this also works in a figurative sense. Which brings us to sports cars. The sorts of cars that we have grown to love in our daily lives, that help us to spontaneously break out of the moment.

A study at the University of Kansas, by the way, showed that it takes 120 hours to make a friend and 224 hours to make a good friend. Unfortunately, friends with benefits weren’t part of the research. But no matter. A much more enjoyable approach is to personally verify your FWB status with a sports car of your choice, which of course would work particularly well as part of a spontaneous road movie project.

The 918 Spyder and a familiar face.

Frank-Steffen Walliser was project manager for the 918 Spyder. We met him at Porsche’s Sonderwunsch workshop, where he told us, among other things, that the supercar took just thirty-eight months to develop.

A Gift for the Senses: the Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider

A 6.5-liter V12 that delivers 126 hp per liter of displacement from around 541 cc per cylinder. No supercharger, no turbo, just 812 naturally aspirated horses. Any questions?

A Well-Lived Traffic Jam. Our super super comparison test. 

Take a Mercedes S-Class and a Toyota Land Cruiser and add a bit of city traffic in Berlin. That was the set-up for our super comparison test. So imagine our surprise when we found the streets totally devoid of cars.

Wladimir Kaminer’s Spring Awakening

Take an author from Berlin and transport him to Barcelona in a BMW 420d convertible. The result? A very happy writer.

Between sketchpad and algorithm: a conversation with Gorden Wagener.

The German automobile designer recently joked that artificial intelligence would soon be doing his job. Naturally, we had to ask him to elaborate. Though we also spoke to him about the new Mercedes-Benz CLA.

Hausbesuch bei Michael Stoschek

Michael Stoschek führte über Jahrzehnte den Familienbetrieb Brose und war erfolgreicher Reit- und Motorsportler. Nun ist er wieder an der Spitze des Verwaltungsrats seines Unternehmens – und wir schauten bei ihm vorbei.

DTM – Defeated, Trembling, Mortified

Our author drove a Mustang GT3 on the Formula 1 circuit in Barcelona. It could have been a great day for him – but it turned out to be the worst day of his life.

Not Just Any Jaguar E-Type

A thoroughbred racing car. A chassis as hard as steel. With a 3.8-liter six-cylinder engine souped up from 265 hp to 296 hp. Weight slimmed down to 1,100 kilograms. Curious yet?

The Honda Civic Type R. In White. What Else?

The Honda Civic Type R is the epitome of Japanese driving culture. And the Norisring street circuit in Nuremberg seemed like a good place to show off what it’s capable of.

The Nobel Prize and the Lotus Esprit Turbo

On the surface, this story is about a red Lotus. Though it may be more about Colin Chapman’s famous doctrine: “Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere.”

The Best Sports Car in the World

We’re talking about the Alpine, of course, that friendly (and in this case radiant blue) car that is as much fun as a young puppy.