Ahh, Thanksgiving — turkey, family, angst, and burnouts. (Your holiday doesn't have burnouts? What are you, a commie?)

Also lists. We make lists every day, and on holidays, we sit around and stuff our faces full of food and make more lists. What are we thankful for this week? Turkey, that's what. We're also thankful for these ten cars — even though we can't afford some of them, we're happy that they exist. Dig in.

Bugatti Veyron

Because it's proof that one man can still go stark raving mad and build a world-beating car that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Makes the idea of a focus group seem like a fate worse than death. One set of its tires likely costs more than your first car did. It is yin and yang, Jalop (engineering masterwork) and anti-Jalop (heavy, unattainable). Do not try to understand it. It just is.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Chevrolet Corvette

It is an American car made by American men and women. It is like walking down the street wearing a T-shirt that says, "I'm with Penis." It is remarkably modern and wonderfully crude all at once. And for a short, glorious while, it went to Le Mans and reminded the world that Yankees could kick ass. All hail the LS7. All hail the LS9. All hail Detroit.

Photo Credit: Sam Smith

Lotus Elise/Exige

Because someone, somewhere, forgot to tell the boys in Hethel to make it fat, ugly, and boring. Because it is a real car that happens to be built out of gossamer and fiberglass. And because I once flung one sideways through Road Atlanta's Turn Twelve — not entirely on purpose, mind — at triple-digit speeds and lived to tell the tale. It made me look less than stupid. I am eternally grateful.

Photo Credit: Horgakx / Flickr

Nissan GT-R

It is heavy, clublike, and run by a million computers. It is surprisingly sterile and undoubtedly better at driving itself than you are. (You get the feeling that no matter how you treat it, it is toying with you, watching you from afar.) It is on this list because it is unique. Because it is everything wrong with Japan's car industry. Because it is also everything right.

Photo Credit: Jason Thorgalsen / Flickr

Volkswagen GTI

Volkswagen's GTI is the ultimate automotive success story, a model that lost its way only to find it again years later. Sure, it's not the most durable thing on the planet, but that's part of its charm — it's cheap, cheerful, and faster than it seems. If you haven't embarrassed a supercar on some winding back road in one of these things, then you haven't lived. Hot hatches don't get much better.

BMW 335i

It is very nearly the perfect automobile, but this is no surprise. The 3 Series has been exceptional for decades, and save the odd dose of corporate German hubris, it just keeps getting better. Build a better sport sedan than this 300-horse, velvet-glove monster, and the world will beat a path to your door.

Photo Credit: Fabio Aro / Flickr

Mazda RX-8

Quirk, and for little reason other than satisfying a decades-old obsession on the part of its maker. Painfully slow around town. Those once-trick doors are now almost too much work, and the RX-8's Renesis rotary sucks dino juice like it's on OPEC's payroll. But the chassis is flat-out magic, the kind of magic you only discover at nine-and-a-half tenths when you're trying to eke out that last little bit of speed and you think nothing is left. It reminds you of a Spec Miata with more weight in the tail. It is the attainable sports car for people who truly understand what that phrase means.

Photo Credit: Michael Banovsky / Flickr

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution

Now that both Subaru and Mitsubishi have left the international rally stage, the WRX STI and the Lancer Evolution seem a bit lost. (Homologation specials need something to be homologated for, no?) Were we forced to choose between the two, we'd probably pick the Evo, but it's a tough call. It depends on the roads you're on, on how you feel that day, and on whether you have be someplace very quickly and with little drama (STI) or absolutely nowhere at all (Evo).

The STI is an amazingly talented car and arguably the better all-rounder. The Evo is the dirty, rough-edged monster that everyone thinks rally cars are supposed to be. We like them both — a lot — but only one of them feels as mean as it looks. Mitsu by a hair.

Ford Mustang

The Mustang is a rolling contradiction, equal parts modern muscle and hopeless anachronism. It is an argument for and against everything we stand for, a piece of yesterday bound up in a slightly cheesy modern wrapper. It is both much better and much worse than you expect it to be, but somehow, that's part of its charm. It is very, very difficult not to like.

Exhaust rumble. A rompy V-8. A stick axle so well-controlled, it makes the concept almost seem relevant again. These things are not the future, but we love them all the same. Were we to wake up tomorrow and drive off into the soul of America, we would do it in a Mustang.

Photo Credit: Sausyn / Flickr

Caterham Seven

One long-dead man's ridiculous dream turned reality turned company-bill-payer turned neglected relic turned reality again. Impossibly small. Sillier than almost anything else on wheels. Older than dirt. And still fantastic.

Happy turkey!

Photo Credit: Exfordy / Flickr

(Hat tip to Craig!) [via National Post]

The GT-R tax is alive and well in parts as much as it is in fully-assembled vehicles in this tale of horror from the British Isles. The driver recounts a chain reaction accident were a car up ahead slammed on the brakes, the van in between did the same and despite the GT-R's massive capabilities, the driver couldn't stop quite quick enough and tapped the van's tow hitch with the front bumper. The minor crack in the fascia was the only physical damage, but it was enough to set off the pedestrian safety system, which deployed two, one-time use rams which raised the hood to provide a cushioning gap for the pedestrian who wasn't there. The repairs required new hood hinges, new hood rams, a new electronic controller for the pedestrian safety system, and of course replacing and paint-match the damaged bumper. The owner took the car in and came out with a whopper of a bill: £11,000, or in US currency, $18,355.

Two things. First, we'd have yanked those hood rams, welded the hinges back in place and called it good. Second, $18,355! Were the parts made of solid platinum? We knew the cost of ownership was a bit much from the $2,000 regular Nissan GT-R service cost, but this is ridiculous. [GT-R Register]

Having reviewed the vehicle, we're not surprised it was capable of such a run given the 700 HP it's making at all wheels. We're also not surprised one of the company's customers achieved a record for the quarter-mile with an R35 trap speed of 141 MPH in back-to-back runs. This is Godzilla on speed.

Switzer GTRs Blister Tracks Across the Globe

October has been a busy month for Switzer Performance. After kicking off a 1-2-3 finish at the Moscow Unlimited, the company's tuned GTR Nissans posted record-breaking results (for an R35) in standing mile and dragstrip events in Miami, Moscow, and the company's home state of Ohio.

First up was last weekend's Milemarker-1, a standing mile event in Miami that saw one customer's GTR reach an official 191 mph in the standing mile, despite the extreme humidity and sweltering track temperatures of the Florida Everglades – conditions not usually kind to turbocharged cars.

Next came word of a similarly spectacular quarter-mile pass from one of Switzer's Russian GTR customers – a 10.193 second pass at over 133 mph.

One-hundred and thirty-three miles per hour in a quarter mile, while fast, is still shy of the unofficial R35 trap speed record (10.48 @ 134.3 mph). With that trap speed in mind, another Switzer customer offered to take his car out to Ohio's Dragway 42 for on open test and tune … and recorded back-to-back passes in excess of 141 mph! (141.41 and 141.51, respectively)

Tym Switzer is, understandably, very excited about the car's performances, saying that "it's been an amazing couple of weekends here for us. We really just went to the mile event to see what the car would do, and were excited to break into the 190's in those conditions. The really exciting thing for us, I think, is that all of these numbers were generated by customer cars, with off-the-shelf kits, being driven by their owners. No ringer cars or ringer drivers – that 141 speed was even on all-season tires. I don't know if you can call any of these runs 'official' or 'records', but one this is for sure: these cars are rockets! It's been a great October for the shop and the R35 platform. I couldn't be happier or more proud of everyone's performance these couple of weeks."

Switzer's R35 GTR tuning packages are available now through Switzer Performance dealers. Contact Switzer for more.

The race is supposed to be "gentlemanly" so were not sure if a jealous Powell is going to put Usain into the wall, but we'd pay to see that. Given Bolt's ability to flip his powerful cars, we're guessing the 485 HP GT-R isn't long for this world. (Hat tip to Paul!)

Photo Credit: GT-RForum User Chiphomme, Jamaica Star

According to local news reports, no one was seriously hurt when the GT-R lost control and slammed into a busy Credit Union. Police say the driver narrowly missed a number of pedestrians and speed was likely a factor in the incident. Damage to the building, vehicle, and driver's legal fund is extensive.

(Hat tip to Mike, Terrence, and Chuck!)

[News1130 Via NAGTROC]

The NSX, launched in 1990, was remarkable for its low roofline of only 46": a bare six inches taller than the Ford GT40 race car. The GT–R, on the other hand, is a full eight inches taller than the NSX.

Under the aluminum, the difference is even bigger. The GT–R is 850 pounds heavier than the NSX, which weighs in at 2,950 lb: an increase of 22 percent. There is, of course, an even greater increase in power, with the Nissan’s twin-turbo V6 producing almost twice the horsepower of the Honda’s V6 VTEC, with a resulting climb in power to weight from 216 bhp/ton to 277 bhp/ton.

But while the NSX our Wes Siler reviewed for Jalopnik is the balls-out Spoon version with 420 HP, his words about lightness and simplicity are probably true of the original as well:

[The] NSX-R GT doesn’t just feel as good as I expected, but better than I could ever have hoped. Unlike other classic super cars, the passing of time has been kind to the NSX. It suffers from neither high weight nor over complication of modern super cars, but adapts their up-to-date running gear, brakes and tires to give itself modern performance.

The trend is much the same with sporty roadsters. Witness the 1964 Honda S600 versus the 1999 Honda S2000:

Relentless growth in size is not limited to the Japanese car industry. If you were to compare Ferrari’s entry-level car from 1968 to its successor 31 years on, this is what you’d see:

The rather lithe and low Ferrari 360 Modena is practically a battleship when compared to the little Dino 246 GT.

And so on.

Photo Credit: Honda fórum (NSX’s and GT–R), VWvortex Forums (Honda S600 and S2000) and the author (Ferraris)

(Hat tip to Alex!) [Quattro-World]

The GT-R's been given a power boost, but it's really the exterior enhancements that make the AVUS Performance GT-R pop.

AVUS PERFORMANCE-Nissan GTR – Batmobil Reloaded

The Nissan GT-R build as a sportscoupe and direct opponent of the Porsche Turbo was revealed at the Tokio Motor Show in 2007. As a direct successor of the Skyline GT-R R34 the bar has been laid high already. With only 480 examples for Europe the GT-R is one of those rare sports-cars.

For AVUS PERFORMANCE a Nissan GT-R Black Edition was the basis for a very ambitious project. Besides optical changes they also put the emphasis on more power. A new modified ECU and a special new exhaust pipe (2 cats and the middle silencer have been removed) help the GT-R up to an impressive 580bhp and 700 Nm of torque (stock 485bhp and 588Nm).

Visually you can only imagine the power the GT-R has. The matt black, the lowering via coilovers (stock adjustments for the dampers will be kept) and the black painted 20" wheels combined with wheel spacers sum up the package. Individually painted parts like the front bumper, the rear diffusor, air vents, tinted windows can be seen when taking a close look.

The even sportier GT-R hits the 1/4 mile in just 11.0 seconds at 127.9 MPH and pulls more than a 1.1G of lateral grip. All this is achieved with the tried-and-true combination of less weight and and better breathing. The suspension has also been modified to take the unique challenge of the Targa, which includes crossing pot-holed city roads, asphalt expanses, muddy fields, open prairies, and sandy beaches. Though we're partial to the understated white of Stillen's past, the orange color is probably a safer choice. Full spec list below.

STILLEN GT-R Targa Race Car

Performance Numbers (As Set Up For 2009 Targa Rally)
• Horsepower: ~620 @ 15psi (91 Octane Pump Gas)
• 0-60mph: 2.9 seconds **
• 1/4 Mile: 11.0 seconds at 127.9mph **
• 0-130mph: 11.4 seconds **
• Lateral Grip: 1.1G+ **
** (as tested by Road & Track)
Performance
• STILLEN Downpipes
• STILLEN Secondary Cat-Delete Y-Pipe
• STILLEN Race Exhaust w/Center Rear Exit
• STILLEN Intake System w/K&N Filters
• Turbosmart e-Boost Street 2-Stage Electronic Boost Controller
• Turbosmart Dual Port Blow Off Valves
• COBB Tuning AccessPORT
• Dodson Motorsports Transmission Cooler
• Red Line High Performance Synthetic Motor Oil – 0W40
• Red Line High Performance Synthetic Gear Oil – 75W140
• Red Line WaterWetter
Suspension
• High Performance Coil-Overs – Adjustable Bump & Rebound, Ride Height – Eibach Race Springs
• STILLEN Adjustable Sway Bars
• STILLEN Adjustable Endlinks
Brakes / Tires
• STILLEN / AP Racing Carbon Ceramic Brake Rotor Upgrade
• STILLEN / AP Racing Brake Pads
• STILLEN Brake Cooling Package
• STILLEN Stainless Steel Brake Lines
• AP Racing PRF High Performance Brake Fluid
• Bridgestone RE070R 255/40ZRF20 Front Tires
• Bridgestone RE070R 285/35ZRF20 Rear Tires
Interior
• STILLEN Designed & Built Custom Chromoly Roll Cage
• STILLEN Designed & Built Custom Seat Frames
• Status Racing Seats
• Status Racing Harnesses
• Monit Rally Computers
• ChaseCam On-Board Video Camera System
• Nordskog GPS Speedometer (KPH)
Exterior
• STILLEN Urethane Front Lip Spoiler
• STILLEN Urethane Side Skirts
• STILLEN Urethane Front Canards
• Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber Custom Race Hood
• Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber Trunk Lid
• Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber Wing
• Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber Engine Cover
• Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber Radiator Shroud
• Password:JDM Dry Carbon Fiber NACA Ducts
• Password:JDM AeroCatch Flush Mounting Plates
• APR Carbon Fiber Side Mirrors
• BASF Carizzma Orange Sherbet Pearl Paint

[Source: STILLEN Blog]

Acceleration feels a bit slower than the 2009 Godzilla. We'd peg it at about half a second on the 0-to-60. Full review coming next week.

UPDATE: We didn't do full instrumentation tests to determine that — just basing it on the start/stop timer we have and the one in the GT-R. But we'll be interested to see the results from the first outlet that does 'em.

The "R" in R850, as you might guess, is for the "race fuel." We wonder if the "P" in P800 means "pump" or "plebeian." The 850 HP and 820 lb-ft numbers are the assumed amount at the crank given the dyno numbers, which show about 740 AWHP and 715 lb-ft. If you've got a GT-R and are itching to throw all warranty concerns to the wind, the package runs about $20,900 and includes the tunes for both pump and race gas, as well as a larger dual-core radiator, thermostat, and Switzer MONSTER intercoolers.

And if you can't handle the power, there's always this thing to save you.

[Source: Switzer]

When it comes to Nurburgring's Nordschliefe, seconds count for both automakers and injured drivers. This is why the GT-R is an ideal way to get safety crews out to any tourists wiping out on the ring. In addition to the special graphics and lightbar, the GT-R features a full roll cage, racing seats, emergency equipment and a large tank of fire retardant hooked up to a quick-release hose.

We actually want this one more than a stock GT-R.

[Nissansportz.com via gtrblog.com, World Car Fans]

Nissan's Chief test driver, Toshio Suzuki hopped behind the wheel of the revised 2010 GT-R in an attempt to shave an additional 3 seconds off the previous 7 minute 29 second lap time. He accomplished his goal — but in the grand scheme of things, who cares if he didn't beat the competition? [carscoop]