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Is the Chevy Camaro Z/28 a Godzilla Slayer at the track?

Godzilla. It's a name that strikes fear in the minds and hearts of giant monsters (Mothra!) worldwide, not to mention a number of automobile manufacturers that produce high-performance coupes... including Chevrolet. The Bowtie-cladded company has one rather obvious model that lines up squarely in the sights of the Nissan GT-R, that being the Corvette.
Interestingly, though, Chevy's halo coupe isn't the vehicle the boys from Motor Trend decided to match up at Barber Motorsports Park against the Japanese Godzilla, opting instead for the brand-new Camaro Z/28. A glance at the spec sheet of the Z/28 clears up any consternation regarding MT's choice - more horsepower for the Nissan, more torque for the Chevy and roughly the same weight means they are on pretty equal ground when it comes to what's under the hood.
The rest of the spec sheet looks to tilt the argument in the GT-R's favor (especially considering that MT's test car is a Track Edition model), as it boasts all-wheel-drive traction, a quick-shifting six-speed dual-clutch transmission and a price tag that's about $40,000 higher than that of the Z/28. Oh, and don't forget the GT-R's legendary computer-controlled reflexes. Does any of that matter with a professional race car driver like Randy Pobst behind the wheel? Scroll down and watch the video to find out.

Nissan gives us the business on the art of clay modeling

The team from The Dashboard recently stopped by the Nissan Technical Center in Japan for a look at what exactly goes into creating a full-scale clay model. While automakers have been using clay bucks for decades, designers and engineers are now combining computer renderings and hand-sculpted clay models to determine how a new vehicle will look in our world. Engineers use specially formulated clay kept warm in an oven to bring the body panels to life. They then coat the clay in a thin plastic film to add body color for the final look.
By the time everything is said and done, workers may have hundreds of hours in the model's creation. So, what happens when the company no longer needs the buck? They get scrapped. Someone comes in and dismantles the whole creation. We presume that action is set to the wailing tears of everyone who had a hand in building the model. Check out the video below for a closer look.

Nissan Juke-R [w/video]

The Other Brother
The handler strapped into the carbon fiber race bucket next to me is the only other person outside of yours truly who looks like he thinks this is a bad idea. I've just finished situating myself in the cabin of the very first Nissan Juke-R ever constructed. There are literally thousands of man hours in this single prototype and only four examples of the car total in the entire world. Each one carries a price tag of around $656,400 at current conversion rates, making this both the rarest and most expensive piece of machinery anyone has ever let me get close enough to sniff, let alone drive.
And that's exactly what I mean to do.