Tag Archives: Johnny Lieberman

BMW M5 vs. Porsche Panamera GTS – Motor Trend Head 2 Head

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Motor Trend’s Johnny Lieberman brings us the latest in German executive express cars for this episode of Head 2 Head. BMW has been setting the benchmark standard for this class for a long time just like it’s done with the M3 and sport luxury sedans. The M5 has always been the perfect combination of size, comfort, outright speed and agile handling. This year’s model features the first turbocharged engine for the M5 line downsizing from the previous model’s V10 to a 5.5 liter twin turbo V8. The airflow through the heads has been reversed so that the two turbos sit in the valley of the V to improve efficiency. The turbocharged engine provides more power and a lot more torque while using less fuel than the V10. Porsche’s Panamera has been out for a while now and the GTS is their latest trim combination for it. As with many of their other GTS cars, the Panamera features a naturally aspirated engine with a lot of the goodies from the turbo model. Johnny does a good job explaining the nature of the two cars and picking a winner.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube

Motor Trend’s 2012 Best Driver Car

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You’re going to want to set aside a solid 45 minutes to watch these videos. We continue to reap the benefits of YouTube paying good money to car magazines for original content to rival traditional TV shows. Motor Trend’s latest installment is their 2012 Best Driver’s Car compilation. I like the way they do this annual comparison because a lot of people tend to misuse the term “driver’s car,” but Motor Trend has got it right and they stick to their guns. What makes a good driver’s car goes way beyond the numbers of the performance statistics. The 0-60 time doesn’t say anything about the car’s balance, feedback, fun or driver engagement. Those things are much harder to describe, but thankfully we have Johnny Lieberman, Carlos Lagos and Randy Pobst here working together to convey the driving experiences of this dream car lineup. This year they rounded up the Jaguar XKR-S, Subaru BRZ, Lamborghini Aventador, Porsche 911 Carrera S, Ford Shelby GT500, Nissan GT-R Black Edition, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series and McLaren MP4-12C. The boys start out by doing winding road introductions of each car and then they turn them over to Randy for hot laps around Laguna Seca. They finish up by choosing a top 3 and then driving them some more to pick an overall winner.


Keeping with Motor Trend tradition, tall of the cars get lined up for a massive drag race once all of the testing is done:
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Cadillac CTS-V Wagon at the Nurburgring – Motor Trend

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Motor Trend’s senior feature editor, Johnny Lieberman, bids farewell to their long-term Cadillac CTS-V by featuring it on the latest episode of Epic Drives. The V-Wagon gets shipped to Germany so Lieberman can make one more beer run to his favorite Belgian brewers (he’s a home brewer and beer judge). From there he takes the wagon to the Nurburgring to let Johnny O’Connell of Cadillac Racing take another shot at the CTS lap record which was set by John Heinricy in an automatic CTS-V sedan during GM’s development program. Lieberman’s hope was to shave a couple of seconds off the record with the wagon since it’s a 6-speed.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube

Lexus LFA vs. Acura NSX – Motor Trend Head 2 Head

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I was pretty surprised to see the title of this comparison pop up on the Motor Trend YouTube channel. I consider the Acura NSX and the Lexus LFA to be the only 2 supercars to come out of Japan due to their unique and exotic construction methods. Johnny Lieberman thinks there are four. I’m assuming the other two are the Toyota Supra and the Nissan GT-R’s. I think the Supra and GT-R toe, but don’t cross, the line between well executed performance cars and true supercars. What do YOU think? Join the discussion over on our Facebook Page. Either way, Lieberman does a good job breaking down why each car is significant to their time periods, how they drive and why you should like them based on his supercar philosophy. Very fascinating comparison.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube

Motor Trend Tours Scotland in a Bentley Continental GT V8

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The story of the Bentley Continental GT V8 starts with the president of company casually asking one of his engineers how much fuel they could save by going to a twin turbo V8 instead of the W12. The engineer estimated “probably around 40%” which the president then started using as a hard statistic for the car even before it had been designed. The engineering teams were actually able to more or less hit the mark (37%) in the “fuel efficient” Bentley which still makes 500 hp and 480 ft-lbs of torque. Motor Trend’s senior editor, Johnny Lieberman, takes the new Bentley for a tour of all of the places he’s wanted to see in Scotland. The video is long, but you learn a lot about the car and about some cool things in Scotland.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube