Coupes and Sports Cars Miami FL
Coupes and Sports Cars
2009: What’s New In Coupes And Sports Cars By Brian Alexander, Content Editor
2009 Aston Martin V8
Vantage
It’s hardly any secret that at the dawn of 2009, clouds loom on the horizon. Consumer confidence is shaky at best and automakers around the globe are knocking on each other’s doors – not to mention those of the government – to help weather the storm. By all accounts, it’s going to be a rough year.
2009 Nissan GT-R 
2009 Posche 911 Carrera
PDK
But if your impression of 2009’s economic climate were based solely on the impressive array of coupes and sports cars being launched, you’d think the world were in the midst of some kind of golden era, where money falls from the rooftops and Starbucks lattes are sipped from platinum-lined champagne flûtes. From sporty coupes and GTs to asphalt-liquefying supercars, 2009 has more talent than any year in recent memory.
Just because a car has two doors doesn’t mean the comforts and technologies typical of opulent luxury sedans must be foregone. No car demonstrates this philosophy better than the Mercedes-Benz CL550 , which gets all-wheel drive for the first time in 2009. While that might make it more practical, the $107,900 price tag does a quick job of invalidating its credibility as an ‘everyday’ car. But regardless, it offers up one of the finest luxury experiences available today. For the truly insatiable, however, comes the Bentley Brooklands. With 530 horsepower, a curb weight of nearly three tons (it’s a coupe!) and a $340,990 price tag, it oozes excess in ways that would make an ‘80s hair band video look disciplined by comparison.
While Bentley might set the bar inescapably high, it isn’t the only marque to successfully capitalize on handcrafted British charm. Aston Martin takes that same Anglo sense of elegance but sculpts it into a lower, tauter chassis. The result is the V8 Vantange . Previous models had been slightly wanting for power, so for 2009 the Vantage sees a displacement bump up to 4.8 liters, resulting in 420 horsepower and an even harsher V-8 wail. At around $113k , it’s a relative bargain compared to the Bentley. Not wishing to outdone by their compatriots in Gaydon, Jaguar is expected to release an updated XKR later in the year with a 510 horsepower, 5.0-liter V-8, albeit at price below $100k.
Further up the performance spectrum, the balance of power has shifted. The supercar establishment is still reeling from the two-fisted sucker-punch it received from America and Japan, and no longer is the segment synonymous with sexy, expensive Italian sheet metal or meticulously engineered German goliaths. The Nissan GT-R and Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 are proof that performance and value aren’t mutually exclusive. With prices starting at $76,840 and $106,520 respectively, they aren’t what you’d call cheap, but prior to their introductions, such levels of pe...