Same reason Chevrolet named the C8 Corvette despite Corvette already being a thing. It was going to be the next generation of the Vanquish.

Agreed. Sport Auto is great for that.

Yeah these days you will probably get a video out of it though of course not all times are record attempts so it’s often up to the publication in question. I read the OP more as complaining about spec sheet racing.

You can literally feel how the Nissan is resisting to turn/yaw and more or less conclude the downsides of the AWD system. It delivers power, but feels more like work compared to an exige or mx 5, but outmatches both of them

How am I supposed to know all of this from looking at the lap time? This seems more like a defense of track testing than of distilling it down to a single number.

Yep it’s been a rocky road for them. They’ve produced some great cars over the years and some pretty mediocre ones too but I think the automotive world would be a worse place if they were to go under for good.

For the last 10 years AM has been buying engines, transmission, electrical, and infotainment systems from Mercedes-Benz. This has greatly improved performance and reliability but at the cost of that quirky identity.

The MB stuff is a bit more recent and started for MY 2017. On the engine front only the V8s are from Mercedes. Transmissions are not Mercedes except for the SUV. The cars use ZF8s. Performance has improved thanks to turbos though as you say identity has suffered. Reliability hasn’t really changed much from the previous generation which was far from bad. That said for 10k/yr and backseats I’d buy something else.