Motortrend Best Handling Car

This might be pot roast, but I was wondering if anyone had read Motortrends recent massive car handling test.

http://www.motortrend.com/features/performance/112_0810_americas_best_handling_car_conclusion/index.html

The Audi R8 wound up top dog and the Shelby GT500KR brought up the rear.

Must have been some really upset shelby owners out there to see even the Chevy Cobalt SS ahead of them in the rankings.

I think it's really telling considering the only cars to beat the RX-8 were the R8, the GTR, and the M3, all of which are WAYYYYYYY more expensive. Good show Mazda!

One does have to wonder though... Where's the Corvette/Z51/Z06/ZR1? The Miata? The base Viper or 911? Solstice/Sky? Was this "new" cars only? Why not a GT Mustang or a Bullitt?

MotorTrend has to be THE worst (best?) at contriving "competitions" that put a certain car or truck in the winner's circle. Case in point: their X of the Year Award. I remember when it was limited to being Car of the Year, then it got expanded into so many segments, pretty much ANYTHING with wheels and an engine somehow won something.

So how did the Lotus do?

(crickets)

You had a handling test and didn't bring a Lotus?

What is "step-steer reaction time"?

scottgib wrote: What is "step-steer reaction time"?

I think that's when you're in a tail-dragger airplane, on takeoff or landing; the delay in stepping on a rudder pedal to make a correction.

jikelly wrote: The Audi R8 wound up top dog and the Shelby GT500KR brought up the rear.

In MotorTrend, all that indicates is that Audi buys more ad space than Ford. It's how they determine everything.

If you hold a handling test and the top result wasn't Lotus...clearly you didn't organize your handling test very well.

An Audi R8? What did they base it on? How many g's a car could pull multiplied by the yuppie-ness of the average driver of said car to get a handling factor?

Ask Sam Strano how the Shelby handles.

aircooled wrote: So how did the Lotus do? (crickets) You had a handling test and didn't bring a Lotus?

I was thinking the EXACT same thing. No Lotus = B.S.

pinchvalve wrote: Ask Sam Strano how the Shelby handles.

\ I now inderstand he is a fast mustang driver...

Ah well, you can't please everyone. Was fun reading about the cars and I was especially surprised by the Cobalt.

Normally I dismiss Motortrend as the hack rag it is. But in the case of this one, single, article, I find it reasonably well written. If for nothing else, they accidently managed to catch on to the fact that fun isn't always fast.

A heck of a lot of fun can be had on a tight course with some rock hard old tires. You can drift and slide like nobody else. The grin on your face will stretch ear to ear. And your lap times will stink. You'll never win with a setup like this, but you'll probably have the most fun of anyone else there that day.

In 1983 Motor Trend named the Renault Alliance the Car of the Year. I have had no respect for them since.

Edit: wow, 52/38 MPG back in 1983 (25 years ago)

I was wondering why they didn't have a corvette in the test. I would have liked to seen how the base vette measured up.

Honestly I thought the Mustang would place better considering how my brother's 05 GT preformed at the autocross a while back. He had some pretty quick times through the course and when he let the region expert drive his car the dude posted a quicker time round the course than another guy in a Lotus Exige.

http://www.wtrscca.org/results/20080825c.txt

Motor-offend is one of the worst magazines out there, period... I'd rather read "Dubz". Foolishly, 10 years ago, we bought a '98 Malibu... '97 Malibu was the MT car of the year. This was the first new car we had bought since my '86 Accord Lxi(which ran faithfully for 17 years and I wish I'd have kept).

Ignorance is bliss and I should have done more research, but... the '98 Malibu is the worst car we've ever owned, hands down. I despise their categories and their tests... meaningless tripe. Kind of like the JD Power crap about customer initial satisfaction of a car.

I stopped reading SCC when Dave Coleman left. Though, when I knew when Mike Kojima had written an article for them, I'd browse a copy at the local B&N.

Peas us Riced, Mark