youngwarrior said:
amaerican car magazines manage that with every car, and the real life owner will never be able to replicate those times. And the R8 is going to undercut the 911 carrera S in entry level guise.
And last i heard the astom martin DBR9's were quite a bit faster than the C6R's. The only place the Vettes have been winning is on home soil. The C6R is one of the few american cars that has competed on a world stage.
Didn't they mention on the news segment on last season of top gear that the DBR9 got beat at le mans...by the vette?
Audi's domination of Rally ended in 84, if I recall Puegot came in and handed them their ass, then Lancia had the Delta S4 which didn't get enough time to flex.
As far as the tests go on Magazines...
If you use the basis of the driving talent of the driver rather than the capabilities of the car (which are what magazines are trying to show you), then the Porsche's and Ferrari's would be complete shit compared to the vette, as those who can afford them probably barely remember how to drive stick.
When I look at a magazine, and they show me a car, I want to see what the car is capable of, even if I can't do it. If they put a guy who just learned to drive in it, and he runs a 5 second 0-60, even though it's capable of a 3.5, thats not showing me what the car can do.
I may not ever be able to launch a vette into the 3.7 or even 4 second 0-60, but I know if I'm ever own one, and i'm at the track trying it, that if I'm only hitting 4.1, that there's still room to improve my driving, and not solve it by throwing more tire or power at it. Same goes for around the track, if some how I get the balls to go for a 7:50 and all I can muster is an 8:10, I know it's me, not the car. It also might give me a (false) sense of security that there's room left to drive the car faster.
These are the points you always seem to miss. The euro magazines sound to me like they like leaving in as many variables as possible (very unscientific), where as the American ones like to remove all variable possible, such as clearing the track, and getting a driver thats consistant and fast.