German Car Forum

Part one:

America's Best Handling Car - Contenders and Instrument Testing - Comparison - Motor Trend

Part two:

America's Best Handling Car - Track Testing - Comparison - Motor Trend

Part three:

http://www.motortrend.com/features/p...ion/index.html

M3 SUBJECTIVE RANKING: 2ND
Good to see the M3 ranked second place on the track. Not bad for a comfortable 4 seated car.


"Pobst's first three words after his M3 track laps: "What a ride!" And then he got exuberant. "Makes you a believer in rear drive. Refined, but it rocks, too. Given the car's power and the fact that it's riding on street tires, the traction is excellent. Turn 4 is a fast, top of third gear corner, and while exiting at over 100 mph, I could push the M3 into a small drift. Sweetheart. Overall balance is really good-I don't remember much understeer at all. Also, the M3's steering feel is one of the best here. You've got that big fat wheel rim in your hands. Communicative and quick steering, with great satisfaction. There's body roll but not a sense of it. The damping keeps everything under control without harshness. Greater refinement than in the RX-8; you can feel there's more money in the pot." Pobst experienced a few hiccups with the DSG transmission ("shifts were harsh, and a few times when I tried to downshift it stayed in the higher gear"), but he had nothing but kudos for the chassis. "Not ready to say it's better than the R8, but what a ride!"

SUM UP: The lofty 3 Series chassis raised to even loftier heights.

Poor guys, they couldn't borrow a GT3 or GT2.

The best handling car must be the ACR, it seems to be about as hardcore as nothing!

No doubt. It's the type of the car you don't drive on normal roads but transport in a trailer.

And no lotus? Anyway good showing by R8 and M3. Interesting graphs.

The ACR was the fastest. However, it placed near the bottom in the subjective judgement.

It's interesting how different people rate the same thing (steering in general and steering wheel thickness in particular) in completely opposite directions.

The more magazines I read the more predictible the results get - you know what a certain magazine will think. The fact that you have to know your reviwers in order to know if their opinion applies to you, actually forces you to really try some of the cars for yourself and compare experiences.
Another thing is that when it comes to steering feel (and many other things), some cars are harder than others to get along with from the start but when you do they are wonderful. Hard to catch those in a short press run.

The feature you higlight, the thickness of the steering wheel, has to be one of the hardest things to make an objective judgement about.

First Road and Track, now Motor Trend. I guess against a backdrop of gloom and doom for anything sporty that sucks gas, we have a glut of new performance cars. Amazing how the reality of the market changes from the time all these cars were conceived to the time they hit the market. You wouldn't know how troubled the world's automotive markets are and how environmental concerns are so rampant going by the number of sports cars on sale today.


M

Audi R8 wins!

I'm sure it does...

Interesting comparo, but I feel it lacks something....like some vehicles that others mentioned. No Lotus, no WRX STi, not even a lousy Corvette lol. What kind of American magazine is this?!

They could've just thrown in a Porsche Cayman S or a C2 and it would probably handle better than the Turbo due to weight.

Place 1 - Audi R8
Which brings us to our winner, a near-unanimous choice from Pobst through our road-test staff. "In another world compared with the other cars here," said Pobst of the Audi R8 (1st place). "So sweet," said road-tester Scott Mortara. "Lots of steering feel, great grip, but a compliant ride, too," noted editor MacKenzie. Each driver was describing the same qualities: On track or road, the R8 is Baryshnikov-fluid yet controlled, graceful yet dynamic. The figure-eight tracing is smooth and tight, with high limits but gentle transitions. Step-steer reaction time is fourth, lane-change third, ride quality fourth. The numbers only hint at the overall handling excellence, though. At any speed, you feel the delicate transparency of the steering, the supple yet confident chassis control, the crisp turn-in. Offered a weekend off to exploit the twirls and twists of Southern California's beckoning hills, the Audi R8-a car we've experienced from the Corkscrew to the salt flats of Utah's Black Rock Desert-is the car we'd most want to pilot, the machine with magic in its mid-engine, quattro-fed chassis. Why, in just a turn or two, the R8 even makes second-thoughts disappear.

Place 2 - Nissan GTR
Pobst wasn't blown away by Godzilla, ranking it only fifth due to a tendency to snap into oversteer at the limit (a behavior easily mitigated by not switching off the various stability systems). The rest of us, though, came away from our handling test thoroughly bowled over by the Nissan GT-R (2nd place). A review of the numbers shows high finishes everywhere: third in ride quality, fastest lane change, fifth in step-steer reaction time, quickest off-center steering response, a near-textbook figure-eight trace. Nissan's computerized, all-wheel-drive superstar works wonders, delivering lofty performance numbers and the deft handling feel that enthusiasts crave. So why didn't it win? As noted, its limit behavior when its stability computers are sleeping can be tricky. And while the GT-R is undeniably majestic at full bore, at more routine chores its supercar breeding vanishes. "Almost boring when all the computers aren't firing away," said tech editor Reynolds. "On the cruise home it felt like a Sentra."

Place 3 - BMW M3
We expected the new BMW M3 (3rd place) to finish strong; it's simply one of our all-around favorite cars. Pobst gushed over its sublime responsiveness and grace, scoring it second. On our instrumented tests, the BMW delivered a second-best step-steer time, midpack lane-change speed, a top-place finish in ride quality, and one of the smoothest, tightest traces (despite high performance limits) on our figure-eight test. Most important, the M3 delivers handling performance you can utilize fully on your favorite roads. Steering feel, balance, chassis feedback, grip-the M3 covers every important base as few other cars in the world today can.

IMO GTR,R8 then M3.

IMO M3, M3 then M3

Of course,i'd be disappointed if i saw u type other wise

W I N N E R

THANK YOU

Why? Have you driven all 3?

^ Nope but just personal preference

Huge respect for Audi!!
Nobody can say that they did not do a great job with the R8.
Nobody can come and say that the R8 is not an amazing car.

If anybody does, they are sooooo biased!

It's been a long time when I've seen a car get so many positive feedback and rankings in tests, as the R8 have got so far.

I really can't wait for the V10 version.!

Been waiting for this to conclude, kinda what I expected.

Interesting thing is that Road and Track just did a similar test and Lambo Gallardo LP560-4 won their test. Coincidence?

M

I agree with you 110%!
R8 is magic

Don't forget the Styling and interior on the V12
:cool :

Which is going to be shown first, the V10 or the Roadster version, or could it be both?

M

All the roadsters I've "seen" has the V10 exhaust
my guess it that they will be launched at the same time,
which means the best of both worlds!

I also suspect that the V10 might just replace the V8 and the V8 production stop.