Motor Trend Pits its best driver's car against the Ferrari F12 and All-new Corvette

On the latest episode of Motor Trends video series Head 2 Head, Carlos Lago and Randy Pobst compare its recently crowned best driver's car, the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, to the all-new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta. Germany vs. America vs. Italy - so is the 911 C4S still MT's best drivers car?

 

That was a great test. I like the verdict but love the f12

 

Thanks for posting!

 

I disagree with the verdict and I don't agree with the way Motor Trend evaluates these cars in completely different categories on a track that favours one more than the others, and reaches a biased conclusion. Hence one of the reasons I don't read Motor Trend Mag anymore

 

There's really no objective way to compare a $65K Corvette, a $100K Porsche and a $350K Ferrari. You can try to quantify it and control for the variables as much as you like, but at the end of the day, automotive journalism (and car enthusiasm/driving in general) isn't a science, it's an art. It's not about data-based conclusions. It's about how it makes you feel.

That's part of the reason I'm really getting sick of these track-based data-centric tests a lot of the American car magazines are running these days. Running these sorts of super sports cars on the track is interesting—it lets you compare them directly in an apples-to-apples sense—but it ignores the primary purpose of most modern-day sports cars (driving enjoyment, not pure performance). And while it may seem to be a great equalizer, it favors track-biased cars. A GT-R will likely shred up a track better than an F12berlinetta, but it has the interior of a Sentra and is noisier than a US Airways turboprop.

Besides, not all tracks are created equal. A car that can clean house at Fiorano may not do so well at Laguna Seca, and a car that kills at Laguna Seca might suck at the Nürburgring. Testing sports cars on a track simply shows what the cars are capable of on that track, driven in tire-shredding, mechanical-punishing anger. It's not a universal litmus test. And that goes double for when you throw a professional wheelman in the car for the laps.

IMHO, the European car magazines do a better job of weighing these cars against each other. Most of their tests are conducted on quiet backroads, driven by skilled-yet-nonprofessional drivers, and they judge the cars based on their real-world performance and feel, not on how quickly they run a lap. That's what these cars are meant for. That's how they should be judged.

(And I know magazines like Motor Trend often say something like, "Well, we also test the cars on regular roads and include that in the decision," but, bull*#@^. Just look at the story and you can see where their interests lie. It's all data and lap times and pictures of the cars on the track and descriptions of how the car is to drive at 10/10ths.)

 

I basically agree with you WSC, however some European magazines are no better than the American ones in that respect. I subscribe to Evo, Octane, Motorsport, Top Gear, and Car which are all UK based publications and some of them at times have also run these ludicrous comparisons with equally ludicrous results. In fact the latest issue of Car, normally a great magazine, even includes a Ford Escort St and Lamborghini Aventador in the same test among other cars! Crazy!

 

I saw the video on that (I believe it's actually a Fiesta ST, but that's basically an Escort by any other name). A lot of times, car magazines like to throw in one cheap performance car into those super sports car tests as something between a joke and an underdog. Everybody knows it's not going to win, but in that context, it'll make a positive impression no matter where it lands in the standings.

it's basically the Aquaman in their Justice League.

 

Well, to me that almost sounds like you're making excuses for them while you're criticizing the American publications for similar test comparisons. Personally I don't think that Ford, or the Porsche Cayman for that matter, belong in the same test

 

The F12 sounds the best but visually the C7 looks better IMHO. It just has better lines from front to rear.