Edmunds Inside Line: Road Ragers at the Nurburgring

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10-03-2009, 11:38 PM

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Edmunds Inside Line: Road Ragers at the Nurburgring

Aston Martin V12 Vantage vs Audi R8 FSI vs Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 vs Porsche 911 GT3

It's the morning after the Nürburgring 24 Hours, the amazing racing marathon on the old, twisting Nordschleife where 220 cars race day and night. We're at Brunchen, everyone's favorite corner for race-watching, and it's rather like wandering downstairs after a party to be greeted by a living room full of empty beer cans and rearranged sofa cushions, except here we're parked up among, well, empty beer kegs and completely displaced sofas.

The cars that raced here are probably still ticking with heat and smelling of oil as they're being loaded onto trailers for the long trip back to garages scattered across Europe, but here we have their street-legal counterparts. Yes, the 2009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage, 2009 Audi R8 5.2 FSI, 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and 2009 Porsche 911 GT3 are for those of us who haven't raced at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, but who dream of doing so.

These are cars for people who place a premium on the driving experience, those who sometimes take the long way home from work. These are the cars for drivers who don't mind a slightly firmer ride, especially if it means they can be sure of hitting that drain cover on the long left-hander on the exit of the roundabout that's three miles from home.

To the Grid
Indicative of the breed is the 2009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage. With the Aston Martin DBS's V12 squeezed into the short-wheelbase Vantage, the engineers at Aston Martin's headquarters at Gaydon have created a truly wonderful car. It seems almost absurd that a body this small should be packing a 510-horsepower 5.9-liter V12. Aston Martin has been competing seriously at the Nürburgring 24 Hours for a number of years now and even has created the V8 Vantage N24 as a race replica, so the Nordschleife should be a home away from home for the V12 Vantage.

The Audi R8 4.2 FSI has already been a huge commercial success with V8 power, so the 2009 Audi R8 5.2 FSI's 518-hp V10 should make every road it travels turn to gold. The chassis has also received some minor adjustments, mainly to cope with the V10 but also to add a frisson of additional grit. We've eschewed the shift paddles of the single-clutch automated manual transmission in favor of the wonderful six-speed manual, and if the weather turns 'orrible then we expect the all-wheel-drive system to help this car simply walk away from the others.

The 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 makes even the mighty V12 Vantage seem under-endowed in the engine department. The supercharged 6.2-liter LS9 V8's 638 hp will open your eyes wide, but the torque is truly frightening — 604 pound-feet, and all of it available at 3,800 rpm. The ZR1 should be a force to be reckoned with in the corners as well, because weight has been kept down to 3,369 pounds by using carbon fiber for the front aero splitter, front fascia, hood and roof.

Finally, we come to the bargain basement end of the lineup with the 2009 Porsche 911 GT3, the least expensive of these cars. We know that no test of race-replica road cars is complete without this Porsche from which the 911 GT3 RSR is derived, but the engine has 80 hp less than its competition and barely half the torque of the ZR1. It will fight back with the lowest curb weight here of 3,075 pounds, but for once we don't think the 911 is going to have it all its own way.

Brought together, the four cars make a fantastically diverse and exciting group. We have engines with six-, eight- and 10 and 12 cylinders that have been placed in the front, middle and rear of the chassis. Our consensus is that the best-looking is the Vantage, though this car's white color makes it look like it should belong to an aging millionaire's wife in St Tropez. Then the Audi R8, all clean lines and still so futuristic three years after its launch. The GT3 looks terribly upright in this company, but also small, and if it were in white as well you can guarantee it would have been the easiest to sneak unnoticed into the rolling start of the Nürburgring 24 Hours the day before yesterday. The ZR1 is mean, angular and so very low, although the little window onto its massive LS9 V8 is not quite so successful as a styling statement.

Rolling Start
Once we're in the Audi R8, it feels almost like a Formula 1 car, so low that your backside feels like it's skimming the ground. The throttle is scintillatingly sharp and the suspension is delightfully precise, and you pour the car through corners. All the R8's controls work so effortlessly that anyone who can drive an Audi A3 would feel perfectly happy pottering around in the R8 V10.

There's a mass of urge from the V10 that starts about 3,000 rpm, but the extraordinary thing is the way this 5.2-liter engine keeps revving up and up. You initially find yourself grasping the knurled shift knob and short-shifting — clack-clack — through the exposed gate at about 6,000 rpm. Yet if you look through the steering wheel and concentrate on the rev counter in front of you, you'll see that you've halted the needle in the midst of a furious scramble all the way to 8,500 rpm. High up there, the Audi V10 does genuinely sound like the Lamborghini Gallardo V10 to which it's related, but in true Germanic fashion it's turned down to seven on the volume dial.

Yes, the Corvette. Unfortunately this is the car that we knew would be in last place within the first 50 yards of driving it. Each of the far-flung corners of the Vette seems to have its own agenda, and the Magna Ride dampers are not an improvement on the Z06's setup. For us, we switch right out of Touring mode right into Sport mode so the suspension feels like it has some control over the vertical movement of the wheels. Driving it here on the Belgian motorways, the tire slap was almost unbearable.

And then you press the very loud pedal and you remember what the Corvette does best. Ideally you'll want to be a gear lower than you're used to because 2nd is good for 96 mph and 3rd for around 130 mph (!), but with so much torque it doesn't really matter. What happens first is that the big leather chair you're sitting on rocks back unnervingly as the forces are unleashed, then you seem to be gathered up and hurled toward the horizon. As the speed builds, so the car appears to grow around you like some fairground ride, its extremities becoming more and more remote, and even the steering wheel seems to get farther away. At least the big carbon-ceramic brake discs are exceptionally powerful and offer a decent amount of reassuring feedback. But with 285-section Michelin tires at the front and gargantuan 335-section ones at the rear, this American dream tugs, weaves and tramlines down the road all at once.

At the Sharp End of the Pack
We swing open the door of the 2009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage and drop into the best driving position in this test. With the wheel facing your chest and the low, ever so slightly reclined seat offering the perfect blend of luxury and grip, the Vantage feels right straight away. The big V12 explodes into life, rocking the nose of the car. The action of the shift linkage is the lightest here, which suits the almost velvety feel of the whole car. In many ways the Aston and Corvette are alike, with oversize engines in the front driving the rear wheels, but the Aston feels as if it's geared slightly short while the Chevy is geared slightly long, and the Vantage is compact and confidence-inspiring where the ZR1 is intimidating.

We turn off the main road and catch the tail as the Vantage's P Zero Corsas spin up on a rain-soaked patch of tarmac, hold the slide just for fun and then grab 3rd and then 4th before sinking the middle pedal toward the carpet as a long right-hander approaches. The front of the car grips initially as you turn in and then the steering goes slightly light in your hands as the big engine up front makes the nose waver fractionally from the line you want to take. Then the road unfurls in front of you and no matter what gear you're in or what revs you're at, as soon as you get on the throttle you seem to tap straight into the juiciest part of the torque curve and unleash phenomenal acceleration.

But is the V12 Vantage better than a 911 GT3? We swap into the Porsche and slot down into the car's optional narrow racing-style seats, which grip you so intimately that you barely feel the need for a seatbelt. We pull down the sun visor as the low evening sunlight skims over the fields. The Porsche's engine starts to work as the revs rise above 4,000 rpm and the hair on the back of our neck rises. "Damn you, GT3" is all we can grumble after the first corner.

Even after jumping out of a car as charismatic as the Aston or as beautifully resolved as the Audi, the 911 GT3 just feels on another level. And it comes down to this. The Porsche 911 GT3 feels more honed to the sharp edge of driving performance than any other car in this test. There just isn't one iota of slack in it, so you are never, ever guessing or making allowances for the car. You can literally drive as hard as you want and the harder you go, the more rewarding it is. More throttle, less lock, 4th gear — it all happens instantly. You can brake so fiercely that it feels like running into a brick wall, or throw the nose into a fast corner so hard that you wince and hold your breath, and yet you'll always find the car taut underneath you, telling you calmly and with clarity about the forces working on the tires, chassis and drivetrain. And because it never dithers, you gain confidence and find yourself being the best that you can be, and that is addictively intoxicating.

Sorting It All Out
There is a pleasing lack of b.s. about it, but a very un-pleasing lack of talent, too. That's how we summed up the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. You can't help but love that engine, and if you think that fast driving should feel like you're wrestling an accident that's about to happen, then you just might love the ZR1. But if you want a good Corvette, buy a Z06 and save yourself a bunch of money.

And if you want an Audi R8 (and why wouldn't you?), then you can save yourself money there, too, by buying the basic one that looks identical to the V10 but has two fewer cylinders. This isn't because the 2009 Audi R8 5.2 FSI is a flawed car, but where the R8 4.2 FSI has an almost Lotus Elise-like delicacy to it, the 2009 Audi 5.2 FSI seems to just sit a bit more heavily on the road and is therefore slightly less magical. And it would have been nice if there was more to differentiate this car from the V8 version than just an extra 100 hp and a modified soundtrack.

Where Audi and Chevrolet have disappointed in their attempts to improve on an existing model with a super new engine, Aston Martin has struck gold with much the same approach. The 2009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage is the car that we always hoped the V8 Vantage would be, with a decent ride, proper performance and engaging handling. When you add this to the classic lines of an Aston Martin, you get a fantastic car. This is clearly the best car that Aston Martin has made for real drivers, and if money were no object, we might even take it over the GT3 911.

Maybe, that is. We tried to talk ourselves out of choosing the 2009 Porsche 911 GT3. Maybe the latest GT3 is too fast, too grippy and too brutal. Maybe Porsche should have built a car with the same power as the previous GT3, only with less weight. But every time you come back from a drive in the GT3, you find yourself smiling and shaking your head. You can't deny the Porsche its victory; it is wonderful. If you want the ultimate road racer, the car that will turn any road into your own personal Nordschleife, then you need a Porsche 911 GT3.

Source & more pics - Road Ragers: Aston Martin V12 Vantage vs. Audi R8 5.2 FSI vs. Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 vs. Porsche 911 GT3 on Inside Line