America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

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This is the elimination round only online. The results you will have to buy the magazine. It is well worth the read believe me.

OK the 335 is among them! The F430 was eliminated in the first round.

Main article: America's Best Handling Car - Selection Process - Feature - Motor Trend

Contenders:

BMW 335 i
Corvette Z06
Honda Civic Si
Honda S2000
Lotus Exiges S
MazdaSpeed 3
Mini Cooper S JCW GP
Mitsubishi EVO IX MR
Porsche 911 GT3
Porsche Cayman S

Just to post something to pique your interest in that issue, here's the lap times only:


Laguna Seca: Best lap times

No. 1 Porsche 911 GT3 1:39.517
No. 2 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 1:40.919
No. 3 Lotus Exige S 1:45.818
No. 4 Porsche Cayman S 1:47.577
No. 5 Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR 1:47.926
No. 6 BMW 335i 1:49.038

The 335 performs excellently, 1.5 seconds off a 2 seater all out sports car like the Cayman S. For a 5 seater that rocks.

Videos:

Road Test: 2007 Lotus Exige S - America's Best Handling Car Competition Video
Watch this video road test of the 2007 Lotus Exige S from the America's Best Handling Car Competitio...

Road Test: 2007 Honda S2000 - America's Best Handling Car Competition Video
Watch this video of the 2007 Honda S2000 from the America's Best Handling Car competition featuring ...

Road Test: 2007 MazdaSpeed3 - America's Best Handling Car Competition Video
Professional racecar driver Max Angelelli and Motor Trend Senior Editor Ron Kiino discuss the handli...

Road Test: 2007 Honda Civic Si - America's Best Handling Car Competition Video
Sun Trust Racing Driver Max Angelelli drives the 2007 Honda Civic Si around the track and tells us w...

Road Test: 2007 BMW 335i Convertible Video
With competition heating up in the luxury convertible segment, BMW had to make sure that its fourth-...

 

[///M3]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

wheres subaru

 

[MRacer77]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

wow, the vette z06 and the gt3 are at least 5 seconds faster than any other car out there.. damn...

 

[Puny]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

The Z06 is a supercar for less than half the price of it's peers, and what a monster at that!

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Reading the qualifiers, the Z06 was a HORRIBLE handling car, but the incredible engine just punched through the 2 straights at Laguna Seca.

 

[Suipalucsea]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Rather sporting of CaySman to keep us informed about the 335 --- most Porschemen would have been telling us how inferior it is to any Porsche! Thanks!

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Rather sporting of CaySman to keep us informed about the 335 --- most Porschemen would have been telling us how inferior it is to any Porsche! Thanks!

the 335 is a 5 seater. The GT3 is triple the price. The Cayman S is a 2 seater for a big price premium over the 335 coupe. The 335 matches the Cayman for Laguna Seca. What's the `inferior' here?

I'm not a Porsche man. If anything I'm a Merc man but I've got nothing to cheer about the last decade! Save the E-Class maybe but it's vastly outclassed now. I'd never have bought any Porsche if not for the Cayman. The 335 is a truly wonderous machine, as I've said many times. If one can't buy a 2 seater toy, this 335 coupe is the REAL deal.

 

[Arsony]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Quite a funny way to compare handling. Dump all classes of cars into one league. I mean how can you compare the exige to the 335? If like that..... I put in my fav car already... the Ariel Atom!!!
Sure win one! How Wilman??? Can bring in for me anot? I can supply my own umbrella .....

Arsony
Topaz Blue NOT funny....

 

[MRacer77]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Reading the qualifiers, the Z06 was a HORRIBLE handling car, but the incredible engine just punched through the 2 straights at Laguna Seca.

I don't know what you were reading but this is what I was reading and I somehow don't share your point of view...

FINALIST: Chevy Corvette Z06-Who'd have thunk just a few years back that Chevy's blunt-instrument 'Vette could matriculate into a thoroughbred track star? But sure enough, replacing a steel chassis with a stiffer aluminum one, swapping carbon-fiber for fiberglass panels, and re-tuning the suspension to suit a 7.0-liter 505-horse engine, has made the Corvette Z06 a potential world-beater.

How does the passage above make it sound like it handles Horribly?

Not to mention the z06 is faster around the Ring than most any car, if it can handle, you can't get those types of timings...

 

[MRacer77]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Quite a funny way to compare handling. Dump all classes of cars into one league. I mean how can you compare the exige to the 335? If like that..... I put in my fav car already... the Ariel Atom!!!
Sure win one! How Wilman??? Can bring in for me anot? I can supply my own umbrella .....

Arsony
Topaz Blue NOT funny....

I would not mind a Radical actually...

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

I don't know what you were reading but this is what I was reading and I somehow don't share your point of view...

FINALIST: Chevy Corvette Z06-Who'd have thunk just a few years back that Chevy's blunt-instrument 'Vette could matriculate into a thoroughbred track star? But sure enough, replacing a steel chassis with a stiffer aluminum one, swapping carbon-fiber for fiberglass panels, and re-tuning the suspension to suit a 7.0-liter 505-horse engine, has made the Corvette Z06 a potential world-beater.

How does the passage above make it sound like it handles Horribly?

Not to mention the z06 is faster around the Ring than most any car, if it can handle, you can't get those types of timings...

You're right. I'm beginning to falter. I might have read it in the print article for the finalist vs finalist version, or some Z06 forum, saying that even though it was the 2nd fastest in the test group, it was the most difficult car to drive or something.

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Quite a funny way to compare handling. Dump all classes of cars into one league. I mean how can you compare the exige to the 335? If like that..... I put in my fav car already... the Ariel Atom!!!
Sure win one! How Wilman??? Can bring in for me anot? I can supply my own umbrella .....

Arsony
Topaz Blue NOT funny....

Arsony, if you dumped all the cars together, cars like the 335 and Civic would not stand a chance in the finals. At least, now we have a top 10, and how the top 10 performed is merely academic. The top 10 represents the top 2 cars in their class each.

 

[axl]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Wah, my car is #5!

Oh wait... I only have the 8MR. :verysad:

 

[MRacer77]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

You're right. I'm beginning to falter. I might have read it in the print article for the finalist vs finalist version, or some Z06 forum, saying that even though it was the 2nd fastest in the test group, it was the most difficult car to drive or something.

But most print articles I have read suggest that the z06 is a handling monster... lateral acceleration of more than 1.0g and is practically a track car disguised as a road car.

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

But most print articles I have read suggest that the z06 is a handling monster... lateral acceleration of more than 1.0g and is practically a track car disguised as a road car.

lemme get the MT paper and type it down ... patience is a virtue.

 

[MRacer77]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

motor trend?

They don't know a car from a truck lah... even the British mags have good things to say about the z06. Check out EVO or CAR.

look it can be that bad cause the z06 time around the Ring is only 2 second slower than that of a Porsche Carrera GT, a car many times more expensive than the z06 and with more HP and less weight I might add.

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

Hey this whole thing is from Motor Trend!

The Z06 has Shaun's favourite production V8. It's not a bad car. I've read many reviews of it vs the Viper and it wins hands down. BUT it's not exactly EASY to drive, but it sure is fast.

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

OK, some remarks about the Corvette Z06 from the print article. YOU SHOULD BUY THE JUNE 2007 MOTOR TREND. THE FIGURES THEY GIVE CANNOT BE AVAILABLE ANYWHERE ELSE, SO THOSE 335 OWNERS PLEASE BUY IT. IT'S GREAT!!!

'Our Corvette Z06's surprising ninth place ranking owes much to its last place chassis control ranking. Quite simply, this car's surplus power and surfeit of rear grip overwork the stability control, the driver's nerves, or both, on public roads. combine that with imprecise steering and a chassis that's easily upset in bumpy curves and pretty soon in a handling test, you're looking at a low ranking. Consierting the rest of its impressive performance envelope, it's certainly a bargain supercar, but it turns out that handling isn't its longest suit.

some more, by max Angelelli, racing driver: Angelli saved the Z06 for last because prior experience suggested it would be a handful. `This one is definitely the most difficult to drive because of low rear grip and high power'. Off power, on power, on brake everywhere - (oversteer).

About the 335i, - editor MacKenzie pronounced it `the best everyday real world ride/handling compromise' sealing a solid XXX finish, with only overt sports cars ranked ahead of it.

Wow, 335i people MUST BUY THIS ISSUE. As mentioned, the numbers they give are so unique and so hard gotten, you must buy this issue to keep for posterity. Never will you get these numbers again, meaningful or not.

 

[AC Schnitzer]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

ohh nooooooo ... Evo IX slower the cayman s....

Need Taniguchi to drive it.

 

[centurion]

Re: America's Best Handling Car Videos - Motor Trend June 2007

ohh nooooooo ... Evo IX slower the cayman s....

Need Taniguchi to drive it.

they were using the questionable quick wearing Yoko Advan A046, and the suspension was stock - too soft! I doubt that anybody drives the mazda speedway at Laguna Seca significantly faster than Max Angelelli....