What I was amazed me was the Z06 at the end of the article, it was about 2 seconds faster than the fastest car tested on the track. I guess Z06s are really that good.

 

Or all the cars in that test were that embarassing.

 

The Z06s are that good. Lots of torque and power, low weight, lots of tire.

I think C&D did a poor job of contacting tuners for candidates though. A friends Evo around here is making over 350whp and with the coilovers tuned in, we're making Z06s feel bad. In the wet, it's down right wrong how easy it is to make others feel slow.

He still has much less money in his Evo than a z06 and he can comfortably carry 4 people. And he gets better gas mileage putzing around public roads.

 

The interesting thing about this article that just dawned on me. It seams it is setup to say that manufacturers can make more power, driveability, and civility than tuners can. C&D really has become a snooty bunch to cars under $45,000. They setup the tests to favor their bias.

I think the test where the Evo was the least expensive car in the bunch by 100s of thousands of dollars and still impressed is more indicative of the cars capabilites. Was that Road and Track?

 

Noh, It might be that the weather is hot so the NA cars have an advantage. I am pretty sure that the track has a lot of long straights for top speed so the 4 cylinders are not as good in that aspect.

Z06 are fast cars, just look a 24hs of Le Mans, they kick *** every time.

I don't think C&D is saying factory tuned is better, I think they were just comparing 4 cylinders to 8.

 

So much for these guys claiming they get 12's with stock cars plus an exhaust. I'm afraid I trust the equipment used by Car and Driver more than some drag strip with a christmas tree. These guys even brought their own drivers. What is really startling is that a lot of the FWD tuners with 100s of horsepower and tens of thousand of dollars barley eked out performance better than my 10 year old Sentra SE-R. Where was the Neon SRT?

 

Ok few comments..

1: I was really dissappointed in C&D. The evo did great for the mods, but hardly got ANY air time.. The EVO beat the S2K in almost all tests but still lost because they didn't like the clutch??? How much was invested in the s2k? it should have done ALOT better IMO.

2: I think shiv's evo should have gotten more props on air because he placed 4th with an almost stock car. but it was not even really mentioned. I mean if i was doing the writting, i would have specifically mentioned that even with almost no mods, the evo still kicked the crap out of most of the cars there.

3: Cordwood: i would trust ANY drag strip over C&D, they suck and are never accurate with any #'s i have ever seen them produce. And drivers make ALL the difference.


4: the whole thing seemed very slanted and biased against 4 cyl cars. i mean did they limit their other tests to 91 octane???? then not even mention it? talk about handy capping a car.

 

Could you explain to me how you trust a datalogger like that that goes off of movement over measuring devices used by 4 sec funny cars? I really wish C&D would take the cars to a drag strip and lay some VHT down.

 

The test where they gave the stock Evo love was in Motor Trend's top speed article...

 

Actually, the Z06 was the most impressive car of the bunch. It's totally stock and was about 2 seconds faster than any of the "tuner" cars.

Gotta love those V8's

 

FWIW, most of the gap the ZO6 pulled on the faster tuner cars was in the 100-130 acceleration where it ran away from the pack. Good aero, great gearing, 400+hp and naturally aspirated consistency make for an awesome package when it comes to triple digit acceleration.

my 2c,
shiv

 

First, as stated a few times already, props to Shiv for placing well with next to nothing in mods compared to the rest of the field. Second, I'm utterly sick and tired of magazines using bull**** criteria like civility, backseat headroom, interior noise, and the cargo space in the trunk when comparing cars for performance. I forget what issue it was, but a while back motor trend ran an article titled "speed wars 2002" or something like that in which they compared a Z06, E46 M3, and a Boxter S. The Vette won (in a virtual landslide) 4 out of the 5 tests, and tied dead on with the M3 in the 5th test. Yet the M3 was declared the unanimous victor because it had a backseat and was easier to drive on the street. I thought this was "speed wars", not "cruising Hollywood Blvd. on a Saturday night to pick up chicks wars". Granted, having Rhys behind the wheel I'm sure made a lot of difference in lap times, but the RMR EVO won outright 4 of the 5 tests (if I'm not mistaken), the S2000 beat all in acceleration from 100-130 (anyone who's ever driven an S2K knows how HARD they pull in top gear...NASTY!!). So, RMR's was a Euro-spec 7 with a US 8 front and rear end. Who cares? The only real difference between that car and our was the acd, note that the ayc was pulled off the car to make way for the RMR exhaust. I somehow doubt that the acd made much of a difference with Rhys behind the wheel anyway!! Ok, I own an EVO, I track the car regularly now, and hence I'm super biased, but I don't think that street driveability should even be remotely considered in a test like this. I'm getting flashes of olympic ice skating now, where a sequin falls off a chick's spandex and she loses 2 points in the artistic numbers, but she pulls 80 triple sow cows perfectly and finishes 12th. "Fourgasm"? My ***! And, please C&D, spare me the gratuitous "look how bad the stock $56k Z06 spanked the entire field" utter crap. Give me an EVO plus $26k in mods...from any one of the listed tuners, and I'll have a nice set of Z06 door handles to go along with my ****-eating grin! Note: I'm possibly one of the world's largest Z06 fans!!

 

I don't have an EVO but I taped the show last Sunday. I read this thread to see what everyone's impression was and I hope it's the same SUPER FLEA show that we are talking about here. The writers did give the Vishnu EVO props saying that "for not much coin" you can make an already great car even greater. They were very impressed by the 4th place finish so I don't feel that they downed that car any.

In the end they gave the victory to the S2K not only because of the lap times but on the street they claimed that the supercharger did not interfere with the stock feeling of the car. It only became active at high revs which for the most part made the car feel easily driveable. They did say however that the guy paid 28K in mods and $7500 in interior mods above and beyond the price of the car.

I don't have cable but I tape it and watch the shows over during the week. For those that don't have it or haven't seen you can PM me as I am sure I will watch it a few times more before the next one. and Oh it was 16 cars

2 did not finish the test

They never said what the other 4 were but to log onto www.caranddriver.com to see all the results. I think I'll do that now

Peace
WADAD

 

The really cool thing about the Z06 is now you can get a low mileage '02 in the mid to high $30k's.............and now since my Evo's gone, hmmmmm......

 

I read the article in C&D today. Looks like there were two categories not mentioned in the TV show. Front wheel drive and rear or 4 wheel drive.

The TV show lumped them all together.


WADAD