Road and Track 4 track test. Must Read

[565]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=31&article_id=6939

Good stuff.

[afty]

That was a very cool article.  For those of you who are too lazy to click the link, it's a track test of 10 different sports cars on 4 different types of tracks.  R&T provides the lap times for each track and also some comments on how each car felt.

Here are the cars they compared:
Aston Martin DBS
Audi R8
BMW M3 Coupe
Chevrolet Corvette Z06
Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR
Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4
Lotus Exige S 240
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR
Nissan GT-R
Porsche 911 GT2

[r0tor]

interesting article....

I guess alot can be said for good tires and/or AWD in a high powered street car

[Nethead]

Cuttin' to the chase (well, chases since there were four courses) in the R&T  Free-for-All:

With each track producing different results, we were eager to see how the cars ranked overall. So we evenly weighted the results of each of the four tracks, normalizing the scores on a 25-point system. And then we added the four scores to produce a winner. Think of it as an automotive decathlon, with four events instead of 10, in which the car that has the best combined result is declared king. As you can see on the accompanying chart, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 took home the crown, despite the fact the Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR won more events. Surprises? We expected the Porsche 911 GT2 and Chevrolet Corvette Z06 to have fared better. But the main story here is that we found out over four grueling days that the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 is the most well-rounded performance machine in this test. Period.

Finishing
Position Car Autocross
(25 Points) Streets of
Willow
(25 Points) Willow
Springs
Big Track
(25 Points) Auto Club
Speedway
(25 Points) Total
Points
(100 Points)
1  Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 24.75 25.00 24.67 24.56 98.97
2  Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR 25.00 24.96 25.00 23.83 98.79
3  Nissan GT-R 24.54 24.84 24.69 24.56 98.63
4  Porsche 911 GT2 24.56 24.53 24.07 25.00 98.16
5  Audi R8 24.25 24.22 24.17 23.44 96.07
6  Chevrolet Corvette Z06 23.85 24.15 23.88 23.12 94.99
7  Aston Martin DBS 23.59 23.71 23.40 23.23 93.94
8  BMW M3 Coupe 23.33 23.54 23.24 22.58 92.70
9  Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR 23.15 23.17 22.90 22.11 91.34
10 Lotus Exige S 240 23.63 23.28 22.96 21.23 91.09

Great comparo! Kudos again to Road & Track for another breakthrough competition!

The Lotus's looks-like-a-kit-car aerodynamics didn't help it in this competition, and I hope t' Hell that Lotus is payin' attention...A modern V8, V10, or V12 wouldn't have hurt, either...
The Viper ACR shows that Chrysler is steadily gettin' more and more out of what was a great car to begin with--can you imagine what a '65 Cobra 427 would be today after forty-three years of continued development? (!!!!!)
The Lamborghini:  Big bucks should be backed up with big results, and the Lambo came through...
The Nissan GT-R's high finish really shouldn't be a surprise--it's bad-ass in the grand ol' tradition!
The Porsche 911 GT2:  You expected a Porsche to fall flat?  Hardly!
The BMW M3 coupe:  When you consider how well this non-sportscar vehicle did against the sportscar vehicles in this class, just think how stand-out this vehicle is compared to vehicles that are  in its class! w00t!
The Aston Martin:  A big, posh, Member of Parliament's second childhood dreamcar--damned amazing that such a vehicle would garner 93.94 points out of a hundred in a comparo like this!

And this brings us to the Audi R8, the vehicle that finished the highest of the "civilized" vehicles (the Audi, the Aston, and the Bimmer)--those that beat the Audi were specialized kick-your-ass pavement rippers meant to keep you well in the hunt on track day. 'Finished ahead of three other vehicles meant for hell-raising, too!  Refined, sophisticated, fast without being raucous...the top four are the better track vehicles, but this is the car that doesn't sacrifice in other areas to give you strong performance plus strong liveability.  'Way to go, Audi!  
   

[MrH]

I think the most impressive cars out of this group: The Lambo and the R8.  We all knew the GTR would smack most of the cars around.  And the viper was kind of a given.  It came with an engineer to adjust the suspension.

I really really wish they threw a Ferrari F430 into the mix.  The impression I got of it before is that it's a little sharper and more planted than the last Gallardo, so I'd like to see how it compares to the LP560-4 (stupid name btw).

Pretty disappointed by the GT2.  I'm a Porsche whore, and the GT2 is supposed to be the grand daddy of 911's.  I was expecting it to just romp on every car there, but that wasn't the case at all.  It seems to be just as disappointing as the turbo was.

[93JC]

If you're disappointed by the 911 GT2 getting beat by two other cars by a fraction of a 'point' in a convoluted test scheme feel free to send one my way if you happen to have one lying around.

[NomisR]

Good review.. one thing though, I'm surprised that Steve Millen couldn't get pass 100mph in the Exige S240 at the front straight at SOW since I was able to hit 90+ with 50 less hp.  And with a supercharged engine, he should be able to come out of the skid pad area with more power.  Usually, the F/I cars walk away from me in the straights so I'd imagine him being able to do better.