2015 Motor Trend Best Driver’s Car
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DNF: Chevrolet Corvette Z06 Z07
It didn't work. The damn Z06 retarded spark by 8 degrees, and the 1.7-liter TVS supercharger refused to make boost. No one knows why. Chevrolet came up with a "bad gas" theory, but Big Nasty got filled at the same Chevron stations as everyone else and even swallowed 8 gallons of 101 octane in an attempt to get the supercharger to wake up. No luck. What we have here is a failure to compete. What a pity.
9th Place: Volkswagen Golf R
8th Place: Lexus RC FThe Golf R's 1:46.95 was the second slowest of this year's group. That sounds bad until you look at our handy Laguna Lap list and note that that time beats a 2006 Porsche Cayman S, the most recent Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (another AWD turbo 2.0-liter making 291 horsepower) we tested, and a few other bona fide sports cars. Of course, even the fastest lap does not define the best driver's car, and what most prevented the Golf R from being in the BDC conversation was fun-killing understeer attributed to the 4motion all-wheel-drive system. "The [track] experience was dominated by understeer, and being on the power just makes the understeer worse," Pobst said.
7th Place: Cadillac ATS-VNot surprising, the 5.0-liter, eight-speed powertrain puts down fast stats—0-60 in 4.5 seconds and the quarter mile in 12.9 seconds at 110.3 mph—including a lap time of 1:43.20 around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Sure, the Lexus' time is about three ticks off that of last year's BMW M4 (1:39.69), but it's still quicker than the Audi RS 5 (1:43.60) and the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Edition 507 (1:43.49) that we lapped back in 2013. Problem is, the Lexus' speed doesn't translate to emotion, a much-needed qualifier when ranking contenders for Best Driver's Car. Per Jonny Lieberman: "I want engagement. I want to be thrilled. What I don't want is to get out of the car thinking, 'That's much faster than I thought.' That's the problem with the RC F." The car's unrelenting suspension over bumpy pavement was more problematic. Noted Jason Cammisa: "With this bouncy suspension, it's no wonder the ESP system has been programmed to handle Nurburgring jumps. The damn thing is always pogoing off the ground."
6th Place: Cadillac CTS-VAngus MacKenzie spoke for us all, noting that its "steering and chassis are a delight, way more communicative and composed than the current-generation of BMW M3/M4." Ed Loh described the ATS-V as "a modern update on the E46 [2001-2006] M3," praising its blistering speed, well-balanced ride, and eagerness to change direction. Ron Kiino enthused about the slick manual gearbox, and newbie Jason Cammisa deemed this V to have "the best stability-control programming this side of Ferrari" and among "the best clutch and e-gas calibration of any sport sedan in the world."
At Mazda Raceway, driving ace Randy Pobst emerged heaping praise on the no-lift shift feature. (The engine computer prevents over-revving during shifts while keeping the turbos spooled.) He proclaimed the ATS-V to be "really happy on the racetrack" and said it delivers "a very stable chassis without a lot of understeer." He was pleased that the damping allows enough compliance to permit some weight transfer when transitioning to power at corner exits, preventing oversteer. And indeed its lap times (we track-tested both six-speed manual and eight-speed automatic coupe variants) ranked fifth place, with the swifter shifting and more advantageously geared automatic breaking into the minute-30s with a 1:39.6 and the manual trailing by 0.6 second.
5th Place: Bentley Continental GT3-RAlthough we deeply admire the V's heroic punch and pace, applying its muscle at ten-tenths took a lot of calculation. Perplexed by its five-mode Performance Traction Management system, many responded by beelining it straight to its most ruckus Race mode (no computer safety nets), in which the rear tires struggled to keep hold, even when the 295/30ZR-19 Michelin Pilot Super Sports were optimally warmed up.
Noted Pobst: "It has a delicious balance when the (traction and stability) controls are off. But I have to be careful with the throttle application because it's pretty easy to spin the back tires when the controls are off, especially in second gear off Turns 11 and 2. I have to be real gentle with the throttle coming in." On Route 198, Ed Loh was surprised by the chassis' "tons of vertical movement" in PTM mode 3, 4, or 5, adding, "Steering is more natural and suited to this car, better than the artificial heft of the ATS-V." Granted, the higher the mode, the more track-focused the vehicle's electronics become -- damper stiffness, throttle reactiveness, steering heft, and shift speed all are upped. Yet even still, it was clear that the congruency of systems and human involvement was not as well-orchestrated as those in other contenders. Nannies play a huge role in tempering the V's urge to annihilate its tires.
4th Place: Mercedes-AMG C63 S"This thing is 2.5 tons of fun! Shockingly brilliant balance on power and huge grip everywhere," enthused Jason Cammisa after a storming run up and back Route 198. "Made me feel heroic," said EIC Ed Loh. "So quick! And athletic!" added Lieberman. It might weigh 213 pounds less than a Continental GT V8 S, but at 4,919 pounds—a solid 811 pounds more than the next heaviest car here—the GT3-R is anything but svelte. It's built like an offensive lineman, but on Route 198 it drove more like a wide receiver.
The secret sauce is brake-induced torque vectoring, the inside rear caliper clamping the rotor to help the big car rotate toward the apex. That, combined with the tweaked 4.0-liter engine, which develops 51 hp and 14 lb-ft of torque more than in the regular Continental GT V8 (more during overboost), plus the beautifully matched eight-speed automatic transmission and the oily tactility of the steering, made the GT3-R feel at times like the world's biggest, fastest, most refined Subaru WRX STI.
3rd Place: Mazda MX-5 MiataA funny thing happened after we voted: Everyone had a little trouble explaining why the Mercedes-AMG C63 S didn't place higher. I know because I asked them when I couldn't immediately answer the question myself. The general consensus eventually went something like this: The C63 is great, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but those three other cars were even better.
2nd Place: Porsche Cayman GT4"It's proof you don't need a lot of power to make a great driver's car," Ron Kiino said.
Added Jonny Lieberman: "The chassis is incredible, the steering is remarkably good, the manual transmission is great, the wind's in your hair, the bugs are in your teeth—all that."
Indeed, the MX-5 doesn't need the power of a modern-day supercar. It doesn't even offer drive mode selection for enhanced exit smiles. There are just two drive modes for the MX-5: top up or top down.
1st Place: Mercedes-AMG GT SSeveral words that show up repeatedly in the editors' comments: perfect, wonderful, devilish, racy, great, incredible, beautiful, awesome, absolutely phenomenal, the best, the finest, and "I'm in love." Yet there are two others that show up just as often: "understeer" and "gearing."
First, gearing. The GT4 may offer, as Angus MacKenzie put it, "the finest manual-transmission shift feel in the business," but then Jonny Lieberman brings up a fine point, asking, "What's the point of a manual-only car that doesn't need to be shifted?"
With a second gear good for 82 indicated mph, you could leave the GT4 in second and forget about it. Absurdly long ratios decimate its 0-60 time, which would drop from our measured 4.1 seconds into the mid-3s if the GT4 had ratios similar to other six-speed manuals. Editor-in-chief Ed Loh describes the transmission as "the Fuji apple of manual gearboxes: sweet, crisp, delicious." Too bad the gears turn it into forbidden fruit. Rev this melodic powertrain to redline three gears in a row, and you'll risk handcuffs.
Then there's the understeer issue. Although we feared the mid-engine Cayman might experience traction problems at its rear end with the 911's motor in the middle, our GT4 actually demonstrated a marked lack of front-end grip. It resolutely understeered both on the road and on track, even after we sent it back to Porsche to fix an alignment issue. The issue persisted even with the anti-roll bars adjusted to favor oversteer.
Despite not being the most expensive, powerful, widest, grippiest, or purpose-built machine for barnstorming, the AMG GT S truly proved its mettle in Race mode on the racetrack. With all systems primed for peak performance and a smooth, familiar track at his disposal, Randy Pobst put down the quickest laps of the day. "I don't know if I have ever driven a better-handling car," he said as he got out. "I love it that much."
Randy went out of his way to extoll how well the rear-wheel drive AMG GT S was able to put the power down to the track's surface, and with a sense of bewilderment said, "It felt like it had downforce -- like it was all-wheel drive." He was on to something, because his 1:35.57 lap time landed it directly between two all-wheel drive cars: the Nissan GT-R Nismo at 1:35.51 and a Porsche 911 Turbo S at 1:35.62.
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Originally Posted by killramos
