Not bad reading- objective tests yield interesting results, subjective impressions etc.. (Guess its not really OT Auto as there is a Mini in the mix)

Part 1:
http://www.motortrend.com/features/p...sts/index.html

Part 2:
http://www.motortrend.com/features/p...ing/index.html

Part 3:
http://www.motortrend.com/features/p...ion/index.html

 

thats a lot of reading for cars that we can't afford anyways.

 

You can't afford a Chevy Cobalt?

Here's a nicely written one for all spendy cars

http://viewer.zmags.co.uk/showmag.ph...1&_x=1#/page2/

 

Graphs:

 

Interesting, didn't they do the same a year or two ago with a MINI GP? And it looks like they only used a Cooper S instead of a JCW for this test. From my experience the R56 feels a lot softer than in the suspension than the old R53.

 

Somebody needs to perform these tests with a modified R53, just to see how well one might stack up against the latest great handling cars.

 

I am surprised that the Mustang is in this group. I spent some seat time in a GT (I know, apples to oranges when it comes to the GT 500 but its the same suspension tech) and that car just felt nervous when you hit a bump mid corner, not to mention it just felt old, almost truck like. Don't get me wrong, it was a blast to drive, but I just feel like it doesn't belong in this group. Not to mention, no Corvette (never driven one but seems like it should fit) and no Elise/Exige? Isn't the Lotus built for this test?

 

Yeah, I wondered the same thing too, there was no logic in not including a Lotus in a handling comparo.

 

They said in the article that the 06 JCW did better than the R56s.

 

Here's last year's test which included the GP: http://www.motortrend.com/features/1...car/index.html

 

Yah know, if I drove a statistic, or a graph or a pie chart, I might find this stuff fascinating as all get-out.
But I generally drive things that make me feel good about driving them and am rarely influenced by an over-abundance of details (information overload).
If I was making a living driving the car hard it would be important; as it is, I go for the "this particular car makes me grin like an idiot and I can't wait to drive it" method. Just me, tho. Carry on.
(I do like all the pretty colors, fwiw.)

 

I agree, I know what I like, my cars included no matter what others opinions or stats are - but that can be said with anything, like food for example, I still read restaurant reviews and check the ingredients sometimes and get good insights occasionally and sometimes its just entertaining

 

Were all the cars baseline models? I did a major doubletake when I saw the price on the MINI as $23K.

 

They use the base price plus whatever options would improve performance. There's no sense adding a $2000 leather option for this test.