Motor Trend’s Carlos Lago gets to take a crack at the all-new 2013 SRT Viper GTS. The results are no huge surprise as the latest car “doesn’t betray what made Viper iconic and legendary.” That’s another way of saying it’s still a ridiculous and scary superhero caricature of a car. SRT has given the Viper more power and a lighter weight but at the same time have made an effort to improve the chassis balance so that you can at least entertain the thought of approaching the car’s limits. Watch the video to see all the details of the new car including a lap around Laguna Seca in race mode with Randy Pobst. After that, check out the article on Motor Trend’s website comparing the new Viper with the Corvette ZR-1 to see who makes the best American performance car that costs over $100,000.
You’re going to want to set aside a solid 45 minutes to watch these videos. We continue to reap the benefits of YouTube paying good money to car magazines for original content to rival traditional TV shows. Motor Trend’s latest installment is their 2012 Best Driver’s Car compilation. I like the way they do this annual comparison because a lot of people tend to misuse the term “driver’s car,” but Motor Trend has got it right and they stick to their guns. What makes a good driver’s car goes way beyond the numbers of the performance statistics. The 0-60 time doesn’t say anything about the car’s balance, feedback, fun or driver engagement. Those things are much harder to describe, but thankfully we have Johnny Lieberman, Carlos Lagos and Randy Pobst here working together to convey the driving experiences of this dream car lineup. This year they rounded up the Jaguar XKR-S, Subaru BRZ, Lamborghini Aventador, Porsche 911 Carrera S, Ford Shelby GT500, Nissan GT-R Black Edition, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series and McLaren MP4-12C. The boys start out by doing winding road introductions of each car and then they turn them over to Randy for hot laps around Laguna Seca. They finish up by choosing a top 3 and then driving them some more to pick an overall winner.
Motor Trend is maintaining a very high level of excellence with their YouTube shows. Editor in Chief Angus Mackenzie and professional driver Randy Pobst weigh in here on this battle to see who has made the best modern muscle car, Ford or Chevrolet. You could even go as far as to say that these two cars represent the state of the muscle car genre. They no longer settle for only going in a straight line well. In fact, they test the Laguna Seca lap time before the drag race for this video and Motor Trend loves to do drag races. Besides the testing, Mackenzie and Pobst do a phenomenal job describing the details and nuances of each car so you can understand their natures even if you never get to drive one in real life.
Kudos to Motor Trend for coming up with an interesting comparison on this one. Lets say you are in the market for a mid-range (under 30 thousand) new car with a warranty that is rear wheel drive, has a back seat and is sporty enough to do some autocrosses or track days on the weekend. The best candidates on your list would be the new Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ, Ford Mustang V6, Hyundai Genesis coupe and maybe the V6 Chevrolet Camaro. In reality, probably not too many people are going to cross-shop the two cars in this comparison, but they do belong in the same genre. As with the rest of the high quality FT-86 reviews, there is a lot of talk about being a balanced driver’s car vs. having power and the contrast with the Mustang illustrates it very well. Editor Angus Mackenzie drives both cars on some mountain roads and then they are turned over to Randy Pobst for a lap time around Streets of Willow.
Motor Trend just posted this video review of the Scion FR-S. It’s got me pretty excited because I was worried about how well the FR-S and it’s twin, the Subaru BRZ, would be received here in America. I’ve noticed a bit of a disturbing trend in enthusiasts lately that involves taking tuning too far. Everybody seems to be dreaming of massive power numbers or some sort of intricate fabrication intensive way of doing something that nobody else has had the resources to try. I overhear a lot of these delusions of grandeur at car shows where some guy is talking really loudly about how the car that he’s going to build is better than the one everybody is looking at. This kind of mentality bothered me to the point where I cancelled my subscription to Modified magazine when they decided to turn all of their weekend warrior project cars into unlimited budget time attack racers and then raised the cover price to pay for it. I’m not willing to pay $35 a year to read tech articles on how to install a $12,000 carbon fiber wide body kit that’s not readily available here in the States. I was thinking about it today and I think at least part of the responsibility for this mentality is due to the age of the car forum.
The internet makes it a good time to be a car guy right now. All of the cars that I have owned have had their own dedicated forums where I’ve been able ask questions and do research. I’ve even been able to download free PDF’s of all of the factory service manuals that I’ve ever needed. This sharing of information makes car forums great, but it’s not without its downsides. Just like the rest of the internet, problems arise when some people realize that they have access to a large audience of people to impress. That’s when sensible tuning philosophy goes out the window. “I sharpened up the turn-in of my car and did some autocrosses” simply doesn’t carry the same weight in digital text as “I made 800 hp with my custom turbo setup.” I think that’s why a lot more people are too eager to go over-budget on a project that’s well beyond their skill level. It could also be that I’ve been in the car scene long enough to turn into the equivalent of the crotchety old man who yells at all the young kids and their big turbos. Get off my lawn!
Either way, I was pleasantly surprised when the guy doing this review of the Scion FR-S, Carlos Lago, starts talking about how well balanced the car is. He realized that the driving experience the car provided was the result of the engine power, steering, brakes, tires and suspension all working in harmony. That’s exactly why I’ve been so excited about this car. This is what it means to be a driver’s car, not “Check out how hard you get pushed into your seat as I mash the throttle to the floor and get a speeding ticket.” Lago even goes on to ask the tuners of America not to ruin the car by putting turbos on it. They then proceed to do the standard barrage of tests and hand the car over to Randy Pobst to drive on The Horse Thief Mile at Willow Springs. I would say this is the best review for the FT-86 that I’ve found so far.
