Should car mags have an universal speed test?

[PerfAdv]

Perspective... Imagine a super country more super than the US. It was bigger, had bigger roads and because they could -had cheaper gasoline. Needless to say they drove the biggest cars. 6L V12s were the mainstay for the average car but the only cars they admired were 12+ liter V24s. Cars that weighed <2 tonnes were the lightweights and road design allowed high-speed travel all day long. The rest of the world considered them gluttons. They excused these judgements as jealousy. They thought of Ferraris as Americans think of NSXs: finicky, high strung little cars that excels in the hills and twisties but has no real power...it is all relative.

Such is power, elusive to capture. An application of power to create speed can however be tested. Real competance is the ability to complete a said task with better efficiency. LeMans, is such a test. For the average consumer car there is no such universal test. A respected automotive journal should test cars for track times to see exactly how cars stack up against each other. Might be a good use of Silverstone now. Or maybe a track where handling advantage can be easily seen as well as topspeed advantage. Elise beats F-360 on the infield Whereas the F360 betters the Elise by 50 MPH topspeed. And lap times are the verdict.

I propose that we start a petition at UCP and present it to the different Journals. A real selling point for them and a real definitive test for the enthusiast. I for one would buy such a magazine. Since we presented the idea we should have a say in the ground rules: Manufacturers present unmodified examples of their cars. Based on weather conditions/unfavorable testing retests can be petitioned. No cheating as the testing should be independantly monitored...etc. Can an STi take on the Carrera4? How does a X5 compare against a 5 Series or V6 Camry? You'll know.

If you'd like to see such testing done, send others here and let's get the ball rolling.

[jcp123]

pollution?? no don't care. havent driven anything with a catalytic converter for a long time now.

So you just want to see top speed tests? Honestly, I'm not sure that'd do us much good here in the states...better suited to somewhere like Germany where you can actually open them up - and in fact, they do top speeds in the mags already.

Also, with the electronic speed nannies the safety nazis are putting in cars these days, you can jsut quote the manufacturer's top speed...

[PerfAdv]

So you just want to see top speed tests? Honestly, I'm not sure that'd do us much good here in the states...better suited to somewhere like Germany where you can actually open them up - and in fact, they do top speeds in the mags already.

No, not just top-speed. Just as 0-60 establishes initial acceleration and nothing else. Lap times around the same track for all cars would establish their relative overall competance.

[jcp123]

ah! i see. that'd be nice

[Slicks]

True, MotorTrend has kinda started to do this. Their "figure 8" test, it shows grip, acceleration, and braking. They're doing it with almost all the cars they test now.

[PerfAdv]

Originally Posted by Slicks

True, MotorTrend has kinda started to do this. Their "figure 8" test, it shows grip, acceleration, and braking. They're doing it with almost all the cars they test now.

Interesting, a 'figure 8' its a start. Do they list it with the summary or more of separate piece? An additional column in the summary would be great for side-by-side comparisons.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by Slicks

True, MotorTrend has kinda started to do this. Their "figure 8" test, it shows grip, acceleration, and braking. They're doing it with almost all the cars they test now.

The German mag SportAuto does the same but on top gives a lap time for the old Nuerburgring track.
The impracticalties of coming up with an ultimate fully comparable test are manifold.
Most importantly you will need all the cars at the same time on the same place and probably also using the same driver. Any deviation from that would affect the results, weather influences being the major culprit. Anyway, any roadtest result will be indicative only.

[Sweeney921]

I think it would be much too hard to be consistent, so I'm saying no

[Blue Supra]

Henk makes a good point, youd need the same track, day, driver, weather etc. now i dont think many mags are going to pay to have say a XR8, SS and Raliart Magna sent over to a track on the other side of the world, although i did read a while ago they sent a XR8 (or was it XR6T??) to Europe to drive it around there...

[PerfAdv]

Originally Posted by henk4

The German mag SportAuto does the same but on top gives a lap time for the old Nuerburgring track.
The impracticalties of coming up with an ultimate fully comparable test are manifold.
Most importantly you will need all the cars at the same time on the same place and probably also using the same driver. Any deviation from that would affect the results, weather influences being the major culprit. Anyway, any roadtest result will be indicative only.

I am goint to get a copy of SportAuto to check it out. Nurbergring, awesome if it includes the older sections all the better. I suppose its in German - can still make out facts and figures.

The challenges will be many. As far as track conditions go. Use the same track using the magazines set of drivers(just as its done now). The tests should be run in the summer months with temperature not varying more than 5 degrees. And direct comparos between like cars should be done together, as they are now.

The reason I wanted to see something like this is the very boring and uninformative road tests that most car mags have. 'Indicative' yes, but better than just instrumented 0-60, 1/4 mile, 60-0 type tests. It's just weights and measures mostly.