How Ferrari Spins

[RacingManiac]

Jalopnik: Obsessed With The Cult Of Cars (http://jalopnik.com/#!5760248/how-ferrari-spins)

Interesting piece posted on Jalopnik yesterday by Autocar/Evo writer Chris Harris...

I think Mr. Glickenhaus posed a reply to that on Jalop as well, though I missed it...

[Dino Scuderia]

Choose the 'press' mode for max performance.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=348186&stc=1&d=1297874618

[henk4]

press press for maximum spin?

[Cobrafan427]

hmm for those of you on here that play batracer, the whole shut down and threat to sue makes perfect sense. It was right around the time they were gettin pwned in F1 and the game reflected it so they threw a fit

[NicFromLA]

I read EVO pretty much cover to cover every month, so I know Chris Harris' work well, and frankly I don't like him. First, I think he's inconsistent: I've read him talk about how he feels adjustable suspensions are a waste in one article and praise them in another. Second, he's biased: Very often he judges cars based on his personal taste, meaning that he'll review a car as being inferior simply because he doesn't like the way it's set up. To put it another way: I think the Porsche 911 GT3 is the center of Harris' automotive universe and the more a car diverges from that, to him the worse a car is.

Is Ferrari being autocratic? Sure, but I also think they're trying to defend themselves from an automotive press that is increasingly becoming puritanical and nasty.

[ScionDriver]

As a lowly, naive young journalist fresh out of college I ask why do the magazines put up with this? I understand it's the way the world works and readers want Ferraris, so they feel obligated to review them to sell issues and make money.

However, if there are other journalists who feel this way (I'm not saying that there are or aren't) then they should just say "Sorry, we aren't going to review your cars if you insist on controlling the outcome so heavily." For a publication, it's unethical. You can't let a company control the test to this level. It's misleading and unfair to the consumer.

[RacingManiac]

I think automotive journalism has always been prone to bias, I like Jalopnik always preface their review of anything with "x company flew us here, paid for our y, and put us up in some z star resort". Its hard for anyone to be truly objective. Even without manufacturer's rigging of a comparison its hard to fully "trust" a test. For Ferrari to do something like that just makes it worse.

At the same token though, its one of the reason why I enjoy reading EVO since they tend to be not about the numbers, but the experience...

Fact is, if a car is bad, for a consumer who has paid money for it, he/she is not going to be kind to it. There is no point in putting "lipstick on a pig" to make it sound better.

[henk4]

As a lowly, naive young journalist fresh out of college I ask why do the magazines put up with this? I understand it's the way the world works and readers want Ferraris, so they feel obligated to review them to sell issues and make money.

However, if there are other journalists who feel this way (I'm not saying that there are or aren't) then they should just say "Sorry, we aren't going to review your cars if you insist on controlling the outcome so heavily." For a publication, it's unethical. You can't let a company control the test to this level. It's misleading and unfair to the consumer.

True point about journalism. And while you may think that magazines dealing with new cars would be more "under the influence" it is quite irritating to see road tests in classic car magazines ending with the words: The car is for sale at so and so.....but otherwise how would they get interesting cars for reviewing?

And as far as the average consumer is concerned, he will hardly read in these roadtests about things that are important to him, like space for him and his passengers and the useability thereof, but much more whether steering is sharp and cornering can be done flat out, reflecting the private preferences of the journalist, on average a young man between 25 and 35 who will be in the car only for a couple of days on his own and thinks he has missed his opportunity to become the next Lewis Hamilton.

And Nic, the press is not becoming puritanical and nasty, but increasingly incompetent.

[ScionDriver]

Yes, but some automotive journalists still see them selves as objective. Like John Phillips of Car and Driver who recently wrote a column about how he's never taken money from a car manufacturer except for one time when he got caught in a rain storm and was given a windbreaker.

The column, while having an air of sarcasm, was really about how objective he is and was written in response to the complaints he gets from readers who accuse him of bias.

It's impossible to be completely objective, but I believe there are better steps automotive publications can take to be more objective.

[henk4]

Yes, but some automotive journalists still see them selves as objective. Like John Phillips of Car and Driver who recently wrote a column about how he's never taken money from a car manufacturer except for one time when he got caught in a rain storm and was given a windbreaker.

The column, while having an air of sarcasm, was really about how objective he is and was written in response to the complaints he gets from readers who accuse him of bias.

It's impossible to be completely objective, but I believe there are better steps automotive publications can take to be more objective.

The advertisment managers of the car magazines determine the objective of the content.

One journalasit is by definition subjective, as he reports about his experience. I have often quoted a specific example from the german magazine Auto Motor und Sport, who consider the German premium marques to have a quite comfy ride. Until they drove a Citroen C5 a couple of years ago and the journo could not help mentioning what a relief it was to drive a family car that has not been mercilessly set up for sportiness. But then, did the C5 become the benchmark for ride comfort for them? You'll know the answer......

[Kitdy]

But then, did the C5 become the benchmark for ride comfort for them? You'll know the answer......

So then Citroen should pay the magazine more money.

As I said before, if you want more consumer (ie, less performance oriented reviews) read newspapers. They are more concerned with practicality - the price is the quality of writing and depth of automotive knowledge is usually lower.

I find it annoying that any review I read is tainted through the lens of the reviewer, and more importantly the advertiser.

Speaking on this issue, Harris' article was one of the better ones on Jalopnik in a while.

Glickenhaus did comment - way down at the bottom of the list, but he didn't have much to say on the matter.

[henk4]

So then Citroen should pay the magazine more money.



It is telling what the importance of a brand is in a country, based on the number of classified adds, one or two Citroens per issue in AMS and shitloads of Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche....so no need to pay for Citroen as their clients will not read that magazine:)

As far as the Harris piece is concerned, yes he may Porsche oriented, but if only half of what he tells us about Ferraris practices is true, we might as well ignore reading every Ferrari test in the future.

[drakkie]

As a former employee of a car magazine I very much understand how difficult it is not to write a biased review. Everybody has a certain bias, but luckily not everybody listens to it. What we always did is to have ALL editors drive all test cars and usually somebody from another random department within the organisation. Also we got the vehicles measured out on various things. For example the suspension was reviewed by the experts at Koni. Afterwards we discussed it together, based on facts we decided.

Ultimately this thorough approach became the downfall of the magazine. We took too much time to review the cars and the writing in the magazine became 'too technical' for the consumer. Unfortunately the subscriptions declined and advertisers ran away making it economically not viable anymore.

By the way, tuning press cars was done by everybody. Examples spring to mind; Hyundai's equipped with Koni shock absorbers, Daihatsu's with extra soundproofing, Peugeot's and Renault's with chiptuning and the list goes on..

[Matra et Alpine]

to be fair, how is it any different to 'production' Jaguar E-types that the press in the 60s tested reaching 150mph without mentioning the removal of standard parts to reduce the drag ?

[Dino Scuderia]

I'm not familiar with Harris' but what I glean from reading this article is he isn't singling out Ferrari for supplying 'ringers' to reviewers, because it's a common practice....he is saying they go to ridiculous extremes that others don't.