Originally Posted by TARDCORE

read the specs on the Z's that are tested. I can only think of one case where it was a 7AT and they recorded a 13.1 1/4 mile due the faster shifts. I think a 6MT can be launched better though. Break launching a car can only do so much where as a professional drag racer can launch the hell out of a manual. A while back there was a post about the 2010 Z06 having launch control. Well the professional driver chevy used to demonstrate recorded a FASTER 0-60 time than the launch control did. The problem with the variations is simple, Car and Driver are RETARDS and they test brand new cars that are not broken in. Everyone else has different drivers, different road conditions, different weather conditions, and everything that I can't think of that will affect the performance of a car. I would say mainly its a human error though.

edit: Alot of people always say "this car does 0-60 in XX seconds so it will beat this car." Yeah if you can achieve that time great, but I would say about 5% of the people who say that actually can. Maybe there is 1 or 2 people on this site but its a rare thing to come across someone on the street (not a track) who can squeeze every last bit of performance out the car they are driving. So I wouldn't worry about it just know the Z's competion and from there you can compare.