7 Best Handling Cars and No Z?
 

While grocery shopping with my wife yesterday I did my usual prolonged stop at the magazine rack and noticed the new Car and Driver. The cover story is about the best (of seven) handling car for under 100k. I was a little surprised to see the Z absent from the list (I say a little surprised, since most of the cars on the list were 2x's the price of the Z).

The GTR is on the list, but did not get a high rating. The RX-8 came in third, which was not a surprise to me, having owned one and being completely impressed by the handling (but not the MPGs or lack of torque).

Any one else read this article (or watch the video online) and have a comment?

I read it. Pathetic article. Based on opinion/SOTP "feel" instead of performance/lap times.

The Best-Handling Car in America for Less Than $100K - Feature - Car and Driver

It's a good article. It would have been nice if they concentrated on cars 60K and under. Most people can't afford a Corvette Carbon or GTR.

Thanks for adding the link to the article ClemsonWill:tup:

So...how many RX8 owners are going to try to go up against Z06 Carbon and GT-R owners on the auto X? They handle better, right?

Article fail.

Telling someone their car has good handling is like telling a character of a play his costume is nice (with absense of comment how his performance sucked).

Like mazadaze's for example.

So, I take this as a compliment. :p

I agree, Ken. What is so puzzling to me is how blatant C&D was about declaring their test subjective. Also, their comparison of apples to oranges to filet mignon. FWD. AWD. RWD. 2 seats. 4 seats.

And a GTI?!?

I recently read another article that was a "seat of the pants" evaluation and the RX8 was pretty high on the list. Problem was, even though the drivers were having fun and felt like they were doing well, the lap times were well off the mark.

My impression of the RX-8's very good handling was that you were never really getting the power to push its limits. I find that the Z takes more skill to achieve great handling, because there is the power there to push you over the edge (or cliff!).

I'm still hung up on a GTI in the mix.

Yep I read this article. Why the GTI was in it and not the Z makes no sense to me. I love CarandDriver but they do some weird things. Whats really funny is that GTI was probably as much as my Z LOL.

GTI handles well for FWD.

It's completely subjective, and again, it's apples to celery to morningdoves. The article is definitely worth of a :facepalm:

Ever drive a Cayman/Boxster? Then you'd know. They're pretty magical..

I wouldn't debate the handling abilities of a Cayman/Boxster, but I think the comparo is just odd. Doesn't strike me as their best work. Of course a Cayman will out-handle a GTI. They aren't in the same class to begin with!

Regardless, C&D comparos are one of my pleasures in life, and will continue to be.

wow... no Cayman or Z.... FAIL.

:icon18::bowrofl:

I am certainly not questioning how the porsche and elise came out on top in this article. Nor was it my intention to create another "the Z is better than X because..." thread. Just scratching my head about the test. It has to cost a small fortune to perform such a test (the article mentions 10k in tire costs alone). So to spend money on this type of comparison (the kind of comparison that often gets flamed on this forum) just seemed so odd to me.

this article is so bs. Wheres s2000 and nsx? and ofcourse....the Z. and seriously....a GTI and a m3?.....really? gimme me a break

This, the lack of s2000 kills the list instantly.

But the NSX and S2000 are discontinued models, and I'm assuming that this is a new car comparison. All things being equal, though, I agree that those are amazing handling machines!

This ^

C&D can test drive my Dyson Ball. It handle all sorts of curves and corners like no other. Not sure why it didn't make the list. :icon14:

:icon18::rofl2:

How did those two get in there?

Who knows if the article was meant to be definitive. You could easily expand the list of cars listed into classes of vehicles. The GTI is a cost-conscious hot hatch, the Corvette a high-end muscle car, the GT-R the Japanese counterpoint, BMW M3 a luxury sport sedan (consider C55 AMG, RS4, or possibly CTS-V instead), the Mazda RX-8 a ~$30k import coupe (consider 370Z or Genesis Coupe instead), and so on. There would be little reason to have both the Boxster and Cayman.

Was it C&D or MT that did a similar article (pure subjectivism) a year or so back? I remember the BMW 135i placing LAST, something an owner of was, of course, very against.

But as before, it was just a "seat of the pants" test. Get a bunch of different cars together and race 'em around the track. Vote what's best. Seemed a random sample then - same here.

I find it interesting reading. Of course, I'd find it more interesting to see how the Z would fare. Mebbe they can't test as many as we'd like due to time/$$$ concerns?

:tup:

They crashed a Z, so its handling sucks d!ck... :)

well its easy to drive a car that just doest have the balls to make you lose control to begin with, but yeah, rx8's "handle" well i guess to say

Looks like they chose the GTR and the Boxster, and to not play favorites to one brand or company, they left off the Z and the Cayman. And they said in the article that they voted the GTI as their favorite FWD car, so it had nothing to do with its performance compared to the other cars in the test. They just wanted to look at all platforms. Still seems pretty pointless. At least they actually did the tests so you can see the results.

I used to have an '07 MKV GTI that I loved. Not sure if there is a better FWD car out there for the $$. I bought it brand new, paid ~22k. 200HP, 207ft/lb. tq. (it should be pointed out that a $500 chip REALLY brings these cars to life)

I am not a fanboy of any platform by any means, but the fit/finish of the GTI is world class. Felt like I was driving a much more expensive car.

Not knocking the GTI. A friend of mine has one and it is a blast! But I would rather see it put up against other FI hot hatches (Mazdaspeed3, MINI S, for example).

With the $hitty tires that came with the Z, the car is downright scary when pushed to the limit in stock form. If you think your Z handles good, throw a set of real tires on it before you make any judgement.

Motor Trend and Car & Driver are a biased magazines! I just get them because I almost get them for free.

it's a handling and feel comparison, so lap times and numbers are irrelevant. They are not comparing which cars are the fastest, rather which cars are more rewarding and fun to drive at the limits. a car can be slow but very fun to drive at its limits. or a car can be very fast but downright scary when driven hard. a viper for example is faster than a boxster, but the boxster is a better handler because it's more balanced and more confidence-inspiring at its limits. it's not about laptimes, 0-60, or how many g on a skidpad. overall, their list makes a lot of sense. however, the inclusion of the z06 and gti are bizzare. the z06 based on all i've read is very scary and twitchy at its limit and very difficult to tame with over 500hp going to the rear wheels just ready to fishtail at any moment in the corner. the gti handles very good for a fwd car, but i'm pretty sure it's still not as balanced as the z, or the lancer evo, or the mazda mx-5

Not to mention the MX5 too, i guess there are many good handling cars and his makes choosing very hard. I have driven a 370Z and they handle great!

What did you expect. Wasn't that test won by the Porsche Boxster Spyder? That shouldn't even be the best handling Porsche under 100k (which should be the cayman/ cayman S). It has a roof. Structural rigidity FTW!

It's easy to get bent out of shape by the C&D review. I suspect the Z didn't get considered for the test because of the brake failure in their earlier test. Annoying as it is, I can certainly understand how that could rule us out in their minds. As we all agree, handling is a very subjective experience.

I don't race and never plan to. So my subjective experienced is based on sub 100 MPH driving (80 to 90+ since we have some high speed limits here) and hopefully, less than 20 panic stops in 5 minutes.

We should also consider that we are a very biased group when it comes to our cars. It is a slap in the face not even to make the list of cars tested.

Another point has been bugging me snce readng the C&D brake reports. How come Consumer Reports and others have never seen brake failure or fade in their tests? The answer, of course, is that they use tests that emulate extreme real world driving conditions, not the different stresses that tracking creates.

Does anyone really believe that you drive a Z, even a Nismo out of the dealership and onto the track? You don't have to be an automotive genius to know that brake pads designed for daily driving are probably going to be engineered for long life and low dust; not the priorities when racing. That being said, it is still worrisome that C&D did find that a stock Z suffered total brake failure after repeated hard braking. It bothers me that they discovered that weakness, maybe enough to put SS brake lines and racing fluid on my street car.

Ok, so maybe it was the brakes that turned C&D off. I don't know. I do know that C&D and R&T over the years have shown very strong feelings for certain cars. R&T had a love affair with the 240Z. They appear to be pretty fond of the 350 and 370. If memory serves (meaning I may have imagined this), C&D was not a big 240Z fan back in the day. In fact, in those days C&D had a heavy bias for American cars. I stopped reading C&D years ago for that reason. They seemed to be in Detroit's back pocket. Now, I am not sure who their big advertisers are, but there could be a correlation between the amount of love they show a car and the ad budget of the companies that buy ads. I don't know. It just seems to me that given the fact that the Z is a popular sports car well under $100k, it should have been on that list of cars tested.

it also has to do with what media cars are available at the time for them to test. but yea, the caymanS is one of the best handling cars i've ever driven. the Z's are great, no doubt, but there is something different about the porsche. it somehow blends everyday drivability with sheer driving excitement and split second reflexes, it's sad porsche holds it back so the 911 won't be outdone by it...

Maybe a RUF version of the cayman S would be up your alley. I'm sure they would know just what to do to make the porsche cayman S one sick *** sports car.

Had to jump back in here to drop this off for you. :)

RUF 3400 K Cayman Test Drive