Motor Trend crowns world's best-handling car with most confusing graph
Isn't it obvious who won?
Bringing together the best of the best handling cars from various price classes and axeing those with exorbitant price tags to keep things relevant for those of us in the peanut gallery, Motor Trend came up with a list of 32 contenders for the title of Best Handling Car in the World. After a vigorous battery of road tests, they narrowed it down to just 10: the Honda Civic Si, Mazdaspeed3, Mini Cooper S with the John Cooper Works package, Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR (both from 2006 as the 2007 versions haven't hit the pavement yet), the Honda S2000, BMW 335i, Porsche Cayman S, Lotus Exige S, Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Porsche 911 GT3.
The folks at Motor Trend feverishly tracked on-center feel, skid-pad testing, step-steer, lane-change/swerve stability and ride quality, using gadgets to measure results precisely and not allowing looks, reputation or even emotion get in the way of their final verdict. It's perhaps the most thorough and objective comparison test we've ever seen performed, and as such, it offers a lot of data for the reader to digest. Almost too much, actually, as evident by the graph at the article's conclusion that tries to encapsulate every bit of data for each car in a siezure inducing spider graph (shown above).
Which car won the battle? We don't want to ruin it for you, so click through to find out. [Hint: the winner can be found on page 8 if you're like us and hate surprises]
[Source: Motor Trend]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Bert 10:22AM (5/11/2007)
The yellow one.
Reply
Aetius 10:21AM (5/11/2007)
I actually can't read the whole article. It's way too technical :P
Reply
Boggled 10:28AM (5/11/2007)
Only skimmed the article, but does anyone know why the Mazda RX-8 isn't included? Never driven one, but I have heard from Car & Driver and an enthusiast friend that it is a very agile and capable car, with good balance and neutral handling. Perhaps the upgraded suspension bits on the Mazdaspeed3 leapfrog that car past the standard RX-8? I would love an opinion from anyone who actually owns one.
Reply
Silver Bullet 12:23AM (6/04/2007)
Recenlty bought a Mazda RX-8 beacuse I thought it was the best handling car I have ever driven. I test drove the Porchse GT and BMW M3 and the Mazda outperformed them in the handling catagory. It just was not quite as quick. Also my son has a Mazda 3 and it would not compare in anyway to the RX8!
MAtt 10:29AM (5/11/2007)
I don't really get the point of this... aren't comparissons of various cars supposed to answer an unknown question? who in the world thought that a mazdaspeed 3 could compete against a 911 GT3!?!?!
Did anybody who read the lineup of cars being compared this for a second that it would be any other car then either the 911 or Lotus?! Couldn't they have taken it down to just 2 or 3 cars and spared us all the lengthy read and suspense?!
This is why I stopped reading Motor Trend....
Reply
skantilous 10:36AM (5/11/2007)
they change tires from one car to another...wtf!?!?
Reply
FThorn 10:41AM (5/11/2007)
I give kudos to MT for attempting to break new ground. Their whole layout is a magnitude more advanced than any other car publication right now. That whole article was the most in-depth attempt at handling. I even mentioned how impressed I was at the new length they went to, to me wife, who doesn't care at all. But, their efforts are fantastic. The others pale in comparison
Reply
JayP 11:03AM (5/11/2007)
I can almost see the Mazdaspeed3 in there. Remember the Nissan NX2000 had world-class handling and was put against more expensive cars for comparos.
Reply
bmoredlj 10:45AM (5/11/2007)
Graph inspired by Spider-man 3
Reply
David 10:48AM (5/11/2007)
This is a great article for people that are interested in more numbers than the standard hp, 0-60, and skidpad.
Reply
Ligor 10:51AM (5/11/2007)
so it seems some of you youngster need to finish school before you understand, who cares
this gives you an idea of how your car performs to the best out there.
check it out, besides the Honda Civic Si, the Corvette is the worst handling car. goes to show how all that power is riding in the wrong chasis with the wrong steering and suspension calibration.
Reply
Kevin 10:55AM (5/11/2007)
You mean to tell me that a Civic SI beat out an STi to make it to the top 10??
Reply
Brian St. John 11:02AM (5/11/2007)
If one were to include the LEGEND along with the graph, you'd immediately see that it's actually a pretty clever method of communication this info.
Reply
Quattrofan 11:04AM (5/11/2007)
Windsurfing magazine uses this type of graph to rate boards, an excellent idea to quickly compare cars.
Reply
aSHIRTandTIEguy 11:08AM (5/11/2007)
Why not forget the two LAMEASS Honda boxes and send them back home to that island on the other side of the world where they come from!
At least the MazdaSpeed3 and Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR are on the list. Congratulations. What no 2007 Mazda MX-5 or RX-8, or 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX STi? Having the Honda Civic Si on the list denotes that all other cars in the world do not perform well or handle as well as that "car". Did anyone at Motor Trend think of that when they said "they narrowed it down to the top ten". They just narrowed it down to how many Honda kids will buy the magazine to see how their Civic compared to a 911 GT3! 2006 Car of the year: Honda Civic. Yeah, whatever!
Replace the Honda's with the 2007 ROUSH Mustang 427, 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10, 2005 E46 BMW M3 for comparison against the all-out Lotus Exige and Porsche 911 GT3, and Cayman! Then we can see how far behind the Americans REALLY are and how much they need to improve to be world class! And how close the BMW is to beating the Porsche.
Reply
F451 11:25AM (5/11/2007)
People still read Motor Trend?
Reply
bob 11:31AM (5/11/2007)
And does anyone who buys any of these cars drive them like MT drives them? Do any of you drive your cars like MT drives in these tests? Chances are slim that you do. And thus, these tests are meaningless for the average driver.
Reply
spdracerut 11:45AM (5/11/2007)
Bob, I drive the piss out of my car (2005 Evo by the way). That's what track days and curvy roads are for!
As for the selection of cars, they wanted cars of various prices and drivetrain layouts that are also popular cars.
The Civic Si and Mini are very popular cars. The Mini is well known for its handling and the Si is suppose to be a 'sporty' car. The MS3 is generally considered the best performance car in that segment ($20k-25k).
The Evo is the AWD entry ($30k-35k) and is also pretty much unamiously known as the better handling car compared to the STI.
S2000 has long been known as a great handling RWD car and falls in the same price range as the Evo.
Well, you guys can figure out reasons for the other cars.
Reply
Johnnie 12:03PM (5/11/2007)
The 911 GT3 really is THE sports car to have.
Well worth every penny over the low budget Z06.
Porsche engineers are simply amazing.
Reply
Johnnie 12:04PM (5/11/2007)
Also, isn't Angelelli a GM driver?
He rips the Vette and then says the 911 is "perfect".
Very interesting!
Reply