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robertkstone · 6 years

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2018 Best Driver’s Car: A Record-Breaking Year

There is a heavy stillness in the air, the weight of expectation.

Less than an hour before, our resident pro driver, Randy Pobst, had flung the mighty McLaren 720S around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 1 minute, 29.78 seconds—the fastest lap ever recorded in the history of our Best Driver’s Car competition. Now, he’s powering the 911 GT2 RS down the infamous Corkscrew, the echoes of the Porsche’s barrel-chested bellow, so much like the iconic 935 racer, cascading through the surrounding hills.

A silent crowd clusters around the giant Racepak monitor in the pit garage. The folks from Porsche North America HQ are here, as are Chevy handlers from Detroit, the McLaren and Aston Martin support teams from the U.K., the Lamborghini guys from Italy, a pair of helpful Honda people, and a posse of Motor Trend editors. We hold our collective breath, transfixed by the real-time trace showing the Porsche’s progress around the 2.2-mile track. The clock deconstructs the lap, by fractions of a second. The 911 explodes onto the front straight and dashes for the finish line.

Distance. Time. Time. Distance. Eyes flicker across the screen; synapses snap the calculus.

Let’s back up. Our Best Driver’s Car shootout is not about a lap time. It’s about confidence: the confidence a car gives you when you take it to the limit, be it your own or the car’s. But when the lineup includes four of the most powerful supercars sold in America, lap times add spice to the competition. At stake? Bragging rights. The fastest car around Laguna Seca may not be Best Driver’s Car. But it will be king of one of the world’s most famous road courses.

Along with the McLaren and Porsche, the big dogs of BDC 2018 include Chevy’s refreshed Corvette ZR1 and Lamborghini’s Huracan Performante. “Seven hundred horsepower is the new 500 horsepower,” Chris Walton muses as he eyes this 2,786-horsepower quartet. And 500 hp is the new middle ground, with the 600-hp BMW M5 and 400-hp Audi TT RS bracketing a group that includes the 460-hp Mustang GT with Ford’s Performance Pack 2, plus Aston Martin’s all-new 503-hp Vantage and the 505-hp Alfa Romeo Stelvio Q4 Quadrifoglio.

Wait … an SUV in BDC? Yep. The Stelvio is so fast and agile, it damn near defies the laws of physics. It’s a driver’s … er, SUV.

Power isn’t everything, however, and the final three cars making the cut this year did so on the quality of their chassis rather than the output of their engines—though with 306 hp from just 2.0 liters, the turbocharged four-banger under the hood of the Honda Civic Type R has the fifth-highest specific output of this year’s field. Joining the Type R are Kia’s Stinger GT, whose poise had impressed us during last year’s COTY evaluations, and Mazda’s MX-5, back with a 17-percent boost in power and other detail tweaks.

Why no Ford GT? Of course we asked, and Dearborn initially agreed to send one of its low-slung, 647-hp supercars. But two weeks before we were due to start testing, Ford suddenly pulled the car, for reasons the PR department requested we not make public. Send your emails to Ford Motor Company. Maybe they’ll tell you why one of the most exciting driver’s cars ever to carry the Blue Oval wasn’t at BDC.

ROUTE 198

As usual, BDC opens on Route 198 in the sun-bleached hills of Central California. Our 4.2-mile test section, closed to traffic by the California Highway Patrol, allows judges to evaluate the contenders on a real-world road, albeit in closed-course safety. Climbing about 1,000 feet and crossing the San Andreas Fault en route to a turnaround point at the top of the hill, it’s a bewitching mixture of quick corners and mid-pace sweepers (if triple-digit speeds can be counted as “mid-pace”), with humps and heaves that test the limits of suspension travel, shock tuning, and chassis balance. The downhill run puts a different set of loads through the chassis and a spotlight on braking, stability, and steering precision.

Route 198 always throws us some unexpected moments. The monstrously fast 911 GT2 RS causes sharp intakes of breath for some judges when they arrive at corners with a wooden brake pedal and no sign of retardation. The culprit turns out to be the ultra-stiff sport setting for the shocks: It’s calibrated purely for track work, and using it on bumpy Route 198 means the Porsche’s front wheels can be in the air at a critical braking point, causing extreme ABS intervention. “Hated this car on the way down the hill!” Frank Markus gripes as his pulse rate returns to normal.

There are sidelong glances at the Corvette, too. Everyone loves the Herculean supercharged V-8 under the hood, its ferocious power accompanied by a volcanic wall of sound. But no one loves the chassis. The massive brakes haul the ZR1 down from dizzying velocities with insouciant ease, and the hyper-aggressive turn-in response is backed up by impressive front-end grip. After that, it all falls apart, the rear axle failing to provide support on corner entry or traction on corner exit. The big ’Vette is a tail-happy handful. We had all seen the footage of GM product development boss Mark Reuss casually looping a ZR1 into the wall while pacing the Detroit Grand Prix. Now we understood how easily that could happen. “The ZR1 needs to come with warning labels,” Ed Loh mutters.

The Audi TT RS seems quick and has that distinctive five-cylinder thrum that has defined performance Audis since the original Quattro Coupe. But the suspension lacks travel and feels underdamped, leaving the little coupe bucking and bouncing its way up Route 198. “A tad disconcerting,” Erick Ayapana notes.

Thanks to the super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires that come with the Performance Pack 2, the Mustang GT has a ton of mechanical grip. But it feels clumsier and less composed than the Chevy Camaro SS 1LE that impressed us so much in 2016. “It’s hard to have a lot of confidence in this car,” Mark Rechtin grimaces.

There are pleasant surprises, though, like the Aston Martin Vantage. “It’s fascinating to drive the Vantage on U.S. roads after Jonny Lieberman and I tried it in Scotland,” Jethro Bovingdon says. “Over there it seemed a real monster—wide, stiff, and always shouting at you to drive faster. On 198, it’s different but no less engaging. The whole vibe is one of effortless control, and the car hums with feedback.”

Although at entirely different ends of the BDC spectrum, the McLaren 720S and Mazda MX-5 perform as expected. Those of us lucky enough to have spent time in the 720S beforehand knew the big Mac’s endless surge of acceleration, delicately detailed steering, outstanding brakes, and remarkably fluent ride would impress first-timers. And the MX-5 did what Miatas have always done best: offer one of the purest driving experiences you can get, at any price.

Honda’s Civic Type R is another crowd pleaser, and not just because of its remarkable engine and precise gearshift. At $35,595, it’s the second-cheapest car in this year’s shootout (just a couple hundred dollars more than the Miata), but the chassis feels like a million bucks on Route 198. Tremendous front-end grip is complemented by a rear end that tracks faithfully, regardless of throttle condition and road surface. “Incredibly capable and confident and easy to drive fast,” Scott Evans gushes.

BMWs have underwhelmed us recently, so not many editors expected the new-generation BMW M5 to feel so effortlessly fast and supremely composed. The engine is staggeringly good, a 600-hp iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Traction and chassis balance are terrific for a big, heavy sedan. The steering is linear and consistent though still lacking the delicious tactility that once defined Munich’s best sport sedans. “It’s a family car and a sports car at the same time,” Miguel Cortina smiles.

Kia’s Stinger GT and Alfa Romeo’s Stelvio Quadrifoglio also win hearts, because both outperform our expectations. “Beneath the slightly soft-edged responses is a chassis of real balance and a subtle, nuanced delivery,” Jethro notes after stepping out of the Kia. Chris swoons as he exits the Alfa, impressed by its exhilarating twin-turbo V-6, sure-footed chassis, and sharp steering. “Wow! Way better than I had ever hoped it would be.”

Jonny had been saying for months that the Lamborghini Huracan Performante was a supercar to rival Ferrari’s 488—last year’s BDC winner—and the McLaren 720S. Those of us who hadn’t driven it were skeptical. Flashy, loud Lamborghinis have tended to overpromise and underdeliver; the Aventador’s last place in 2012 is a case in point.

A thigh-high wedge of weapons-grade machismo, the Huracan Performante turns heads wherever it’s parked. The first few turns on Route 198 reveal substance behind the showmanship—superb steering precision, immense braking capability, prodigious cornering grip, lovely chassis balance, and terrific traction. Randy speaks for us all after hurling the shrieking Lambo up the hill and back: “This car makes you into a god. You just get in and you drive like Ayrton Senna.”

Over a sun-blasted roadside lunch from our favorite Tacos La Potranca De Jalisco and dinner at The Cork & Plough in King City, we exchange praise and snark as we rank the contenders after our Route 198 test session. There’s fierce argument over whether the Porsche was better than the McLaren and whether the Aston and Honda really deserved to be ranked as highly as some thought. And what was an SUV doing here?

But there was nearly unanimous consensus as to which car should top the list: The Lamborghini would head to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca as the leading contender for the 2018 Best Driver’s Car crown.

LAGUNA SECA

Laguna Seca is where Randy shines. He’s hot-lapped every Best Driver’s Car contender for the past nine shootouts, delivering not only a benchmark lap time but also concise commentary on how each car felt at the limit. Randy’s innate talent is an ability to get the best out of a car from the get-go, often extracting its quickest time on his first flying lap.

He’s also remarkably consistent. If Randy’s times fade on subsequent laps, it’s because of tire degradation, brake fade, or a spike in intake temperatures causing the engine to pull power.

Motor Trend therefore has a unique data set at its disposal: lap times for more than 120 performance cars, set by the same driver on the same track using the same methodology. The evolution of performance can be tracked right here.

Over the years we’ve relied on the talents of our in-house Gyro Gearloose, testing director Kim Reynolds, to create and build a multitiered Racelogic Vbox system that captures not only lap times but also key data points that help us understand exactly how a BDC contender behaves during the lap, which enables us to correlate objective information with Randy’s subjective commentary. But for 2018, Kim’s triple-redundancy setup has been augmented with the brand-new Vantage CL1 data-logging system from Racepak.

Racepak’s CL1 multichannel data acquisition unit receives data directly from a vehicle’s OBD II port (including engine revs, coolant temperature, and throttle position) and merges it with any external channels you choose, plus its own highly accurate accelerometer and GPS data (including mph). Then it’s Bluetoothed to (and stored in) a windshield-mounted iPhone so Randy can see, real-time, his speed and how much he’s ahead or behind his best previous lap on its display. Simultaneously, the app sends the data, via cell connection, to a server in Phoenix, where the information is rendered into graphics and overlaid onto a swipeable and rotatable track map. Racepak president Tim Anderson says the highly intuitive graphic interface allows team members to watch, as it happens, a car’s performance from anywhere in the world.

Randy will start Day 1 with the all-wheel-drive cars and lower-powered contenders. For Day 2, he’ll open with the big dogs from PerformanceJunk WP Feed 3 https://ift.tt/2PRhjS6 via IFTTT

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