0-60 In Car And Driver October 2010

Car & Driver went searching for America's best-handling car for the magazine's October 2010 issue. Thrown into the ring were five rear-wheel drive cars, one front-wheel drive car, and just one all-wheel driver, the Nissan GT-R. No car priced over $100,000 was admitted into the competition. Not to spoil it for you, but the Volkswagen GTI finished seventh, the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 came sixth, the Nissan GT-R fifth, BMW M3 fourth, Mazda RX-8 R3 third, and the Lotus Elise SC was the runner-up.

Which car gained the victory? You've seen it before in The Good 12 v3.0 Part IX. Out of a possible 130 points, Car & Driver gave it 126, thirteen more than the Lotus. It lapped Waterford Hills in Clarkston, Michigan, just 2.5 seconds slower than the Nissan GT-R despite having a 165 horsepower deficit. C/D calculated its roadholding on a 300-ft skidpad to be 1.01 g. Through C/D's lane change maneuver, it tied for second-best in test with a speed of 74.3 mph.

The Porsche Boxster Spyder is its name, now enthroned as America's best-handling car under $100,000. Laptimes for all competitors are listed below, beneath the 0-60 mph stats from other cars tested by C/D in the October 2010 issue. Laptimes from the Ascari track in Ronda, Spain, for four BMW M3s from four generations are listed at the bottom of this post. By the way, the econohatch comparison test, which resulted in a Honda Fit victory and a particularly nasty loss for the 2011 Ford Fiesta SES, was completed with manual transmissions in each car.

Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Valentino Balboni: 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds
BMW M3 GTS: 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds
Jaguar XJ Supercharged: 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds
BMW M3 (E46, 2001): 0-60 mph in 4.7 seconds
BMW 740i: 0-60 mph in 5.1 seconds
BMW M3 (E36, 1994): 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds
Cadillac CTS Coupe: 0-60 mph in 6.4 seconds
BMW M3 (E30, 1987): 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds
Honda Fit Sport: 0-60 mph in 8.3 seconds
Mazda 2 Touring: 0-60 mph in 9.1 seconds
Ford Fiesta SES: 0-60 mph in 10.1 seconds

Waterford Hills Laptimes
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 - 1:16
Nissan GT-R - 1:16.5
Porsche Boxster Spyder - 1:19
Lotus Elise SC - 1:19.3
BMW M3 - 1:20.8
Mazda RX-8 R3 - 1:22.6
Volkswagen GTI - 1:24

Ascari Laptimes
2010 E92 BMW M3 GTS - 2:38.2
2008 E92 BMW M3 - 2:42.1
2001 E46 BMW M3 - 2:49
1995 E36 BMW M3 - 2:49.9
1987 E30 BMW M3 - 2:54.1


Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
0-60 In Car & Driver November 2010
0-60 In Car & Driver September 2010
0-60 In Car & Driver August 2010
Ferrari 458 Italia Performance Stats From evo
evo Laptimes From Issue 146
Fuel Economy In Car & Driver October 2010