These are the results from America's Best-Handling Car from Motor Trend last year (Part I). The driver Max Angelelli, the track Laguna seca.
Porsche 911 GT3
Best lap (MIN:SEC): 1:39.517
81.0 mph avg
1.69g peak lateral acceleration
Chevrolet Corvette Z06
Best lap (MIN:SEC): 1:40.919
79.8 mph avg
1.57g peak lateral acceleration
Lotus Exige S
Best lap (min:sec): 1:45.818
76.1 mph avg
1.54g peak lateral acceleration
Porsche Cayman S
Best lap (min:sec): 1:47.577
74.9 mph avg
1.43g peak lateral acceleration
Mitsubishi Evolution IX MR
Best lap (MIN:SEC): 1:47.926
74.7 mph avg
1.36g peak lateral acceleration
BMW 335i
Best lap (min:sec): 1:49.038
73.9 mph avg
1.32g peak lateral acceleration
Mazdaspeed3 GT
Best lap (min:sec): 1:50.375
73.0 mph avg
1.31g peak lateral acceleration
Honda S2000
Best lap (MIN:SEC) : 1:50.738
72.8 mph avg
1.40g peak lateral acceleration
Mini Cooper S JC Works GP
Best lap (MIN:SEC): 1:51.733
72.1 mph avg
1.28g peak lateral acceleration
Honda Civic Si
Best lap (min:sec): 1:54.990
70.1 mph avg
1.55g peak lateral acceleration
Personally, I ran a 1:42.0 with the 996 GT3 on 2 years old RA-1, on my first and only track day at Laguna Seca. The traqmate data shows a 1:41.0 lap joining the best segments from the same track session. A friend was lapping at 1:41.0 that same day with a 996 GT3, the new owner of my GT3 just lapped at 1:41.x as well this past weekend. Another friend is lapping at 1:39s on Hoosier R6 and a 996 GT3.
Here is a video link to Part II of "America's Best-Handling Car". The Laguna Seca track results should be online this week. This time they hired Randy Pobst. I am a big fan of Randy Pobst, because he started as an autocrosser and moved up to Pro level, he always talks about how important is to run autocrosses to learn car control at the limits. Randy won 6 SCCA Solo/ProSolo National Championships.
Randy's opinion on the M3 is very impressive. He looks quite satisfied with the M3 handling. He drove the DCT M3 for this new test.
Video Link ==>
http://www.motortrend.com/av/roadtes...deo/index.html
The Part II contenders:
Audi R8 DSG
BMW M3 DCT
Chevy Cobalt SS
Viper ACR
Shelby GT500KR
Mazda RX-8
Mini Cooper-S
Evo X MR
Nissan GT-R
Porsche 911 Turbo
I'm very glad that the M3 shows up as the most comfortable car in the test, still the car performs quite well compared to sport cars.
