jrcart

I had a late lunch a Hooters today with a bunch of my buddies, all of which are car guys, with some very nice machines. The beer and testosterone were flowing. During our discussions the topic of "what is the best all around automobile available today?" came up. Good question, impossible to answer...or is it? This turned into an hour long debate and we came up with the following. Sorry if this gets long winded.

What if there where an event that would pit cars of any make and model, in any state of tune up against one another in 5 different events with strict rules. A 75-100 mile street/road ride, a 1/4 mile drag event, a short tight road course or parking lot auto-cross, a long fast road course and a drifting event. Rules being that car must be street legal and plated, you get one tank of fuel, you can't pop your hood, and the only changes you can make during the entire event is the air pressure in your tires. Each of these events would cater to one type of car, but the combination of the five would (should) point to one clear winner. Obviously the driver(s) is going to be the biggest variable. Think about it, a tt Porsche may excel in most of the events, until the drifting portion...kind of hard to drift awd. Maybe a car like a Z06 would come out on top, maybe an M5 or Lotus Elise??? who knows?

We want to find out, does anyone on here have any experience in organizing an event like this? We want to do it, what do we need to do to get started on planning an event like this? would any of you be interested in participating? Let me know what you think.

MB_Forever

Easy, SLR 722 Edition

JAYCL600

drifting

jrcart

It would probably dominate on the long course and maybe the drifting (may be too powerful for drift), but get beat up on in auto cross. A modded awd Porsche tt or Evo would man handle it on the drag strip.

jrcart

Drifting is great, and growing in popularity. Several of the large road courses are adding skid pad or drifting circuits. It is also the ultimate display of car control.

MB_Forever

Then my number two would be a modified SLR 722 GT Edition

jrcart

Is that thing even street legal? Looks bad a$$ though!

MB_Forever

Not street legal, only a 1.2 million dollar track car. It was only very "slightly" beaten by Koenigsegg (very small margin), but once modified, look out people.....

If you haven't noticed, I'm kinda biased towards the SLR

Addicted2Speed

Pagani Zonda F Clubsport or koenigsegg CCX would probably dominate in all the aforementioned performance categories when you consider "streetable cars". The Caparo F1 is street legal and was nearly as fast as Formula 1 car around Top Gear's test track, but it has no roof, so can't really consider it a true road car. As far as "best all around car" argument, I think the car has to be actually usable and drivable in normal street driving, including traffic. Bugatti Veyron is the best such "all around car" in my opinion. Ridiculously fast, while also comfortable and can be driven daily everywhere.

Here is the video of Caparo by the way. Nothing "street-legal" can touch this car period.:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j7ve7x9kpQI

Chappy

I noticed you wrote automobile rather than "sports car" or "performance car".

Is this a performance-at-any-cost question? Or, does pricing, availability, room for other passengers and luggage, maintenance cost, etc. also factor into the equation? Interestingly, Road & Track just crowned the Nissan GT-R in their testing over the 911tt and Corvette Z06.

Will people be driving their own cars at this event or ones provided by the organizers for a subjective review? I'm a coupe lover, but for this event, I'd favor a C63 w/ the 030 package.

jrcart

See what I mean, everyone has their own opinion and (good) reasoning why they think a certain car would be best. If I were able to organize an event like this people or tuners would bring there own cars. Like I stated earlier, it would not be a true gauge because of varying driver skill. The best way to do it would be with professional drivers to remove the "driver element".

The GT-R is a great car...wait until the V-spec is reralesed in a year or two! I don't think a car like a Veyron would come out on top. I think it would be a lighter, less powerful car like a modded GT-R or matbe a modded M3...who knows?

Chappy

I think I need to head to Hooters to ponder this....

If you add modified/tuned cars into the mix, the whole ball game changes, as you know. Perhaps you would consider the event - with the various driving challenges you suggested - and further divide the competition into the following:

1. Sports/GT Cars (Stock) with 2 seats
2. Sports/GT Cars (Modded) with 2 seats
3. Coupes/Sedans (Stock) with seating for 4
4. Coupes/Sedans (Modded) with seating for 4

Then, you'll have to determine the number of points you assign to each of the driving tests. Voila!

Have you ever run the One Lap?

Tritech

The drifting event is pure baloney; a properly sorted street car should never slide. It looks neat, but thats about it. I'm not even going to get into the judging aspect.

I think the real kicker in your scenario is the road trip, whick rules out most conventional track cars (esp lotus).

I vote for another category to replace drift for practicality (ie. trunk space, creature comforts, maybe even maintenance?) and you'd have a solid comparison.

jrcart

I could agree with stock or modded classes, but I would not break it down in to coupes/GT cars and sedans. Remember we are talking about "the best all around car". If someone wants to pit an M5 against a GT3 or a WRX STI wagon against a Z06 they should be allowed to do so. Points are easy, you are awared a point for the position you finish in any given event. Example 1st place gets 1 point, 2nd place gets 2 points 3rd place gets 3 points and so on. The car with the lowest number of points at the end of all events wins. Have not thought of a tie-breaker yet. The 75-100 mile street segment would not be scored, this is just an equalizer to eliminate track only cars or cars with small racing fuel cells or cars that are wound to tightly for everyday street use. Any mechanical failure at any time during any event is a disqualification. Remember, we are lookiing for the best over all car...not the best overall race car. Reliabilty will be a major factor.

I think I need to go to Hooters again and do some more thinking myself!