Great "Best Handling Car" article in Autocar magazine
 

I've been in the UK for the past couple of weeks on business. I picked up Autocar's annual Best Handling Car issue, and had a great read. 32 cars were driven on the 1.7-mile infield circuit of Rockingham Motor Speedway. The driver lineup included a current F1 driver (Jaguar's Justin Wilson), a F1 test driver (BAR's Takuma Sato), the vehicle dynamics manager from Lotus (Martin Anderson), and two British Touring Car Championship drivers (Michael Bentwood and Phil Bennett).

There's execellent analysis and commentary throughout the article. Buy it if you can find it.

Anyway, here are the lap times:
Skoda Fabia RS 1:33.8
Ford Sport Ka 1:33.2
Vauxhall Astra GSi 1:32.0
Volvo S60R 1:30.5
Honda Accord 2.4 Type S 1:30.0
Peugeot 206 GTi 180 1:29.8
Jaguar XJR 1:29.0
Mazda RX8 1:29.0
Mazda MX5 1:28.9
Renault Clio V6 1:28.5
Mini Cooper S Works 1:28.5
Mercedes E55 1:27.3
Porsche Boxster 1:26.4
BMW Z4 1:25.7
Audi S4 1:25.2
Ford Focus RS 1:24.9
Alfa 147 GTA 1:24.8
Mitsubishi Evo VIII FQ300 1:23.4
Subaru Impreza Type C 1:22.8
Pagani Zonda 1:22.7
Lamborghini Murcielago 1:22.2
Radical SR3 LM 1:21.8
Westfield XTR2 1:21.8
Vauxhall VX220T Sprint 1:21.5
Lotus Elise 135R 1:21.0
Caterham R400 1:21.0
Noble M12R 1:20.6
Porsche 911 GT3 1:20.2
Gardener Douglas GDT70 1:19.5
TVR 350c 1:19.4
Ariel Atom 1:17.6
JP1 1:14.2

From the lap time, this must have been a very tight road course?

Are we missing a car here?

:confused:

Yes, lots.

They have an Accord but no S2000?? :confused:

Nice to see the Evo do well. I would also like to see the prices listed next to their times. That would be interesting to me.

Rockingham is a very tight course. It's so tight that even the Pagani Zonda felt too big.

The FQ300 is a mildly modded Evo which has 301bhp and 300lb ft. FQ stands for "F'ing Quick".

wow, the gt3 did awesome for production car!!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MS2KJ
[B]They have an Accord but no S2000??

You left out the best part: Miata was picked as best handling car!
:)