I don't know what's up with Shaun Bailey, but I like that Sam Mitami guy.

Other thoughts: 13.9sec 1/4? Cool.
Only 18.2mpg with the Z4? Despite an official EPA reading of 21/29? Wow.
The EPA rating on the S2000 has always been out of whack, IMO. 20/25 just doesn't reflect the numbers I've seen. 23/27 would be more like it.
In fact, in that scan the Z4, C6 and SRT10 all show lower milage than the EPA rating. Heh.
Only a 175mile range on the Viper is as bad as my motorcycle was.

 

20/25 is right on target for me......
if you get 27 mpg on the S......well you need to VTEC more

 

Much better than the people who are driving at 9/10ths (or more) who think they are driving at 7/10ths.

 

^LOL!! Great point!!!

 

Agreed. I don't know any other modern car where some people regularly get more than the EPA rating on the highway.

I think it's because with the S2000, Honda paid attention to how the car actually drove, rather than compromising to get a better EPA rating. In the other cars on that page (Z4, Corvette, Viper), top speed is in 5th gear, not 6th - 6th is tuned to optimize gas mileage at 55mph, or whatever ridiculous speed the EPA regulations measure it at.

By the way, a few months ago, the EPA put out a request for comments on changes to the regulations to make the rating better reflect real world driving, either by putting in a fixed penalty for the fact that most cars get worse mileage at 70 than 55, or by actually changing the test to reflect driving at more realistic driving speeds (like maybe 70). I wrote them to encourage them to do the latter - I wish I'd known about the S2000 then, as an example of how a fixed penalty would just further remove the rating from reality.

 

The EPA MPG for the highway for my Insight is 56. I get 63 each morning on the way to work. The EPA MPG for city is 57. I get between 42 and 50 in town. Go figure.

 

can someone scan the cover? i cant seem to find this mag anywhere!

 

I finally got the mag - from a friend of a friend. I have no scanner, sorry.

An interesting tidbit from reading the full article - EVERY car except the S2000 had worse milage than it's EPA rating. Even the Elise only got 19.2.

To determine final standings, R&T used the EPA numbers. If they had used their observed fuel consumption, the results would have been:

[CODE]Boxster S

 

whats is on the cover if no one can scan it..cant find this thing anywhere

 

In the center of the cover it has a large "Best" all around sports car, and the bottom quarter shows solo pics of the 9 cars.