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On this special episode of Wide Open Throttle
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00:00 [Music]
00:18 Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Wide Open Throttle and I have the Motor Trend crew with
00:22 me and this week we're previewing Best Driver's Car Week which of course happens all next week
00:29 on the Motor Trend channel. Now one of the questions we get asked most often is what cars are in,
00:34 how do we select the 10 or 12 cars that we spend a week thrashing on to find out which one is the
00:41 best driver's car. Well let's start with the most obvious question that's going to be asked this
00:46 year by everybody. Why no Corvette C7? And Ed? Man, I just bowl them under. We wanted it so bad.
00:56 We put the call in, had it up until six weeks, four weeks out, but the official line was the
01:04 cars are being built in the Bowling Green plant, they come out of the factory, they go to headquarters,
01:10 they get driven around by engineers to find little issues, then they get sent back and get fixed. They
01:15 have to go back to the factory apparently because that's the only place they can fix them at this
01:18 stage because they're such early builds and they literally could not get it to our event and
01:23 they missed us by a matter of days. And we know that's true because only a week later they had the
01:30 C7 launch up at their proving grounds in Michigan. So they had to make a choice whether send us one
01:38 or get all the vehicles prepped for their own launch event so they chose their own, but
01:43 we talked about getting a pace car because they were running Indy that week.
01:45 It's such a bummer too, especially having driven it like three weeks after the event
01:51 and knowing how good it is. It's such a bummer. Well the real tease was they did send a Corvette,
01:57 we did have a C7 at Best Driver's Car, but it was the red car. It had a top speed of what, 16?
02:04 The top speed was 10, although if you really pushed it you could get to 11. It was a photo,
02:09 it was the marketing car, it was a car from the Detroit show. Product accurate, you know obviously
02:14 looked right, but just was not a runner. Electronically limited to 10 miles an hour and
02:18 2,000 rpms. Yeah. Most you can get the engine going with 2,000. Great fuel economy. Do you think
02:23 part of the problem, or part of their problem might have been they were very, very worried about the
02:28 first impression of the Corvette would be in a competition where it may not win? Well it's huge,
02:35 I mean yeah to go straight, that being its basically first comparison even though it's not
02:40 directly a comparison, to have that be the first, the car's very first you know coming out party,
02:45 that's a big one. I just think that they were looking at last year like wow look what it's
02:49 going to go up against, like a black series and a Porsche and like they know all the hot new metal
02:53 that's out there and it's not just going to go up against like whatever you put a Corvette up
02:58 against, it's up against all the exotics. I think they, I don't know. And the Corvette doesn't have
03:04 the, you know pun a little bit, doesn't have that good of a track record at Best Driver's Car.
03:08 There's also that. The car's competed numerous times, I don't think it's been better than sixth
03:12 place. Well we've never run actually just a stock, a base, even a base plus sport. Right so it's always
03:17 a 06, a 01. So maybe they were hedging a little bit. Look to be fair you know we're taping this
03:23 program now in August, Best Driver's Car, we did a lot of the work of that in June and as of right
03:30 now I don't think anyone's had a C7 to do fully independent testing on the road and on the track
03:37 of their choice. So far the programs we've done have all been under GM's wing at the proving
03:42 ground or whatever. So I've worked on the other side too, I worked in the car industry years and
03:48 years ago and I know how much time and effort goes into launching a new car and the last thing you
03:51 want to do is lose control, lose control of the message early on. So yeah I have no doubt we'll
03:57 get a C7 and we'll be able to do whatever the hell we like with it. Sooner than you might think.
04:00 And again this is big, I mean this is a brand new car, I mean brand new. It wasn't a generation
04:06 change, this is a brand new car. They're going to make sure that it gets doled out
04:11 appropriately. But it's a huge bummer because we should have had it for this one because next year
04:16 we're going to get Camaro Z28 which is way too early. So that's another car that's not there,
04:20 no Vette, no Z28 and if you want the real like corporate answer as to why no Corvette, we will
04:27 very shortly here have GM's President of North American Operations Mark Royce in here
04:32 and we can ask him directly. Well the other cars that people ask about too, you know,
04:36 911 GT3, much the same reason. And Turbo which just came out. Have both again at the beginning
04:43 of August as we tape this, have literally just come out. That's what the viewers out there need
04:47 to understand is that just because a car showed up at the Geneva Auto Show months ago doesn't mean
04:53 that it's in anybody's hands. To be fair we never explain that to anyone, we never say ah when you
04:58 see a picture of a car on the internet it's seven months before we actually get one at the office.
05:02 You know we'll fly to another country and test it, it looks like we have all this access and
05:07 you know really there's a guy from Porsche standing 10 feet off camera like you know.
05:11 So yeah so it's usually about six months after you see something debut that we actually get in
05:17 the office and can do whatever we want with it. Just to clarify, no LaFerrari this year, no P1,
05:23 no 918, no NSX, no Pagani of any kind, no Koenigsegg, no Bugatti, no Bugatti Veyron,
05:31 and a lot of those vehicles, well we kind of have a mixed bag there. What about the long-term Veyron?
05:35 You know the Koenigseggs of this world are, they're just not here, they don't sell them,
05:43 they're not federalized. They're not in the United States of America. But they're not road legal here
05:48 anyway, you can't legally sell one. And then the other point is these concept cars again they're
05:52 just they're not in anyone in private owners hands yet so they're certainly not in press
05:55 fleets either. And cars like LaFerrari, I know how Ferrari's going to play this game, they did it with
06:00 with the F40 and they did it with the Enzo, it's going to be very limited. They're not even going
06:05 to have a test car available. They never do. If you see a LaFerrari test that we do, it will be done
06:11 with a private owner. The factory is not going to give tests out to people. I just want to jump in,
06:15 you know we'll also get a lot of people to say like why don't you have an M3? The car's been out
06:19 for four or five years. Best driver's car, Leica of the years, and you guys of course know this,
06:24 is for what's new this year. So you know when the M4 or the four-door M3 is here next year,
06:31 it'll be in. So we've got that clear, it's for all new or significantly upgraded performance cars
06:37 released in the 12 months before the competition. Yep and if they're available in the fleet. So
06:42 they're available. No F12 this year. That's right, Ferrari didn't have one. No Lamborghini Aventador
06:48 Roadster. Actually they did have it, they just want to give it to us. I wonder why. I wonder why.
06:52 Okay so we've got a pretty good idea of who's not going to be in this year's Best Driver's Car
06:56 competition and why. So let's look at who is here. So what do we have? We have well the M6 finally.
07:03 We have an M6 but the competition pack wasn't ready. So we have that 560 horsepower. Only 560
07:09 horsepower. And you know we had a little bit of debate there about why an M6 versus an M5 versus
07:16 a Grand Coupe and it came down to I think. It seemed like a lot of people had driven the M6.
07:20 Yeah and BMW said that this is their more focused track oriented car because we asked for the M5
07:25 last year when it came out. They didn't have a car available to us, kind of. Well it seemed that
07:30 also people who have driven the M6 seem to prefer it a lot more to the M5. So that was our reasoning
07:35 there. Yeah there's that too and it makes sense right. It's the lightest one, it's a two-door,
07:38 it's not a four-door. You know carbon brakes. But the number of doors or the configuration of the
07:45 car doesn't matter. I mean we have an E63 wagon. E63 wagon which yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well here
07:51 yeah. So that's why do we have an E63 wagon? Because Johnny wanted an E63 wagon. Well Johnny
07:57 is. But I think we made a good choice because that car makes 577 horsepower, 590 pound feet
08:06 of torque and has the new AMG all-wheel drive where it's a permanent 67 rear 33 fronts torque split.
08:13 And so when you split that much torque you always have 400 pound feet to the rear wheels. And you
08:18 can put two kegs in the back and run the ring. Two. At least five. GTR which has been. Well GTR
08:26 track. Okay so yeah. We've had many generations of a GTR. Every year Brushed Driver's Car we have a
08:31 GTR. Well it's because Nissan every year does an update to the GTR. So this year we have the
08:35 track edition. Yeah. Which had no back seat, the fuzzy mouse fur seats. The Pep Boys special seats.
08:42 Yeah. It's also got the revisions to the suspension. They've lowered the roll center at
08:48 the front of the car. It's all subtle stuff around the car but it's it's they're real changes. They're
08:53 real incremental changes. And as we saw comparing it to the R8 which is also in this competition
08:58 it was the fastest production car we've ever ran around streets of willow. It was faster than a
09:02 Ducati 1198s which is mind-blowing. And as Carlos mentioned the Audi R8 is in. That one's got the
09:08 new. Be clear. Audi R8 V10 plus. So the new dual clutch which that car needed very badly.
09:15 Big engine. Finally gets. Previous Best Driver's Car winner. Yeah true. Another previous Best
09:23 Driver's Car winner Cayman S. Actually it was the Cayman R. No it was the S. Cayman S and 911. So we had two
09:29 Porsches this year. Right so we invited back the returning champ or the last year's winner. Last
09:34 year's winner was a C2S. This is now a C4S. And we have the Cayman S which is brand new.
09:41 Brand new. And we both you did an ignition. I drove it on a track in Portugal and it's a wonderful
09:47 wonderful car. It's a nice car. And kind of going with what we had last year with the C63 Black
09:51 Series we got Mercedes new SLS Black Series which looked quite amazing. Which is gold.
09:57 Whoa. Huge. That is an impressive machine. And I mean I think we we have to say kudos to Mercedes
10:04 Benz because they air freighted that car from Germany for us. Just for us. I'll just tell the
10:10 story. It's a little inside baseball but the tragedy is that Mercedes calls us and says hey
10:14 you want some video of it coming off the airplane? At LAX. At LAX. They say yes. LAX says yes. LA
10:21 Film Commission shuts us down because you have to get the permit in seven days in advance. We got it
10:25 in six days. It would have been so cool to see that thing coming off an airplane. Oh well. That car made a
10:32 rock star entrance. It really did. And I think just everyone who's driven it just it is a rock
10:38 star that car. They took a car that a lot of people didn't care for. The SLS regular AMG.
10:45 And turned it into a very very special machine. Again you know the SLS has been here before but
10:50 every everything on that car has been touched. The suspension, the engine, the transmission.
10:56 Okay I'm getting ahead of ourselves here. Getting a little ahead of ourselves. Well I was just gonna say why do we have an SRT and not a Viper TA or a GTS?
11:02 That's a great question. So we do have a Viper. We have the SRT, the base model, not the TA, not a GTS.
11:11 We don't have the other vehicles because they didn't have them available. And we did ask for
11:17 the TA. Even though you wanted a GTS because adjustable suspension. Because this is the best
11:23 driver's car. Not best track car. Not best lap time. And having driven all three cars and the GTS would
11:29 have been the absolute perfect car for this. Because we do a component on the track but
11:34 we also this is a significant component on a closed highway. And not only that we also
11:39 forget we're putting was it 600 miles round trip there and back. So there's a lot of like that's
11:44 a problem with the Viper. And we should be clear about this. All the automakers who supply
11:50 cars for the Best Driver's Car competition know exactly what we're going to do. So they send tires.
11:55 They send tires. They send engineers. Some of them send engineers. So when people say well
12:03 that wasn't a fair competition or that car wasn't fair for that competition. You should be aware that
12:08 it's a factory stock vehicle. We didn't modify. We didn't change the tires. The spec of the car
12:13 whether we got the SRT, Viper or GTS or a TA was entirely down to the manufacturer. SRT. It was
12:20 their decision. Yeah every Best Driver's Car needs to have an underdog. Something down on power
12:24 that just seems like a reasonable entrant. That's why we had the Focus. Yep not the Porsche. That's
12:29 why we had the Focus ST. That's one of my favorite cars for the money. Well that's one of only three
12:35 cars I think that had less than 500 horsepower in this year's competition. But you know Best Driver's
12:39 Car is not about which car waves the biggest check. Which car has the most horsepower. And
12:45 we've seen in the past the Subaru BRZ. I think it finished third. It's a brilliant. It's fourth but
12:51 Randy wanted second. That's right. It's a brilliant driver's car. So being Best Driver's Car doesn't
12:56 mean having the most horsepower or the most expensive price tag. The ST is there not just
13:02 because it's an underdog but it's there because it's actually bloody good to drive. It's the best
13:06 front driver I can think of period right now. Other nice drivers. We have some Brits involved.
13:11 Yeah a couple of very interesting Brits. I mean as someone you know both these companies have been on
13:16 the edge of bankruptcy in over their lives. But Aston Martin and Bentley rescued some would argue
13:22 Aston by Ford and Bentley by Volkswagen Group. And these are arguably the best Astons and Bentley
13:29 sporting cars that we've ever seen. So we have the new Vanquish. Carbon fiber blue. Looks fabulous.
13:36 French blue. Sounds phenomenal. French blue. Sounds good. V12 power. Love it. And the Bentley
13:42 Continental GT Speed. Le Mans edition. Le Mans. The Wolf Barnardo Le Mans edition. Sorry. Excuse me.
13:49 Because they have their three. Quilted leather. Oxblood. Just phenomenal. A little bit of a
13:54 might seem a bit of an anomaly. I mean this that one's carting 50 100 pounds around. That's
13:59 their SUVs that don't weigh that much. Yeah well that's Bentley. I remember talking to
14:03 I forget his name but it was one of the you know professor doctor engineers of Bentley.
14:08 German guy. And I said you know couldn't you do this with aluminum? Like take a thousand pounds
14:14 out? And his answer was oh but that's what makes it a Bentley. Is the weight. There's a feeling of
14:20 solidity. And it was it was a super sport though the old one. And that's it. Then I took it up a
14:24 mountain road. It was like consuming the cars in front of me. I was like yes. Don't. Add weight. Add
14:29 weight. You're just sort of adding lead ballast to the back. It felt so good. And last but not least
14:34 a car that you know I've probably been waiting 20 years for in my terms of my journalistic career.
14:38 I've been reporting about this car for 20 years. Jaguar F-Type. It's finally here and we finally
14:44 got to drive it. I think that was one car everyone was pretty excited. And to be clear F-Type V8 S.
14:49 Right. Top of the top. The most sporting. Right. Craziest exhaust. Maybe the best sounding V8
14:54 on the market. Maybe the best sounding car. I don't know how that's legal. It sounds like a
15:00 small wars erupted behind you. Yeah. It sounds like a guy with a Glock is just firing it off in your
15:05 gear. I mean the thing is like it's so good. So to recap in alphabetical order we had an Aston Martin
15:13 Vanquish. An Audi R8 V10 Plus. A Bentley Continental GT Speed. Wolf Bernardo Le Mans Edition.
15:20 BMW M6. Ford Focus ST. Jaguar F-Type V8 S. Mercedes-Benz AMG E63 wagon with the AMG S
15:32 package. Right. S model. S models. Yes. Extra power. Right. In the U.S. it only comes like that. It has
15:37 an S badge in front of AMG. The Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS Black Series. Nissan GTR Track Edition.
15:46 Porsche 911 Carrera C4 S. Porsche Cayman S. And the SRT Viper. Now that is almost 1.9 million dollars
15:58 worth of cars. Average cost about a hundred just under 160 grand and there's 6,147 horsepower in
16:07 that lot. I mean the average horsepower of that group is 512. I keep saying this for all these
16:13 doom and gloom merchants that say you know the EPA and unleaded gas and government restrictions.
16:18 Prius. We have a field of 12 cars here with an average horsepower of 512. And if you threw out
16:24 the Porsches and the Ford it would be like 600. Yeah they're throwing off the curve. This is a super dirty dozen for sure.
16:30 Absolutely. So Best Driver's Car Week airing all next week on the Motor Trend channel. We have
16:37 different programs coming up every day of the week. You'll find out which is Motor Trend's 2013
16:44 Best Driver's Car next week. See you then.
16:47 [Music]
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