Motor Trend’s 2012 Best Driver Car

You’re going to want to set aside a solid 45 minutes to watch these videos. We continue to reap the benefits of YouTube paying good money to car magazines for original content to rival traditional TV shows. Motor Trend’s latest installment is their 2012 Best Driver’s Car compilation. I like the way they do this annual comparison because a lot of people tend to misuse the term “driver’s car,” but Motor Trend has got it right and they stick to their guns. What makes a good driver’s car goes way beyond the numbers of the performance statistics. The 0-60 time doesn’t say anything about the car’s balance, feedback, fun or driver engagement. Those things are much harder to describe, but thankfully we have Johnny Lieberman, Carlos Lagos and Randy Pobst here working together to convey the driving experiences of this dream car lineup. This year they rounded up the Jaguar XKR-S, Subaru BRZ, Lamborghini Aventador, Porsche 911 Carrera S, Ford Shelby GT500, Nissan GT-R Black Edition, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series and McLaren MP4-12C. The boys start out by doing winding road introductions of each car and then they turn them over to Randy for hot laps around Laguna Seca. They finish up by choosing a top 3 and then driving them some more to pick an overall winner.


Keeping with Motor Trend tradition, tall of the cars get lined up for a massive drag race once all of the testing is done:
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Cadillac CTS-V Wagon at the Nurburgring – Motor Trend

Motor Trend’s senior feature editor, Johnny Lieberman, bids farewell to their long-term Cadillac CTS-V by featuring it on the latest episode of Epic Drives. The V-Wagon gets shipped to Germany so Lieberman can make one more beer run to his favorite Belgian brewers (he’s a home brewer and beer judge). From there he takes the wagon to the Nurburgring to let Johnny O’Connell of Cadillac Racing take another shot at the CTS lap record which was set by John Heinricy in an automatic CTS-V sedan during GM’s development program. Lieberman’s hope was to shave a couple of seconds off the record with the wagon since it’s a 6-speed.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube

Ferrari F12 Berlinetta – evo

Between his role as “European Correspondent” for Car and Driver and this review for evo, Jethro Bovingdon is quickly becoming one of my favorite car reviewers. He takes Ferrari’s newest front engine V12 monster for a spin around Fiorana test track and then on Italy’s mountain roads. Jethro also brings along a 599 GTO as a benchmark comparison for the new car.


Source: evo TV on YouTube