Everybody Hated This One
You can't make everybody happy when you write a comparison test, but is it possible to make nobody happy?
The Battle Of The Misfits was an attempt to find a proper context for the amazing but expensive and limited-purpose Camaro Z/28. All the other rags just tested it against the GT-R, I think. Which might have been a more successful strategy.
You'd think that in any comparison where the Viper and GT-R lose the fanboys will be out for blood --- and a quick check of the Viper Alley and GT-R Club shows you'd be right. But what about the Camaro guys? At least they were happy, right? Hell no they weren't. Some of my favorite comments:
Thankfully Gurney was there to babysit the children. The tire excusist whining at the end was pathetic.
It's refreshing to see the car's superiority trump an otherwise biased Baruth.
I always notice the swipes publication writers take at the Camaro. Clearly way too much car for them to deal with.
Just because you know the alphabet, that doesn't make you into a Hemingway
Two of us were thrashing the Z/28 around Thunderhill, over two days, and the high temps ranged from 102 to 106 degrees. No worries; I think operator error is to blame for the quote you posted...
And the best of all:
Translated from BitchSpeak to English: Camaros are for uneducated people who do not deserve a car like this.
When you compress it to "BitchSpeak" and capitalize the "S", Sir, your fedora is showing.
Oh well. This relatively recent phenomenon of enthusiast-forum members complaining because their car didn't win the comparison by more is happening everywhere you go now. The resurrection of this relatively old article to the R&T web front page will just fan the flames. I've heard a lot of carping about the photography as well, although I think Tobias did a good job of capturing the distant, alien qualities of the weird desert moonscape that surrounds the Thermal Club.
With all the above said, I'll still remember this as one of my favorite tests ever. The R&T guys took a chance on me with this one. I was about a hundred days out from my car crash at that point and I could still feel my ribs and pelvis grinding when I moved. It was a painful and difficult trip and when I sat in the Viper for the first time I strongly doubted my ability to give the car the drive it deserved. As it turns out, I needn't have worried; I was only in pain and misery outside the cars. Behind the wheel, around the track, I was at home again for the first time in months. So even though the whole world hated this review, I can rest easy; the trip, and the text, are just fine with me.
Except.
The winner?
It should have been the Viper.