Automotive magazines are not what they used to be and today survive predominantly on their established relationships with automakers. Many of those automakers are not afraid to abuse those relationships as the magazines are dependent on exclusive content to stay relevant.


Ferrari abuses this power. They do it blatantly and just do not care. The perception of Ferrari being the best is all that matters. Truthfully, McLaren took the reigns as far as the most impressive and technologically advanced high performance automaker from Ferrari a while ago.

The 488 GTB when launched was overmatched by the McLaren MP4-12C let alone the newer models. A McLaren 570S is lighter, better handling, and faster.

So how is it the McLaren 570 loses to the 488 GTB in the MotorTrend World's Greatest Drag Race 7 whereas in the real world the McLaren dusts it? The answer is Ferrari cheats.

They are not the only ones. BMW is known to use 'press files' for testing. How do you explain Car and Driver getting a 10.9 @ 129 out of the stock F90 M5 and Road and Track getting an 11.4 @ 123.0 out of the more powerful F90 M5 Competition?


You can't. The F90 M5 is not going to run six miles per hour of trap speed higher than the F90 M5 Competition. Car and Driver got a ringer to generate hype.

You just can not put much faith into these testing procedures. Look at the E63 AMG S wagon for example. We are supposed to believe the E63 S Wagon carrying almost 450 additional pounds is quicker and faster than the M5 Competition? We already know the standard F90 M5 is faster than the E63 S sedan let alone the Competition version.

This is why independent results with people who have true production cars are the only way to go in order to truly know what is going on.

Ferrari is clearly sending out Pista ringers. Cadillac sent out ringers. Everyone does it and the magazines do not call it out for fear or losing out on the next car to test.

We can only use the acceleration figures to get a general idea and the same goes for the laptimes:


The Senna managed a stellar 1:23.34. The E63 S wagon had an accident and did not lap.

Somehow the Corvette ZR1 is chosen as the winner in this group. A group with a McLaren Senna in it. Why the ZR1 wins is not explained all that well. They say you are allowed to have it in manual or automatic which, yes, is a big deal for an enthusiast but is the ZR1 really a better performance car than a GT2 RS? A 488 Pista? A McLaren Senna?

No way in hell.

The entire comparison needs to be taken with a grain of salt.