A Stingray Versus a Prancing Horse and “Neunelfer”

© 2013 MotorTrend Magazine, Source Interlink Media

Motor Trend staff could not simply rest after their 2013 Best Driver’s Car Competition—not without testing the winner, the 2013 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, against a 2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta and the much anticipated 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51.  Our readers may already be familiar with the Edmunds comparison between the C7 and the 911, but let’s give Motor Trend’s review a look.

The only way they felt they could compare fairly between the $434,144 Ferrari, the $151,260 Porsche and the $70,770 Corvette (prices as tested) was by applying their Best Driver’s Car rules, possibly because if bang-for-the-buck were a factor it would be much more difficult for the 911 to continue winning every competition.  But “if you could boil down what [Motor Trend is] looking for when it comes to a Best Driver’s Car, confidence might be the ultimate factor.”

Going off the ability to inspire driver confidence, the Porsche proved to be the best of the bunch with the Corvette a very close second.  The fact that the 911 set a lap time of 1:39.19 versus the C7’s lap time of 1:38.28 and the F12’s 1:38.04 did not change their decision.  The fact that the Carrera reaches 0-60 in 3.9 seconds versus the Stingray at 3.7 seconds and the Berlinetta at 3.6 seconds, also did not change their decision.  CF member skank was present during the comparison test and says, “Corvette engineers reset the computer handling parameters and went out and reset a time which was faster and also matched the Ferrari time” which was not accepted because Porsche and Ferrari did not have testing engineers on hand to help set better lap times.

The Stingray definitely showed up against the Europeans.  In fact, if Motor Trend “were to compare the C7 with the 911 in a contest where money mattered, it would be hard to ignore the fact that the Porsche costs twice what the Chevy does. Really, really hard.”  I’m going to have to go with CF member BlueOx and say, “my greatest takeaway from this comparo [is] it is extremely impressive that the C7 stands with these other world-class contestants for the performance and feel, price be damned. A home run.”

We love seeing what our community thinks, so go weigh in on the forum.

Watch the video comparison below or read the original article from Motor Trend here.