Anyone see the April Automobile Mag?

[tekkie]

I just saw this on the SVT forums, its a review of 4 cars, the MSP was last of the 4 :wtf: guess who was first? (starts ducking now) the SRT-4, and please do not make this into another SRT-4 thread I have heard enough about that thing already

anyway I have not found the mag yet, I checked their website and it mentions the reviews but no info :bs:

http://www.focaljet.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=003813#000000

 

[mspeedpro]

wtf??? who was the 2nd and 3rd car?? **** them.

 

[Dexter]

teh focus and some other car. **** the SVT Focus

 

[the_glassman]

wtf??? who was the 2nd and 3rd car?? **** them.

Going from memory,
4. Mazdaspeed
3. Mini Cooper
2. SVT Fuckus
1. SRT-4 Neon
I was kind of shocked myself. Most of the time Auto is a good mag, it also has a good writeup on the RX-8.

 

[KBicknel]

A friend of ours (WRX owner and two year, pretty good autocrosser) read that article and went to a local autocross. He sized up his competition which was a MSP and a Honda Prelude. He knew he was set. Well...he got his butt kicked by just over 2 seconds by the MSP. The MSP was completely stock..even tires. The WRX has a lot of the D-stock mods and Falkens. Oh well..can't believe everything you read!

Results here:
http://www.cincyautox.org/Solo2003/031603.htm


Kristi

 

[Vicocola]

at least everyone in the forum thinks its odd that they put the msp last... and praise the msp... sometimes i guess u just cant look at mag... but they did pt out the bad part about the msp...

(For the Protege they said...

"The turbo hesitates when you shift into 2nd gear before it decides to breathe"

"Turbo lag and torque steer conspired to end the fon on an autocross course."

"Power came on plentifully, but always at the wrong time, and the limited-slip diff tugged the steering wheel out of our hand every time we came out of a turn" )

 

[gotdlife]

Yup, I was at AutoX today with my MSP. I have an oil leak on the turbo right now so I didn't run it(goes into the dealer tomorrow) However, I think it is going to be a great deal of fun when I get too.

 

[Street KingFD]

Are you sure. i could have sworn it beat the Mini Cooper S and the SVT Focus. in fact the Mini and the SVT got tied for 3rd. Srt-4 was #1 and the MSP was #2

 

[MikeyG_U2]

Street King, you are thinking of the Sport Compact Car comparison, in which the MSP got 2nd behind the SRT-4. A buddy I work with gets Automobile and told me about the article where the MSP is 4th behind the Neon, Mini, and Focus. He's supposed to bring it in this week for me to read. I haven't done any autocrossing yet, but I can totally see how the Torque Steer would be a bad thing, it gets pretty bad in just normal driving...

 

[OrangeMSP]

gotta love the "american muscle" people that do thoes articles for that mag! SCC did a much better review

 

[2K3 MSP]

I was truly dissappointed when I read the article in Autmobile Magazine...I mean, if the numbers they put up were truly accurate, then so be it. But for god's sake, the neon(excuse me SRT-4) was a late entry into the factory production "race" category. It had the most time to decide what it needed to do to beat the competition. And the Mini Cooper-S is just way too small to even consider to be competiiton. I'm not mad that the MSP didn't win in all the categories, but they showed it failing in(i think) all of them. When SCC did theirs, they took the Neon(sorry habit...SRT-4) and the MSP through a 3 mile mountain course, the MSP was only behind by a few car lengths. I think we didn't get the right "tests" to show where our cars really shine..But whatever, that's just my opinion...here's another one...the SRT-4 is ugly...HA HA HA.

 

[Antoine]

AUTOMOBILE mag is one of my favorites...high quality content...but when I read what they said about the MSP...I was disgusted.:mad:

Is it me or does it seem like a lot of automotive journalists and publications praise the SVT focus over clearly superior cars like THE MSP!!!. I think the only people who aren't completely in fords pocket are SCC.

They all mention how the SVT is sooo well balanced yet fail to mention all the recalls and fit/finish issues. I think conspiracy...

 

[Dexter]

They all mention how the SVT is sooo well balanced yet fail to mention all the recalls and fit/finish issues. I think conspiracy...

yah no s***. how many times have the Focii been recalled? How about the engine bays catching on fire? yeah, Ford is really ******' great

:bs: X 10000

 

[1sty]

That took me by suprise becuase if I recall correctly Automobile loved the MP3.
I guess it just goes to show how different opinions of driving feel can be and that they are all great cars.

Or magazines are just taking bribes at this point!:bs:

 

[Newf]

Never read the article, but if they have a pre-production car, or a car that hasn't been pdi'd right it might explain it. Torque steer can be somewhat cured with the new TSB on wheel aligments and camber's. And, it seems only a few people are seeing this serious turbo lag, and most are impressed with it's linear power.

So, I guess I'm saying, is it possible they got a bum Speed?

Oh yeah, I watched Car and Drivers 10 best last weekend on tv. They picked the SVT over the srt4, and speed in the pocket rocket section as well. It was a wrx, svt, and RSX up for the award. Can't disagree with the wrx, and rsx, but then again they are much more $$$ then a msp, even the srt4. I guess you need two pockets to afford the wrx But, either the srt4 or msp should have been in the top 3. damn old fella's driving the cars again.

Can we have a new magazine with people testing cars that aren't pushing 50 and aren't the typical muscle car red neck biased testers please ?

Guess that was a bit mean


I still find it funny that the speed was in planning and design stages long before the srt4, and we are still waiting for the speeds.

 

[1sty]

The NE is still waiting for the SRT/4

If you look at the car and driver 10 best issue this year, atleast 3 pics there is a orange MSP in the background so someone liked it a whole lot.

 

[Slipstream]

Some of their complaints confuse me. They whine about torque steer on the MSP, yet the SRT-4 should potentially have TONS more of it (due to higher torque and no LSD). The SVT really is a good car, but it has enough faults that I fail to see how it's significantly better than the MSP (strange seating height, awful exhaust note, bizarre styling, Ford reliability). The Cooper S is also a good car, but again, enough faults of it's own to not put it significantly past the MSP.

You'd think a publication like this would rate the car on the full go-around. I'd expect SCC to heavily stress performance and potential and ignore looks/amenities, but it seems like Auto is doing the same. I'm not saying the MSP should have been first, but it most certainly shouldn't have been LAST.

 

[Newf]

was the one in the article orange?

 

[tekkie]

well I had to go get the mag today and I found one,

newf it is an orange one, apparently this is the second one that they have driven

I dont know if this thing is ligit or not but I am not impressed by any of the numbers they are throwing around in the article, all in mph of course

Car 0-60 0-100 1/4 Top speed 70-0 peak braking
SRT 5.7 14 14.2 @12 148 158 1.13g
SVT 7.5 20.8 15.8@90 134 165 1.15g
MSP 7.3 21.1 15.7@90 130 162 1.12g
Mini 7.3 19.4 15.6@92 136 165 1.10g

Cornering left/right
0.88/0.84g for SRT
0.89/0.84g for SVT
0.92/0.90g for MSP

sorry this does not lay out well here
0.88/0.90g for Mini

 

[Street KingFD]

You people going to let a magazine decide what to drive? Go drive all the cars in the comparison and see which one matches you. MSP FOR ME.