Not the most conclusive performance test ive seen..

The guy in the R8 obviously can’t drive. It isn’t that much slower than the M3. It’s also a class up in size. Pointless comparison.

There was something wrong with the Holden. The driver wasn’t wearing a yellow vest with a ciggie out the window.

4.9 seconds to 100? Yeah right…

just remember, how much electronic trickery is on those other cars. He buggered up the 1-2 or 2-3 change, either that or the hsv shift is rubbish (a little from column A a little from column B)

All these cars are smaller than the clubsport, have better power to weight ratios and cost a hell of alot more yet people bag the holden.
Even the driver said the holden bogged down alot. And many publications here in OZ say the VE has a small window of slip and revs to get it off the line smooth. Should have given him an auto clubby.
I noticed no one has commented on how badly the Lexus went in the drift test. I would have given it a score of 2 max.
Then again maybe it was driver error too who knows.
But I must say I thought the old M3 sounded mean,that new one sounds awesome. Id love to buy one if I had the cash. Its seems like a brilliant car.

427 370 anyone?

It amazes me how many Holden supporters are trying to give excuses for why the “VE Club Sport” just didn’t cut it. The answer has nothing to do with the “billion dollars” spent by Holden. It has to do with old technology in the V8 department. These other cars had top shelf engines. I’m not a Holden person but I will not bag a car that is hamstrung by old technology American motors that belong in the 20th century. We do live in the 21st century. The engines that are coming from Europe are just so much better than what we use in our cars it’s not funny.

Andrew, Robbo & BurtROS you 3 shouldnt be so mean to Holden/Vauxhall, there’s deffinately a price difference between it and the others. The driver in the Vauxhall, didnt even look like he was trying. And lets admit it, aussie cars will never or rarely be able to beat the like of Merc, beemer etc. But they will one day………..

A pretty unfair set of rules. They should have tested all the cars in each test as the Clubbie obviously was going to lose the straight line drag and would have done well in the other two tests.

Besides, who has ever judged a Merc or Lexus on how well it drifts?? It’s not what they’re about, just as a Clubbie isn’t designed to beat an M3.

If it was a serious test, they would have swapped drivers and averaged the results. How can any test have parity when there is so much hinging on the driver skill level.

I remember when my mate took his XR8 to the strip the first time out after his flash tune and exhaust, two 15 second passes later he smashed out a 13.2 out of nowhere. That’s a manual gear box for you, rather than the standard automatic ‘mash-n-go’

The Clubsport is a flat 14 / high 13 second car realisticly, I think we can at least all agree on that one, now, judging by that video, there is a 3 and a half gap between the M3 and VXR8. So, if that guy actually drove that car to its full potential, the BMW M3 would have just done around an mid 11 second pass.

I mean really, The Clubby would have been beaten anyway so there is no real surprise there, they are a 13 second car out of the box I’m sure the M3 is capable of a low 13 second pass. Shame they tested the manual.

Some of these responses to how the VXR8 was dudded reminds me of Monday morning when some of the guys complain about how their footy team was ripped off by the umpire. Face it, the VXR8 was not good enough to beat these car in a quarter mile sprint. Maybe if the test had been reversed things might have been a little different. But the VXR8 would still have lost the quarter mile sprint. Maybe Caradvice can do the same test in Australia and see if the results will be different (not).

Carl, the engine in this VXR8 is American not Australian. If you are trying to tell me that GM in the States spent less on this V8, remembering and correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t GM the biggest car company in the world or are they the second biggest. Don’t make excuses.

Tony M, Surely your not comparing that basic American engine to the brilliant engines the Germans have…GM might be big but their not exactly a high tech or a luxury brand plus we all know how Americans pride themselves in cubic inches and not horse power, in other words the Americans get the least amount of horse power per cubic inch than any other manufactures in the world….different cars for different demographics!!!

Having said all that bad stuff about the yanks and they deserve it….they can also make some gorgeous cars when they really try!!

Carl, correct me if I’m wrong, didn’t GM have a set of alloy heads made by Yamaha which they were going to put on their Corvette. Your right, the Yanks do things for a price and then try to get you to believe it’s the “bees nees”. You know what scares me at the moment is that the new V8 that might be going into the FG Falcon around 2010 might be a similar motor to the one in the current VE Commodore.

mistertwo and tony m great points, i am sick of people comparing luxury sports cars against a bush pig! the reason the other cars cost alot more is the refienment and technology! just coz you spend $1 billion does not make it a $1 billion well spent or the fact that for GM to get out of putting money into developing modern engines, their motto is bore it out another litre then it will do for another 5 years. carl you talk about money spent on research and development holden cant spend as much, but when you look at how many cars GM globally put this engine into and for the other companies it is a niche engine. GM should be spending much much more on its development. the merc has a similar size engine to the clubby yet the merc has about 50 kw more and close to 100 Nm more and considering merc only sell about 10000ish of these engined cars globally, now tell me why GM dont put money into engine development!!!!!! point proven

Mark, I’m thinking that the VXR8 seems like a bush pig beacuse those other contenders are almost twice the asking price. I’d take the $65,000 Clubsport R8, or even F6 or GT before I spent $130,000 on a new M3.

Not only that, have fun at servicing time

^^^The Europeans must be laughing cos they’ve had small fuel efficient turbo’s and turbo diesels for years now^^^

I had to lol when the r8 got absolutely flogged in the drag
What a shit heap

I wonder if merc and bmw dealerships let apprentices service them and have service races to see who gets finished first, as i have heard from our local holden dealer?

also…. im VERY surprised the VE was flogged so badly…. i expected it to be right there!

remember though 15 grand in pom is 40+ grand here… so thats a LOT of coin ( fark me, im sticking up for a commode DONT TELL MY MATES!!! )

no discussion needed.

it is obvious that the clubbie was disadvantaged, and im not a holden fan either.
the thing was put into wheelspin at the start. once you break traction, wave good bye to the blue ribbon. im not saying it should have won either, but not to the point where people bag the shyte out of it.
imagine if cathy freeman had have slipped momentarily at the sydney olympics……….. a poor start would have put her at the rear of the field.

why didnt they do the luggage test first, as with the interior space? that would have eliminated the others prior to the drag race.

AndrewM piss poor excuse, it was a close call… it lost by a coupla seconds, which at in excess of 100km/h equates to 30m or so.

This was the worse comparison iv ever seen. the holden would not have won i no that, but there is no way it could have been flogged by that much. the driver of the vxr8 wheel span way to much, any other video it doesnt spin that much. and to cut the holden out after the 1st comparison was bullshit. they obviously knew it would have been a winner in 1 of the 2.
its a 4.9 (0-100) second car, if it got beaten by that much then u would thing the bmw and the merc would be like a 4 second.

The commentator is boring along with a bunch of idiots. The Merc is faster than the M3, as tested by Top Gear, Fifth Gear and Car & Driver. It’s also pointless to make the big Vauxhall fight the smaller cars.

Oh, one thing too, why was the traction control switched off on the VXR8?

Who cares, Have a look at the reports on the new FG GE6 turbo. 5.1 sec to 100kph. The HSV product just got hammered at home.

Oh please! Why not put a Bugatti Veyron in there too and then say that all the other cars were crap! What a useless comparison made by mindless idiots.

I agree with Sam R, the next time these clowns it should be a Ferrari F430 vs a Veyron vs a Suzuki swift. That will be a fair comparison wont it.

Too much journalism out there not enough people smart enough to do it!

And very good point GhisGT where was the traction control?? none of the other cars had any wheelspin.

Haha, if the VXR8 had of been quicker, I bet nobody would have had a problem with the way the test was conducted.

Clarkson likes the HSV cos its easy to power slide with… unfortunately when it comes to getting around a track quickly you dont want a car thats so easy to unsettle, its not a good attribute.