HHR SS compared to NSX?

[Wraythe]

One of my friends ordered '08 Chevy HHR SS the day it was officially released. I've been joking with him about his order and this morning he sent me the below quote from Car&Driver:

The next step was to develop the hell out of the HHR SS at the famed Nürburgring in Germany, which is quickly becoming a required rite of passage for GM Performance–tuned vehicles. The HHR SS turned a best lap of 8:43.52, which is, for the record, only about five seconds slower than a lap recorded by an Acura NSX in 1997.

http://www.caranddriver.com/carnews...hhr-ss-tuned-for-speed-and-pricing-page3.html

From a performance point of view, I'm impressed. However, it's no NSX:biggrin:

 

[enigma]

I could've sworn I saw a video post on here not that long ago about the NA1 NSX lapping the ring in 8:16...

Plus, no matter what they've done with the HHR, there is no doubt in my mind that it is still absolutely hideous.

Edit: As a matter of fact, I did see that post.

 

[nsxtcy85]

Are you kidding me? Whats next. NSX vs. Geo metro

 

[MashimaroNSX]

5 seconds is still substantially slower then an NSX's time

 

[my1stnsx]

LOL!!!:biggrin:

 

[Wreckless]

One of my friends ordered '08 Chevy HHR SS the day it was officially released. I've been joking with him about his order and this morning he sent me the below quote from Car&Driver:



From a performance point of view, I'm impressed. However, it's no NSX:biggrin:

Now, if only it could be substantiated that those lap times were true apples-to-apples comparisons. For all we know the touted lap time the HHR was allegedly so close to was from an NSX in the wet on four emergency donut spares! The article linked referencing the NSX is nothing but a typical bench-racers number mashup against other cars in 'its class'.
While I doubt anyone would turn a wheel in anger in something like an NSX on four temporary spare tires in the pouring rain on Nurburgring of all places, I am utterly certain that not all car magazine test drivers are cut from the same cloth - and if there's a road course on this wet little rock we call earth that will truly sort out the real drivers from the riff-raff, its going to be the Nur.

So one certainly could put a Michael Schumacher or Aryton Senna in a proverbial shitbox in near-ideal conditions and have him clock off laps and then make the same argument about said shitbox being xxy:zz faster than the NSX-R that some terribly misguided soul allowed my sister to drive.
Its all a matter of manipulating the information actually seen, while again capitalizing on the black sheep reputation the NSX has undeservedly earned because it didn't snap off fast enough 0-60 times to impress the armchair 'experts' that make up the bulk of car rag readers - which sadly are the same sorts of folks we might see on our morning commutes driving a 1998 Chevy Lumina that parades their true enthusiasm for 'motorsport' with a stylized number 3 or number 8 sticker on a window or quarter panel.

That all being said, the HHR is one of the prime examples showing just how badly domestic car manufacturers need to enhance the vision coverage on their employee's health benefit packages.