Top Gear review up - a different perspective
 

Always interesting to read what the Brits think about an American car, they tend to be more critical (and possibly more objective). Here's a few excerpts from their first drive:

Interior: "It’s now simple, functional and perfect for purpose. The A-pillars are slightly slimmer and the cowl line is lower, so outward vision is a little better. But it’s still a long way from easy to see out."

Handling: "...But it’s almost too good. On our very British-like B-road route around the outskirts of Detroit, the Camaro was composed to the point of semi detachment.
By the time things started to get interesting in the steering department, you’ll likely be traveling almost double or triple the speed limit. Which is impressive from an engineering point of view, but a little too composed for a muscle car." (Hmmm- one of the reasons I'll be comparing this to smaller, lighter cars with lower limits (MX-5, refreshed FR-S). Want to keep that license :rolleyes:.)

They preferred the non-MRC suspension: "You want that [MRC] kind of splendid isolation in a Cadillac, but you want something more raw in a muscle car. The Camaros riding on the regular suspension got out of shape a lot earlier and had more body movement, which was better."

Liked the manual, but not the auto: "When you pulled the paddle there was a distinct delay while the system had a think about whether now really was the right time to change gear."

P.S. - be sure to read the comments, some good back and forth with the reviewer. One sharp comment from an American: "Our muscle cars are too crude until suddenly they aren't crude enough. One can trash redneck dna, until they instantly start to miss it." Reviewer responded well, and has extensive muscle car experience.

Most of the complaints about the A8 are in 'manual mode', and honestly, it seems a bit of a mixed bag. Some think it's ok, some think it's rubbish. I wonder if the people thinking it's ok are expecting a delay know it's not a true dual clutch, and the ones who don't expect PDK-like operation (the gold standard of "autos")? Left to it's own devices it seems to do pretty good.

As for MRC, I'd think there's a pretty distinct different between max stiffness and 'touring', will have to delve further into that, but from what he's describing, it's exactly what you'd expect in the softest settings.

I will be the first to admit I didn't really feel connected to the road in the Z06 with MRC at first. However, it is much better in sport mode and you get used to the constant corrections pretty quickly. The rear does still feel like it is "floaty" when taking a curve with lots of loose stuff or that's very uneven, but you learn how to not over correct pretty quickly.

As for the paddle shifting, I think they just needed to get used to it. If you keep them slightly depressed (fingers resting on them with a little pressure) all the the time, then you remove the delay that comes for the travel distance. Then, if you are driving aggressively for 15-20 minutes the delay nearly disappears (especially on downshifts). It will never be as fast as leaving it in auto mode, but there is a big difference in response times between just tooling around and driving it hard.

Sometimes it just takes a while to learn how to drive a car the right way.

You know that brings up a good point, the transmission's adaptive programing. I know the BMW manual mentions it for their ZF unit. Basically if you don't drive aggressively, it will soften the shifts up. With these cars being testers, they are probably getting a lot of different driving styles confusing the adaptive program.

the C7 i drove had MRC and most times i use only 2 modes; sport for city and country roads and track at autobahn. the touring mode feel sluggish and steering not good enough for my taste, i used it only on bad bumpy roads with low speed.
if i go with a SS i definately will have that MRC, it gives you adjustable dampers every time you want thats a great thing !

This is exactly why I won't get another auto. I want to be in the gear I want, not what the car wants.

One review said you can bounce off the rev limiter all day if you want, it won't auto shift in manual mode.

The auto shifts very very fast, but when in manual mode there is a delay between pressing it and the shift starting. This is with every automatic from every manufacture. DCT works differently.

yep, i have to drive that 8speed autom. before buying !
I need no dual clutch or PDK but it has to be significant faster with paddles than the manual shifting in the 2013-14 STang !

I think another mag (C&D or R&T) made a statement similar to this; that the new car was almost TOO polished.

Can't say I ever had a problem getting my manual shift automatic to go into any gear I wanted. Hell, I let my wife drive it once and she accidentally double tapped down two gears, which basically redlined the RPMs...I was a bit surprised it let her do it. It never seemed very picky to me.

The new insult is that it's too good.

It's not even fair.

Lol...they can't bash it because they know it is awesome, so they go ahead and say it is too good! Good stuff! Like saying in the past global warming, now they know that is BS, so they just call it climate change, you know something that the earth has been doing for millions of years!:sm0:

"too composed for a muscle car"

"Just the whole thing feels a little isolated from the road. Especially the cars fitted with the ‘MR’ adaptive damping. You want that kind of splendid isolation in a Cadillac, but you want something more raw in a muscle car. The Camaros riding on the regular suspension got out of shape a lot earlier and had more body movement, which was better."
"We prefer our muscle cars a little more raw than this"

So you want the car to not handle as good, have some body roll with that corner, and not be as "refined"....right, sure you do.

That commentor was spot on! Historically, TopGear has always bashed American cars for their lack of refinement and brutish handling characteristics. The Gen 5 was big and heavy (which it was heavily criticized for as I recall).

Now Chevy gives them a car that seems to handle like a BMW and they bitch about that.