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Road Test: Comparison Test
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2000 Roadster Comparison Test
Introduction
By
editors at Edmunds.com
Date posted: 12-27-2000
Drudgery it was not. Charged with fully evaluating 10 of the hottest two-seat
roadsters on the market, the Edmunds.com editorial team departed the office for
a week of top-down driving through the mountains and across the plains of Central
and Southern California. Wide grins covered our faces as we headed up the Pacific
Coast Highway that first morning, sun to our backs, sea breezes buffeting the
cabins of the cars, with mile upon mile of empty highway ahead of us.
Our loop started in Ventura and ended near Willow Springs Raceway in Lancaster,
Calif. In between those cities we visited Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Cambria
and Ojai before blitzing into the desert for hot laps. Our 1,000-mile trek included
freeway, city and, of course, twisty two-lane driving. None of the cars left us
stranded, though the Toyota MR2 Spyder got itself stuck in fourth gear and had
to be limped to a Toyota dealership in Santa Maria to have a bolt from the shift
linkage replaced, and the Corvette we drove was a giant pile of...well, you can
fill in the blank.
As seems customary for our comparison tests lately, we were forced to rent one
of the cars. Chevrolet decided 48 hours prior to our departure that they didn't
want to provide us with the 2000 Millennium Yellow Corvette Convertible that we
had scheduled two months prior to the test. We scrambled, and found a 1999 model
through our friends at Event Vehicles (www.eventvehicles.com).
Sure, the odometer read only 18,000 miles, but it had been thoroughly flogged,
to the point that we couldn't evaluate the car properly. The Event Vehicle folks
warned us that the car had been ridden hard and was in poor condition. They were
hesitant to loan it out, but we pressed them, figuring any Corvette was better
than nothing. Turns out we were wrong. The automatic transmission was in sorry
shape (it freewheeled regularly when the accelerator pedal was released), the
interior was trashed (we found the remains of a marijuana cigarette in the luggage
compartment), the car had just gotten out of the body shop after a rear-end collision
(which caused the top to get jammed in the down position during a rainstorm),
and by the time we got it to the track, it was difficult to drive and control
thanks to nearly bald tires. Next time we'll listen to the good people at Event
Vehicles, as well as give them more than 24 hours advance notice.
We have three tests for your perusal. The Corvette vs. Prowler story, a comparison
of roadsters with less than 200 horsepower that includes the BMW Z3 2.3, the Mazda
Miata and the Toyota MR2 Spyder, and a five-car comparo of roadsters with more
than 200 horsepower, in which the Audi TT, BMW M, Honda S2000, new-for-2001 Mercedes-Benz
SLK 320 and Porsche Boxster (not the S model) competed.
Readers! Start your engines!
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