 2013 Porsche 911. Click image to enlarge |
Article and photos by Jonathan Yarkony
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2013 Canadian Car of the Year Testfest
Day 3
Wednesday morning I had the luxury of requesting a category, and I doubt anyone will feel sorry for me in the difficult decision I faced between Sports/Performance Over $50K (Best Boxster Ever, Best Camaro Ever—ZL1, Best Mustang Ever—GT500, and the SLK 55 AMG) or Prestige Performance (Best Corvette Convertible Ever, Best 911 Ever, Benz SL 550 fresh off a win in our Comparison Test, and the BMW M5). Life is rough, I know.
Well, after trying to be modest and picking the S/P Over $50K category, it turns out that all the keys of all the cars were already out—I guess I wasn’t the first to elect into that category. After a quick scan of the key boards and checking with the interns serving as key masters, one of our CCOTY Directors made a quick switch in the all-seeing, all-knowing ‘system’, and I was handed the keys to my dream car, the 911. Yes, the temptation was there to just keep driving once I got on the QEW, but the prospect of Corvettes and GT500s and Boxsters back at TestFest (and many more in the years to come) brought me back to our starting point. It doesn’t hurt that the starting point is also where the handling course is located.
 2013 Porsche 911. Click image to enlarge |
At the wheel of the 911, this one a Carrera S with the brilliant and super-fast PDK dual clutch automated manual, I finally began to yearn for a more substantial track than the piecemeal sections strung together on the Niagara airport runways. Those sections were an acceleration strip followed by high-speed slalom (though with progressively tighter transitions), wide 90-degree turn, tight slalom, decreasing radius turn, sharp 90-degree turn, then another wide, high-speed slalom and an emergency braking zone to test the absolute limits and capabilities of the brakes. It’s no Mosport, but I could drive it all day long in any of a dozen cars on the premises and have fun every second.
But as on any of the other days, there is a time limit, so eventually I had to park the 911 and walk the keys back to the key exchange. On the topic of keys, I have to compliment the Canadian Car of the Year (CCOTY) team on a job well done. With over 60 entries, and 3 examples of each entry, to be deployed among over 80 journalists for driving on public roads and on the closed handling course, just having vehicles available for every journalist to complete testing in their categories was a challenge, and the team pulled it off without a hitch, most journalists finished their assigned categories by Tuesday and having time to pick up an elective ‘unassigned’ category on Wednesday.
For every vehicle taken out, a barcode attached to the key was scanned, as well as a barcode attached to one’s ID badge—so you knew they could track you down in seconds if you were out on a joy ride… The biggest challenge of the week was the Corvette 427, a C6 generation entered in the final year of its run because of the newly paired convertible body and LS7 7.0L V8—one of the two 427s brought down for the event gave out during the performance testing for the objective acceleration categories, leaving only one car to be tested by everyone assigned to this category, plus everyone that wanted to drive it during the free-for-all times.
  Mercedes-Benz SL 550 (top), and BMW 3 Series and Cadillac ATS. Click image to enlarge |
Anyhow, I managed to pair up with another journalist waiting on the 427, and we claimed it along with the Mercedes-Benz SL 550. We drove them back to back on public roads, then peeled off some rubber on the handling course. While there is no question the Vette was the handling champ of that pair, and possibly the best handler this year at TestFest, I had the SL pegged as the frontrunner in this Prestige Performance group because it had the best combination of design appeal inside and out, quality, features, refinement, handling power, and so on. However, the appeal of the Porsche as a driver’s car must have been simply too much, and its performance was best in every measured test.
We manage to finish the pair with just enough time on the clock for one more journalist to drive the Vette and complete the category, while I entered all my results on the computers set up for online score submission, and even had a chance to review and revise my previously submitted scores before the Wednesday noon deadline.
Lunch saw us through that deadline and then it was time drive a few cars on my personal wish list, as well as significant new launches available here for the first time on Canadian soil (before even their North American press launches). For example, the first car I took out after lunch was the Nissan Sentra, just out of curiosity after what Mike had to say about it in his First Drive. And to get a sense of it against some recent competition, I drove the Dart immediately after, and found the Dart to be superior in most respects, so I found it surprising that it didn’t even make the top three.
To finish off the day, I took the opportunity to drive Cadillac’s ATS and the BMW 328i back to back. It served as confirmation to my assumptions on the Cadillac ATS launch event that I will cover more extensively in my ATS Frist Drive, that the ATS is sharper-handling and more of a driver’s car than the current 3 Series. Granted, this wasn’t exactly an apples to apples comparison, because the ATS was equipped with the 321-hp V6 and its Magnetic Ride suspension that offers an excellent range of almost-comfortable street ride and high-performance track setting that keeps it flat. The 2.0L turbo-four in the BMW didn’t have the lungs and the comfort-oriented suspension in this xDrive model meant it felt more like a roomy and luxurious entry-level premium car to the ATS’ committed sport sedan.
Day 4
If you offered me a million dollars to tell you what order I drove cars in on Thursday of TestFest, I’d be no richer for it. For the life of me I can’t recall which cars I drove when, aside from the few clues in my photo stream on my iPhone.
 Ford Shelby GT500. Click image to enlarge |
Clearly, at some point I drove the 662-hp Shelby GT500, and I have the pictures to prove it, and the memory of fearing for my life and my ability to keep the car in one piece. No question that it was the scariest car at this event. At the merest whisper of throttle, in almost any gear, the back end will start to chase the front tires the long way around. Powering out of a corner on the handling course? No, thank you. That would simply be a recipe for cleaning cones, grass, and dirt out of the wheel wells, even on the wide runways of Niagara airport—this car takes more than 15 minutes and a couple laps to sort out its awesome power, immediate throttle response and ‘lively’ handling characteristics. However, it’s another of those cars that years from now, I’ll reminisce about driving. RIP Carroll Shelby.
Of course, after driving the king of Mustangs, I had to follow with the Camaro, of course… The Camaro ZL1 has no shortage of power either, and with a more sophisticated and independent suspension, it was much easier to handle it and roar around the course at respectable speeds. It is, surprisingly (or perhaps not), more refined than the Vette, and doubles as a comfortable cruising car. If you like American muscle (and built in Canada), this is the one you can drive every day (okay, maybe store it for winter, but still).
 Ford Shelby GT500. Click image to enlarge |
Knowing in advance that before departure on Friday, we were required to drive the winners in every category, Thursday afternoon was a game of “Guess the Winners”, driving the two or three cars in each category that you think had the best shot at winning the category. Turns out I didn’t do so well… as mentioned earlier, I thought it was between the Dart and the Sentra in the Small Car Under $21K, and I drove the Malibu 2.0T and Mercedes-Benz B 250 in the Family Car Over $30K, and the Acura RDX, Chevrolet Traverse, Infiniti JX, and Nissan Pathfinder in the SUV/CUV Over $35K. Although in that last category I only skipped the Santa Fe 2.0T because I’d driven it previously, although Mike had me convinced that the Pathfinder had it in the bag.
I did guess correctly in the Family Car Under $30K, driving only the four-cylinder Accord sedan. While I’m not quite sure I would personally pick it over the sportier Fusion 1.6, especially not the 1.6 with manual transmission (Note to self: Comparison Test if we can ever get our hands on an Accord I4 Sport with a manual transmission and Fusion 1.6 manual at the same time). Not surprisingly, the Accord beat the Fusion by just one point—and that point was largely attributable to price, the Fusion $3K pricier than the Accord. Still, in this segment it boils down to tastes, the roominess and comfort of the Accord versus the fresh styling and sporty dynamics of the Fusion.
 Porsche Boxster. Click image to enlarge |
To finish the day, I saved myself something special: the Porsche Boxster. (Why does it look like you just relieved yourself in that pool? –Ed.) Now, I’d already driven the Boxster S in Alabama and on Barber Motorsports track, so I was no stranger to its epic awesomeness, but even so, I’d gladly accept any chance to drive it. And if that in itself wasn’t good enough, the temperature reached 20 degrees Celsius, not a cloud in the sky, perfect top-down cruising weather, and all the puddles on the handling course had dried up, so perfect conditions to push it to its absolute limits. The new Boxster, 981 in Porsche-code-speak, is a stunning design, and I wasn’t shy about voting it the Best New Design in that standalone category. With elements borrowed from the Carrera GT, but pricing that doesn’t yet stretch to the unattainable or ridiculous (don’t get me wrong, if I won the lottery, the 911 is still my first purchase), and sublime handling, I may have stretched my time limit in the car on a side route to take some extra pictures, and perhaps an extra loop on the course. So sue me.
While the evening events weren’t relevant (trust me, you do not want to hear the details of our Annual General Meeting, and I cannot divulge any details of the Halloween party other than that Chris Chase and Peter Bleakney are freakin’ rock stars! (Don’t forget it. –Ed), Thursday night was AJAC’s Automotive Journalism Awards dinner, and we won! Paul Williams collected the Volvo Environmental Journalism award for his Feature: Hybrids at the Crossroads, and I collected the hardware for the Nissan Design and Layout Award for Best Print Publication on behalf our autoTRADER.ca Buyer’s Guide Production team, led by our Art Director Jeff Fox, to whom most of the credit should go. Mike Schlee, in his wisdom, made me swear I would not try to give a speech before heading up to accept the award—I may or may not have had a drink or two before dinner, and they were pretty slow to feed us with all the awards being presented. (Hey, we were taking shuttles!)
It was a great way to end the week (almost), and the talk at most tables was of which cars won each category, who got screwed, who guessed the most winners, and how many cars we still had to drive before filling out and submitting the final Car of the Year ballot.
Day 5
The final day, as mentioned earlier was a race to drive all of the remaining winners we had not yet driven that week—only vehicles driven at the event count for voting at AJAC CCOTY TestFest.
  Ford C-Max hybrid (top); Porsche Boxster. Click image to enlarge |
I managed to get to the airport early enough to get into a car right away (most people had already driven the Ford Focus Electric, so it was in low demand), and signed up on the waiting lists for the four remaining cars I had to drive: Mazda3 Skyactiv Sedan (Small Car Under $21K), Ford Fusion Hybrid (Family Car Over $30K), Santa Fe Sport 2.0T (SUV/CUV Over $35K).
Somehow, the sign-up sheets were my friends and I was able to get into one car after another with no more than a five-minute delay before getting the last car. Judging by the sign-up sheet, a lot of people were surprised by the Mazda3’s win, and they were lurking and grumbling because they hadn’t shown up early enough to get on the top of the list. I believe this might have been a new twist this year, but all around, the event was flawless, the only complaint I heard all week was that cars weren’t parked back exactly where they started, the lack of a proper track, and that some people willfully parked cars out of their category area just to be closer to the door. Anyhow, hard to imagine how far the event has come, with some of the veterans regaling us with stories of having to wade through ankle-deep, shoe-stealing mud to get to cars parked in an open field, or a hotel with creepy Samurai-themed rooms, and others with heart-shaped beds and mirrors on the ceilings, never mind frequent sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms, plus limited vehicle availability. Yeah, no complaints from me.
And once my ballot was entered for overall Canadian Car of the Year, I was done. Well, almost done. How any self-professed car nut could resist one more lap in his or her favourite car, I don’t know, but I didn’t. Not surprisingly, I took out the car I voted for as Most Coveted (an honour awarded only if two-thirds of eligible voters pick the same car out of every vehicle that year). The Porsche 911 Carrera S. With flights to catch, rush-hour traffic to beat, and some people driving up to 10 hours, the handling course was cleared for a few bonus runs.
After a great week driving great cars and evaluating the best new cars on the market in Canada, it was a perfect way to end the week with a car I’ve been dreaming of since I was a child. The category awards themselves are a great indicator of a vehicle’s merits for consumers, but for gearheads and car lovers, well, it’s a week of wish fulfillment, and now, the list of cars going into my dream garage has only gotten longer.
