ABDC 2017: Quarter-mile bragging rights

Our last two Australia’s Best Driver’s Car events delivered us real headaches when it came to dragstrip testing.

In 2015, the weather was practically apocalyptic, causing us to regroup at Calder Park on our return from Tasmania to undertake acceleration testing.

Last year threw us similar challenges, with bad weather hampering two attempts to get our testing completed on the Apple Isle, forcing us to relocate to an incredibly sticky Heathcote Dragstrip in Victoria.

So it was with some relief that the rain and hail that plagued us early in the week had disappeared by the time we made it to the TAS Dragway at Powranna for our 2017 Australia’s Best Driver’s Car acceleration testing.

For the first time, we were going to be able to complete all of our ABDC itinerary within one week and before we hit the decks to return on the Spirt of Tasmania. The relief from the battle-weary team was palpable.

Each car was lined up at the start line for V8 Supercar driver Luke Youlden to put them through their paces.

Launch control was employed in all cars where equipped, and Luke switched through drive modes in each until he felt he was at the optimum setting to deliver the best possible start from each car.

It is also worth noting that while acceleration times aren’t the number one factor in assessing a ‘Driver’s Car’, testing the cars under the sameconditions gives the judging team a numerical value of what they’re feeling on the road.

Here are the all-important numbers, along with Luke’s feedback from our shootout, ranked in reverse order of 0-100km/h times.

11th - Abarth 124 Spider

0-100km/h: 7.953sec
0-400m: 15.282sec @ 146.113km/h

“Definitely not traction limited, because it doesn’t have enough power to light them up. I felt like I got a pretty good launch – obviously power lets it down in this company.”

10th – Volkswagen Golf GTI 40 Years

0-100km/h: 7.701sec
0-400m: 14.542sec @ 167.076km/h

“This has so many different things to balance -- more than any other car. You have to balance wheelspin versus bogging it, versus axle tramp and it’s difficult to manage. I had to limit the wheelspin and try and almost slip the clutch a little bit, so it didn’t bog -- and then release it when I thought I could. I still got axle tramp but that’s what you’re going to get in a high-horsepower, front-wheel- drive car.”

9th – Ford Focus RS

0-100km/h: 6.211sec
0-400m: 13.233sec @ 170.195km/h

“It’s been the perfect launch so far. What lets it down is it doesn’t seem to have the power to keep pulling it. It’s 0-100km/h time is surprisingly slow given it launched it with no wheelspin. It just needs more power for the dragstrip.”

0-100km/h: 5.972sec
0-400m: 12.450sec @ 194.227km/h

“It’s got so much power but it’s just not able to translate it to a clean take-off and therefore it has a less-than-impressive 0-100km/h time. Once you’re through the initial launch phase, however, this thing is fast, and its terminal speed feels rapid.”

7th – BMW M140i Performance Edition

0-100km/h: 5.781sec
0-400m: 13.140@ 175.603km/h

“That’s a fast little car. Traction is still its Achilles’ heel but, having said that, it’s still really fast. There may even be more time to be had out of it. It seemed hampered by the tyres on the racetrack but not so much here.”

6th – Porsche Cayman S

0-100km/h: 5.473sec
0-400m: 12.35sec @ 193.020km/h

“The Porsche launch control offers a clean getaway and, as you’d expect from the Cayman S, it does it with minimal fuss. It’s down on power compared to some of the field but it’s not a straight-line car. Impressive nevertheless.”

5th – BMW M3 Competition

0-100km/h: 5.102sec
0-400m : 12.225 @ 193.079km/h

“I short-shifted into second to limit the wheelspin. A car like this, you can’t load it up, you just have to drive away smoothly but it’s got that much torque and power that the rears just can’t cope with it anyway.”

4th – Mercedes-AMG C 43 4MATIC

0-100km/h: 5.084sec
0-400m: 12.567sec @ 174.454km/h

“Very similar to Audi S5 – it’s got heaps of traction, but in manual mode the redline is actually past the rev-limiter so you’re at the rev limit before you feel like you should shift. Achieved a better result in automatic mode where it was a couple of seconds faster.”

<a href="https://motoring.li.csnstatic.com/motoring/general/editorial/ABDC_2017-Drags-001.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-csn-inline-image wp-image-214062" src="https://motoring.li.csnstatic.com/motoring/general/editorial/ABDC_2017-Drags-001.jpg?height=427&width=640&aspect=fitWithin" alt="" width="640" height="427"></a>

3rd – Audi S5

0-100km/h: 5.048sec
0-400m: 12.687sec @ 173.460km/h

“Impressive with zero slip. It doesn’t have launch control, but it doesn’t need it. It just gets on with it. It doesn’t bog down but still misses out on outright engine power for the dragstrip, but it’s a quick 0-100km/h time. A really respectable time. It’s fast.”

2nd – Alfa Romeo Giulia QV

0-100km/h: 4.835sec
0-400m: 12.409sec @ 192.223km/h

“It’s very similar to the M3 but even more susceptible to wheelspin so you have to be even smoother. It’s got a progressive take-off but needs really early short shifts -- even up to third -- to stop the wheelspin. Once it hooks up, it’s really moving.”

1st – Nissan GT-R

0-100km/h: 3.919sec
0-400m: 11.236sec @ 197.767km/h

“What an impressive car off the line. It just goes -- it’s like a slingshot. It just does not slow down. It keeps pulling the same G feeling through every gear and it’s the ultimate dragstrip car. You can use every single last bit of power and it puts it down.”

ABDC 2017
>> 1st - HSV GTSR W1
>> 2nd - Porsche Cayman S
>> 3rd - Ford Focus RS
>> 4th - BMW M140i
>> 5th - BMW M3 Competition
>> 6th - Audi S5 Coupe
>> 7th - Mercedes-AMG C 43
>> Track test - The fastest ever
>> A sideways glance at ABDC
>> 8th - Volkswagen Golf GTI 40 Years
>> Stats never lie – ABDC by the numbers
>> Not ranked - Alfa Romeo Guilia QV
>> All the ABDC FAQs
>> 10th - Abarth 124 Spider
>> Quarter-mile bragging rights
>> Meet the judges
>> 11th - Nissan GT-R

>> In search of Australia's Best Driver's Car 2017