The Road Test

THE LAST WORD ON HOW A NEW CAR DRIVES, FEELS, AND PERFORMS.

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WHILE THERE ARE MANY PARTS to Car and Driver, a foundational element that separates us from lesser publications is the road test. The ultimate expression of our product expertise and knowledge, the road test blends subjective opinion garnered from our experience with objective numbers generated by our instrumented testing, which covers everything from sprints to 60 mph to stops from 100 mph. ROADTEST has even been a New York Times crossword answer (clue: “Car and Driver assignment”).

Besides serving as a check of sorts on car-makers’ claims, the road test’s objective numbers provide readers with quotable data, and the story should give anyone flicking through C/D’s pages a thorough understanding of how a given vehicle performs from the driver’s perspective. Our aim is to put your butt in the Recaro.

While we may not have invented the road-test format, we have spent just shy of seven decades perfecting the formula. Our first true road test appeared in the March 1956 issue of Sports Cars Illustrated, penned by legendary automotive writer Karl Ludvigsen. Much of the early format looks familiar, including an accompanying specification panel featuring a slate of test data. This initial road test was a literal Triumph. A TR3, specifically.