Racing a Prius against a Lexus IS-F on the nurburgring

do you have a video?

Te IS F and Prius are like my 2 favorite cars.

 

That tool Jeromy something from the "top gear" show did a similar 'comparison' ... I think using a bmw & Prius. His pointless point was to show that if you drove a Prius at 100mph, the bmw would get better mpg than the prius. I guess he never gets enough of a thrill trying to prove the Prius isn't as nice as its owners think they are.


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So true. Hate that guy.

 

No, that's not what they did. What they did was have the M3 following the Prius on the same track, with the Prius driven in full racing style, full acceleration on leaving the corner, slamming on the brakes at the last possible moment. The M3 was allowed to vary the distance behind the Prius. This meant that the Prius was maxed out, but the M3 was running close to its efficiency peak (about 40% of full power).

It was a very cleverly designed test, fully intended to smear the Prius. Clarkson is not stupid. He's just utterly against any vehicle that threatens to eliminate his joyriding.

If you ran the M3 in full racing style, full throttle and hard on the brakes, it would use far more fuel than the Prius driven in the same fashion. It would also complete the course far more quickly.

 

A MPG test with the IS at 10:30 lap times would be a lot more interesting.

 

On the contrary, it's a totally valid comparison when the laptimes are kept the same.

 

Note to self: don't buy an IS-F. It's slower than a Prius.
(in a cross country race, this would be true)
(Gee, this makes me wonder how slow a full size SUV would be in this comparison)

 

Very good information and interesting. Thank you.

 

Car #1: light go pedal use -> constant 45 mph.
Car #2: heavy go pedal use and moderate brake pedal -> constant 45 mph.

Fair test for fuel economy ?

 

You missed the point.

In the test, the Prius was necessarily driven hard so it can meet the lap times of the M3. Nothing was contrived, no extra weights or resistance were added, the cars were driven to meet the equivalent lap time.

The fuel economy can then be compared apples to apples.

 

^^
The POINT is that the Prius was driven in a fashion that included lots of brake use, while the M3 was not. TopGear can be amusing, but woe to the viewer who cannot distinguish entertainment from useful information.

E.g., I took my son back to school the other day, about a 30 mile trip. No 100 mph sprints, light traffic, mild weather. Round trip fuel economy was 68 (US) mpg. With even warmer weather I will go well over 70 mpg, based on years of driving our Prius. Do you *really* think anyone is stupid enough to think the M3 will best those results ? Or do half as well ?

 

Well I'll grant that it is a very valid comparison to show that the Prius' gas economy is nothing to write home about when racing. A silly comparison. Like saying that the world's strongest man is useless because I can outrun him in a 400m race. It's not what he was designed for.

 

Is Prius a sports car, definitely no. However, when you compare it against sports cars in their own territory some interesting things happen. There's a local autocross group that can vouch for that. See... http://brr-scca.org/Results/20100613.htm

 

No . . . apples to apples would be one lap at 20 mph ... one lap at 25mph ... one lap at 30mph ... one lap at 35mph ... one lap at 40mph ... one lap at 45 ... one lap at 50 ... then 55 ... then 60 ... all the way up to what ever the legal speed is. Beyond legal speed, the point is a stupid meaningless waste of time. It's as meaningless as pitting the M3 against the Bugatti Veyron, which can go 267mph ... or a Prius against a bicycle.

Apples to apples? Average all of the M3-Prius times together at different speeds, then ... if mileage is TRUELY 'the point' ... you can see what the real mileage is. But then, apples to apples is not really the point, is it.

 

Unless the Prius has a legal speed limiter, it is definitely not a waste of testing time to see how well it performs at 66, 70 or even (horrors) 80mph...


on a race track, of course.

 

+1

Definitely valid, as the M3 should only have to go as fast as the prius goes if you are comparing mileage. If the tires are not up to the task and brakes are used on the prius, so be it. But wasn't this really done by a prius hater, since you just are not going to buy a prius and push it to its limits. If you care anything about gas mileage and safety the prius won't have its limits tested often.

Then you have the prius fan boy comparison, push both cars and check milage. Not only is this silly since the prius can not do what the other car does, it is invalid since the prius got its fuel economy on easier conditions.

I kind of liked the shaq versus series where he competed against those in other sports. It was entertaining but pretty silly. Nothing was really learned, and shaq did get handicaps. I also liked the team of midgets pulling against an elephant. I think top gears prius test falls into this category.