Other than the damage to the car, which I don't mean to downplay... if they had stated in the article that the coupe originally to be tested wasn't available, so a last minute unpreped car was substituted, (softer suspension, restricted air flow, etc.), would you have been satisfied with the reporting?
From an outsiders standpoint, it didn't seem like the car got such a bad rap.
http://www.caranddriver.com/comparis...ock-coupe.html
From what Mr. Brock states above, it looks like the original intent of the article had changed, which stinks, but they make their reasons pretty clear in the article.
"We tested these cars alongside the production cars, but we didn’t include them in the voting. Since they’re not saddled with the weight of airbags and other EPA legalities, it simply would not be fair. We did, however, list the performance data for all the cars in the accompanying charts, and we’ve covered the three component cars in sidebars."
I would guess that if you were told that this is how the comparison was to be run, you probably would not have submitted your car...
- Dan