Lap Time: 2:59.2
Base Price: $74,155
As-Tested Price: $76,950
464 hp | 3794 lb | 8.2 lb/hp
The coupe brings the same stunning competence to the task as the sedan, though it’s in the higher LL3 class ($76,950 as tested!) mainly because of a $6195 Track Performance package that includes a low-mass battery, the Performance Data Recorder video system, and a carbon-fiber aero kit that cuts top speed on the straight by about 3 mph. Even so, the coupe and sedan are in all but a dead heat around the circuit. The coupe clipped a few tenths in Horse Shoe and up through the infield, then gave back a little of it in Hog Pen. Call it driver variation, track temperatures, whatever; to the clock, the coupe was effectively the same car minus a couple of doors.
Which means it is fabulous, a thrilling revelation. GM gives you a number of driving modes, and we found that leaving the transmission in automatic and setting the Performance Traction Management to level five—the so-called race mode—gave the best performance. Any automaker that can program electronics to be this natural understands the racer’s challenges.
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The transmission knows exactly which gear to be in and when. If you paddle-shift it, you must keep one eye on the tach lest you run into the rev limiter and blow off the boost (and ruin the lap). Manual shifting may give the fingers something to do, but when you’re chasing tenths, it’s best to leave the ratio changing to the microchips.
The ATS-V’s traction management is also finely honed. Exiting a corner you just mat it and let the computer lock the throttle onto the sweet spot between grip and fishtail. Engines with big turbos are sensitive; they reward the steadiest of right feet. If you lift even a little, you don’t just lose revs, you lose the boost that helped make them, and it’s a long recovery process. Spool time is why jet jocks are trained to think ahead of their engines.
So, you can try to lap without the computer’s help, but diddle the gas pedal, as you might unintentionally from the car’s sliding around, and the lap time suffers. In the ATS-V, the computer acts as a buffer to filter out your mistakes and lets you be you, a fallible human. And it goes where no BMW has gone before: below three minutes.
K.C. Colwell, the executive editor at Car and Driver, is a seasoned professional with a deep-rooted passion for new cars and technology. His journey into the world of automotive journalism began at an early age when his grandmother gifted him a subscription to Car and Driver for his 10th birthday. This gift sparked a lifelong love for the industry, and he read every issue between then and his first day of employment. He started his Car and Driver career as a technical assistant in the fall of 2004. In 2007, he was promoted to assistant technical editor. In addition to testing, evaluating, and writing about cars, technology, and tires, K.C. also set the production-car lap record at Virginia International Raceway for C/D's annual Lightning Lap track test and was just the sixth person to drive the Hendrick Motorsport Garage 56 Camaro. In 2017, he took over as testing director until 2022, when was promoted to executive editor and has led the brand to be one of the top automotive magazines in the country. When he’s not thinking about cars, he likes playing hockey in the winter and golf in the summer and doing his best to pass his good car sense and love of '90s German sedans to his daughter. He might be the only Car and Driver editor to own a Bobcat: the skidsteer, not the feline. Though, if you have a bobcat guy, reach out. K.C. resides in Chelsea, Michigan, with his family.
Eric Tingwall holds degrees in mechanical engineering and journalism, a combination he pursued with the dream of working at Car and Driver. While living his dream, he has cut car parts in half, driven into a stationary dummy car at 50 mph, lapped Virginia International Raceway in the hottest performance cars, and explained the physics behind the wacky, waving, inflatable, flailing-arm tube man.
Tony Quiroga is a 20-year-veteran Car and Driver editor, writer, and car reviewer and the 19th editor-in-chief for the magazine since its founding in 1955. He has subscribed to Car and Driver since age six. "Growing up, I read every issue of Car and Driver cover to cover, sometimes three or more times. It's the place I wanted to work since I could read," Quiroga says. He moved from Automobile Magazine to an associate editor position at Car and Driver in 2004. Over the years, he has held nearly every editorial position in print and digital, edited several special issues, and also helped produce C/D's early YouTube efforts. He is also the longest-tenured test driver for Lightning Lap, having lapped Virginia International Raceway's Grand Course more than 2000 times over 12 years.
