A little off topic maybe but has anyone ever heard of major car companies caught bringing a 'ringer' to a a test, especially by a magazine. They have a lot to lose if the car performs badly. I for one pay very close attention to what the testers say and how the cars perform.
Jim

 

I think that they all do it. Ferrari is known to be especially notorious for bringing "tuned" cars to tests.

 

In the late 60's a magazine was doing a comparison test on intermediate muscle cars. They stated in their article that all the cars were driven from dealerships to the test sight except one. The Ford Fairlane GT showed up on a Holman & Moody hauler.

 

GM got busted doing this in the 80' and 90's, most notoriously with the GMC Cyclone. At the time it held the record for the fastest 0-60 production car at 4.X seconds. It later came out that they had chipped the car for more boost.