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About a week ago we pulled this post because it came to our attention that the magazine wasn ‘t available at newsstands. Now that it is, we ‘re giving you a second look at it.

Car & Driver leveraged it ‘s storied name and longstanding popularity with American auto enthusiasts to get an exclusive first drive with a near final production 1M. While not quite the car you or I could buy (this was the one driven down to pace the 24 Hours of Daytona) it ‘s extremely close to the final spec expected to make its way to dealerships in May. But C&D didn ‘t stop with just a world exclusive first test. They were able to grab the keys to the highly anticipated Audi TT RS. Finally to round out the comparo they took the highest spec Infiniti G37 they could find – the IPL.

We ‘ll get to the all important test numbers after the break, but first let ‘s go a bit deeper into their findings.

Since testing was done on a pre-production 1M with summer tires in February what we should look at more here is what the authors actually think of the 1M. Which we admit is convenient as their dissection of the way it drives is actually the most exciting part of the article. The second most exciting? The fact they the entire test was done on the best road in North America; the Tail of the Dragon. Here ‘s a short excerpt:

> The 1M ‘s Super-quick steering (2.2 turns lock to lock), combined with a short wheelbase, makes it feel like the go-kart of the group, despite its upright relatively tall seating position. …It ‘s grip is stunning. It borrows the PS2 ‘s from the Competition Package version of the M3. The body appears to be shrink-wrapped around these monsters meats, which are barely contained by the absurd and kind of awesome fender flares. they help the 1M return an impressive .97 g on the skidpad and rocket through the emergency-lane-change maneuver at 69.4 mph. Both are the highest in the test by a significant margin.

There ‘s a lot more but you ‘ll have to buy the magazine to read the entire article.

Now lets move to the stats. The gaudy number of the group is the TTRS 0-60 time of 3.6 seconds. One thing to note about that number; this particular TTRS was equipped with the DCT and not the manual which will be the only option in the US. This was an early press car from the European fleet. What does that mean? Did Audi ‘prep ‘ the car in a special way knowing this was the first test in the US? We ‘d be surprised if they did but that 0-60 time is fairly unbelievable for a car that weighs over 3,200 lbs and has 340 hp. If it ‘s a legitimate example of what the TTRS can do in a straight line, all we can say it wow. It is hands down the acceleration champ of its price range (the Audi should cost around $60k substantially more than the 1M). However it is worth noting that no other publication has achieved similar numbers.

Moving to the 1M it scored 4.5 in the dash to 60. We would expect that time to drop in warmer weather as the RWD likely didn ‘t react well to the cold condition of the Smokey Mountains in February. We are happily surprised to see the top gear acceleration time of 5.6 seconds compared to the Audi 7.2. It ‘s a good test of the engine ‘s flexibility and really plays to the strengths of the tuned N54.

Finally look at the weight distribution figures. Yes the Audi is the smaller and therefore lighter car but almost 61% of it ‘s weight is upfront. The dog Infiniti isn ‘t much better at over 54%. The 1M manages just 51.5% in the front and 48.5% in the rear for optimal balanced.

So there it is folks, the first review of an almost final car and the first comparison win for the 1M. We expect more of both very soon. We ‘ll be adding our own review on May 11th and our own 1M to the BF garage later this year. Stay tuned.

Go grab your copy of the May edition of Car & Driver at your local magazine rack for the full story and stats rundown. Or you can wait for the article to move online in the coming weeks. Either way it ‘s highly recommended.