So, I get home and look in my garage... Oh, my! What do I see but a shiney, one-off Clueless HSR-II!
1989 Mitsubishi HSR-II
I take a walk around this car and take in the sights... everything on this car is all-wheel... power, independant suspension, and even steering. The factory white-and-red paintjob complemented perfectly with lightweight red aftermarket rims shod with the stickiest sports rubber made.
Then take a look at the Mitsubishi V6 power plant. The original engine is almost unrecognizable, adorned with endless Clueless gizmoes and do-dads. The Dyno announces this car is now putting out nearly 620 HP, while the scale shows the car is a manageable 1022 kg. According to the GT5 Racing Rules, this car will be classified with 585 PPs, whatever those are.
Well, enough drooling, let's take it to the track. I head off to my favorite testing grounds, Trial Mountain.
First things first, I make sure none of those annoying computer assists are still around, but it looks like Clueless has yanked 'em out with a sledgehammer, leaving only one little chip that says "ABS1" on the side. Good.
There are two things that first strike you about this car. First is the engine sound... it really seems to be about halfway between a proper V6 and a tuned 4-banger. Second is the tail flaps, two independant air-brake style flaps. The inside one pops up when turning to help yank the car around a corner, both pop up when your braking to help cut braking distance... very similar to what showed up on high-end supercars 20 years later.
As I take my first set of laps, I notice a couple of things... this is not a car that you want to late brake in, and it's got far too much grip to get the tail loose and power out of a corner early. It's got very nice speed through a corner, handling the sweeper before the tunnel at over 100 mph, and touched 160 on the back straight. The car is very predicatable, understeering badly if you try to late brake, but performing beautifully if you hit your brake marker, with no oversteer at all.
So, now familiar with the car, I topped off the tank, put on fresh rubber, adjust the final gear to better suit Trial Mountain, and went out to see how fast I could go.
(confession: I know I'm not the fastest driver around).
My lap times in this car were extremely consistant; barring driver error, I got into a rhythm where ver lap was within 2 tenths of my average. The slightly adjusted final gear pushed the top speed on the back straight into the low 160s, and the slight boost in acceleration didn't affect the handling a bit. Although not a car you can really drive aggressive with and stay fast, it is very quick for me staying controlled and using consistant brake markers and turn-ins. My only real complaint would be that the car refuses to late brake effectively. While that's fine for setting lap times and doing endurance racing, it could hurt trying to get past an evenly matched opponent. Really, though, with this car, I'd just sit on their tail and push them into a mistake, then pass, as this car is very hard to make a mistake in as long as you remember to stay calm.
Trial Mountain fast lap: 1:30.053
To give the time above a sense of meaning, I checked my lap sheet, and I've run very close test times with my other 585 PP tuner cars on Sport Soft tires, including the Praiano built Amuse Super Leggera, the Mad Finn built Scuderia, and the RKM built Maserati. Very nice tune, Krenkme, thank you.
Sadly, I was just informed that this tune will be released to the public, so I'm only special for a short time. Well, I'm off to the track!
. I'll mess around with it some more later. 👍
