The prospect of 335bhp of VTEC fury in a tug of war with the front tyres on a wet track had me excited and nervous in equal measure, so I just had to review this tune! Also, I feel responsible for daring KMW to venture beyond the land of glorious powersliding RWD so I feel the least I could do was provide a review of the KMW Elite Integra '10 at Tsukuba Wet.
(reviewed on the PAL version using DS2 controller)
PARTS ONLY (except no brake controller or LSD)
First impression is wheelspin. All the way into 3rd gear. Very poor gearing for this engine and grip combo- 3rd is wheelspin city but 4th is too tall and bogs the engine down. Heavy understeer while braking. In fact, quite understeery in general. Exiting the hairpin that turns left (the corner before you go under the bridge), often the car would snap sideways at the exit. 1:09.4.
KMW TUNE
Brake balance is very nice, and the exit snap oversteer is gone. Despite the softer suspension on this wet track it still has good body control. Turn-in is more decisive.
But I have to say, I'm not a fan of the gearing. To get decent turn-in on the hairpins you have to go back to 1st, but then the shift into 2nd is very slooooooow, leaving you waiting ages for the power to resume. Due to the tall gearing, I suspect the car runs out of steam well before the redline even on the longest Nurburgring straight? Just a suggestion, a shorter gearing setup that uses 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th at Tsukuba wet (instead of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) might allow a closer spread of gears, reducing the shift times.
Aero is nicely balanced and the LSD settings do well to reduce wheelspin while still allowing the car to pivot. My best lap was 1:08.2, so clearly I'm not "a good driver"