Much like how
@XSquareStickIt had low expectations for the Unimog, I had pretty low expectations for the Kangoo as a car. Not out of any negativity or hostility towards it or the game, but just on the basis of it being a low power addition three years into the game's life cycle.
The Kangoo is powered by Renault's E7J engine, a 1.4 liter L4¹ putting out 73 HP at 5500 RPM and 86.0 ft-lb of torque at 4500 RPM. The somewhat anemic E7J runs itself up to a hard fuel cut of 6,000 RPM, which is respectable for an engine not intended for performance driving. This is mated to a "slushbox" 4 speed automatic transmission. If that was all you could see of the car, without knowing anything else, you would probably be quick to dismiss the Kangoo.
¹L4 = I4. I'm not sure how inlines ended up with two different names, but they're interchangeable.
But like with many, many things in this game, the devil is in the details.
What you don't see from the game's stats is that the E7J's power curve is essentially table-top even before peak power, and the car's torque curve starts very high (~80?) THEN builds to peak torque before dropping off right around the point the table top power curve kicks in.
The 4 speed automatic is surprisingly well-spaced for an automatic - meaning all four gears are actually viable over the course of a lap even with a relatively anemic engine providing the forward momentum.
Adding to this, the weight of the Kangoo as listed in GT7 is an incredibly light 2,381 lbs!
A third generarion MX5, for comparison, is 2,593 lbs.
The Kangoo is almost as light as the first generation and fourth generation MX5s featured in the game, and this gets backed up by a pretty respectable 60:40 weight distribution.
This all comes together to create a car that is surprisingly well-equipped for the rigors of track driving, and it shows in the SPC.
The Kangoo is a light, zippy FF that has a deceptively low center of gravity and a strong desire to be revved out to fuel cut. The Kangoo is also incredibly tolerant of the steep curbing at the Nordschleife -
Touristenfahrten layout or otherwise. About the only thing I can knock about the Kangoo is that you have to rely on 3rd gear for a majority of the lap since 4th is just a bit too tall for some of the fast sectors the track subjects you to - which is a little counter-intuitive at times. Took me four laps to dial it in, but the car was surprisingly approachable and easy to intuit that feedback from.
I am not quite sure how Square is going to qualify the times for this, since this game's interpretation of the Touristenfahrten layout includes the Dottinger Hohe + the entry/exit gates as part of the lap which is decidedly not in the spirit of the real Tourist layout or Touristenfahrten events. The spirit of the SPC, at least when I requested it, was bridge to gantry like IRL. I failed to clarify that to Square, so that's my bad. Perhaps we can have that up on a second tab? lolol
EDIT:
FOR CLARIFICATION, THERE IS A CHECKPOINT/SECTOR LINE AT THE GANTRY IN GAME.
Going by the official/real life timing gates --
"Bridge to Gantry" A.K.A. from the bridge where the timing line is in-game, to the Audi bridge at the start of Dottinger Hohe -- my first SPC run for the stock Kangoo landed at a 9:50.628. #spc #cotw #kangoo for that replay.
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Sometimes the beauty of a mundane car in GT is its tuning potential, such as the previously tested Unimog. In other times, the beauty is in how it stands on its own merits before tuning - the humble MX5s, the more robust NR-A MX5s, and the Kangoo all end up under this umbrella.
The Kangoo is a brilliant car stock, so I can't wait to see what the sleeper builds look and drive like.
