Supercars at the Ring (Autumn Ring Track Attack) Update and Pictures

[Alfaholic]

... ok...

Next article coming up... just need some time to polish it:....

Top marks for the pic 👍

 

[KaiZen]

Ditto.. Kudos!

 

[niky]

T.Y., I'm doing an ultimate sport compact challenge... that's mostly small cars with FF and AWD from all continents... but I've had to cut some cars just to get all the testing done. I'm not putting in the Evo or the STi as that'd be a waste of time, they are the best and fastest, period.

Some surprise cars for me include the Clio V6 (thought it'd be too far away from most of these cars for the comparo, but it's in there) and all the VAG products (S3, A3 V6, Golf GTi), appallingly slow and heavy... may kick ass tuned, but that's not the point of the comparo, well, not yet.

I'm really saddened by the fact that I couldn't find any Germans that weren't too heavy to be competitive. The S3/A3/Golf platform has excellent handling and power, but is just a damn porker. The Beetle? meh. The BMW 1-series looks promising, and I'm trying to simulate a 130i, but these things are tricky if you don't have suspension info. The Cooper will be modified to keep up... details to come.

You don't really need to beef up the Japanese contingent for this... they kick ass anyway. And the American contingent got whittled down to one car... ...which was a pretty obvious choice anyway.

I'm half-Flip, half-American... still all brown , I was born in N.Y. but I've spent the last twenty odd years here. I could probably be making more money back home, but I like it here.

 

[ving]

brilliant niky, brilliant

love the cietza (sp), looks great. it my fav super car... not everything is about lap times you know

cant wait for the next installment. wish the fiat coupe was in there tho, even if its not the best

 

[niky]

Hmmm... I'll think about it. I've got about 25-30 brand new compacts sitting at the top of my garage (including the Fiat Coupe)... I've only driven about a dozen of them to "optimum" times (within five seconds or less of a "perfect" time) around my test venue. I'm probably going to do this one in maybe three parts. Unfortunately, I've only tested the fastest ones, so far. I'm putting that one up this weekend, when I finish photography. My staff photographer has run off to run his own studio... DAMN YOU, S12KEN!... and he's too busy.

 

[s12ken]

Hmmm... I'll think about it. I've got about 25-30 brand new compacts sitting at the top of my garage (including the Fiat Coupe)... I've only driven about a dozen of them to "optimum" times (within five seconds or less of a "perfect" time) around my test venue. I'm probably going to do this one in maybe three parts. Unfortunately, I've only tested the fastest ones, so far. I'm putting that one up this weekend, when I finish photography. My staff photographer has run off to run his own studio... DAMN YOU, S12KEN!... and he's too busy.

 

[puricele7e]

As I expected, another fantastic write-up....i'm really speachless You should really think about the part with applying for a car magazine 👍

 

[qwejibo]

Although RB26s can take a lot of abuse, they're not indestructible, thus Mine's has beefed up the Nissan engine with bespoke parts, and has increased the displacement to handle the power. Although the specs are secret, we're betting on 2.65-2.7 liters.

FWIW: The Mine's Skyline tested on BMI had the standard 2.6l displacement. The guy from Mine's said it gave greater response.

 

[puricele7e]

True, I second that I think you`re thinking about the NISMO ones 👍

 

[niky]

Hmmm... will probably edit that, then... thanks!

 

[GT4 Freak]

err how u do the pic with 4 cars, did you overlap them or something? 👍

 

[michaeldenham]

I had the same question in another of niky's reports Have a look in the Photo and Video Galleries section, and there will be some guides on how that's done. Basically just taking a bunch of pictures with single cars from the same camera view and merging them together in photoshop.

Just out of interest, I have ordered the results in terms of laptime:

Mine's 1:18.087
VW W12 1:18.129 0.1%
Cien 1:18.473 0.5%
FordGT 1:18.648 0.7%
Zonda 1:18.684 0.8%
SLR 1:18.797 0.9%
ZZII 1:19.327 1.6%
Audi 1:20.006 2.4%
R390 1:20.034 2.4%
Saleen 1:20.060 2.5%
CarbonR 1:20.297 2.8%
BMW M5 1:20.884 3.5%
XJ220 1:21.117 3.7%
Spyker 1:22.629 5.5%
Viper 1:22.670 5.5%
Cizeta 1:23.785 6.8%
RUFCTR2 1:23.975 7.0%
Speed12 1:24.221 7.3%

 

[fporto_br]

Niky, that's one sweet work! But I think you're getting used to drive only powerful and luxurious cars. It's time to put the feet flat on the ground and try some "common man" cars. Something like a hot-hatch shootout. That would be kewl!

 

[niky]

Thanks, and thanks for resurrecting one of my favorite articles. This one was fun to do.

As for "common cars" like hot hatches, Check out:

Sport Compacts I
Sport Compacts II
Sport Compacts III

I guess you followed my sig link for this article? I haven't put the sport compact series into my sig yet, as I went on hiatus from testing after doing these. They took way too much work. You can tell they took a lot out of me, as I didn't finish photography work for the first two parts (but I have some nice ones in the third). I'm working on a few smaller articles for next month, though, once I steal the PS2 back from my brother.

 

[somebody]

Thanks, and thanks for resurrecting one of my favorite articles. This one was fun to do.

Yeah, I hadn't read this one for a while too. Going over it all again kind of makes me want to restart my tune-up challenges again. Very few people write articles as good as this anymore.

Now where did I put that GT4 disk...

 

[MOTORTRENDmitch]

man, yet another INCREDIBLE write up, honeslty, reading that was more fun then reading a motortrend magazine article! AND ITS WITHOUT THE ADVERTISEMENTS! lol

 

[fabmaru]

Forget this.