Front-Engine, Front Drive MAYHEM!
The day couldn't have been more perfect - sunny, dry and 78 degrees at Grand Valley, but there was no time to waste sunbathing. Indeed, in proper Clarkson fashion, it was time to turn the impressive slate of cars idling menacingly in the paddock over to our not-so-tame racing driver!
Some say that he spent six years in a Muay-Thai monastary where he learned eighteen different ways to kill a man with his bare hands. Others believe that he once bought a pair of Steve McQueen's underwear on Ebay which he wears for luck on raceday ... underwear which, to this day, he's NEVER WASHED. All we know is, his name is THE SHARK!
Notes - All official lap times are recorded using the entrant's suggested gearing, and in the absence of specified tires, I used default S2's.
5th Place - 54/100
DeltaTrain's Cooper
2'16'591
I had high hopes for this one in the first few bends at GVS; it held the lines nicely, had plenty of oomph, and seemed to lack the typical FWD throttle under. But then, I hit (drumroll, please) THE HAIRPIN. Here I watched the promise of a capable platform, along with whole seconds of lap-time, evaporate in a ghastly-huge cloud of tire smoke. It didn't matter how gentle I was on the throttle, all across the track, any corner that called for a 2nd gear exit was MURDER. Despite the lack of bigger brakes and a BBC it stopped well enough and pulled mightily hard once in third, but that wasn't enough to overcome its absolute inability to keep its rubber planted at low speeds. A lot of the settings are obviously working against it - too-stiff springs combined with too-soft dampers working without sufficient slip-management ... and the POWER! Instead of first improving the motor's background with a balancing and a polish, there's a HUGE turbo bolted on that is NOT helping things. By all rights, this should have been the fastest car here, and there's likely more time in my lap to be found, but the car was a bit too frustrating for me to want to find it.
4th Place - 65/100
NissanTuner's Accord Euro-R '00
2'16'785
Thanks to its heft this was one of the more stable cars among the lot, but the weight hurt it in other areas, primarily in the overall "feel". The car felt ... plodding. Nothing was really AWFUL about it, but everything felt like it was happening in slow motion. Turn-in was effortless, but after the apex, the understeer was far worse in this one than most others. It did lose a BIT of traction out of sharp bends, but not as much as some of its rivals. Also, I'm curious about the brakes - why fit racing brakes with no BBC? Empirical testing has shown that the racing brakes alone do little if anything in GT4 to slow the car more than stockers. I do have to say though, this was one of the best exhaust notes of the bunch. Again, more time to be found out of this lap.
3rd Place - 78/100
Vince's Cooper-S
2'13'510
Laptime champion! This is an odd one - Vince, I think you rubbered yourself out of a STRONG second-place finish. Since no tire was specified, I used the default S2's. Despite that, it was a very capable car. Understeer was mild, overall corner feel was very stable, except, like its little brother done by Delta Train, wheelspin was a bit of a problem. It wasn't NEARLY as severe here though. Where this car would have cemented a second-place finish was on S3's - after judging, I took it back out using nice soft rubber, and it was PHENOMENAL. It was the only one of the lot that produced useable FWD torque-steer. For those who don't know, torque steer is a condition that occurs in powerful FWD cars near the peak of the band. Basically, as the tires climb near the point of breakaway and are producing maximum grip at maximum power, the car YANKS urgently in the direction the wheels are pointed. This is common in real-life FWD four-pot turbos, and is decidedly unsafe on the road. On the track though, it can become an INCREDIBLY useful tool. On S3's, your Cooper pulls it off with aplomb. Approaching a 2nd gear apex, keeping the throttle planted RIGHT at the point of full grip RIGHT before spin, it begins to feel more like an Elise as it plummets through on a brutally sharp line through the exit. FANTASTIC. Unfortunately I couldn't take that into account in my score. My laptimes dropped DRASTICALLY - running mid 2'11's with ease.
2nd Place - 82/100
Greycap's Clio 2.0 16V
2'13'907
This one is an unpredictable firecracker that feels at full lock like it's about to shake to pieces around you at any second ... and I LOVE it for that. My laptimes varied wildly mostly I think due to the front suspension settings. Under braking, it settles down hard on its front wheels, which in a front-driver is VERY desirable, but as soon as you lift or add throttle, the strong rebound bounces the car right back off of where it needs all its weight entering a curve. Add to that a rough yank to the outside as the car's weight transfers at entry (I think thanks to the weight settling hard on oddly-toed wheels), and it's a true firebrand. But once I found the balance, the car was a THRILL. The BBC is ideal, producing just enough rotation on entry to counteract the lift- or throttle-under to follow. Though it's the least powerful car here, it's the second fastest under my hand by a fair margin. And as with all MFT cars, the gearing was spot-on for GVS. Due to its wild nature, I'm sure there's more time in this lap. I understand you've posted revised settings at MFT, and you can bet I'll be checking them out!
FIRST PLACE! - 2'15'043
Kent's Civic Type R EP '01
95/100
This one is a KILLER! Far and away the best car here. I have to agree with Holden - it feels like it's AWD. Balanced, easy to drive, just amazing! Where I applied brakes in other cars, I lifted in the Civic. Where I lifted in others, I welt flat out. And I can say this is it's strongest point - it's the only one I lost track of myself in - I kept pushing and pushing wanting every single tenth out of it. I even went in and fiddled with the gearing to use all the car's range and posted low 2'14's and high 2'13's ... STUNNING for its power-to-weight ratio. The only criticism I could possibly level at it is barely even criticism - it feels like it could handle more power than it has, and stay balanced.