finding the signal in an industry filled with noise
Nearly two decades ago the Honda/Acura NSX shook up the performance car scene.
This year, the Nissan GT-R is said to be doing the same.
But could the two cars be any more different?
Looking at this picture I stumbled across on the web – is the NSX is too much like a Formula 1 car or is the GT-R is too much like an SUV?
Although the [Ridgeline’s] entire engine is carryover, the all-aluminum 3.5L V-6 does have a new Magnesium dual-stage intake manifold that bumps the horsepower and torque up by three and two, respectively. Additionally, Honda keeps the current five-speed automatic, but does offer slightly different gear ratios, in some cases changed only 0.2 percent, to help to improve overall responsiveness. Of note, throttle response off idle is vastly improved, making it feel like the truck has more power off the line because of how strongly it jumps from a stop. A new computer software program works with the new gearing strategy to make it feel like there’s more power than the small gains in hp and torque would suggest. – Motor Trend
Over 3 years ago, I posted on the benefits of using your spare tire before it aged…
Recently ABC picked up on the same story, as you can see here.
Ordinarily I take pride in being ahead of the curve, but this time I’m just despondent at the number of people who not having read my blog have inadvertently put themselves at risk.
Tell a friend…
I am still sore and deaf but must say it was one of the more thrilling drives of my life if only because like on a Segway you’re pretty much at the limit whenever you’re in motion.
The sounds it makes evoke what it must be like to find an old 911 turbo in a barn that you try to nurse home – I never heard so many grunts, moans, pops and hisses from a single motor.
The squat under acceleration was addictive, reminding me of something that was lost when trailing arm rear suspensions went extinct and making the car feel far more powerful than it was. In fact I never wanted for more power, and was shocked to find it felt better on the highway than around town.
If it had a different tranny (impossible to get a smooth shift out of and eons between ratios) and brakes (truly binary) it would be fun but as it is I’m fairly convinced the people who own them kick themselves each time they send in the payment check.
From my post dated May 13th, 2008:
It’s just that when something’s called a WRX it should mean something other than ‘flat-4 turbocharged’. Perhaps we’d all like the car better if the name were Impreza. (Come to think of it, the car makes the most sense as an Outback Sport – you can forgive a squishy suspension in something that is labeled Outback).
From a fantastic write-up (I’d suggest you all read) on the new Impreza by evo’s Peter Tomalin, dated July 2008:
Problem is, the WRX badge brings with it a lot of expectations that this Impreza can’t quite fulfil. Which isn’t the same as saying it’s a bad car. It’s just not quite the car you might have been hoping it was. If they’d called it a ‘Sport’ or a ‘GX’ or something, we’d have given it a much easier time.
If you read the mainstream U.S. magazines, you’re probably of the opinion that the new EVO is better than/faster than the STI. But there’s something troubling about the weight gain and the packaging and something even more disconcerting about the new platform that places you much higher off the ground, not to mention shares its roots with a Caliber.
Problem is, most U.S. magazines get so hellbent on numbers and trick technology that they don’t remember to steward the essentials: subjective accomplishment, involvement.
Thank goodness the British magazines aren’t similarly afflicted… Here’s a quote from evo
You always feel like you’re sitting slightly higher and more upright in an Evo… Somewhere inside the Evo X is the brilliantly pointy, adjustable chassis that has been improving for nine generations. But Mitsubishi has tried to civilize the tenth gen and it’s missed the mark. The steering is more direct than the Impreza’s and therefore initially nicer, but you very soon realise that it has no real feel. For a car that you want to drive on its nose this is not good, because you just don’t have the confidence to throw it into corners. It feels up on tiptoes and it’s more instantly sensitive and adjustable than the STI but you can’t enjoy it because you feel like you’re controlling what’s going on underneath you by remote. It really is like playing a computer game. The engine is disappointing too, feeling very thin in its delivery and lacking in grunt compared with the STI. It is also possibly the dullest sounding engine ever to drone from a performance car – it’s like listening to someone Hoovering a couple of rooms away. The gearing is very short, which is fine when you can flick up and down the box so easily, but as Roger Green says, there’s a permanent flurry of activity going on yet somehow you’re never quite in the right gear. The best solution is to leave it in Drive and let the spookily intuitive computer program shuffle cogs for you. Not something I ever thought I’d say about an Evo. The Evo X SST is still a very quick car across the ground, its ability to carry speed is phenomenal and there are moments when you catch glimpses of why we love Evos, but they’re fleeting thanks to the layer of desensitising civility Mitsubishi has added in. A car like the Evo is not, should not, be a mainstream car. Jumping back into the Impreza as the sun sinks, it’s clear the STI wins this battle. It’s more engaging to drive, the engine feels much stronger and there’s simply more of what you want, what you expect, from a thrilling rally-stage refugee. When you add in the price difference too, it’s a clear winner.
Another thing you’ve probably heard about is likely to be the new STI’s incessant, stubborn understeer. Like I’ve said before, this is a red flag that the reviewer is employing a textbook driving technique rather than learning the nuances of a car. Just as the new EVO/BMW X6, Acura TL, BMW M3 want you to squeeze down on the throttle at the moment understeer wants to rear its head, the Impreza favors a different driving style which is, not surprisingly, the way rally cars are driven. As Henry Catchpole describes in the same article:
The steering is nicely weighted, but it’s curiously indistinct around the dead ahead. There’s a certain amount of roll as you turn into a corner too, so there’s a moment before you really feel the chassis start to bite and the steering start to feed back. If you’re timid or just ambling along, then the Subaru can seem slightly reluctant. What you need to do is be bold; turn in hard and, once into the meat of the steering, you’ll feel the front Dunlops grip and possibly scrub a little into understeer if you’re carrying good speed. As soon as you’re into the corner you should be thinking about getting back on the power. With 300lb ft you’re not short of urge whichever gear you’re in, so it’s just a case of how you deploy it. The slightly slow-acting viscous coupling of the central diff works best if you progressively squeeze the throttle to the carpet rather than just jumping on it. This way you’ll feel the tail move round before the front pulls you out of the corner in one smooth flow. There is of course another way to approach a corner, which is to trail-brake as you turn in. The brakes make a slightly odd sound (like a huge computer powering down) but with the weight over the front axle the steering weights up instantly and the rear swings round nicely as you turn in…
Of course, you’ll never experience this on a test drive and probably won’t have the guts (or permission) to experience it on the road or track, but it’s nice to know that there’s something we know that most others don’t and that the STI holds something to experience as your familiarity with the car deepens. Sounds like the kind of stuff that makes Porsche 911 drivers snicker when people say 911’s are fundamentally flawed, the depth of character that let’s some cars dig deep beneath your skin while others just tickle you which is no surprise when you consider Subaru has always fancied itself as the Japanese equivalent to Porsche (whereas Toyota’s like Mercedes and Honda like BMW).
As a ‘real’ enthusiast, you might think I shouldn’t be advocating a car like the ‘SRT Design’ Chrysler 300C. And yet it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes sense – who doesn’t want to look good while they’re doing just over the speed limit? Don’t most people buy the performance cars for the wheels and lower body cladding anyway?
In other countries, they’ll sell you what you want, but here product planners have gotten into the greedy, grubby habit of forcing you towards the larger engine wherever possible. With fuel prices where they are, that has to change.
Let’s be frank – if you are looking for handling, even the ‘real’ SRT-8 is not the ideal place to start. So what’s the problem with making the 300C look better and ride on a wheel size and offset that won’t throw everything else horribly off kilter, a la most 300Cs you see rolling around on SUV dubs?
Indeed the 300C points to what I have been predicting will be an emerging trend – cars that look fast but don’t ride and guzzle like a fast car does.
Bring on the 3.0L common rail diesel engined SRT design, the TRD Prius!
But don’t despair – there’s another way to do it, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t suggest this to anyone who would listen over the past 5 years: cars that have the handling you want and ‘make do’ with the standard engines. If BMW brings out the tii models that automobile recently reported might be in the works, you won’t have to suffer a BMW that’s too heavy if you want a trick differential or an exhaust system that sings. (Think a more extreme E46 330i Performance Package -like models, cars that emphasise subjective over objective measures).
The last fuel crisis left us with junk – thankfully this time it’s spurring manufacturers to come up with fresh ideas, desirable ones even.
Don’t worry – you won’t be forced to give up the luxuries or the room you’re used to – manufacturers are realizing that they can earn a profit if they let you option up small cars like they’ve usually reserved for large cars – a la the MINI. If we’re lucky, people will be reminded of how clumsy and awkward the average car had become as it piled on layers of fat that come with middle age.
Vote with your dollars for more emotional design and more interesting cars will make it to the market!
It’s depressing to see a company – any company – forget what made them great and there’s perhaps no clearer example of this than Honda’s interior design these days.
The virus started with the Acura RL then spread to the MDX, but now its found its way into the Accord and even the Pilot. Not only are the controls arranged in a completely nonsensical manner, there’s a visual clutter – a hodgepodge of shapes that seems contrived to make the braindead feel they’re getting more for their money.
I can understand why you’ve gone to overly large and wide tires now that your cars are overly wide and large as well but please Honda, stop the madness. Sure, plastic is easy to mold into any shape you desire but that doesn’t mean you should. To paraphrase Chris Rock, “You can drive a car with your feet, but that doesn’t make it a good idea!”
I’ve always felt that a ‘real’ BMW has one of two things: either an inline 6 – or – if handling more important – an I4 that will rev til kingdom come.
Every BMW with a V8 I’ve driven – last M5 included – sounds and feels, well, wrong. Yes, the last M3’s cast iron block was too heavy, and yes, the last M3 didn’t rev as keeny as the NG 330i. And while only the M cars get the M variable diff and lack runflats, I’m less impressed with a V8 that weighs as much as a cast iron 6 than I was of the normally aspirated NG engine’s magnesium one (the 335i has an Al block).
The new M3 needed to get lighter, not stay the same weight and the new car’s M.O. seems to be fast car that can be a hoot if you slide it around rather than fast car that’s a hoot no matter what you do.
Like the last M5, it’s more a GT than a sportster, and like the new M5, it’s too heavy up front and numb in the steering to be a real driver’s car. Or at least to be a driver’s car I lust after.
despite having a hydraulically assisted set-up, the steering still doesn’t have that sense of feedback that a driver needs in order to have total confidence in what exactly the tyres are doing. So the M3 is very accomplished and very fast. However, it does lack a certain je ne sais quoi in the excitement stakes – which is fine if you look at it as a hot four-door saloon, but could prove to be a disappointment if you’re a fan of the M car heritage. – 4car
Although it’s not expected in showrooms til sometime next year, I will have the opportunity to spend the next few days with the developmental mules of one of the most interesting and significant cars in years. Although it is unlikely I’ll be able to tell you much beyond that, I can assure you that those involved are very serious about delivering on their claim of making a competitor to the established brands.
Skeptical? Dust off you magazines circa the late 80s and early 90s when people doubted the Japanese could compete with the Europeans.
Having helped someone shop for “an Acura, Lexus or Infiniti” last week solely because they didn’t want to be seen in a Mercedes, BMW or Audi, you have to wonder if this isn’t exactly the right car at exactly the right time… (This car can teach VW’s ad agency what ‘low ego emissions’ really means).
