Has anyone else had a chance to test drive one yet?

I got an opportunity to put one through it's paces. Overall, I thought it was an impressive car, especially for the asking price. The "skyline" front end looked very sharp, and the wheels added a nice touch. The shifter felt crisp, and the ride quality was surprisingly firm considering I had just hopped out of my tight sprung Civic. The interior looked pretty sharp. Certainly nicer than most cars in that price range.

As for "autox potential", I dunno. Honestly, I expected more from the engine. It's a good thing they mated it to a 6 speed because it runs out of breath fast! The power band is from about 3500-5800 rpm's. Or at least it felt like it. I ran it to the 6200 rev limit a couple of times, but the engine is definitely off it's peak by 6000 rpm's, and going to the next gear at that speed causes you to lose out on some of the lower end grunt. First gear is "done" almost instantly, but 2nd may be just about right for most autocross courses. The torque feels good though, and it's definitely a nice highway car. Basically, it felt like a sort of decent 6 cylinder with tight gearing.

Anybody have other driving impressions of this car? How much does it weigh?

 

I drove one on track at VIR.

Likes: Torque!!! A great Limited slip. Overall a good firm suspension, but a little softer than the Type R.
Dislikes: Drive-by-wire throttle (HATE it!). Runs out of breath too quickly. 6200 rpm redline (ugh!). 2nd gear good to only 50 mph. 1st gear is over so quickly it's damn near useless.

It weighs 2800 lbs. Not bad, but still 300+ lbs heavier than my 92 SE-R.

I think it will be a great autocrosser. The torque it great, which it what you need coming out of a slow tight corner. The dyno charts I've see show 150 ft/lbs (at the wheels!) at 2500 rpms or something rediculous like that. The limited slip is a keeper. This car with a top driver and wide-*** 17" Hoosiers could dethrone the Type R.

On track is a different story. The power really starts to fall off above 4500. At 5500, some sort of secondaries open up, but I sure can't tell any power difference. The dyno charts I've seen show no gain when they open, but it sure sounds cool. And lastly, there's no way it's making 175 hp. More like 165.

It has NOTHING for a Type R on track.

 

I'm looking at one of these for a daily driver so that I can stop punishing myself driving around town driving my Integra. It has 4 doors, 4 seats that are usable, and a fun to drive factor that you are going ot have a hard time beating for the price for a street car. I can't however, get over the stupid red seats, and my wife can't get over the fact that it began life as a rental car, and feels like it when you slam the door, hit the turn signals, and switchgear... Ahh well....
The fact that is comes in about 6 grand cheaper than the WRX is keeping it in the running in my book, but we'll see what the future holds this fall when we are ready to put money on it.

 

nope but for 18-20K id rather build a car to my SPECs

 

One of our top local autocrossers thinks it will be a dissappointing autocross car because of the gearing. He said you'll need to use 3rd on alot of courses, where the Type R (for example) could get by using just 1st and 2nd. He currently runs a Sentra SE and I was always hearing him bounce of the rev limiter in 2nd. He hates the gearing in that car, and stated that the Spec V is no different.

 

That's different from what I heard from an owner at a recent autoX. He said the shifter was vague and not precise; maybe because it's cable actuated. I have not driven one yet. But from Nissan cars I have driven in the past, their shifter also felt notchy to me, not smooth like Honda.

Trent

 

That is the only problem I see with it for autocrossing. But, you have to row the gears in a Type R a bunch to keep it going too. You'll just be using 2nd and 3rd instead of 1st and 2nd.

 

>>He said the shifter was vague and not precise; maybe because it's cable actuated. I have not driven one yet. But from Nissan cars I have driven in the past, their shifter also felt notchy to me, not smooth like Honda.<<

I thought it was definitely more precise than my stock Honda shifter. I guess I prefer a little bit of notchiness in a shifter. Before I built the short shifter for my Civic (bought it new in 98), the stock shifter felt like a knife in a mayonaise jar.

 

I dont think many experienced R autocrossers row the gears much. Dont quote me, but I think there was a thread on here where David Fauth commented that he stopped doing that and got a bit faster. It seems like you lose too much time messing with up and down shifts. Now if I could only heel-toe better....

 

Well I'm certainly not a Type-R autocrossing expert since I've taken a grand total of 1 fun run in one.

 

I dunno, those Impreza RS's do pretty well with their goofy gearing.

 

Or for that matter, MR2's don't do too shabby... even if they spend half the course ON the rev-limiter...

 

thats just because they dont need to use the brakes

 

I guess the point is that on fast courses that most cars can still top out in 2nd gear, the Spec V may require an upshift to 3rd...which would eventually require a downshift back down to 2nd. On a course with several long straights (nat's?), a Spec V driver could be a little more busy with the shifter than most other drivers.

 

This is true, considering that I think 2nd gear runs to something like 46mph with a certain tire size. Though... with super-short gearing, gobs of torque, and even though it has the LSD... will it be able to lay down power efficiently with the FWD???

 

I recall someone posting recently about taking a ride with Endicott in his ITR once. He said it was an amazing lesson in heel-toe downshifting and that Endicott made the car feel like it had double the horsepower because he was able to keep the rpm's up without compromising anywhere.

The (weird) thing about this 4-banger is that it makes good power at 2800 rpm's. Fast stretches will require an upshift, but that may be offset by other areas that require a downshift in a ITR. Could be a pretty course-dependant thing too. Also, you can fit pretty fat race tires on the stock wheels. (7.5's?)

IMO, it'll boil down to weight. If it weighs 2800 lbs, it's a toss-up. 2600-2700 and the ITR has some serious competition. BTW, the version I drove came without a sun roof and many other extras so you can get a fairly stripped version.


[Modified by fsp31, 11:01 PM 1/9/2002]

 

Ron Bauer (used to drive Annie Gill's Type-R in G-Stock) I think has told me that in the GS-R/Type-R, the solution is not to downshift but to just carry more speed. However, he DOES regularly downshift in the S2000. I also have to downshift my NSX quite frequently because first gear goes to 45mph and second goes to 81mph. On some courses with street tires, I can actually do like 2/3 of the course in first gear. Heh. Good for dominating street tire class. Hehe.

-Mike