Well due to track availability and a complete lack of organisational skill it took a while to get the cars together for the road test at Midfield race track. A map of which can be seen here.
Again weather had been favourable, giving us a sunny day with little cloud. Again the cars were stock with N2 tyres fitted. I spent the morning learning the track in a hatchback, despite being familiar with the track i did not want any unexpected occurences to ruin the days driving. I decided to run the cars in the same order as the first tests.
Jaguar XKR R-Performance '02 - 389 bhp
Best Lap: 1'27.414
1st Sector: 27.996
2nd Sector: 27.307
3rd Sector: 32.111
Top Speed: 145.3 mph
I felt that this car was ruined by its soft suspension, this may suit business men commuting along the M1 everyday but for ripping up the tarmac at a race course it is of little uose. When you couple this with the weight of the car you get massive oversteer. The best example of this was going round turn six where the car just kept leaning further and further over so it became looser as it got into the corner, by the end of the turn I was wrestling with the wheel to keep the car on the track. The weight transfer is slow so through the 'S' bends, three and four, the car would suddenly shift weight coming out of turn four and put the car in an all wheel slide towards the grass. Getting sideways in this car is not fun, if I was driving on the road and got sideways I would already be calling my insurance company. The brakes are adequate allowing me to brake from highspeed into turn 1, but the car will nose dive quite a lot.
I cannot say that I overly enjoyed driving this car, however it does have potential, with the addition of the optional sports handling package, which stiffens suspension, adds better brakes and a bit more power, this car could be a lot faster. In stock form however there are better places to spend your money.
Aston MartinDB9 Coupe '03 - 449 bhp
Best Lap: 1'26.502
1st Sector: 27.635
2nd Sector: 27.408
3rd Sector: 31.459
Top Speed: 149.8 mph
Following the straight line tests I was itching to fire up that throbbing V8 again, I thought this car had the potential to be very fast. At first i didnt even notice the wieght of the car, its stiff suspension stopping excessive body roll and making it handle like a dream, with just a touch of oversteer. To begin with I forgot I was handling a 1.7 ton car and thought I was throwing an Elise around the track. The car is tail happy but there is so much grip at the front that I (an inexperienced drifter) could hold the car sideways and bring it back. From the start this car feels and sounds fast, reaching 150mph at the end of the pit straight before slamming the brakes on and turning into turn one. After driving for pure fun for about 6 laps I began to take more notice of the car, while the tail out attitude was awseome to see on camera after I began to realise that it was costing me time and settled down to some proper grip driving. Slowly as the laps built up my illusions of the car being faultless were eroded. The looseness at high speeds cost alot of time especially at turns two ,three, four and five where I would have to either come of the throttle or risk sliding off the track. The weight of this car, coupled with my stock road tyres meant that round tight corners, such as six and eight the car pulled outwards.
These faults can be overlooked however, simply for the fun that this car is to drive. It occupies the same market slot as the XKR but does the job so much better. This car was very consistent with all 20 laps being with 0.5 seconds of each other. The sense of speed that this car gives is phenomenal, when I drove back to the pits I was suprised to see my time was not in the 1'25's but due the slides I just couldn't get round the track any faster than I did. Simply with the addition of stickier tyres this car would eat lighter sports cars for breakfast, or just scare them off the road with its roar.
TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00 - 361bhp
Best Lap: 1'24.636
1st Sector: 26.707
2nd Sector: 26.704
3rd Sector: 31.225
Top Speed: 151.1 mph
From earlier testing I knew that this car would be completely different to drive from the tail happy DB9 which I had just exited from. The car sat there, menacing, almost daring me to take it out and push it, never one to turn down a challenge I fired her up. First thing I noticed (other than the smell of glue in the cockpit) was that this car is TIGHT, very tight. The suspension is stiff like a race cars, the car remains flat and there is no feel of weight shift inertia. There is absolutely no oversteer, if you push this car too hard it just wont turn at all. This was a steep learning curve indeed, but after 10 laps I began to get the most from the car realising that I could put together faster lap times by not pushingf the car to its maximum all the time. This car would do 155mph down the long straight but it would be hard to get into turn one. The only way to turn with this car is to brake early and hard, no trail braking here, then wrench the car round the corner. The stiff suspension induces quite heavy oversteer which makes hitting the apex of corners hard at high speed, especially through turns one and two and the S bend. The last sector was the hardest to do in this car, the poor trail braking characteristics making turns seven and eight a real challenge to get round. The power to weight ratio of this car meant that acceleration out of the corners was enough to throw me back in my seat. This car really does bite back though, it's understeer nearly putting me in the wall on a few occasions, but once you realise to just let the car drive itself round the track the times just get faster and faster. with more laps I'm sure i could have broken into the 1'23's.
I re-entered the pits after 20 laps absolutely shattered, but elated. I couldn't claim I had tamed the beast, but who would want to tame this car, just reach an understanding with it and there will be few cars in its class (if any) that can touch it. Not for the fainthearted.
Lotus Esprit V8 '02 - 353 bhp
Best Lap: 1'26.224
1st Sector: 27.481
2nd Sector: 26.618
3rd Sector: 32.125
Top Speed: 145.1 mph
After a period to recover from my wrestle with the Tuscan I took the Esrit out on track. Now this car also understeers but it did not feel beneficial in the same way that the Tuscan did. The car suffers from 'lift off' oversteer while at high speed it will understeer. I could not find any consistency with this car, my next fastest lap was a full 1.2 seconds slower than my best lap. The acceleration is good and it does not handle terribly I just couldn't find any kind of rythem with the car. A lot of time was spent off the track with me banging my head on the wheel trying to figure outr what to do to get round the track. I cannot be sure what gave me so many problems with the car, there is no body roll to speak of and the acceleration and top speed are good.
I really didn't get on with this car at all, despite it giving the second fastest lap time. Theres is just no feel to the car, I dont like the styling and the sound is nothing to be proud of, if you want a Lotus buy an Elise.
Here is a graph showing the sector times for each car so that you can compare them, this graph highlights a few things. For example the problem the Esprit had with the final sector where it lost time to both the XKR and the DB9.
Here are the final lap times in one place just to make reading easier.
1st - TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00, 361bhp - 1'24.636
2nd - Lotus Esprit V8 '02, 353 bhp - 1'26.224
3rd - Aston MartinDB9 Coupe '03, 449 bhp - 1'26.502
4th - Jaguar XKR R-Performance '02, 389 bhp - 1'27.414
Well I after my couple of days driving these cars I guess i have to choose winner, its not going to be the XKR or the Esprit, both feel like they aren't really there and are no fun to drive. The DBP nearly swings it with its looks, its sound and the fact that its pure unadulterated fun to drive. I'm going to have to go with the Tuscan though, to me its a beautiful car. it is lightweight and fast, when handled correctly nothing can catch it. What more could you want.
Hope you all enjoyed this...
Robin.
.
haha. 
but I knew it was the alcohol talking! 
