The sky has just started to clear up above Tsukuba circuit though the track is still soaked with water. Time is running out though and its not as though the cars being tested today will be uncontrollable in the rain so it looks as though the testing will go on, even if it is on a wet course. Perhaps this is for the better as it will show more of how these cars really behave when at the limit, or at the very least it will make for some exciting drifting in a test that might otherwise be pretty dull and rely mostly on the ability of a car to simply accelerate. The wet track is like a wildcard, anything could happen today. The cars that will be tested are the cream of the 1.6L 80s crop. These are the cars that aimed to be fun, reliable, efficient and hopefully also put down some good lap times.
The first car in this test is going to get a bit of biased attention as it is the test divers car on a daily basis, and he goes into the test knowing how its likes to behave. The First Generation supercharged mr2. The mr2 quickly shows that is does not want to simply be steered around a corner. This will result in either understeer straight off the side of the course or a speed that is about the same as the turtle on the John Deer tractor. Neither does the mr2 want to be drifted as a front engine, rear drive would, this will result in going backwards down the track. As the test driver has lots of experience driving this car the medium is soon found. This happy medium involves a drift but one that is at such a slight angle that there is little if any countersteer involved. The car is feinted to the outside as a rallycar would be and then it will dive nicely into the corner with the back end slightly (as is about 3 degrees) out. From here the rest of the corner is simply throttle control as even in second gear the 142hp and 137.42ft.lbs thanks to the supercharger gives the 1.6L enough grunt to turn the rear tires into tractionless smokebombs. If this where to happen in the middle of the corner as it did to me on a few occasions countersteer is almost useless as the car pendulums around and runs backward off the track. All in all a very rewarding experience and it is going to be tough for another car to match the 118.486 lap time.
The entry from Honda is the crx sir. Though the example brought to the track today is a 1990 model and exception will be made as the car was available in the 80s and it is Hondas only real chance at this competition. With the most powerful NA 1.6L motor around the b16 produces a huge amount of hp at 157hp it outranks the 4agze in the mr2 by 15hp. The fallback of this motor is torque though only producing 112.10ft/lb and to see it the driver needs to rev all the way to 7000rpm. Out onto the wet track the first thing noticed is that the crx does not have the huge amount of understeer that is present in most front wheel drive cars. Though the car can definitely be made to understeer though throttle application in a corner, it can also be just as easily eliminated and even made to oversteer slightly. Being a front wheel drive though, full throttle can not be applied until later on in the corner and as such even with the huge amount of power produced my the b16 the speed on the straights suffers. The speed around the corners while impressive for a fwd still cannot match that of its rear wheel drive competition. The end result is a lap time of 120.521. One cant help but wonder what could have been if Honda had built a little rwd car based around the potent b16 powerplant. Alas it never happened.
The Renault 5 turbo. Despite having the smallest engine, coming in at just 1.4L as opposed to 1.6L. This is a very potent little car, coming in with the most hp, lightest weight at a mid-engine layout, this is going to be a tough car to best out on the wet track. The weight on this car seems to be distributed a little more to the rear than it did on the mr2, as the back and has a tendency to walk out on its own whether the driver wants it to or not. This can be quite easily turned into a nice, almost lazy feeling drift similar in style to the mr2 with the back end just slightly outstepping the front. This further rearward balance is also apparent in the amount of traction that this car has. There is very little slippage in second gear despite having the most power out of the group today. This however is a very high strung car as well, if there is a mistake made the car will definitely let the driver know. A little too much of anything on a corner and the car will spin, once it starts to spin all is lost until the car comes to a stop. When the sweet spot is hit in a corner though there are not too many cars keeping up to it in a corner, or on the straights. All of this put together resulted in a great lap time of 117.964. A full half second faster than the mr2 a new benchmark has been set.
At the end of this test the car from Renault came out as the winner on the track. The hard edge of the car put it almost in a different class from the two others when driven. It seemed as though it was a race car that somehow made it into production. The crx seemed to be a little on the soft side on the other hand. Granted it is a front wheel drive car and one of the most agile ones around, it still could not match the rwd counterparts presented today. The b16 while boasting incredible hp for a NA engine did not feel as powerful as either of the other two engines today. Perhaps this is due to the lack of torque. The Toyota mr2 seemed to be the one to come out smelling as roses. Though it is not quite as fast as the Renault , it is darn close even though it produces 17 less hp. The mr2 is an effective tool on the race track but can also be tamed as a daily commuter car. That is why the mr2 is the winner of this challenge.
The first car in this test is going to get a bit of biased attention as it is the test divers car on a daily basis, and he goes into the test knowing how its likes to behave. The First Generation supercharged mr2. The mr2 quickly shows that is does not want to simply be steered around a corner. This will result in either understeer straight off the side of the course or a speed that is about the same as the turtle on the John Deer tractor. Neither does the mr2 want to be drifted as a front engine, rear drive would, this will result in going backwards down the track. As the test driver has lots of experience driving this car the medium is soon found. This happy medium involves a drift but one that is at such a slight angle that there is little if any countersteer involved. The car is feinted to the outside as a rallycar would be and then it will dive nicely into the corner with the back end slightly (as is about 3 degrees) out. From here the rest of the corner is simply throttle control as even in second gear the 142hp and 137.42ft.lbs thanks to the supercharger gives the 1.6L enough grunt to turn the rear tires into tractionless smokebombs. If this where to happen in the middle of the corner as it did to me on a few occasions countersteer is almost useless as the car pendulums around and runs backward off the track. All in all a very rewarding experience and it is going to be tough for another car to match the 118.486 lap time.
The entry from Honda is the crx sir. Though the example brought to the track today is a 1990 model and exception will be made as the car was available in the 80s and it is Hondas only real chance at this competition. With the most powerful NA 1.6L motor around the b16 produces a huge amount of hp at 157hp it outranks the 4agze in the mr2 by 15hp. The fallback of this motor is torque though only producing 112.10ft/lb and to see it the driver needs to rev all the way to 7000rpm. Out onto the wet track the first thing noticed is that the crx does not have the huge amount of understeer that is present in most front wheel drive cars. Though the car can definitely be made to understeer though throttle application in a corner, it can also be just as easily eliminated and even made to oversteer slightly. Being a front wheel drive though, full throttle can not be applied until later on in the corner and as such even with the huge amount of power produced my the b16 the speed on the straights suffers. The speed around the corners while impressive for a fwd still cannot match that of its rear wheel drive competition. The end result is a lap time of 120.521. One cant help but wonder what could have been if Honda had built a little rwd car based around the potent b16 powerplant. Alas it never happened.
The Renault 5 turbo. Despite having the smallest engine, coming in at just 1.4L as opposed to 1.6L. This is a very potent little car, coming in with the most hp, lightest weight at a mid-engine layout, this is going to be a tough car to best out on the wet track. The weight on this car seems to be distributed a little more to the rear than it did on the mr2, as the back and has a tendency to walk out on its own whether the driver wants it to or not. This can be quite easily turned into a nice, almost lazy feeling drift similar in style to the mr2 with the back end just slightly outstepping the front. This further rearward balance is also apparent in the amount of traction that this car has. There is very little slippage in second gear despite having the most power out of the group today. This however is a very high strung car as well, if there is a mistake made the car will definitely let the driver know. A little too much of anything on a corner and the car will spin, once it starts to spin all is lost until the car comes to a stop. When the sweet spot is hit in a corner though there are not too many cars keeping up to it in a corner, or on the straights. All of this put together resulted in a great lap time of 117.964. A full half second faster than the mr2 a new benchmark has been set.
At the end of this test the car from Renault came out as the winner on the track. The hard edge of the car put it almost in a different class from the two others when driven. It seemed as though it was a race car that somehow made it into production. The crx seemed to be a little on the soft side on the other hand. Granted it is a front wheel drive car and one of the most agile ones around, it still could not match the rwd counterparts presented today. The b16 while boasting incredible hp for a NA engine did not feel as powerful as either of the other two engines today. Perhaps this is due to the lack of torque. The Toyota mr2 seemed to be the one to come out smelling as roses. Though it is not quite as fast as the Renault , it is darn close even though it produces 17 less hp. The mr2 is an effective tool on the race track but can also be tamed as a daily commuter car. That is why the mr2 is the winner of this challenge.
