The Adventures in the world of Simplicity: Nissan Primera 2.0\Infiniti G20 Part 2 (and final part too): Euro-centric, at last?
"Previously on the Adventures:
Herg derp bazinga Primera...
Why a Santana?
In order to find out, I bought one..."
Yes, the thrilling finale is upon us, but first, let's get back in the groove and return to our last save point.
Of course, finding a Primera now is not a hard task, but the dull design doesn't make it any easier. Not to mention that the Nissan dealership is one of the most populated in GT world. I heard it has quite a big skyline (I regret nothing about this joke, I state that right now), but the Primera was my main target. So, armed with the green bills, I became the happy owner of a 5-door sedan with a small wing on the rear. Sucess!
Nissan Primera nº2. Codename: Latio. Not modified in any way
Ah yes, my dear friend Latio. Why did I say it is "nº2"? Because it was the second Primera I bought. What about the other one, you ask? We'll get to that later. For now, let's focus on the car at hand.
Latio, as you can see, is as dull as they come. It doesn't have any wrong angles, but it also doesn't have any brilliant ones, a classic Japanese design for sure. Of course, since it is a Standard car, the all black interior will be literal, since these cars suffer from "Black Hole" syndrome, a PD-type disease. Poor thing... Anyway, with the keys in hand, I wasted no time in throwing this into a race track, for testing purposes. And soon I came into the pits with a conclusion:
"We need new shoes."
"Shoes"? By this I meant "tires", I just wanted to sound fancy. The piss poor Confort tires Nissan supplied us were no good when confronted with Stowe's finest corners, and it showed. The car was understeering all over the place, not to mention the absurd tire squeal that came with said understeer, the suspension couldn't be any less pleased with this rubber waste. So, in true race team fashion, we threw the tires into the bin and got ourselves brand new sporty rubber, surely the car would complain less if we gave it proper shoes, right?
Yes, and don't call me Shirley. The understeer was reduced significantly compared to the confort rubbish I had to endure, and the suspension was enjoying the newfound grip and resistance the new tires offered. This is a good time to talk a bit 'bout said suspension.
Nissan broke all the Japanese conventions when they released this. The Euro-driver could care less about unrivaled confort if the car swerved like a boat and gave up under the pressure of a mountain road. According to the GT2 profile of this car, Nissan used a multi-link suspension at the front, but they also used struts for the rear. Of course, the Japanese brand went the extra mile and set this system with a stiff-biased behaviour. So stiff in fact, many Japanese consumers complained that the suspension was too stiff! Nissan was giving no flocks about the complainers, though, they knew the old Japanese sedan style was outdated. Euro tastes demanded a safe car, but one that could provide them loads of fun at the same time. Ask the French, their sports sedans were the Eden of car handling, the Pug 309 GTI, the Renault 19 16v, those cars were confortable, but they could also carve their name on a road if they wanted to. In order to dominate Europe, the Japanese had to drop their idea of a sedan, or change it into the idea the European people wanted to see. And this car made that dream possible.
Everything about this might confuse the driver at first. Why is this box handling so well? Why is the engine so willing to push the car along? Why is everything so sporty, when the FF namesake is attached to this? The 2.0, 16-valve engine is not even turbocharged, but has enough oomph to push the car past the 130 mph mark. What black sorcery is this?
No matter what, this car has so much potential, but you'd be hard pressed to find it under such a uninspiring body, that's what shocked me when I first drove it around the High Speed Ring. It is far more agile than most of its local rivals, it makes a Corolla look like a old people's house in Florida. Nissan proved that above all, one could stick to its guns, as long as the bullets pierce armor. And let's not forget our American friend (not Mclaren, the other one):
Infiniti G20. Codename: Gung-ho Jones. 300-plus HP engine.
Yes, this is where Infiniti first began their career. And yes, that is a SRT Viper BEHIND (key word) it. In order to fight Lexus and Acura, Nissan created a luxury brand in order to grab a piece of the USA car market, and the G20 was its harbringer. Funny that a car like this was the foundation for a luxury brand, eh? But no matter what, the selling point was still the same: this car is fun to drive. These words, written in many different ways, were the words Infiniti wanted to point out to their rivals. Our car is confortable, but fun. F-U-N. Lexus can't say that about most of their cars, now can they? Jones was also one of the tuning test mules, used to see where this could go if I gave it some beans. Or in this case, the whole pack of beans...
Jones was sent to a American car-only race in the English track of Brands Hatch (grounds this car is very familiar with), packed with a huge turbo, many juicy parts, and proper Sports tires, and then, it perfomed a miracle. Simple as that. Even though I did not set the suspension (or the LSD, for that matter) up for this, the car still went out there and drove like the agile corner-thrashing car that it is. Of course, this came at a price, in form of my old enemy: understeer. Adding more horsepower to a FF car has the biggest of all drawbacks; we can never forget that these chassis, for the most part, weren't made to couple with 300 hp engines. The wheels will remember this fact and then they will start to cave under the sheer power we add to them when we try to tackle a corner. This car can work with 300 hp, but I think it is pointless to do it. Why?
Latio and my 180-hp Primera, nº1 "Wingless Angel"
Personally, I think this car can be better suited to a mild tune, rather than a full tune. Angel wasn't even that modded, but it still beat a NSX-R around Brands Hatch during a NA-only race. This car doesn't need 300-hp, I felt Jones was complaing about it with that understeer while trying to beat a Viper. Why waste money to push a car like this to a level where buying a Skyline makes more sense? Yes, I'm guilty of doing so, but it proved that this car does not like being overpowered. You don't ask a low budget FPS game to be Call of Duty. You don't ask a old 1970 Super Robot anime to be a Gundam show. And you don't ask a quiet boxy sedan to be a Skyline. The Nissan Primera sticks so close to the definition of a "sleeper" that it hurts. Especially if you remove the wing. The key point here is this:
People might find difficult that someone enjoys driving a box like this, but when they look through the front windshield to take a look at the driver, they see that he likes it.
And that he's smiling about it.
The end
Pros:
- Stellar handling
- Rightfully priced
- Can be turned into a super Touring Car if you wish, with little difficulty
Cons:
- Not much graphical detail
- Beware of understeer when tuning it
- Why does it look so boring?