Test Drives

  • Thread starter Kosheen
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Kosheen

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This thread is where a car will be selected (probably) every week, and if you want you drive it and give a verdict. A short review would be good, accompanied by a lap time and/or max speed, and a rating out of 5, 10 or whatever you like. All cars should be bog-standard, and as such I recommend using Arcade Mode rather than GT Mode for this.

If you're interested, say so here - I'll put the first car on in the next few days.

Kosheen
 
I'll be picking cars which are opened up at the start (most of the time any way), so there will be no worries about rare cars being used. BTW, I forgot to mention before that if you want to request a car to be tested, post it on this thread labelled as REQUEST or something obvious so I don't miss it :).

Kosheen
 
Request: Could you test drive 10km/6,2mile 300ZX twinturbo when it comes up? I'm planning to use such car in my next writeout..
 
So is that the test course? And what manufacturer is the 300ZX? Since I didn't have any ideas, that may as well be the first one we do if enough people have it.
 
I've found out it's made by Nissan, but I'm in the middle of Le Mans 24 hrs at the moment, so I'll check if I have it when it finishes.
 
yes, it is nissans, and I'd specially would like to know if you can find used one with 10 km/6.2miles on it, because I'm planning to use it in my next part of twinturbo shootout. thanks in advance.
 
I've just bought the 300ZX - it's from 1998 so I hope that's the right one!

I'll give it a go on the 10km track soon - that is hereby this week's test car!

Kosheen
 
Its going to be a bit like Top Gear in here. I may step it up and do an audio review if thats ok with you.

When you place down the cars to review mate.
 
I would have loved to do that some time ago, especially because people kinda liked my 2 vids, but decided my english is not that perfect and that I sound really silly trying to imitate Jeremy clarkson and Tiff Needels and Dan Tackett and Tsuchyia-san, Gan-san or any other reviewer around.......:(
 
puricele7e
I would have loved to do that some time ago, especially because people kinda liked my 2 vids, but decided my english is not that perfect and that I sound really silly trying to imitate Jeremy clarkson and Tiff Needels and Dan Tackett and Tsuchyia-san, Gan-san or any other reviewer around.......:(
Click to expand...
That will not stop me trying to do better reviews then them. Even if Top Gear if the Car show i most watch.
 
A Top Gear-style review was my idea here, but it didn't have to be new or particularly sporty cars, just any we feel like.

The car until Monday 10th October 2005 is Nissan 300ZX from 1998, just to clear up any confusion.

Feel free to pick your own test track, and also do your review in whatever style you like - audio would be fine!

And do make sure you keep the cars - as F1 says we could have some type of tournament sometime.

Kosheen
 
Here is my review of the Nissan 300ZX:

---------------

It was a sunny day at the test track as I first laid eyes on the car I had to play with today. It was a red Nissan 300ZX, and it just seemed like any other remotely sporty car. It’s streamlined, which is a plus, and it has a 278 BHP engine. This is useful, since at 1.58 tons with anything less it would be difficult to move at all.

I have to talk about the styling before we get moving though, and on that front it isn’t exactly impressive. The headlights are positioned in exactly the right place to make the car look cross-eyed, the brake lights are simply unimaginative and like big shiny squares. I can think of worse cars to look at though. So, now that my initial grump is out of the way, we’ll get out onto the track.

Our model was fitted with medium sports tyres, and I was soon on our test track – Trial Mountain. I have to admit, though, that as soon as I got it moving I was pleasantly surprised. Handling was good – it didn’t seem to oversteer or understeer too much anyway – and acceleration was much better than I expected, with 0-60 only taking a little over 5 seconds.

I was particularly pleased when I braked into the first tunnel, due to the effectiveness of the brakes, which managed to bash my head on the windscreen. Of course, having a headache alone is nothing to be pleased about, but with a car this good for such a reasonable price it was definitely something to smile about.

By my second lap I had got more of a feel of the car, and was really beginning to warm to it. Except for its looks, I couldn’t think of one thing I didn’t like about the 300ZX. It’s well priced, reasonably fast (with a top speed of about 172 mph), corners well, and brakes better than crashing into a concrete barrier. Finally, at the end of my fifth lap, I decided that I just couldn’t get it round any faster than 1’47.522 , so I called it there for the day.

My overall verdict is probably about 7 out of 10. The 300ZX is easy & fun to drive, reasonably powerful and priced, corners well and has the power to haemorrhage your brain through braking. Great? Not really. But a good car? Definitely.

---------------

What with it being my birthday on Sunday, I decree that I shall choose the car to test from the 10th to the 17th. I'll tell you all on the 10th.

Kosheen
 
Off-off-topic: It's already Saturday in Germany, so
haapppyyy birthday to you, happy b-day to you
happy b-day dear KiwiBoy, Happy b-day to you !!!!

Congratulations 👍👍
 
I'd be a bit interested....of course, my likeness of certain cars makes me want to test drive what I want, but that's nothing to worry about since I can usually enjoy driving most of the 700 cars.
 
Kiwi, Happy Birthday - since your birthday is before mine you choose this week and I'll choose next week. Put on this thread what car you want to test before or on Monday, and we can have a week to review it.

By the way, anyone can review - it doesn't just have to be me! :lol:

Kosheen
 
nice test drive, kosheen! 👍 now I'm certain that 6,2 mile 300ZX will be my next challenger in order to reach the 300 mph club.. :dopey: I just hope that it's powerband and transmission won't ruin my plans again.. :scared: like Supra RZ'98 with 888bhp. yes, it has power and torque, but it ran out of adjustments.. :ouch:
 
Just drove the TVR in a family cup on the 'ring. It was pretty good. I did my laps in mid to high sevens. I found that in the early stages with cool rubber, the car had about as much will to turn as an ocean liner. However this, in time, (as the tyres became warmer) meant the car had a very pronounced threshold of grip. It was willing to go where i pointed it at slower speeds and was dedicated to its line. If it was going a bit too fast i could correct it with a bit of brake easily but if i was going too fast i went straight ahead. At higher speeds it was less willing to turn in and reacted to bumps. It danced through the fast chicanes but was manageable. The most impressive trait of the car was its brakes. Although they're almost definately not as good as some, the understeery nature of the chassis meant that even if the car was bagged up off the previous corner I could brake and be confident that the car would stay in a straight line. At high speeds this requires a lot of confidence but is fantastic fun. I also thought it had great will to accelerate out of corners.

Overall I think the car is OK. I usually can't stand understeer but this car makes it useful. It is forgiving under acceleration and braking but can be a handful over quick bumps. It could beat an M3 GTR and a Jag, so it was surprisingly fast. i'd give it 7.5/10.
 

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