Test Drives

  • Thread starter Kosheen
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lol.....yea u should....lol

and i think my next spicial report will be on a race car as well....and GT40....wat car r u going to do....just so we dont happen to pick the same car....i am going to do the F1 Gran Turismo 04' and the Sauber Mercedes C9 Race car 89'....those are my choises so please dont take them.
 
Well this week feels like it's flown to me, so I'll put my Honda Odyssey review up sometime soon - I'm about halfway through now. Anyway, this week's car is the Toyota Corrola GT Apex from 1983.

Kosheen
 
Here's my belated review for Honda Odyssey 2003:

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The Honda Odyssey's an ugly brute. It's all boxy and boring - there's not really any interesting design features about it. It may just be me, but I thought it bore more than a passing resemblance to the Renault Avantime. As such, it wasn’t even original styling – just a copy of something else. I wasn’t thrilled.

I also wasn’t impressed with the figures. Weighing in at 1700kg, it weighs about as much as a beached whale and looks like one too, and it only has 158 BHP to propel this enormous mass. This works out at just 93 BHP/tonne. This means 0-60 in an uninteresting 11 seconds, and an ultimately boring top speed of 124mph. Not exactly inspiring. It has even been heralded as ‘a big Civic’, but the shape and figures did not fill me with confidence. All the same, it was only fair that I take it out on the track, without driving aids as usual, and see how it did.

Despite being so tall, it has to be said that the Oddyssey (sorry – couldn’t resist the pun) feels rather stable around the corners, and acceleration isn’t particularly bad either. I had expected it to turn like a boat and have the speed of one too, but instead it’s really quite manoeuvrable – it really was turning out to be quite a good car. It was well-equipped too – CD player and leather seats, all for £17, 150 ($30,400). Brakes were good too – anti-lock disc-brakes come as standard.

At the end of my fifth lap, I concluded that I couldn’t get it round any faster than 1’57.622, and I even thought the car’s looks had improved. Maybe it’s a car you have to get used to, like the new BMWs – if you don’t like them at first you will in the future. So I’d made my mind up: quite a good car really, but nothing like just a ‘big Civic’. Assuming that you need the space for children, animals or the like (I don’t, so I’ll just have to imagine), it is a good car though. It has lots of space, is well equipped and is pretty cheap to boot. Overall, I’ll give it 8/10 – good job Honda.

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Kosheen
 
wow... i thought the same. The oddessey is JUST like a big civic...lol. I wont be able to make a review about the oddessey b/c im busy testing my special car(s)...**hint hint**.... and want the report thurough. Im really getting into this thread.lol
 
I've got a list I'm gonna do
Nissan*FALKEN GTR
Amuse CarbonR
Amuse S2000 GT1
Ford GT
ford GT LM spec 2
Pontiac GTO 5.7
Mercedes E55 AMG
Saleen S7

Ive got the s7, e55 and the FALKEN reviews done. will post soon.
 
Team Williams - Looking forward to it
Kiwi - Thanks
GT40 - Whoa that's a big list! Looking forward to all of those when you can post them.

My review for the Corolla will be coming shortly.

Kosheen
 
The Falken is actually the car for everyone to do starting Monday 31st October, so we may as well do them all at the same time I think
 
Here's my review for the Toyota Corolla Levin GT-Apex Thing:

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This Toyota Corolla actually seems rather impressive. It has 127 BHP, and weighs less than a tonne, so has 135 BHP/tonne. This, when in perspective, is reasonably good, since this is only just behind the Mazda6 concept, which has been around Trial Mountain in a fastest time of 1’59.189. As such, I was reasonably pleased to have a car that was about as powerful in its day as MGs and Mazdas are now. As usual, the thing I don’t like about this car is its looks, but there again that’s a given – it is from the eighties after all.

I wasn’t let down when I got it on the track either. It was reasonably fast, handled well (but perhaps with a bit of understeer) and it even made a good noise. If only it looked better, I might consider buying one. But it’s looks aren’t changing, and they ruin the whole car. A car can be fast, manoeuvrable and well priced, but if it’s ugly as sin, no-one will buy it.

Anyway, after my usual five laps, it had a fastest time of 1.53.469, which is indeed faster than the Mazda6 concept I mentioned earlier. I have to say that overall it is quite a good car: handling’s impressive, brakes are responsive, and it’s really pretty fast – it does 0-60 in just over 9 seconds, and has a reasonable top speed of about 136 mph. This is the eighties though – impressive for its day, but not exceptional any more. Despite this, it’s still a good car, and I’d give it about 7/10. If only they’d worked a bit harder on design…

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The list of cars for us to do is as follows:
Monday 31st Oct - Sunday 5th Nov - Nissan*Falken GTR
Monday 6th Nov - Sunday 12th Nov - I thought we could try something a bit different this week - people pick 2 or more cars from the same category (supercars, Le Mans cars, hot hatches, saloons, etc, so long as they're from the same category) and compare them in kind of a multiple test. If people are particularly opposed to the idea say so, but I think it'd be quite nice to do for a change.

Remember to keep giving car requests,

Kosheen
 
Puricele7e - if you want to use those two cars as your choices in two weeks time, feel free, if that was a request could you put something like REQUEST by it instead so it's harder for me to miss please? (sorry but I can be quite unobservant sometimes so I just like to make sure).
Smoke U 24/7 - Thanks for the comment, feel free to join in any time if you want.

Kosheen
 
Well...the problem is that I don't have too much time (sadly......because of school and such). If I have time i'll do it but i'm not sure :(

It was just a hint, so don't count on me......sorry 'bout that
 
This week's car is the Nissan*Falken GT-R. My review for it is below:

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I’ll make no bones about it – the Falken*GT-R is a phenomenal machine. At 501 BHP and 1.36 tonnes (368 BHP/tonne) it has enough power to melt your face, and can perform manoeuvres I thought only hungry sharks could do. It looks the part too – a large grill evokes the look of an open mouth, hungrily looking for food, and the facts that it’s so low to the ground and has such a large spoiler give it the impression of being fast before you even get inside.

Eagerly, I had sat down inside, strapped myself in with an innumerable number of seat belts (stupid health and safety <grumble grumble>) and putting on a large and ridiculous-looking helmet, I was ready to go. Obviously, being a race car it wasn’t exactly comfortable. The racing seats are purely to save weight, and as such provide no padding at all. Ouch. There’s no stereo, no sat-nav, no air conditioning, no electric windows. But that’s OK. It’s OK because this car does 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, and has a top speed of…wait for it…181 mph. It is a truly exciting vehicle.

After having taken it around the Trial Mountain, I barely wanted to get out. However, when I had been forcibly removed from it, I realised that I had learned several important things. Firstly, it understeers quite a bit – as soon as I’d got it to the first corner past the start, I realised that I’d have to brake quite a bit to get it around the corners. Secondly, it has an extraordinary amount of grip – I’m convinced that the only way this car would let go of the road is if it was tipped upside down. Even then it’d probably need a bit of help. Thirdly, it is hugely fast – its fastest time was 1’24.837, and that kind of time is Le Mans car territory. This means that it also has unparalleled handling, so good in fact that I only came close to hitting a wall once, which is astonishing in a car with that kind of power.

I bet that by now you want one – a sports car with road-melting speed and tarmac-tearing grip and cornering, with no drawbacks. Erm, no – not quite. For starters, it costs £309,300 ($550,000), which is pretty much the entire wealth of New Zealand. Also, it isn’t road-legal, so you could only drive it on tracks and on private land. I’m pretty sure there’s only one, perhaps two of these in the whole world, and I somehow don’t think Nissan will be too keen to give it/them up. Also, you might well be thinking that for less money, you can buy a car with more power and less weight than this one (the Pagani Zonda C12S springs to my mind for $100k less), and are road legal to boot. And you’d be right. The Zonda C12S, for example, costs $450,000 and can go 21 mph faster at 202mph. And this is a car without any special modifications like the Falken – it has no extra downforce, no extra air intake, yet it still evokes 408 BHP/tonne, which is forty more than the Falken. Therefore, I’d give the Falken 8/10. It’s a fantastic piece of engineering, has masses of power. But it’s just not quite right. So, if you want a high-performance, well-thought-out sports car, forget the Falken GT-R, buy a Zonda instead.

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Kosheen
 
nice....sadly i cant review any of those cars. My mom goy new carpet and i had to wait to get my comp back up. But my review this week is deffinatly the Falken Skyline and the Wooden Supra

I do agree about what you said about the falken being alot...but c'mon.....its a great car and when you want a cheap race car that is sure to give you wins and money....its the right choice.

I will do my report this weekend (friday mostlikly or saturday). My report will determine which japan race car is better.
 
I agree that it's a great car, but like I said it seems overpriced for what it is when you can get a road legal, faster car for less. Oh well - all a matter of opinion I suppose.

I'm looking forward to your Japanese Race Car Report - sounds interesting.

Kosheen
 
I drove the Honda Odyssey before i went to bed last night. This is what i thought of it.

You all say its just dashing around thr turns. I think different. I had the Odyssey floored around the turns and felt understeer with a hint of underpowerd. I was driving infieonRaceway and i had driving aids. They blew me away.
Acceleration was non exciting. It seems as if a full size pickup could out run it, but its a van so what do you expect. I slid into the grass and said enough of this. I got out, and walked away. I can't wait to try Chevy's new van, the Uplander.

Tada. Writing from a 14 y/o trying to sound like Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear lol ;)
 
What is that host which allows you to upload audio and vid's again, before i do my first audio review mates.
 
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