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| Toyota GT86 |
Less is more
One of the very few intelligent modern sports cars at sensible money is the wonderful Toyota GT86. In a throwback to the Twin Cam of my youth, the GT86 is not that fast, but it's brilliant:
- it's light, and low (the Japanese designer said that it was important to be able to stub out a cigarette on the road while seated with your seat belt on - that's low)
- rear wheel drive
- modest size wheels and reasonably narrow tyres (this car will move about under you)
- naturally aspirated (that precise power delivery, capable of being metered out very precisely, assuming you like finesse in driving)
- snicky, positive gear shift
- great steering feedback
Yet the car constantly is pilloried by modern "drivers" - invariably they want lowered suspensions, about twice as much power (preferably from a brace of turbos), bigger wheels, wider tyres, the whole chavtastic nine yards of driving illiteracy.
Desperate stuff. Of course, a dollop of power can be fun, and some cars actually need it. A Ford Mustang or an old Audi Quattro improve with power. My old 911 hot-rod has plenty of power, and it's a delight, but it's almost incidental - the real goal was to build an engine that has a lightning-fast throttle response and that sounds thrilling. In the course of achieving those, it just happened to end up with a fair dollop of torque and power, but that was never the overriding goal. But in a little sports car, where the fun comes from balance, adjustability and responsiveness, calls for "more power" are just the internal reverberations of an echoing brain cavity.
It depends on whether you want to impress your mates with effortless overtaking manoeuvres or whether you want to, you know, have some fun by actually driving the tits off the thing.
On modern crowded speed-trap roads, a powerful car is frustrating and boring. Sure, you whizz past slower traffic (if, out of your teens, you still need to do that to feel good about yourself), but as for actual driving fun, forget it.
More power = less fun. There simply aren't the roads available to really thrash a powerful car on. Your typical turbo / 4WD / wide-tyred / over-powered dullard has you surging down the straights on a wall of torque that your granny could access (ooh impressive, look at my bragging-rights overtake that a monkey with a brick on the throttle could have done), before you have to back off and brake for the corners - which you go round with no sensation, no movement, no fuss, such is the ridiculous amount of grip and traction available from the tyres and 4WD. By contrast, in a RWD NA car with a positive manual box and modest power, you have to thrash it, commit to the corner and carry speed through it and use all your skill to adjust the car's line throughout.
Generally, the cries for "more power" are in inverse proportion to the driving experience of the driver.
As this reviewer puts it:
"This is a car you never have to hold back — you never have to search for a road where you can open it up because you can open it up almost anywhere. The BRZ is fun at 60 and 70 mph the way a supercar is approaching 150." Link.
Or as this bloke puts it:
“Driving a slow car fast is more fun than driving a fast car slow,”; it’s a tired old saw, but not without merit. I’d change it to, “driving a fun car fast is more fun than driving a fast car fast.” Whether or not a car is enjoyable to drive is almost entirely divorced from its performance prowess. The MX-5 takes a lot of stick for being a “girly” car. It projects none of the be-louvered aggression of other sports-cars, and certainly doesn’t produce anywhere near the numbers. But it’s not a car that’s about bragging rights, not a car for peacock strutting or posturing. It is, in short, not a car you drive for other people. It’s a car you drive for yourself. And that’s what makes for a truly great machine, no matter what the numbers might say." Link.
Any insecure fool, high on his own puffed-up social / company car-park importance, can bulldoze past slower cars using his 300+ bhp difference; and most cocks of that ilk do. Hurray for you, we're all impressed (not).
In the real world, away from tracks, more power = less fun, folks.
You'll understand when you grow up.
Just remember - if you think your car is too slow, it generally means you don't know how to drive it fast enough.
On a related note:
Should you mod?
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| My glorious 911 engine, with ITBs. Engine build by Nick Fulljames |
Much tuning and modding is indeed a waste of money; but if you think before you mod or spend, you may have a better result.
I used to work on / get work done to my cars with the goal of getting more power. Because I was ignorant and badly-advised, I followed up this "chasing big bhp numbers" obsession with the usual related stuff - lowered and stiffened suspension, massive brakes, loud exhausts etc.
It was all a disappointment and undoubtedly a waste of money in itself; though I did learn an expensive lesson.
Eventually, I realised the following:
I told myself I wanted "more power". In reality, had I stopped to think before I spent, all I really wanted were cars that were more fun than standard. And as someone who grew up in the '70s and '80s, there was then usually a direct relationship between more power and more fun. That is, a basic sensible-shoes Golf or Escort or similar of the period (with its very sloppy suspension and modest engine) wasn't much fun; but its glamourous big brother, the Mexico say or the 8v MkII GTi, with a slightly lowered suspension and a bit more power, was a revelation. Therefore for many years I fell into the trap of thinking that more power, lowered suspension etc automatically equalled more fun.
I was wrong, utterly wrong. As with drinking, as with women with breast implants and just about anything, there is a law of diminishing returns. By today's cartoon standards, the fun and powerful everyman cars of yore (Twin Cams, 205s & VW GTis etc) still had relatively modest power and a relatively compliant suspension. They were still comfortable and were not so overpowered that you couldn't drive the door handles off them on a bad road. But turn up the power to 11 and slam the suspension to chavvy snowplough levels, and you've just created a boring, un-driveable car at huge expense. Partly it's this blind, un-thinking belief that over-doing it is always better; partly it's the modern fashion for building cars suitable for track-days (that is, lowered and stiffened suspensions and top-end power) instead of being inspired by cars suitable for rallying (that is, gravel or safari suspensions (incredibly comfortable), small steel wheels, restricted top speed and high torque).
The trouble is that cars modded to a rally (instead of track) blueprint aren't fashionable and they don't seem macho enough for dumb, suburban poseurs. Big wheels and a slammed suspension on a road car are a sign of an owner who prioritises dumb fashion over ability. Mike Hailwood said that, for a fast road bike, "80bhp was about right". Of course, these days, you'd struggle to sell a bike with such a "weedy" output. Good enough for Mike the Bike, but obviously not good enough for yer typical weekend warrior ...
Chastened and broke, and with a modded, fast but boring car, I had a re-think. Surely tuning couldn't be a total waste of time?
I had another go (inevitably), but this time I had learned that:
- It's torque (not power) that matters on the road, extra bhp figures are largely pointless.
- Big wheels slow you down.
- Sports exhausts usually result in a drop in torque / power. Do a before and after test at a reputable rolling road and prepare to be amazed (in the wrong way!).
- Lowered suspensions slow you down.
All an obvious waste of money - on bad i.e., fun roads, your car is now noisier (in an unpleasant droning sort of way), slower (you haven't the straights to chase all that expensive top-end power), less comfortable (j-u-d-d-e-r) and handles badly as you spend most of your time avoiding ripping the sump out and/or bouncing about like a skateboard going over corrugated iron.
However, if one concentrated on improving interactivity and responsiveness, it'd be money well-spent. That is:
- fit smaller, lighter, narrower wheels - the smallest and narrowest you can fit. Improves acceleration and cornering. You will now also have a car which moves about underneath you. Initially scary, for those of us who worship at the modern altar of grip, grip and more grip; but the looseness and responsiveness of your car will be immeasurably more fun than your previous velcro front end. Grip is the enemy of fun; reduce it! You're after fun, for heaven's sake, not nerdy lap times or winning the lateral G forces stats "contest" - leave that cobblers to the Yanks.
- leave the suspension standard or at most fit taller suspension. (Yes, your car will sit higher and will therefore be a figure of fun to the suburban snowplough "suspension" brigade; but I don't see how that should bother anyone with half a brain. You will be able to absorb yumps and camber changes while your max power / ASBO doppelganger is tramlining and juddering at pensioner speeds, far behind you.)
- go to a reputable engine builder and bore the engine out to a safe maximum using quality parts and fit a custom-made (NOT off the shelf) exhaust system which has been optimised by a skilled engine builder with access to a reputable and consistent rolling road). This will give you extra usable torque. Walk away from anyone who promises you extra bhp; he has missed the point and probably doesn't know what he's doing.
- Fit ITBs, e.g., Jenvey or similar. Your car will breathe faster and sound great (induction noise is what makes a car sound good, NOT chavvy exhaust noise which is just a fucking pain)
- optionally, get rid of brake servo / mods to flywheel etc
- optionally, custom gear ratios etc
As far as I can see, most people modify their cars to a racetrack blueprint. Which is fine if you were intending to use them mainly or only on track. But to do that to a road car is pointless and a complete waste of money. For a road car, fun comes from increased responsiveness and increased torque and increased suspension travel etc and if you spend your money to those ends instead of following current fashions, you won't go far wrong.
