December 21, 2009

[Redwood]

-Track Battle: Edmunds Project Mitsubishi Evo vs. Nissan GT-R
-Honda S2000 with Acura TL's 3.7L V6 - They should have built this for production years ago
-Jeremy Clarkson Reviews the Saab 9-3X 2.0 Turbo XWD
-Subaru's turbocharged sales secret
-BMW Motorsport Z4 GT3 with M3 V8 engine
-2011 BMW 5 Series German configurator now available on bmw.de
-2011 BMW 5 Series Official Catalog
-Saab Not Dead Yet - Spyker Makes New Offer
-Motor Trend First Test: 2010 Audi S5 quattro Cabriolet
-2009 Mini E: Suspension Walkaround
-Subaru Unsure Of Bringing RWD Sports Car To U.S.
-Qatar Acquires 17% Stake In Volkswagen, Gains Seat On Porsche Board
-Automobili Lamborghini Book Tells The Raging Bull's Story
-Audi R8 Impaled On Guardrail, Driver Survives
-Top Gear Season 14, Episode 5: YouTube Open Thread
-Börn From Jets: The Five Greatest Saabs Ever
-Ford names Jamie Allison director North American Motorsport
-Jonny Greaves jumps 301 feet to claim 2WD truck record
-Pat Schiavone, Ford Flex and F150 designer, resigns
-Behold, the Power of Subaru: WRX STI tows semi out of snow
-VIDEO: Crap Motorsports FTW! - Car Launching
-Fancy a camouflage F-150? Graphics for entire Ford lineup coming soon
-REPORT: Toyota Supra HV-R GT hybrid coming to LeMans
-GM Coule Repay Every Single Penny by John McElroy of Autoline Detroit

[Fair!]

Re: December 21, 2009

http://www.insideline.com/mitsubishi...mprobable.html

Well the Edmunds.com guys finally got around to testing the GTR vs the EVO - which was equipped with AST/Vorshlag suspension. Looks like the final lap times at Streets of Willow was a virtual tie... the cars ran within .09 sec around Streets of Willow, with the average times on the EVO faster than the avg times on the GTR.

Still, there were some artificially imposed limitations that hampered the EVO. One thing that stands out is the way the EVO was handling in their videos - it looked loose. A little track side tuning could have cleaned that up and surely would have helped lap times. Second, they used the same camber setting for track and street on the EVO. We tend to run a lot more camber on the track than the street, so that was likely holding back some additional grip. The EVO is fairly easy to adjust camber, track side, with Vorshlag camber plates.

The tires are the last big factor, but its an easy one to overlook. The EVO X was equipped with 265mm Bridgestone RE11s. These are fast, but they are still street tires. The factory equipped, optional Dunlop tires on the GTR are FAST, but they are a "factory tire", so it is assumed they are an equivalent to an "extreme summer" tire compound, such as the RE11 or AD08. In reality the GTR's optional tires are R compounds - no ifs, ands or buts. I've seen GTR track tests where it slowed down dramatically on Toyo R888 R compounds.

Power still seems lower on the modified EVO X - the quarter mile times for it were 12.4 seconds at 113.4 mph, vs 11.7 seconds at 119.6 mph for the GTR. 6 mph difference in trap speed is still pretty large.

Lastly, a .09 sec margin for a lap around Streets is very tight... a driver alone could make that difference. I would wager tha the GTR with all of its electronic gizmos and auto shifting makes it easier to drive than a manually shifted EVO X (they didn't use a DSG equipped EVO - which would likely have been a closer match for the DSG equipped GTR).

So, in the end, it was still a very cool test, and they managed to lop off 7 full seconds the starting lap time of a manual trans equipped EVO X, and didn't spend anywhere near what the GTR costs new. And the EVO X has a back seat and bigger trunk, which the GTR lacks. Impressive as hell, to me.