DavidM

To start of, let me explaing to everyone who's not from Oz what HSV R8 is. You take a family 4 door sedan with the 5.7l V8 engine (LS1) and put it through a tuner called HSV. HSV is to Holden (Australian GH) what M is to BMW and AMG is to Mercedes. What you get from HSV is called R8 and has these specs: 1705kg, 260kW/480nM (HSV claim with good fuel), sports suspension, 18" wheels 235/35 S02s all the way around, 345mm cross drilled brakes, exhaust and an integrated body kit. Anyway, this R8 in particular is an Auto (4 speed), but that does not matter much 'cos it has oodles of torque. Acodring to local magazines it does 6.0secs for the 0-100km/h time (about 5.5 for the 0-60mph run here) and 14.0 with 164km/h for the 400m run. Manual beats it by only about 0.1 secs or so. The gearing is 75, 140, 230, 330km/h in each gear (will top at about 265km/h). Anyone interested in what HSV R8 looks like, go here - http://community.webshots.com/photo/229219...92715LgwbmYQmYB

So what we did is take them out on a quiete piece of road and put them next to each other. We did about 20 different runs ... none of each involved a clutch drop so whatever we saw was purely the car, not the driver (btw, the R8 had the auto box in 1st gear and in power mode so that it redlines in each gear, changes agresively and holds the gear).

- test #1, run from 30km/h - What happened here is the R8 pulled away straight away and even by the time I was doing 70km/h, it was already good 1-2 car lenghts ahead. By 140km/h (or 150) it was about 3-4 car lengths ahead. We run this 3-4 times and each time the S2000 just does not have enough go at 30km/h (about 4k revs) to keep up with the R8.

- test #2, run from 70km/h (R8 starts in 2nd and so do I) - here the S2000 pulls away. It pulls away clearly up to about 105km/h (whole 2nd gear) ... I get about 2-3 car lenghts ahead. When I shift to 3rd the R8 starts closing in. By the time I'm doing 145km/h (end of the 3rd gear) the R8 is only 1 car lenght behind. Then in 4th (145+) it stays almost even ... S2000 is even pulling away a bit again. We run this test at least 5 times and had the same result every time.

- test #3, run from 15km/h - This is a total slaughter of the S2000. Because I'm doing only about 2k revs, I don't have much pick-up. The R8 on the other hand storms away to 6-7 car lenghts by the time I shift to 2nd and it's still pulling away. Even trough the 2nd gear the R8 is so far ahead (not only on the road but with speed as well) that it is still pulling away. Tried this 2 times and had the same beating handed to me. You can't beat the R8's low-end power.

- test #4, run from 45km/h - We're both in 1st and I have 6k revs when we floor it. Instantly I'm pulling away a bit (must be the comparatively low weight of the S2000 that allowed me to get the jump). It was very close but I did managed to be pulling away up to about 115km/h ... though, by then I was only about 3/4 of a car ahead. Then things looked even and even having the R8 closing the gap slighlty up to about 145km/h. At the end of the run (145km/h) there was no more that 1/2 a car lenght between us (I was still ahead).

- test #5, run from 25km/h with the R8 in 'drive' (ie. starts in 2nd gear and has to shift down) - This time I had about 3k revs at the start and when we put the foot down the R8 gives me a moment while it kicks down a gear. This gives me the much needed head start (about 1/2 a car length) that I get to climb the revs without being behind. Actually I was pulling away slighlty all the way though. It wasn't until I changed to 3rd gear (105km/h) that the R8 was kinda holding me. Though, by the time we hit 150km/h I was about 1.5 car lenghts ahead.

I must say today my S2000 impressed me a lot :-) The R8 is one mean, fast machinery (localy clocked at 6.0sec to 100km/h (auto) and 14.0 secs at 160km/h for the 400m run). I'd say that the S2000 is very evenly matched with the R8 (expect for the very low speeds - ie. bellow 45km/h). Whatever times the R8 can run here, I'm confident to say that the S2000 can match. For the 0-100km/h the S2000 will have a much harder time doing 6.0 secs than the R8. R8 just needs to be floored from idle (and even then it attempts to lose traction :-). With the S2000 you'd really need to drop the clutch and not bog down in the 1st. If you can do that then 6.0 (maybe even just under) should be possible here in Australia. What we had here is whoever managed to be pulling away in the 1st placed is the one who won the drag. Neither car had enough advantage to make up the ground that it would lose at the start.

ps. If anyone remembers my graphs comparing S2000 vs BoxterS (and 2.7) ... well, I did one for the S2000 vs the R8 and believe it or not the results toaday were EXACTLY the way the graph fortold ... unbelievable :-) This would lead me to believe that my S2000 vs BoxterS graph is just as accurate. Anyone ieterested in these graphs, just let me know and I'll email them to you.

2kturkey

Good report David, I'm very pleased to hear the Stook will hold its own - time for us to go out and do a bit of 'lion'' slaying

etgar

Dave,

I'd be interested in taking a peek at the graphs.

Thanks,

Etgar

Sev

Why don't you post the graphs?

Thanks.

DavidM

Hey Sev, I'd post them here if I kow how ... anyoene care to explain to me how to do this?

AlanG

DavidM

Cool post, I've actually run a R8 (though it was only the 250KW 6spd manual model) and had similar results. It wasn't a standing start, more like your number 2 test. I'm glad someone else has done this now, maybe my friends will start to believe me now that the S2000 can match with the R8 !!!

I'd be interested in seeing you S2000 vs Boxster S graphs

AlanG

DavidM

Hi AlanG, I'll send the graph to you though, your e-mail is disabled here. Put up your e-mail (or send me one at david@datatask.com.au) and I'll send you the graph.

AlanG

DavidM

My email address is aghattas@netbridge.com.au

Thanks

Muz

Great post David. I'd been wondering about all those HSVs out there.

DavidM

Hi Muz,
As far as them HSVs go, anything with the 5.7l V8 in it is a damn fast 'beast'. I'd even say that the standard Commodore SS (withthe 5.7l V8 in it) will give the S2000 a good run for the money ... I'm sure that it will beat the S2000 unless you're in the 7k+ rev range. From stand-still, you'll still have to do a high-revs launch to beat one. Afterall, the 5.7l SS Commodore is usually clocked only abobout 0.3 - 0.5 sec slower than than the HSVs (to 100km as well as 400m).

As far as the older 185kW (and even 220kW) HSV go, they should not be any challenge at all as my old MR2 was literally lineball with the 185kW HSV (I raced against one on a track ... Sanddown).