7 months on...
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Just seen some pics here http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpr...ru_impreza.html
Think I will reserve judegement on the STI until it's unveiled at the NY motorshow...
Think I will reserve judegement on the STI until it's unveiled at the NY motorshow...
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Originally Posted by Saxo Boy,May 24 2007, 12:44 PM
You dive in hard on the brakes gently easing off them as you turn in. The front is biting in and the rear is light so you come onto the throttle and put a little power in. The car balances and grips like hell. You progress through the corner and now try to feed the power in with the car near the edge of grip. Just then you go from about 0.1bar of boost to 1.3 in under a second. All those little inputs and adjustments mean nothing now!! The wallop of acceleration completely negates 'fine adjustment' and you now have to hold on for the ride (one that will probably involved understeer). The reverse can also be true, whereby the car is telling you to back off a tiny bit but upon doing so you lose boost pressure and suddently have no power to work with mid-bend.
If the Impreza had a 300bhp n/a unit with a quick throttle response I'd imagine it would be a dream to drive but with such an aggressive boost profile (on my vf28 classic anyway) its rather more point and squirt. To make all those lovely micro-adjustments mid-bend you need good throttle control and you don't get that with a turbo car like the scooby.
I kid you not that my car can only be accelerated at 0-20% of maximum and 90-100% of maximum and that's it. The only way to accelerate at a rate of around 50% of maximum acceleration would be to floor it but change up early but the acceleration curve would be odd. You certainly can't do it by exercising throttle control. For fun I sometimes try to keep the boost between 0.5-0.6bar the whole way up through the gears. It's near impossible!! Worse yet if you go a little higher than you intended and back off a little then if that closure of the throttle is enough to trigger the dump-valve you don't drop back 0.1bar but lose the whole lot.
All that said I accept that through mapping my car could be made to be far less aggresssive and more progressive and that the more modern (esp twin-scroll) impreza's are likely to be far better. My technique is get her gripping then get on full power just as soon as I think I can get away with it
If the Impreza had a 300bhp n/a unit with a quick throttle response I'd imagine it would be a dream to drive but with such an aggressive boost profile (on my vf28 classic anyway) its rather more point and squirt. To make all those lovely micro-adjustments mid-bend you need good throttle control and you don't get that with a turbo car like the scooby.
I kid you not that my car can only be accelerated at 0-20% of maximum and 90-100% of maximum and that's it. The only way to accelerate at a rate of around 50% of maximum acceleration would be to floor it but change up early but the acceleration curve would be odd. You certainly can't do it by exercising throttle control. For fun I sometimes try to keep the boost between 0.5-0.6bar the whole way up through the gears. It's near impossible!! Worse yet if you go a little higher than you intended and back off a little then if that closure of the throttle is enough to trigger the dump-valve you don't drop back 0.1bar but lose the whole lot.
All that said I accept that through mapping my car could be made to be far less aggresssive and more progressive and that the more modern (esp twin-scroll) impreza's are likely to be far better. My technique is get her gripping then get on full power just as soon as I think I can get away with it
I would set my speed, get a balanced throttle with the engine note indicating it's just starting to pull, start to turn into the corner and increase the throttle as I gained visibility and could exit the corner
But I TOTALLY agree about the bit you were saying about the turbo - when she takes off (and this is completely standard, not even PPP) - I do feel like I'm along for the ride - she flies away and I almost can shut my eyes and hope we don't hit anything
It is odd, its like a split personality - one minute little adjustments have a big impact, one minute WHOOOOSH
Moff - same as me, I want to see one, but I *think* the STi might look nice
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I would set my speed, get a balanced throttle with the engine note indicating it's just starting to pull, start to turn into the corner and increase the throttle as I gained visibility and could exit the corner
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I find with a good n/a rwd car you can get a sort of 'whip' out of a bend. I can't put that in words really - you just sort of progressively ease the power on feeding 'just' as much as it'll possibly take before drifing badly or spinning out. It's a much more linear process than point and squirt. I'd guess your caterham would be excellent for such fine control.
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It is, but that's also what I do in the Scooby....
Except I never take it anywhere near the limit on the road, in either car... I've never really done the point and squirt thing. Ok fair enough I point and squirt in straight lines which is fun, but not in the bendy stuff
Maybe I need to learn it ! I did have a demonstration of how to drive my scoob like a hooligan with lots of squirting, trail braking etc., from a very competent driver. Lots of fun, the fuel gauge sunk v quickly, and tbh it was beyond what I'd want to do at the moment.
Except I never take it anywhere near the limit on the road, in either car... I've never really done the point and squirt thing. Ok fair enough I point and squirt in straight lines which is fun, but not in the bendy stuff
Maybe I need to learn it ! I did have a demonstration of how to drive my scoob like a hooligan with lots of squirting, trail braking etc., from a very competent driver. Lots of fun, the fuel gauge sunk v quickly, and tbh it was beyond what I'd want to do at the moment.
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