dhess

The other night I met a cool guy in a HSV Clubsport R8 at our usual hangout. I asked him if he would like to have a casual run. He agreed to a few runs. For all of you guys who don't know what a Clubsport R8 is it is an Australian built muscle car based on a popular sedan. It is rear wheel drive and is powered by a chevy 5.7L V8 LS1 producing 255kw vs. s2000's 176kw. Importantly it weighs 1706kg vs. the s2000's 1260kg. We went out on the highway and ran from 80kph to 140 twice and from 120 to 160 twice. They come in six speed and four speed auto. I ran the six speed version.

From 80 140 I slowly inched ahead but there was less than half a car length in it. From 120 to 160 were dead even up to 140 where he opened up half a car length to 160. I had the top down. Probably would have been very close with the top up. I was alone and he had a passenger, but I don't think that it was much of a handicap to him due to his cars superior torque.

DavidM was that you that was saying that your father has an r8?

DavidM

Hey Dhess,
Yes, my father has a HSV R8. Very nice car and it handles surprisingly well for a 1700kg car. I've run a fair few 'comparissions' with my father a while back and what you found is right-on to what I found ... though I started from lower speeds.

Here's my old report:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...ighlight=HSV+R8

dhess

Hey David, Is your old man's clubsport an auto? If thats the case it might explain why I got edged out at high speed by a manual. i.e. 4 gears as compared to six.

DavidM

Yes it's an auto, ... oddly enough the auto has been tested as the gear-box that reaches higher top speed in the HSVs.

Though, if you look closely where you (or I) were edging the R8 - it's always when the S2000 is well and trully in the power band and the R8 is slighly off it (if you can say that about a 5.7L V8). Look at it this way - the manual is geared something like this when compared to the auto:
1st gear = 65/75kph
2nd gear = 105/130kph
3rd gear = 155/210kph
4th gear = 205/310kph
5th gear = 260/--kph
6th gear = 370/--kph

Anytime the R8 is in it's upper revrange then it's actualy a fraction quicker then the S2000 but the S2000 is 'always' in it's power band while the R8 is not so when the R8 'falls off' the power a bit then the S2000 is edging away. I found that with the auto-box the S2000 was quicker in 2nd and 4th gear while the R8 was quicker when the S2000 was in the 3rd gear. While with the manual the results seem to be similar but off course at different speeds (due to the gearing differences).

My findings were that the S2000 and the R8 were so close in terms of accelerations that the differences I'm noticing were usually less then 1 car length (running up to about 150kph). All the drags were always decided at the start - whoever pulled away 1st seemed to keep his nose ahead for the whole run.

ps. I have not seen a manual and auto R8s lined up from the lights, but from what I read in the magazines they claim that they're about the same and the R8 is quickler over the 400m (more suited gearing and 1 less gearchange).

pps. I have not run against the R8 at any really high speeds, but I'd expect the R8 to be quicker once you stift into the 5th gear in the S2000 and the difference would apeear more pronounced as the speeds increase ... though, that is only a guess (and assumprion from the numbers that I see published).

dhess

Thanks for the comprehensive data