....And the coolest thing about the test Dave ran was that the R8 is owned by his DAD!!!!!

That's COOL!!!!!!

(Sorry Dave, was I supposed not to say that?)

PS. Glad to see that you finally got to run the R8. See, I told you the S2000 was fast!

I'd be interested to see how you'd do against the R8 if both of you did a standing start, high revs, tire spinning (or not) launch. If you 'could' get an awesome start in the S2000, how would it compare to the R8 then Dave?

PPS. My yellow Stook (vin# 2943) will be in my possession tonight! Looking VERY forward to 'officially' joining the club!

[Edited by Sime on 02-01-2001 at 09:22 AM]

 

By the way, in case any of you are wondering, DavidM (Dave) and I are actually old friends from before I moved to America!

 

Hi Sime,
That's a thing about a 'fast launch' - the R8 was already doing the 'fast' launches. The way to do a 'fast launch' in an R8 is to put your foot down of idle. If you give it anymore revs then you just smoke it up and your start will not be as good. The pull in the R8 of the idle is stagering - up to 40km/h, I'm not sure if you could go much quicker without having fatter tyres (or more weight over them) ... I'll have to look up the 0-40km/h time for it but I'm sure it's 'up' there.

Doing a 'fast launch' with the S2000 is more or less an art form (just ask Sev here - he does it all the time). You need to drop the clutch at about 6k, then hope/make sure that it doesn't slip. Also, make sure you don't get bogged down in the wheelspin and don't let the revs drop bellow 6k. If everything went well then you're spinning the rear wheels and moving forward until you reach about 50km/h at which stage you want the wheels to gip and then it's just down to keeping your foot down and shifting fast. There's a lot of 'human' factors involved in launching the S2000 from stand still. If you do it just rights I believe that you can beat the R8 to 100 (not by much but you can ... maybe a car lenght) - trick is to stay with it up to 45km/h. If you get it wrong then you can easily lose 1 second of the launch (which will see you cross the 100km/h mark somewhere around 7 secs) ... in that instance the R8 will be at least 8 car lenghts ahead of you and it will still be pulling away strong.

S2000 has it in it to be able to take on cars like R8 in a drag but you have to get things very right to beat them. On the other hand it's almost impossible to get it wrong in a car like R8.

Once my tyres are a bit worn (they're still almost brand new at the moment) I'll line it up for a 'proper' drag where we'll start from stand still.

ps. I'll line it up the S2000 with Cam's TVR Cimerra next time I see him.

 

A new Motor magazine has been released here. It has the new Ford Mustang Cobra in it (they just started an import here). I'm trying to figure out some patter between the Aus and US times for cars (still). Can someone tell me what times are the magazines getting out of this car in the States? Here they mamanged 6.4x secs for the 0-100km/h run and 14.5x for the 400m run (with terminal velocity of about 163km/h). How does this compare to the US times?

btw, they also have a test with a HSV R8 - like the one I'm talking about here ... and it's automatic too ... which oddly enough is quicker in the 'standing start' runs (0-100km/h and 400m). Actually it's not odd, it's a know fact that it's quicker with the auto in most situations. Anyway, they clocked it at 6.05 secs for the 0-100km/h and 14.12 for the 400m run (terminal velocity of 164.5km/h). I'll post the times in 10km/h increments soon.

Concidering the S2000 is very evenly matched with this car, these are the times we can expect here from the local magazines ... that is if/when they get the car on a good day with a good driver (or launcher).

 

Dave,

Your post raises some questions in my mind....

I'm not sure that it's a genuine Mustang COBRA that they are selling in Australia. You see, the Cobra hasn't even been released for sale here in the 'states yet! It was at the Detroit Auto Show, but it hasn't been released at dealers as of this time. In fact, I don't even believe that any of the car mags here have even been able to test one yet!

If it is aesthetically a 'Cobra', I suspect that it is a stock 4.6 Mustang that has been badged a 'Cobra' for sales purposes. It most likely doen't have the 320hp engine or the bodywork. In fact, I recall reading an article in the Sun that my mum showed to be that the Australian-bound Mustangs were simply stock GT's (4.6liter modular V8 with 260hp). That car in the hardtop is $22K USD here. Still, in the USA, even the GT hardtop does 0-60mph in 5.6 seconds - and I think....14.1 on the quarter mile (may be wrong).

You know, I was thinking......do the US testers test with 2 people or one person? That may explain some of the difference. Remembere the Lotus Elise 0-100 test? With one person, it was supposedly 5.8 0-100, but add another person and it was suddenly like.....high sixes to 100 now.

Now, back to the Mustang thing....

The Cobra R - the all-out race version Mustang built by SVO, well, there's only 50 that were ever built. This particular Cobra has a 5.8 liter (truck based) motor, carbon fibre everything, no radio or AC and full ground effects does 0-60 in like, 4.8 or 4.9 seconds, and that car has 385hp, not the 320 of the stock Cobra - and far less than the 260 of the GT!!!!! The Cobra R is way lighter as well! So, I'd believe the claim of 6.4 seconds for the stock GT for 0-100kmh. If the mags are getting 6.05 for a 290-300kw car, then I'd believe that it would be 0.4 seconds faster to 100 than the Mustang.

By the way, what is the price of the Australian Mustangs....and are they Convertibles only, or hardtops as well? What sort of response are they getting from the public and what else did the mags say about them? Did they like them?

[Edited by Sime on 02-07-2001 at 07:11 AM]

 

Hi Sime,
The Mustang Cobra in the test produces 240kW ... which is 320HP. I haven't read the details yet so I can't tell you whether they liked it or what the story is but I can tell you that that will be asking A$100k+.

Disparity between US and Australian times - To start of, you need to add about 0.3 secs on all US times to get them to be 0-100km/h instead of 0-96.5km/h. Then there's the number of people question... not sure about the States, but here we always have 2 people on bard as well as full tank of fuel. This alone can produce huge difference in times. In particular with the lighter cars .. the lighter the car, the greater the difference )Elise is the primary example - with 2 people they are doing about flat 7 secs for the 0-100km/h runs here). Last of all, I'm guessing that in the States they publish the 'best' time that they acheved while here they do multiple runs in both directions and then average the best runs in each direction. I don;t think that they do the same in the Sates.

 

To add further to what you say David there is a report on the 'Stang in the Drive section of today's Age and the Motoring section of the Australian.

Drive states 5.6 for 0-100kmh and a price tag of $A85k for hardtop / $A89k for convertible.

The writers of the articles seem to like the power but are not keen on the aesthetics (80s/90s styling) or the handling/ride.

Sime you'll probably find these articles on the Fairfax and News websites in the next day or so.

 

2kturkey is right about the price ... that's what Motor said as well. The A$100k+ is from a different add - I think that was a priviate import and was a convertible.

Also, unless I'm mistaken, AGE do not 'time' the cars they drive/test - they just write their impressions. They usualy quoute all the stats/times straight from the brochure. I'd presume that 5.6 would be taken from the literature which I'd presume would have a US 0-60m/h time prined on it.

ps. Sime, the HSV R8 has 250 - 260kW (depending on the fuel) ... not 300kW. 300kW is in the HSV GTS and they are usually clocked here at 5.8 and 13.6 for the 0-100km/h and 400m respectivelly. Though, the fastest GTS measured in Wheels or Motor mags here has produced 5.4secs for 0-100km/h and 13.4 for the 400m run (with terminal velocity of around 175km/h). Also, the GTS comes with a higher redline (6,500 istead the R8's 6200) and shorter final drive to give the manual about 20% shorter gearing.

[Edited by DavidM on 02-08-2001 at 05:12 AM]

 

David, well it's been a bit of an interesting night.

Firstly, went down to the Calder drags but unfortunately it was cancelled till next Friday due to prospects of rain (can you believe it - rain in Melbourne! - but as you know, it is not raining and my roof has stayed up for a further day - 89 consecutive now!).

However, I did catch up with the man with the Gtech and he was kind enough to loan it to me for a few days (thanks Dan) so I have spent the last hour or so doing some quick timings as follows:

Run 1. Didn't know how to use the Gtech properly and wanted to do a 0-100k test but instead I actually recorded a 400m run. Side slipped the clutch at 7k revs and continued accelerating through the gears to 4th then I started to slow down because I thought the Gtech was not recording. When I stopped I checked the gtech and it said it had recorded a 14.88 run @ 129kmh. I was mighty impressed given that a). I was actually braking at the end and b). I also had my 13 year old son on board as extra ballast.
Run 2. First 0-100k run - 6.85 secs, sidestepped clutch at 6-7k revs and got the 1-2 graunch
Run 3. Second 0-100k same as run 2, no graunch 6.5 secs
Run 4. Third 0-100k this time an accelerate from idle launch 0-100kmh in 7.56 secs
Run 5. Another 0-100k run this time dropping the clutch at 4k but with some bog 7.06 secs.
Run 6. Sidestepped clutch at 6-7k, no 1-2 graunch and 6.18 secs for 0-100kmh - woohoo!
Run 7. Last run and this time another 400m test. Sidestepped clutch at 6k, bogged slightly, got a 1-2 graunch and 15.3 for 400m @151kmh.

Well, needless to say, runs 1 and 6 were the two I was proud of.

I am now convinced an Aussie Stook can hit a flat 6 for 0-100k and given what I achieved on the 1st 400m run with braking and a very low terminal speed I think 14 flat is achievable for the 1/4.

Check your private mail and maybe we can catch up.

 

Hi 2kturkey,
Very instightfull results/informations. Looks like we're thinking along the same lines and talking the same numbers. My estimates are that the S2000 can do flat 6 to 100km/h and 14 flat for 400m ... just like yours :-) That is what my test indicated so far (though you actually timed them). I know that whatever the HSV R8 can do, the S2000 can do (when perfectly launched) and maybe even better it in some brackets. Here's what the HSV Clubsport (not R8) managed in the latest Motor: