Road and track impressions of an ex-Speedster owner, first few days of ownership.
A rather long post... but I think the conclusion will be no surprise
The drive home from the dealer with my wife in tow in the 106 last Thursday was not very dramatic – apart from the odd sprint which I allowed myself and which promised volumes! At this point it was clear that the car has a more integrated feel than a VX and sits more solidly on its Öhlins. The steering is meatier too
.The real „getting to know the car“ time would come the 400km evening dash to Hockenheim on the Monday night for the 2-day international race licence course.
Monday evening was cold, but not too wet – at first. The 80 km of motorway were dispatched with no problems. The lack of a radio/CD player was unusual for me – but I wanted to hear the car‘s various sounds anyway.
Reached the insanity that is Zürich
, where the motorway channels into a 
traffic light sytem that allows about 3-4 cars through at a time. Obviously, massive tailbacks at busy times. Stuck in the jam at the end of the motorway, the engine management warning light came on 
. At the first opportunity (about 20mins later) I pulled onto a garage forecourt and consulted the owner‘s manual. „Contact the dealer“ 
. 18.15 by this time, but the dealer still there. Explain situation to him. He will ring back after contacting his chief mechanic who‘s already departed. While I‘m waiting for his call, an attractive girl in her early twenties come past and says, „Beautiful car!“ – I just gave her a preoccupied smile. Dealer rings back: „Just drive it then switch off at a service station and isolate the battery for at least 5 mins. If it doesn‘t go out, still drive to Hockenheim and leave it off overnight“. Reassured me that it is an exhaust gas analysis problem and the engine itself is OK 
Cross into Germany – unrestricted Autobahn. Time to make up for the traffic jam and phone calls
. The Germans are used to highspeed traffic and on the whole are pretty good at using their mirrors – but you have to be ready for exceptions!By this time it‘s dark and wet, but traffic is fairly light. Not enough to max out the car, but enough to get the speedo needle onto 260kmh before I have to lift. Never saw more than around 243kmh flat out in the Speedster...
Other detail observations: the steering stalks are very satisfying to use, falling perfectly to hand. It always irritated me that the Speedster‘s needed a „reach and a half“ – being too far away – I always wondered if this had to do with the extra depth of the airbagged steering boss – I wonder if the new, airbag-equipped Elise/Exige suffer similarly?
Morning in Hockenheim dawns wet and cold and I‘m going to have to prove my competence in a powerful, unfamiliar car on semi-slicks... hmmm
Warning lamp still on despite overnight battery isolation as advised...
Luckily there are three other Exige drivers in my group in the same boat (two also with the Bemani supercharger) as well as a Formula Renault open wheel single-seater (but at least he‘s on wets).
My group assembles on the first morning:
The instructors warn us that it is VERY slippy on track
Luckily, the course is organised so that we gradually build up
. Slaloms, emergency braking (straight line and obstacle avoidance) and skidpan practice come before any serious track action and help me to learn the car . The stupid horn buttons of the Speedster regularly resulted in horn activation in a desparate recovery action on the limit – „Look at me – I‘m out of control!“ That is not a problem here with the centre button .ABS proves its worth (and clearly more finely regulated than in the Speedster). The Elise 111S and Austin Healey 3000 Mk3 demonstrate how things look without ABS – even with cadence braking – particularly on this slippy surface
.Slalom on the Parabolica:
Leave the Hockenheimring at the end of the first day and a group of local teenagers who are, of course, accustomed to seeing endless exotica pass by, still excitedly rush to the edge of the pavement and vigorously signal „thumbs-up“ approval signs and grins
. The reactions are even more enthusiastic than those the Speedster received. Through the night I am aware of ther rain and hope it will stop. Still raining as we start the second day. First a slalom with 27 gates against the clock. Not something I'm that enthusiastic about, but manage a not too embarassing 5th place out of 14.
Onto the track section exercises now. Still wet and VERY slippy
... We practice the highspeed Parabolica that goes into the hairpin. Even with the marker cone, finding the braking point in the wet is not easy, but the wide Yokos give me a confident feel. Time to up the ante now – this after all a racing instruction course! We are to do racing starts in groups down to the hairpin with strict instructions to sort ourselves out well before the corner and no outbraking just before. Groups of two first, then four, then six
And, like almost everyone else, I've got no insurance cover – along with a clear message from wifey that if I throw nearly £40K away, I can forget boys' toys for a loooong time! I‘m up against an identically powered chrome orange Bemani Exige. He fails to raise the revs enough for the start and is left for dead. Even in the wet with Yokos and no traction control, this car is doing
0-60mph in less than 5 seconds! A repeat match sees my colleague left behind again! Next, the two of us are behind an Elise 111S and an Alfa – and I‘m boxed in on the inside – the other Exige can go past them on the right 
. Need to plan this one. YES!!! Victory again! 
Now this one is going to be more difficult – I‘m boxed in again and with a heap of a Toyota in front of me : the other S/C Exige whips to the right to pass the front row – I follow and take him too – magic! See the video >HERE< (see the Speedster turbo in the first group snake under accleleration in the top right of the pic)
WE then practice a very tricky combination going from the small circuit‘s high speed section to a chicane that has concrete walls on the outside before the righthander into the Motodrom and down into the infamous Sachs 180° corner – all more than a llittle a bit dodgy in the wet. Furthermore, the chief instructor has called by to assess us
A sportsphotographer is shooting us through Sachs – his mahoosive white tele lens makes it clear that he will capture your every expression
. Try to look cool and in command! Coming into the Motodrom I have a moment as the back steps out under power, but manage to pull it back in line. 5 years of Speedster track experience prove their value. Others are not so attuned to the car‘s on-the-limit feel and spin out – luckily all without damage – but one S/C Exige ended only feet from the concrete barrier ....Finally, the last afternoon. The instructors inform us that we have all passed
and that we really don‘t have to prove anything in the free training 
. Oh, and one small but important point: the last section of the Parabolica is marked with a yellow flag – any one who has not got past another car at this point MUST drop back in behind – no outbraking into the hairpin! There have been too many accidents there in the past. Damn! 
– that is a great place to recover positions from less nimble but more powerful cars... I was looking forward to some good action there.Waiting to go out on track (ubiquitous rear-engined contraptions firmly in the background!
) :
Now the track has a dry line and the rest is getting better and better too
. Off we go – this car really shifts! The only problem I have is with the gearchange . The gate is so narrow that I manage to catch 5th instead of 3rd on a couple of occasions which does not help progress . Worse still is when I get 1st instead of third : overtake a well driven Porsche 928 S4, outbraking him into the S-bend before the Parabolica, then I wham it supposedly into third and, as I let in the clutch, the rears lock and I‘m instantly tail out and going across the apex sideways – VERY quickly depress the clutch, collect it up and choose the desired gear. The downside of those reachable steering stalks is that you easily activate the wipers when you‘re fighting for control – still better than blowing the horn, IMO. To cap it all, a chief instructor has been able to watch this from behind me in his GT3 – talk about making a fool of yourself! Wish that box had a better defined gate for idiots like me – the VX is almost foolproof . Hope I master it before it and/or the motor explodes in response to similar maltreatment... See how NOT to change gear >HERE<
The Speedster on Pagids and Bridgestones was good
, but this is something else – the brakes let you positively destroy vast amounts of speed into tight corners – you feel as if it was clawing into the road and wouldn‘t be surprised to see chunks of torn-up tarmacadam lying in the road behind you (if you could see such details through the rear cover grilles)! This is where the Bengal tiger analogy that I mentioned in my test (passenger) drive is most appropriate. Awesome!Another, less well-driven, GT3 is hauled in by the Exige through the Motodrom. Could do this in the Speedster too, but the b*ggars always shot off own the straight leaving me to eat their dust
. Get the better line onto the start-finish straight and come alongside and a nose ahead of him – he clogs it as usual but, to his amazement, this poisonous green little Lotus won‘t be beaten . We cross the finish line virtually together and he has the better line being on the outside. But, by now I have great faith in the brakes and tyres of my car and I‘m not going to miss this golden opportunity to avenge my trusty Speedster! The GT3 chickens out and I shoot on ahead. YESSSS!!!!!! 
(Had some trouble loading this clip on Google and am currently re-trying, but I wlll deffo come back with the evidence!
). 'Course, the massively powerful GT2s still blow me away – but they blow virtually everything away.Later, I catch up the Aston Martin Vantage. This guy is a handy driver who already competes. Right on him for half a lap – better line onto the Parabolica means I‘m carrying a tiny bit more speed. I ease along side him and we go down to the hairpin more or less alongside. His extra 120bhp mean that he is just able to ease ahead before the yellow flag – and I‘m not allowed to outbrake him, here – curses! But, I can choose a better line and exit the hairpin right on him to power past while he‘s still building speed. YESSSS!!!
See the video >HERE<
In a later session, I‘m aware of an F360 gradually gaining on me. The track is dry now, the tyres are sticky and the Exige is absolutely fantastic. Nevertheless, he‘s gaining a little on every longer straight section. Finally he goes by but doesn‘t open up that much of a gap. The marshall signals one more lap and we both take the opportunity to cruise, cooling our cars. I ease up alongside on the Parabolica and get a hearty thumbs up
and a big grin which I reciprocate. In the paddock he enthusiatically comes over and tells me how he could simply not believe what he was seeing – loosely translated and in the equivalent vernacular, what he said was, „That was fantastic! That bastard really shifts – I couldn‘t believe it! I was really nailing my car – really nailing it. Great scrap and fair too! Never seen anything like it!“ At this point,I told him that it did have the advantage of a non-standard supercharger. He asked the bhp and I told him. „It certainly bloody goes“, he said, „Fcuk me it goes! Really great fun!“And you know what?
He‘s right!
To all of you who enjoy tracking your car, all I can say is, yes, modding a VX is an option in the UK and Thorney, Plans, etc. are great for that
. But if you can at all justify (even half justify?) it, save your pennies and then go for the Exige – preferably with the Bemani S/C. A telling comment from Hockenheim: throughout the course we were all lusting after the Vantage (driven by a LandRover dealer who also sells a few Astons, though he is not an official dealer). A fellow Bemani Exige driver said to the Aston guy, "Forget the idea of my Vantage order – this car is just soooo much fun!
And you know what?
He‘s right too!
Try to leave the maze that is Hockenheim. Three of us: chrome orange Exige, black 111R and mine stop to consult. Instantly a positive hoard of schoolkids (girls and boys) aged about 10-12 swarm around us, agog and/or shouting excitedly
. We sort out a sat nav and are ready to leave the layby and will negotiate the roundabout in front of us to come back this way. My colleagues set off sedately. ... I wait, raise the revs, drop the clutch and excite the kids even more as I wheelspin out onto the road, booting it again as I exit the roundabout coming back towards them to treat them to the concurrent screams of the 'yota motor, the S/C and the tyres. I know I would have loved to witness it as a kid and they certainly did too – they went so bananas that I could even hear their ecstatic screams over the noise of the car . The drive home didn‘t allow exceeding 240kmh anywhere, so I still don‘t know Vmax. At least the tentatively forecast snow and sleet didn‘t materialise, but I did get caught in Monsoon-like showers with standing water on the autobahn. I could feel the tyres occasionally acquaplaning at anything more than 100kmh, so took it easier than most saloons there.
Creature comforts
: the heating and the ventilation are both better, (and the controls are even illuminated! ) though there is still no provision for fresh, cool air from the fascia vents whlie heating footwells. (Something first availablenin the Triumph TR4 – yes, the car that was also the world‘s first production targa top – in 1961!!!). I did not find it bad to open the window an inch or so – plenty of warmth and the noise was not so bad – maybe I‘ve gone deaf from the S/C already , but it didn‘t worry me – certainly no worse than my MGC roadster with the hood up. I think the padded door panels (even on the Cup!) and Alcantara surfaces help to absorb the high frequency noise that gives the VX that rawness. This is perhaps subconciously subjectively coded as „better built“. That racecar tinniness of the VX has its own appeal, but these surfaces give more sophistication and probably a little heat- , as well as sound-, insulation too.
I had taken my SonyEriccson K750i with me to use as an MP3 player, but never felt the need. Enjoyed concentrating on the driving and reflecting on the events at Hock. I will admit to frequently grinning inanely
and sporadically bursting into enthusiastic, but not necessarily so melodic , song. If this is madness, I LOVE it!
P.S. The warning light was on at various times. One guy reckoned it was an issue between the S/C and the Stage 1 sports exhaust. Bemani are apparently due to release a new „improved „ exhaust in a few weeks – I may have to get my dealer to rectify the problem this way.
P.P.S. The Speedster turbo owner in my group could not participate in the free training sessions – his starter button had jammed. We freed it, but it did not function – i.e. it didn‘t start the car. The car could be bump started, but he did not deem that safe to go on track – he was worried that if he spun and stalled he would not be able to get out of the way quickly. But then, last year, an Exige guy turned up late ‚cos his central locking had failed and he had to open the car with a bent wire... keep it simple!
P.P.P.S. Had to reduce the number of emoticons or it wouldn't let me post!!!!
Edited by speedyK, 24 March 2006 - 02:08 AM.
