Papalazarou
26-08-2006, 06:48 PM
Spent the day driving my 3.0 litre targa and Matts 3.2 coupe and thought I'd share some observations.......Please note however, that I love my car and any unfair or unconstructive remarks will be met with the raith of a forum administrator finding an advert for an NSX plate from a Renault 21 owner!
Ok here goes;
Back to back aceleration was very similar. The 3.2 has better low down torque and therefore responded better, the targa felt smoother at lower revs, but Matt and I put that down to the fact it had a bit less power.
I could stay with the 3.2 as long as we went for it at the same time, if I was a bit slow in the targa, the 3.2 would pull away a bit then build on its advantage.
If the roles were reversed the 3.2 had more chance of making the lost ground up.
Strangely though, the targa felt quicker in some areas of the rev range where I was holding onto a gear a bit longer I suppose, whereas the 3.2 had to change up.
The coupe felt more fluent around slow speed corners that my targa, but handling seemed similar. On bumpy surfaces, the coupe had a bit less flexion through the steering but that made no difference to the the ability of the car to negotiate the bend.
The gearbox in the 3.2 seemed a little notchier than the 5 speed of the targa, but both were very positive.
I thought the later car had a slightly better steering feel, had a bit more useable torque and felt a little more polished as a result.
However, I still prefer the 5 speed box and the clutch of the 3 litre car, despite the long gearing in fourth and fifth.
I don't know how much difference the tubi silencer and the air intake made to my targa, if any, but it was really interesting to see how the cars compared in a real life driving environment.
Cheers,
James.
Ok here goes;
Back to back aceleration was very similar. The 3.2 has better low down torque and therefore responded better, the targa felt smoother at lower revs, but Matt and I put that down to the fact it had a bit less power.
I could stay with the 3.2 as long as we went for it at the same time, if I was a bit slow in the targa, the 3.2 would pull away a bit then build on its advantage.
If the roles were reversed the 3.2 had more chance of making the lost ground up.
Strangely though, the targa felt quicker in some areas of the rev range where I was holding onto a gear a bit longer I suppose, whereas the 3.2 had to change up.
The coupe felt more fluent around slow speed corners that my targa, but handling seemed similar. On bumpy surfaces, the coupe had a bit less flexion through the steering but that made no difference to the the ability of the car to negotiate the bend.
The gearbox in the 3.2 seemed a little notchier than the 5 speed of the targa, but both were very positive.
I thought the later car had a slightly better steering feel, had a bit more useable torque and felt a little more polished as a result.
However, I still prefer the 5 speed box and the clutch of the 3 litre car, despite the long gearing in fourth and fifth.
I don't know how much difference the tubi silencer and the air intake made to my targa, if any, but it was really interesting to see how the cars compared in a real life driving environment.
Cheers,
James.