Quote:
Originally Posted by lemonspeakers
1) When people say this car is slow. How slow am I talking? Can you put it into perspective of a 1998 Honda Civic SI or a 1999 Acura Intega GSR?
2) This car raves all about handling and on turns? Can you explain this to me better in your own words to someone who drives a 2001 Acura TL?
3) Low COG like a Porche 911. Will lowering the car with proper Coil overs/ etc alter the COG in any way? Good or bad?
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1. If you drive it like you would drive a normal car it is seriously slow. It is just a 2 liter engine and if you do not rev it high it will be just as slow as boring commuter car. If you rev it a bit harder you will get the engine into the zone where it is superior to a normal car, but it is still nowhere near something like a powerful V8. Bottom line: It is fast enough, but it is not a drag racer.
2. A car like a 2001 Acura TL is likely to have under steer, body roll and and anesthetized steering feel. I never drove one, but that is typical. It is safe, predicable and boring. The FR-S on the other hand has a more direct steering feel, minimal body roll and you can slide the rear end.
It is exciting and at the same time reasonably controllable and predictable. It sounds like a contradiction, but the thing is that you can make it slide without scaring yourself to death or risking too much. This is made possible by relatively low performance tyres that are not super sticky. Stickier tyres allow for faster cornering speeds, but when they do lose their grip you will be going faster and the forces acting on the car will be stronger and the potential for trouble higher.
3. Lowering the car will generally make the ride harsher and increase the risk of the car bottoming out. A lower COG will help keep the weight of the tyres evenly distributed during cornering and therefore make the stress on the outside tyres less and increase the good contribution from the inside tyres. A great strategy for a race track, but maybe not os much for the road. The stock COG is quite low enough.