Litchfield BRZ in EVO's Track Car of the Year 2013

[switchlanez]

The BRZ in this video has 280 hp/210 lb-ft tq supercharged with suspension/chassis tuned by Litchfield and looks fun to drive! It gets compared against other cars, mostly BEASTS:

McLaren 12C GT Can-Am
Caterham Seven 620R
Radical RXC
BAC Mono
Mini JCW GP
Supercharged Ariel Atom 3.5
Porsche Cayman S

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad9arPad2BM"]Track Car of the Year 2013 | evo TV - YouTube[/ame]

[Ganthrithor]

I'd certainly be curious to drive one. I wonder if throttle response is degraded? The power/torque curves on their website though... I'm filled with want.

[the.big.kahoona]

Disappointing performance. Barely faster than a stock Mini JCW GP. I know that Mini is a special edition etc... but still...

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[s0sl0w]

Originally Posted by the.big.kahoona

Disappointing performance. Barely faster than a stock Mini JCW GP. I know that Mini is a special edition etc... but still...

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Until you realize that it's a 1.6 mile circuit.

I was however, surprised it that it wasn't closer to the Cayman S and would be interested to see how close it gets to a regular Cayman. I suspect the differences are still coming down to power and corner exit grip, both of which the Cayman S have a good bit more of. I'm betting that a good many of his corner exits in the BRZ were tail happy.

I generally suspect that the folks at EVO magazine are just not that good at driving front engine RWD's in a controlled, fast fashion; which is why they seem to think that FWD hot hatches are "better."

[636]

Originally Posted by s0sl0w

Until you realize that it's a 1.6 mile circuit.

I was however, surprised it that it wasn't closer to the Cayman S and would be interested to see how close it gets to a regular Cayman. I suspect the differences are still coming down to power and corner exit grip, both of which the Cayman S have a good bit more of. I'm betting that a good many of his corner exits in the BRZ were tail happy.

I generally suspect that the folks at EVO magazine are just not that good at driving front engine RWD's in a controlled, fast fashion; which is why they seem to think that FWD hot hatches are "better."

It's funny how hard people will defend this car, when there is clear evidence that it's not a monster. Just accept the fact that this car isn't a "god" car, and can be slow on the track, for once, please.

[solidONE]

Originally Posted by s0sl0w

Until you realize that it's a 1.6 mile circuit.

I was however, surprised it that it wasn't closer to the Cayman S and would be interested to see how close it gets to a regular Cayman. I suspect the differences are still coming down to power and corner exit grip, both of which the Cayman S have a good bit more of. I'm betting that a good many of his corner exits in the BRZ were tail happy.

I generally suspect that the folks at EVO magazine are just not that good at driving front engine RWD's in a controlled, fast fashion; which is why they seem to think that FWD hot hatches are "better."

I'm not sure if you are watching the same video, but this guy drives the shit out of those cars, including the BRZ and Caterham... particularly the Caterham.

[Tgionet]

I'd like to point out that a Cayman S specced as in the video is around 100k. 2s slower for less than half the price and faster than the Mini for a few grand less still.

[andrew1021]

Originally Posted by s0sl0w

Until you realize that it's a 1.6 mile circuit.

I was however, surprised it that it wasn't closer to the Cayman S and would be interested to see how close it gets to a regular Cayman. I suspect the differences are still coming down to power and corner exit grip, both of which the Cayman S have a good bit more of. I'm betting that a good many of his corner exits in the BRZ were tail happy.

I generally suspect that the folks at EVO magazine are just not that good at driving front engine RWD's in a controlled, fast fashion; which is why they seem to think that FWD hot hatches are "better."

I agree totally that the brz was way underpowered vs the cayman, giving up 35-40 horses, but the guy was driving all the cars hard.

[s0sl0w]

Originally Posted by 636

It's funny how hard people will defend this car, when there is clear evidence that it's not a monster. Just accept the fact that this car isn't a "god" car, and can be slow on the track, for once, please.

I'm extremely happy with the car. What I'm saying is the power to weight ration that that kit is said to provide should have made the car much closer to the Cayman than it was, the fact that it wasn't puzzles me somewhat.

Originally Posted by solidONE

I'm not sure if you are watching the same video, but this guy drives the shit out of those cars, including the BRZ and Caterham... particularly the Caterham.

Yeah, and I saw the driver hang the tail out on almost every corner, especially the sweepers where a bunch of speed/time could be lost by doing so. I'd like to see the car put in the hands of someone who knows how to put down a tidy lap. The Cayman naturally will tend to be less tail happy thanks to it's weight distribution and wider rubber so any tail out tendencies will be reduced, ergo faster lap times.

Driving hard and driving fast are not the same thing, in fact they are often the opposite.

[636]

Originally Posted by s0sl0w

I'm extremely happy with the car. What I'm saying is the power to weight ration that that kit is said to provide should have made the car much closer to the Cayman than it was, the fact that it wasn't puzzles me somewhat.



Yeah, and I saw the driver hang the tail out on almost every corner, especially the sweepers where a bunch of speed/time could be lost by doing so. I'd like to see the car put in the hands of someone who knows how to put down a tidy lap. The Cayman naturally will tend to be less tail happy thanks to it's weight distribution and wider rubber so any tail out tendencies will be reduced, ergo faster lap times.

Driving hard and driving fast are not the same thing, in fact they are often the opposite.

The videos of him getting tail happy were NOT the lap times that they recorded. If you listen in the video he states, "Once we started getting precise with the cars, and placing real times..." etc etc. He's drifting for show, non of that is in the laps.

[chrisl]

Originally Posted by Tgionet

I'd like to point out that a Cayman S specced as in the video is around 100k. 2s slower for less than half the price and faster than the Mini for a few grand less still.

Where are you getting that? It looks like it just has the 20" Carrera S wheels, the PCCBs, and a manual transmission, along with PTV and the PASM suspension. Even if you throw on the sport exhaust and the sport chrono pack (both of which I think you would want on a new Cayman S), the sport seats plus, and a leather interior, you're still 15 grand short of your $100k number, and if all you care about is performance, a lot of those options are unnecessary (actually, for pure performance, I'd probably go with the 19" wheels, PDK, and sport suspension instead). Yes, the Cayman is pricier (by far) than a BRZ, but $100k seems like a bit of an exaggeration unless you get one absolutely loaded with a lot of unnecessary options.

[Tgionet]

Originally Posted by chrisl

Where are you getting that? It looks like it just has the 20" Carrera S wheels, the PCCBs, and a manual transmission, along with PTV and the PASM suspension. Even if you throw on the sport exhaust and the sport chrono pack (both of which I think you would want on a new Cayman S), the sport seats plus, and a leather interior, you're still 15 grand short of your $100k number, and if all you care about is performance, a lot of those options are unnecessary (actually, for pure performance, I'd probably go with the 19" wheels, PDK, and sport suspension instead). Yes, the Cayman is pricier (by far) than a BRZ, but $100k seems like a bit of an exaggeration unless you get one absolutely loaded with a lot of unnecessary options.

I rounded up and included local sales tax (6.35%). You CAN easily break 100k if you get into the really stupid options though.

Edit: and I figured anyone springing the 7600(iirc) for the PCCB would probably be speccing most of the non idiotic options as well.

[chrisl]

Originally Posted by Tgionet

I rounded up and included local sales tax (6.35%). You CAN easily break 100k if you get into the really stupid options though.

Edit: and I figured anyone springing the 7600(iirc) for the PCCB would probably be speccing most of the non idiotic options as well.

Oh, you can absolutely break 100k. If you want it as an amazing driver's car though, you wouldn't want to. A lot of the options add weight, sometimes a significant amount. If I were ordering a new one, I'd probably go for the sport seats plus w/leather ($3k), the sport suspension ($1300), sport exhaust ($1500), PTV ($2kish), Sport Chrono ($1500), and probably not a whole lot else (so the total would be a bit over $70k MSRP, before tax/fees/etc). Actually, it'd probably be a lot like the configuration above, minus the 20 inch wheels and PCCBs.

(These prices are based on my memory, since the configurator on Porsche's site isn't working for me right now, but they should be at least roughly correct).

[Tgionet]

That's pretty much what I'd spec, I'd get PASM instead of the sport suspension though.