vectra vxr

The thread is at a junction!

Only you, Gaijin, can chose the direction it takes! Make the choice...

a) We can continue to argue about the exact level of comfort offered by an Evo, and it's suitabilty for long journeys compared with a Vectra.

b) We can agree that a Vauxhall Vectra and a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution are both tailored to different needs, and carry on with arguing about the Vectra, safe in the knowledge that whilst I'm sure many people can make journeys in Evo's without the aid of Nurofen, it isnt really the same sort of car as a Vectra, is it.

The Vectra has more in common with a BMW 3 Series than it does a Mitsubishi Evo, and I'm sure we wouldnt argue that a 3 Series or an Evo are both equally suited for long boring motorway trips.

Not that any of this is a bad reflection on the Evo, at being a decent performance car the Evo beats the **** out of the Vectra.
 
Ok fine, but refrain from making any more exuberant speculative statements about my model of car ;)
 
[TW]Fox;17600029 said:
I'm suprised you'd want to allign your car with a Vectra anyway, if I had an Evo I'd be looking for reasons to seperate it :D
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I wasn't - I never even mentioned the Vectra - merely corrected your speculative statement ;)

Plus, I don't think I'd ever feel the need to justify discussing how the two differ :)
 
Gaijin said:
Simply not true. I drove mine over 300 miles home with aftermarket suspension, and merely got out, stretched and went and made a cup of tea.

No aches, no pain at all. I wasn't actually surprised. The seats make you sit properly for the whole trip - its nearly impossible to slouch or have any sort of bad posture in them.

Sure, pretty much anything else is more comfortable, but it wasnt uncomfortable in the slightest.
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EK9 was quite firm but it had the comfiest recaros i've ever sat in, not having a glass back helps too:p
 
For what its worth, my Astra had a bone shaking ride on the 19"s. It wasn't uncomfortable due to the brilliant Recaros but the whole car was vibrating and shaking around you. Thankfully the Monaro is like a luxo barge in comparison.
 
unless of course they were made up for comedic effect. But top gear would never do that would they, its a documentary dont you know ;)
 
russ9898 said:
Ive now got a 3.2 TT and yes it may not be the worlds best handling car but my god has it made realise how truely useless a powerful front wheel drive car is. I know the TT is FWD biased but if i chose i can plant it in almost any condition and get little to no wheelspin. I can accelerate out of corners harder and earlier. Its just an all round better drive train as is RWD.
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You have never driven a Megane R26 have you...? Or for that matter a DC5 Integra Type R.

FWD can be very good as long as the rest of the car has been designed properly (not just dropping massive power and forgetting about everything else).
 
I dont think its a case of a bad chassis. Nobody else has made a 280bhp front wheel drive saloon. Even saab with the same 2.8 V6 Turbo put it in the Aero X which was 4x4.

Mazda made the 6 MPS, but again put 4x4 on it.

i think it becomes easier the smaller the FWD car is. Ultimate proof is that Vauxhall gave up too and made the insignia VXR 4x4 as well.

This leaves the current most powerfull FWD saloon the Volvo V70 2.5T, with 228bhp. After that is the 2.8V6 Audi A6, Mondeo 2.5T and Insignia 2.0T SRi all with 217bhp

Every saloon with more than 250bhp has 4x4 or RWD, except for the vectra.

Even the modern volvos - the V70 and the S60 have gone 4x4 for the top end petrol engine - the T6. You can only get the low pressure turbo version as FWD, the top end 300bhp ones only come 4x4.

Same goes for Audi, you can only get the powerfull 3.0V6 Audi A6 as a quattro.
 
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Saab put it in the 93 aero too, albeit eith "only" 250bhp

Also, afaik, the 95 estate with the 265bhp 2.3T is still available new
 
Saab website only has the 9-5 Saloon which will only let you have a 220 PS engine with FWD

The 9-3 Saloon and 9-3 Sportwagon only currently go up to a 210PS engine.

So they currently dont have on sale any car with more than 250bhp.

Again, they part shared with GM so were no doubt part of the experiment with using highpower in saloons, and like vauxhall have learnt it doesnt work. They only made the 276bhp Vectra VXR engine available in the Saab Aero X X which was 4x4

And guess what autocar said about the addition of 4x4 with the Aero X

http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Saab-9-3-2.8-V6-Turbo-X/231184/

What’s it like?
At last, a hot Saab that can put down its power on the road rather than wasting most of it in a flurry of front tyre agitation. Front drive V6 9-3s are a handful and feel clumsy – by contrast this is so much more competent and efficient, and makes a better job of using the available power. It also means the steering isn’t utterly overwhelmed when you’re pulling away – the drivetrain sends most of power to the rear at take off – which improves the whole demeanour of the car. And that means you can work the smooth V6 with more enjoyment and efficiency.
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Saab did it as well, and got the same bad press over the power being too much.
 
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Having an auto Saab obviously saps a bit of power but it makes the delivery a lot more user friendly.
 
Can only assume Fox is referring to this:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18040735

Handling is what I’d describe as acceptable. It’s not sporty, but neither is there acres of bodyroll either. It wasn’t THAT bad through the many twisting mountain roads I threw at it but the one thing that annoys me was.... the fact it was FWD. Mostly, RWD is better than FWD because when you drive an RWD car, you are able to snipe at people on the internet with FWD cars. But this car demonstrated quite how unsuitable FWD really is for a car of this type.

Before I carry on, we’ll pause a bit and talk about the performance.
Once you get the annoying gearbox out the way (Why is every autobox I ever drive dim-witted?) this is a fast car. 0-60 is 6.5 seconds, which is not bad, about the same as my 530i, but then you remember its 6.5 despite the fact its FWD *and* has a dim-witted autobox. The acceleration in gear is absolutely awesome. Put your foot down with the car in the right gear and it’s off. Certainly quicker than the Falcon. Infact its ridiculously powerful for what it is – remember guys, this is a car with steel wheels, plastic wheel trims, no trip computer and a plastic steering wheel. And a 270bhp V6. You are never found wanting for power in this – any more power would be completely ridiculous in this sort of car.

And its this power which brings us back to the unfortunate point that its wrong wheel drive. Overtaking at maximum attack brings new challenges. Select the right gear, manually, because if you wait for the gearbox to chose you’ll be there all day, wait for a gap, bury foot in carpet and... wrestle the steering wheel as you fight the torque steer round the truck. Want to make a quick getaway off the lights? Careful, too much throttle and it’ll spin the wheels and do that awfully annoying dashboard shake thing FWD cars do when wheelspinning. Until the traction control cuts in. And you can’t turn the traction control off.
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So suffers from exactly the same problem as the Vectra VXR then.

Except you cant make it look worse by turning the traction control off on the toyota.
 
oweneades said:
You have never driven a Megane R26 have you...? Or for that matter a DC5 Integra Type R.

FWD can be very good as long as the rest of the car has been designed properly (not just dropping massive power and forgetting about everything else).
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The car i owned prior to the ST was a Clio 182 so i know all about a good chasis. Ive not driven an Integra as they have no appeal to me what so ever. I did however drive a Megane and whilst the LSD does an excellent job of reigning the power in coming out of the bends its still undeniable that once in the realms of 250bhp a FWD car is out of its depth. Theyre fine in dry conditions with good tyres but it seems the majority of the time in this country its damp or wet so all that power goes to waste.

Ive done my share of high powered front wheel drive cars and i was adimant that they are spot on...until you move on to RWD or AWD and then you really see how much a FWD drive train hinders the car.
 
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