valentinoamoro
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Driven the car for 9 months now and had a chance to do a few hours of solitary serious canyon carving yesterday. Some thoughts:
Driving style: moderate/slow speeds in straights, spirited driving on 25-45mph slow/mid corners (this is a well known road).
Driven on same roads in past (owned two of these, others were friends): E63 MW M6, tuned Audi TT, new Golf R, Mazda speed 3, Focus ST, BRZ, E55AMG, Audi S5, E92 BMW M3, BMW M4, Cadillac CTS-V, BMW M235i, BMW M4, 13 Camaro SS, 08 BMW 335
Conditions: Dry, 68 degrees.
Performance Mods: Bone stock.
Driving Setup: Sport Mode, Steering on Normal (Sport feels woolly)
Observations:
1) Car is extremely 'friendly'to drive fast, meaning, accessible. Will not bite you. Slight understeer at the limit.
2) Takes rough breaks in pavement and dips at speed really well. Completely un-flustered. Even under 80% throttle.
3) Touch of lean under steady state and rapid left/right/left (or vice versa) transition.
4) Steering responsive, predictable and linear. Good feedback and nice weight.
5) Manual transmission (with clutch spring delete) is a real sweet heart paired with the 5.0. Great intake sound. If you are in doubt over which transmission to get, do the stick for roads like this. Super involving. Engine makes more than enough power for me everywhere and especially rewarding at medium to high rpm.
6) I didn't really feel any PP 'bounce' that a few folks have mentioned in these conditions.
In the spectrum of cars with super-fast reflex cars like the Z06, M4, special edition 911's etc on one end and safe conservatively setup cars like the Audi S5, Golf R on the other, I'd say the GT-PP is somewhere in the middle. The basic handling setup of this car is neutral with a slight under steer presence which can be corrected on throttle. The analogue in the light weight car class is Miata rather than Fiesta ST!
For the folks comparing this to an M4 (I guess the Shelby GT350 will probably be a better comparison?), I'd say the M4 is more twitchy, less stable and ultimately faster in the right hands. For most folks including myself, the GT-PP is much easier to drive fast and accessible than that car. In that regard, I'd say is compares more with the BMW M235i (which seems slower to me and softer) and E92 M3 (less torque/weaker engine but slightly quicker steering).
For those modifying the car straight from the showroom by increasing front tire, camber, rear sways - all that is probably great but just make sure your skills grow with the car. At this stage, I feel its a friendly well setup 400+HP 'jet trainer' instead of a dynamically unstable but hyper maneuverable fighter jet! There were moments in that drive where some other faster setup cars would have definitely bitten me.
One weird nit pick - given the cars relatively softer setup under load, it feels unnecessarily stiff in slow speed driving (example, parking lot, in the city). I think the springs might be too stiff for the dampers. Not sure.
Some photos!
Driving style: moderate/slow speeds in straights, spirited driving on 25-45mph slow/mid corners (this is a well known road).
Driven on same roads in past (owned two of these, others were friends): E63 MW M6, tuned Audi TT, new Golf R, Mazda speed 3, Focus ST, BRZ, E55AMG, Audi S5, E92 BMW M3, BMW M4, Cadillac CTS-V, BMW M235i, BMW M4, 13 Camaro SS, 08 BMW 335
Conditions: Dry, 68 degrees.
Performance Mods: Bone stock.
Driving Setup: Sport Mode, Steering on Normal (Sport feels woolly)
Observations:
1) Car is extremely 'friendly'to drive fast, meaning, accessible. Will not bite you. Slight understeer at the limit.
2) Takes rough breaks in pavement and dips at speed really well. Completely un-flustered. Even under 80% throttle.
3) Touch of lean under steady state and rapid left/right/left (or vice versa) transition.
4) Steering responsive, predictable and linear. Good feedback and nice weight.
5) Manual transmission (with clutch spring delete) is a real sweet heart paired with the 5.0. Great intake sound. If you are in doubt over which transmission to get, do the stick for roads like this. Super involving. Engine makes more than enough power for me everywhere and especially rewarding at medium to high rpm.
6) I didn't really feel any PP 'bounce' that a few folks have mentioned in these conditions.
In the spectrum of cars with super-fast reflex cars like the Z06, M4, special edition 911's etc on one end and safe conservatively setup cars like the Audi S5, Golf R on the other, I'd say the GT-PP is somewhere in the middle. The basic handling setup of this car is neutral with a slight under steer presence which can be corrected on throttle. The analogue in the light weight car class is Miata rather than Fiesta ST!
For the folks comparing this to an M4 (I guess the Shelby GT350 will probably be a better comparison?), I'd say the M4 is more twitchy, less stable and ultimately faster in the right hands. For most folks including myself, the GT-PP is much easier to drive fast and accessible than that car. In that regard, I'd say is compares more with the BMW M235i (which seems slower to me and softer) and E92 M3 (less torque/weaker engine but slightly quicker steering).
For those modifying the car straight from the showroom by increasing front tire, camber, rear sways - all that is probably great but just make sure your skills grow with the car. At this stage, I feel its a friendly well setup 400+HP 'jet trainer' instead of a dynamically unstable but hyper maneuverable fighter jet! There were moments in that drive where some other faster setup cars would have definitely bitten me.
One weird nit pick - given the cars relatively softer setup under load, it feels unnecessarily stiff in slow speed driving (example, parking lot, in the city). I think the springs might be too stiff for the dampers. Not sure.
Some photos!
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