The Nürburgring Diaries - Volume XVl

[nightmare75]

mmmmmmmmmmmm...... Superbird......

*muscle-gasm*

[IGNIGNOC]

Woo! I'm looking forward to it!one

[Nemesis]

I think I'm a bit late for this one, but what the heck

Lotus Esprit
Lasuh Blu!!!11!!1

Did 2 laps around t3h Ring with this, and I must say: I'm very surprised.

This ain't the piece of junk that we drive at DM 31. It's a menacing machine that grips the road like nothing I ever tested. And it also looks slick!

It handles nicely, even without aids it does what I tell him (maybe even a bit too much )

I only did 2 laps, and the best one ended up with a 7:38:956 on S2 tires.

And it looks like the next one is t3h Sopuhb1rd!! I REALLY hope it's not the same Superbird that I've handled at DM14

[amemyarz]

superbird!!!

;D

[nightmare75]

I think the Superbird in the DM is on N grade rubber. This should be much better. But I'm going to have to buy an FC transmission for it.

[nightmare75]

Plymouth Superbird Weekend Rider:

The first thing I did this time around is install an FC transmission in it. I've driven this car a lot before (since it's one of my favorites ever) and the only major gripe I've had is the low top end. So after making a rather large adjustment to the new tranny, I took it for a spin.

The first lap I ran was 8'10. Yuck. Lots of messy corners, and as it turns out, I over compensated for the short stock transmission. The result was sluggish acceleration and lackluster bite out of the corner. I was also sabotaged a little by the fact that I had just been driving fast cars like Minoltas and FGTs, which just stick to the road no matter how fast you're going (or so it seems). So the body roll and understeer experienced in high speed took a little getting used to. After that poor warm up, I readjusted the transmission to a much better setting and set to work.

The second lap was OK, with fewer off-track adventures, but still sort of slow. This time, the circuit was complete at 8'01.993. Of course, being this close to breaking the 8 minute barrier, I had to break it.

The third lap was much better. This time, 7'57.320. It's not really THAT much better timewise, but it felt better because I managed to keep the sticky side down.

Good car and one of my favorites, but cursed with body roll and short transmission that was characteristic of cars from that era. However, these flaw can be fixed with modern components, which make this car an absolute blast. The only other thing about this car is that it seems like it doesn't accelerate as strongly as you would expect with 430hp and 480 lb-ft of torque, but I blame that on poorly modeled American cars

[ciscokid]

The Superbird was my first WR pick almost two yrs. ago. One thing I had to say about it before revealing my pick was that it's more like piloting a boat around the 'ring than driving a car.Pretty much everyone agreed with that. It's one of my favorite cars as well and the body roll makes for some interesting looking photos.

[amemyarz]

finally got around to it and managed a decent lap of 7'53.904
Excellent car. had an FC tranny. I bought it semi racing suspension and after a little tweaking got times down into the low 7'40's A car that is a real monster.

[oldguy1957]

Lotus Esprit V8 '02

This was an enjoyable car to drive, but not so much because of its fantastic handling, like I'm used to from Lotus. But more because of the challenges created by its fairly unique handling characteristics. As someone stated in a previous post, this is not a car for trail-braking. Similar to the RUF's and some other MR's, the majority of the braking must be done in advance of turning in to the corners. It doesn't want to rotate through the turn unless you're on the gas. But unlike many other MR's, it was not extremely tail-happy. The challenge of driving it wasn't so much keeping from swapping ends, as just getting it to turn.

As always, I ran it completely stock and removed all driving aids. My best of 4 completed laps was a 7'44.8. Because of its handling characteristics, it took me almost two full laps to really get the feel of the car so that I was able to push it to its limits.

It was a fun car, but certainly not up to the standards I expect from Lotus.

[oldguy1957]

Plymouth Superbird

This car handled slightly better than I expected, which isn't saying much because my expectations were pretty low. It was, pretty much, like piloting a boat down a river. One of those cast-iron Civil War warships came to mind a few times when I was driving it. Okay...it wasn't quite that bad. Perhaps more like a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier or something. Don't get me wrong. I love the car. If I had one IRL, it would be one of my most prized possessions. But I wouldn't be taking it to the 'Ring, or in any way, shape or form be pretending it could satisfactorily negotiate a challenging road course. It's more suited to sitting pretty in my driveway while my friends and I sit in lawn chairs around it drinking beers...perhaps firing up the engine every half an hour or so to listen to the beautiful rumble of that Hemi and to annoy the neighbors.

As is expected for driving WR's, I left everything completely stock, including the tranny. I herded it around the Ring a couple times for a best lap of 8'20.9, which I guess isn't so terribly bad considering it tops out at 125 MPH. So much for battleship week.

I still intend to test-drive the Supra RZ, too. But I didn't have one in my garage, and it hasn't been in the Used Lot either. I'll keep checking, and when I find one I'll post a very late review.

[amemyarz]

^ u can always run it in arcade mode. It's always there.

[shipwreck22]

Let's see..... who's going to pick next? hmmmmmm............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ I'll go with nightmare.

[Nemesis]

Plymouth Superbird

I only tested it on its stock form, and it is nothing compared to the Superbird you have to drive in DM 14.

Took it to the track, and even with some body roll, it actually has some great handling, and doesn't fishtail much but has some things that distinguish them from the other muscle cars from that era, namely, the insanely HUGE spoiler that can cut some of your vision if you're using the third person camera.

This car also brakes very well, but maybe that's in part due to its high stock weight (3800 pounds is heavy). However, this car caps at just a bit more than 200 Km/h, which is in fact slow, but back in the day, muscle cars weren't much faster than that, but a FC tranny should be able to fix that problem easily.

2 things I didn't like:

The car was too silent
My Superbird's colour (a hideous looking Burnt Orange)

[amemyarz]

I was reading the BR archives and I was wondering, When is the next one or can I create one?

[J Money]

Hello everybody, the Moneyman (lol ) has arrived (thanks to a convo with vitg in the chatroom) and is in the Diary to stay.

Lotus Espirit V8 '02 (on S2 tires, auto tranny, TCS at 1 cause I'm a n00b)

It took me a lap or so to get used to it and I drove it for a whopping 3 full laps.

My first lap consisted of some adventures in the grass and getting pretty sideways at one point. Came in at 7'51.152

My second lap consisted of fewer grass adventures and I came in at 7'49.559.

My third lap was the best out of the 3 with only two notable grass adventures. I came in at 7'47.627.

I started a fourth lap but pushed it a bit too hard and it was lost. It's getting pretty late here so I decided to stop at that.

I'm expecting to run the Superbird on Monday.