Sideways, the way forward

I am a little shocked... i have been the proud owner of a 95 plate uk series mcrae for three months. last week i bought an 00 plate P1 with plans to sell the mcrae... It has been a lot of fun comparing the two. To drive there is absolutely no competition, the P1 is just better in every aspect...except... in the wet! It baffles me so much the mcrae seems to grip far more in the wet and i can't understand why. They are on the same make and width of tyres (one of the mcrae fronts is actually bald as well). Can anyone shed any light?

DuncanG

The '95 has softer shocks?

Sideways, the way forward

yeah that was something that got suggested to me... it could be the reason, quite a profound difference though.

DaveW

He has the same make and width of tyres. I'd second the softer suspension.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Oppps! Sorry, must have missed that!

NS04

7 Foot

What is the P1 actually doing when it breaks traction. I know it depends on circumstances etc but does it tend to understeer, oversteer etc?

RRH

Guessing it will be oversteering.

They are a totally different beast to drive altogether, the handling being nowhere near as 'safe' as a standard(ish) UK car. They are quite heavily rear wheel drive biased and as such need a great deal of respect- especially in the wet

DaveW

I would have thought that since it uses the viscous centre diff it would be very similar to a UK car with around a 50/50 split in torque.

Now if you meant the Type R/RA I would totally agree

RRH

does the P1 not use pretty much the same drivetrain, minus dccd, as the STi5 type R then?

Sideways, the way forward

The P1 tends to understeer before anything. Its turn-in is good but i have felt better (mitsi lancer evo 6). In the wet it tends to drift rather than understeer or oversteer. I haven't had it overtseering visiously yet (little bits here and there). But i have felt it understeer a few times in certain situations..... If you throw the car into a bend or roundabout at serious speeds, it tends not to respond too well (when i say throw, i mean THROW!). When taking it into a bend at reasonable speeds and accelerating out (as hard as you like really) it grips like **** to a blanket!

As regards its sliding in the wet I am going to replace all 4 tyres with a set of t1R's for ultimate wet attack! I think the p-zero's are pretty uninspiring in the wet!

As for the diffs...not too sure if they vary to the sti5 type R, i assume they are the same but without the ability to manually play with them. Also I would say that it is a very 'safe' car to drive, much more so than the standard impreza turbos... the suspension is so accomplished that the car tells you exactly whats going on at all times...which is usually, 'i'm gripping, i'm gripping more and more and more.... whats that?.... a 90 degree bend?..... so wot...gimmie more!

At times my old mcrae turbs (280bhp) used to make my heart stop in certain situations and it used to understeer loads...definately a scarier car to drive than the P1. Might have had something to so with the fact that it had a shocking amount of lag and coming out of corners was a lot of fun cos u'd put your foot down and nothing would happen...then all of a sudden the **** of the car would be snaking all over the shop!!!...big iron cast turbo that used to kick in around late 4k revs!!! felt quicker than the P1 because of that!