dholmes

A couple of my work colleagues and I were curious about the performance, delivery and handling differences of our cars and have spent a couple of lunchtimes test driving each others cars. I thought I would share my findings with you.

The Cars.
UK MY97 PE remap 273 lbs/ft torque at 3520rpm 276 bhp
RX 7 Twin Turbo Type R
TVR Chimera 4.0

Starting up the TVR sounds fantastic, bags of character. The steering is very direct. The car turns in positively and the back feels very stable. Only very aggressive throttle will provoke the back in the dry. Even in the wet its fairly progressive. The engine pulls from low down and very even delivery through the rev range. We ran the Scooby and the TVR next to each other at about 20 mph and both accelerated hard up to about 80mph. There was very little in it. The Scoob gained only a few feet. This told me 2 things. A 5.0 Chimera would blow me away in a straight line and the 4.0 would beat an unmodified UK Scoob in a straight line.

The RX 7 is an all together different beast. The Type R has a firmer suspension than the standard car and also has strut braces in the front and back of the car. The handling seemed very capable, but I didn’t throw the car around too much as the owner has only just had it a couple of days. The power delivery was very distinctive. You can clearly feel both tubos cut in. The first comes in low down and increases acceleration, but no where near on the scale of the Scoob. At 3500 revs the Scoob is pulling much harder. At just before 5000 rpm the RX7 second turbo kicks in and the car suddenly becomes very quick all the way up to where it redlines at 7.5K.

In summary:

The RX7 and the TVR are much better looking cars. There’s little to choose in straight line acceleration between the TVR and the Scoob, but the TVR owner agreed the Scoob could carry more speed round corners. The RX7 was probably the slowest, but not by much. Big grin factor when the second turbo comes in. I think I’d like the TVR for the summer, the RX7 when the TVR brakes down and the Scoob for the winter and carrying the kids around in.

R19KET

Best you keep the RX7 handy then. I got rid of a Chimaera 4.0 for the Scoob, hard because the TVR is a gorgeous looking car, but I like my cars to get me from A > B !!!!.

Mark.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

There was a Griffith at Santa Pod last time I was there - didn't break 14s - all Scoobs there got 13.8 or below.

Stef has done 13.5ish in a UK car.

I know this is very one dimensional comparison - but the Scooby has better traction, hence the faster times, and better handling, so cross country no comparison.

Rannoch

dholmes

Mark,

This guy has had no problems in 6 months of owning it. Must be very lucky. The car is 5 years old though so perhaps previous owners have suffered the teething problems.


Rannoch
Was the Grif a 5.0 or 4.0?

I'm not over surpised that Stef beat a Grif from a standing start, 'cus I heard he launches the Scoob very well. However, I would be surprised if Stef would keep up with a Grif 500 from a rolling start say 30mph to 100 mph. He would be nearly 80 bhp down, in a heavier car and would have lost the benefit AWD.

R19KET

He's lucky. 5 months of the road, in the first 12 !!!. New suspension, gearbox, 3 rads, AFM, 2 new alarms, +++++++. You also need a mask ans snorkel to drive it in the rain, and after being driven into 3 times, I thought it was time for a change !!!.

My STi was FAR quicker before I started modding it, now it's chalk, and cheese.

Glad your friend is having better luck.

Mark.

Craig H

A std UK (pre 99) Scoob is a match for a 4.0 Chimaera. TVRs figures are always a little overoptimistic. When my STi was std, I was overtaking 4.5 Chimaeras down the straights at a JP day.

KevinW

Dholmes & everyone else,

Correct me if I am wrong, but I would expect you'd lose the traction advantage with a rolling start. Take on your mate in the Chimera from standstill and compare the difference then A friend of mine has taken on a Chimera (not sure which) from rest in his auto 300ZX and claims to have out run it (same applies to a Carrera II). He and I have done standing start comparisons and he got wasted (I had at least 3 car lengths on him by the time he got moving). Mines a 78K miles `94 WRX (260PS) with no engine mods! Scoobies are hard to beat! One of our clients thinks he'll beat me at Santa Pod in his 4.0 Griff. My verdict (based on experience) is...NO COMPETITION!!!

Kevin
Nottingham




[This message has been edited by KevinW (edited 18-02-2000).]

dholmes

Kevin,

The TVR owner is the first to admit he would not stand a chance on a standing start( although all 3 will achieve 0-60 in less than 5.5 secs), the point of the rolling start test that we did was to see which car had the best pick up. Even though the Impreza was the quickest ( and it was fairly close ), I could happily live with the performance of all three cars.