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2004 Porsche Boxster S One of my favorite parts of autox is getting to drive different cars. And hoon the absolute poo poo out of them. For what is essentially just four wheels, a gearbox, and a motor, there's endless variety and while there are plenty that drive the same, nothing is really a page for page copy. Some cars handle amazingly and can go gently caress themselves controls wise, I'm looking at your E36 M3, you gently caress. Others handle like a drunk frat boy who violently attempts to punch you when you suggest he's had one to many but have controls more well defined than Fabios jaw and sing like Pavarotti. You can try and murder me anytime, Ferrari 348. Then most are somewhere in between. I'll never say no to a car but I won't lie and say there are some I'm much more interested in than others, which I barely have any interest. Which is where we get to the boxster. What is there to say about the old boxster other than it looks ok and it's not a real Porsche. Tell me you own a boxster and I'll be with the 911 owner club masturbating over aircooleds and the window maker and comparing our Walter Rorhl tattoos. Mein entry level Porsche. Sure it's a Porsche and it has a flat six but it's not a real Porsche. If you want a real convertible buy a Miata or an S2000 which are actual sports cars instead of the Boxster which is just the car you buy when your German hairdresser trophy husband doesn't want to be seen in a Miata, because those are for poors, and doesn't like the S2000s design decision of having the passengers seat be a penalty box for deciding to ride with someone else instead of driving your own S2000 somewhere. That's right. S2000s have a cup holder as an amenity. Cup HOLDER. gently caress your passenger, hold your own skinny mocha latte. Even having the Boxster for a short while put me in the Porsche mindset. I'd guffaw at base boxsters. A cayenne waved at me. I ignored him. Like the 911s ignored me. Sitting in the 986 is like sitting in a 996 which is to say the interior isn't as bad as a SN95 mustang but what the gently caress were you doing Porsche. The controls work, but they look weird as poo poo and the leather is nice but the design is kinda wonky. It's like the design team was also all aircooled enthusiasts and half assed the design so they could go get a stein early and talk about their tattoos of the mezger. The gauges, are pure Porsche though and have always looked stellar. It's not a BAD place, it's actually quite a nice car. The seats are comfy although they do have weird mid-upper back bolstering. The controls are laid out pretty well, and its way more livable as a DD than a Miata or S2000. The car also has a swing out cup holder above the radio with TWO slots for cups, although using it means you can't see what station the radio is on. The top is also well thought out, you unhook a single latch in the middle and it's one press operation for up and down. The top is slow, taking closer to 20s versus the blazing fast 9s of the S2000 and the as fast as you can pull it up of the Miata. The S2k and Miata require two latches though. The clutch is great, the gearbox is only ok. I'm not sure what the actuation method is but I wouldn't be surprised if it was cable. It doesn't feel terrible, it just lacks the precise snick of mechanicals. The throws are longish but the gates are easy to find. I get the point out, the steering in these cars is really good. Porsche steering is really talky without being overbearing or heavy, it's not 348 level of amazing but for a daily car it's perfect. The motor also has that Porsche snarl on throttle tip in which sounds amazing. Porsche flat sixes don't sound amazing to me the way that V8s do, but I like the noise. It's just very.. mechanical. A strange cacophony. The PSM is a single button as the good lord intended. I pull up to the line and wait. I get the go and dial up some rpms and aggressively let out the clutch annnnnd one tire fire. The car lazily saunters out as the right rear spins up and leaves a 1 out of the start instead of the 11s I was hoping for. That's right, this Boxster S doesn't have a diff. None of them do. It needs a diff because gently caress me this motor is strong. It has torque out the wazoo from low rpm and it carries it through the rev range where it starts pulling harder toward redline. This motor is as flexible as any V8. And it is fast, proper fast. It doesn't really seem as quick as you think until you realize that second is geared for 74mph and it surges to get there. I immediately go to second gear to try and tame the cars unrelenting attempt to spin up a tire on heavy throttle in first gear and it kind of works, unless there is heavy loading to one side in which case it will try to burn off the inside tire even in second. So pretty much any tight or hard turn. I'll describe the handling now but let me put a big asterisks here: The car is on lovely Michelin pilot all season which are at best a terrible autox tire and at worst I would buy them for people I hate. The car turns in really well, being a MR car, the front goes where you point it. Sort of. Up to a certain point. These tires eat absolute poo poo so their precision level at maximum attack was about a half foot to foot wide zone of where the car would end up. The front axle would want to go there but past a certain threshold the rear would just kind of say gently caress you I'm packing up my poo poo and heading home and I'd be approaching gates sideways. This isn't actually abnormal in MR cars. Driving most MR cars is a game of how hard can I drive until the rear decides it's had enough and you slide into Valhalla, not with the Boxster. There was a big right hander onto the back runway where the car would settle in and then suddenly snap midway through at 10/10, it didn't feel like the car was the issue though, it seemed to be the tires. There was also no real telling when they would give it up, so 10/10 handling is still a question to me but 8/10 was pretty drat nice. The car follows the front and the rear stays in line. I'm actually somewhat upset I didn't get to drive it on good tires because the car feels like it would be really impressively fast on good rubber. There was another 986 base boxster there on real tires who was barely beating me, but I couldn't let that stand. I hopped into a Miata on real tires for one run so I wouldn't lose. I can't lose to a base boxster in a boxster s. I could never show my face again. The brakes on the car are phenomenal too. Amazing brakes are something that are hard to find, there are REALLY good brakes and then there are God tier. Corvette, Viper, Miata, M3, etc are really good brakes. They stop when you ask and they have good feel. God tier brakes are ones you use once and then get distracted by how amazingly competent they are. The Chevy SS, Porsche, and 348 are God tier. I came back in and my feelings all gelled on the Boxster. It's a good car and it doesn't deserve the hate. In fact, I'd buy one as a daily over a Miata or S2000 almost no question. But Porsche absolutely hobbled the car so it would be low range entry level pcar that doesn't step on the 911s toes. As I was driving away it occurred to me that not all 4 tires had the same tread pattern. I stopped in a parking lot to look and make sure I wasn't crazy. Someone came over and asked if I was having problems with ~~mein Porsche~~ and I told them no. They then commented how they'd love to own a new Porsche like this some day. They thought it was newish because they all pretty much look the same and no one knows it's old enough to be playing Pokémon go and telling me gently caress you dad. There was that glint in their eye, it's a Porsche, it's a status symbol. I'm Richie mcrich right here even though the car is really as expensive as an old Honda Fit. I took a look and 3 were poo poo Michelin pilot all seasons and one was a Michelin who the gently caress knows the model name terrible tire. That last loner tire was on the rear axle. The other tire on the rear axle was doing its hardest to be reasonable but when enough weight shifted side to side, the gently caress you tire would give up the ghost and the rear would do the dance. In a way it's like the diff on this car. Did the boxster need all four tires to be the same and competent? Yea, and it would have been leagues better but the previous owner didn't care. They just wanted to be seen in their Porsche. Did the boxster need a diff to really shine instead of me thinking about how much wheelspin this car was capable of producing? Yea, but the people who buy it just want to be seen in their Porsche. Muffinpox fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Sep 16, 2017 |
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Sep 16, 2017 04:40
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Ah man, this is like finding out my favorite show has a new season.
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Sep 17, 2017 01:40
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Info, snark, good writing ability. I likes. Keep it up.
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Sep 17, 2017 17:49
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Do more of these please  Muffinpox posted:Did the boxster need a diff to really shine instead of me thinking about how much wheelspin this car was capable of producing? Yea, but the people who buy it just want to be seen in their Porsche. My stock Cayman S would regularly reach (& maintain) a happy amount of slip on the track (not drifting, just the first 5 degrees or so that you get close to the limit). Granted this was at higher speeds on a properly aligned car with matching tires, and I have no idea if the 987 and 986 differ in a meaningful way
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Sep 17, 2017 18:07
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ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE 2017 Ford Focus RS 2017 has been an... eventful season. I love my boosted FRS but it's been plagued by bad luck. I got the car up and running again with balls out stx alignment, swaybars finally setup right, and shocks all dialed in. I'm gonna wreck poo poo today and on the course drive through, I hear a patter. RE-71Rs are pretty close to full race tires, they clag, they pick up and throw rocks, and they're noisy. Hearing something get stuck to a tire is normal, hearing the hissing of air when you look at the tire is not. I loving punctured the tire with a shard of metal reserved for use in aircraft flak. People bring plugs with them because we're hardcore and someone asked if I needed one. I threw the Florida shaped and sized hunk on the table and was met with "oh". One of the organizers said he's sorry for my tire like I lost a child. I did. A $173/tire child. Rip baby. Where that metal came from I don't know but it's not repairable and I'm hosed for the day. I had work first assignment and not wanting to screw the organizers over, I dutifully went to my station instead of going home and wallowing in self pity. Then it started downpouring. Looking and feeling like a soaking wet trash panda vagrant, I started asking everyone if they could spare a codrive. People hid their children, their keys, and their re-71rs. Resigned to my fate I started jacking up to car to put on the spare and go home when the man parked next to me told me that sucks. I jokingly asked if I could drive his brand new off the lot Focus RS and he said yes. A flat brimmed hat appeared in my head, a vape in my mouth, and a hoonigan shirt on my chest. I've heard a looooooot of good things about these cars and there is literally nothing better than AWD in the rain. This wasn't a damp day, it was so wet that I couldn't put my numbers on his door in tape, I had to put it inside the window. The RS is a nice car inside, I've heard griping about the seats but they were comfortable to me and I liked the bolstering. Ford has nice interiors now too, it's an expensive focus but it matches the price pretty well. I didn't get to play with the electronics much aside from, I think, turning things off. Or into sport mode or whatever. The gauges are big and readable and the info center is pretty cool. The car also keeps radio controls instead of having them on the touch screen which is something I love, and there are rotary dials. As I've said before, I loving love rotary dials. And toggles. But there were no toggles. There's also a little dash pod with a boost gauge and stuff which is fun to watch but you don't see it while autoxing. I like the touch anyways. It makes it feel like Ford wanted you to hoon, and as much as I love some high performance, there's really nothing better than a good, honest, hoonable, fun car. I get the point out and I almost stall the car. The shifter has good feel but the clutch is a bit light. It takes a minor adjustment to get used to, overall probably mid range out of all the cars I've driven. The shifter has a nice notchiness to it, it's a lot like bmw shifters but without the rubberiness. The steering is also nice and direct, with a fast ratio. It's hard to say how direct the feel was on this day since it was more akin to sailing than driving. We get to the starting line, brakes feel good, the little brap brap exhaust feels good, Ford has sold me on the parking lot car show cruising experience so far. I get the point out, I didn't use launch control myself but the owner did it on the run before me and holy poo poo this is a loving hoonigans dream. I give it a fairly aggressive rollout, boost comes on early and strong, I go into second and trail brake into the hard right turn and then you know what, it's kinda disappointing. The car is a bit pushy and while mostly well balanced, suffers from understeer. But it's based on a FWD focus so of course it's front heavy. It the puts the power down well and it's reasonably good but it's not amazing. I don't get what everyone is yammering on about in this car. My codriver comments to me, let the car do its thing. Like I said in the golf r, AWD doesn't automatically make a car great and just slapping it in there doesn't make a car better. What DOES make AWD great is active center diffs. But they don't like a backseat driver, get your left foot off that brake. The diff computer is a Ryan Reynolds meme saying hey girl, you drive like a loving rear end in a top hat and let me take care of it. So the next run I let that sexy little electronic brain hold my hand as I closed my eyes on the roller coaster (metaphorically, please keep your eyes open and up at autocross). And it is loving glorious. Second time out, same roll out same boost, brake in a straight line to scrubs the speed with my left, lift, andturn in hard right.The car starts pushing and the computer does its magic and brakes the inside to yaw the car onto the intended line. Now past the apex I go heavy on the gas, the boost comes on hard and the car goes sideways. And holds it, right where I'm pointing the wheel. A glorious opposite lock slide on throttle through a 100 degree sweeper. Yes. Yes. Yes. And it keeps going, even in the rain this picks up speed like a little pocket rocket on boost. Dab the brake and the rear juts out, give it the power and you're opposite lock entry, midcorner, and exit. Come into a slalom and there's a puddle midway through? Turn that wheel harder and the car says "I gotcha" and you carve that arc like it was dry pavement. I was dropping fastest event wet times in a car I've done two runs in because if you know where you want to go and how to get there, the car figures out the little poo poo while you're looking like a d1 star. We tried out drift mode for a run or two and decided the car was too hoony with it on. When I say it was wet, it was so wet there was a section with so much standing water you had to plot your entry since the second you hit the puddle, it was 40 feet of going straight until the wheels touched the ground again. Normal mode was a lot of opposite lock, drift mode was staring at the next element out of the passsengers window. It was awesome, but not as fast. It took a little getting used to because the car is absolutely faster with the aides but you can't interfere. It's not a car you work with. There were sections I would normally brake a little bit in, even in a straight line, but the answer was just turn the wheel and let the car sort out braking. And once you really get used to the safety net you start exploiting mannerisms that don't work in normal cars. You go through a slalom and overcook, the car slides the rear out from momentum, catches grip, and immediately snaps back the other way. In a normal car you maybe spin, but at minimum eat some time unless you're god tier driver. In the focus rs, the car catches the slide and it is loving mental fast. And you can do it every single time. Now for the bad; for exactly one run it dried out enough for me to get a taste of normalcy in this car, which is to say it still was pretty wet, but the car felt really soft. A lot of what I was doing in the wet suddenly wasn't working. The car has a lot of grip and places I could rely on the car to do things in the wet suddenly needed brake in the dry which disengage the AWD lunacy, which is where the normal platform flaws show up again. Also, it was extremely fun and I would never throw it out of bed on a rainy day, but it wasn't as satisfying as a dumb car. After every run I kept thinking where can I let the car do better than me. Where can I drive like a total rear end in a top hat and let the car sort it out. It's a different kind of driving style which while ultimately fun, you keep thinking "you can't do this in car." Because you can't, but the focus brain can. It's a symbiotic relationship, the car won't be fast if you're a slow driver, but it definitely doesn't have the satisfaction of putting together a scorching run that was totally in your control. got off on a technicality posted:My stock Cayman S would regularly reach (& maintain) a happy amount of slip on the track (not drifting, just the first 5 degrees or so that you get close to the limit). Granted this was at higher speeds on a properly aligned car with matching tires, and I have no idea if the 987 and 986 differ in a meaningful way They're pretty similar, 987s are nicer inside and have a bit more power. I've ridden in a 987 Cayman S and it definitely still has the wheel spin problem. Muffinpox fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Sep 20, 2017 |
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Sep 20, 2017 02:50
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Did you prefer the RS over the Golf R?
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Sep 21, 2017 16:51
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bsamu posted:Did you prefer the RS over the Golf R? Way more. The golf just felt like a gti with more power and less wheelspin. The focus RS isn't like the Focus ST at all, it's more like an Evo or Sti. Even when it was dried up a bit the car was still attempting yaw correction and throttle on oversteer. The guy who let me drive the golf r sold it and ended up buying a FoRS.
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Sep 21, 2017 22:33
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Yessssss, loved the previous threads. I hope you do a write up on your car when you have another tire.
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Sep 23, 2017 01:22
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Larrymer posted:Yessssss, loved the previous threads. I hope you do a write up on your car when you have another tire. Thanks! I reviewed it in the last thread if you have archives, I can also repost it. No changes aside from the increasing front and rear camber and reducing rear toe which just is grip+++ compared to the last set up. Link: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3784790&userid=63265#post462625481
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Sep 23, 2017 02:21
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So glad you're back with these. I can live out some of my AutoX dreams vicariously.
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Sep 23, 2017 15:05
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I'm trying to car whore more so I can keep them coming! 2012 V6 Mustang: Rolling in my five... oh. I try not to hate on any cars, if they do what they're intended to do and do it well, that's fine for me. I didn't even hate my Saturn, it slowly killed my enthusiasm for cars and driving, relegating driving to being a pointless existence of getting from point a to point b in a cheap and reliable manner, but it did it well. I applaud that. I understand why people buy mustangs. They're a cheap way to get an amazing sounding American V8 that is comfy and cheap to run aside from gas. Sometimes late at night I imagine myself owning the fox body from "The Departed" and sitting at car shows in a wife beater with a flowing mullet, drinking a case of bud heavies with a f body Camaro owner talking about that jap crap at a car show. Which is why I cringe every time I see a V6 mustang. Why does the v6 mustang exist? Someone will inevitably tell me the first mustang was a 6 cylinder and it's heritage, but there lots of hosed up things we don't do simply because it's heritage anymore. Some people say they just really wanted a mustang and that was the cheaper option but no one REALLY wants a mustang. They want that V8. I sit in the drivers seat and I do really dig the retro vibe of the 2012s. The gauges are cool if slightly annoying to read, and the car does look good. This has the white cue ball shifter which is a nice touch. The steering wheel also is pretty stylish three spoke with a prancing pony, this is a styling car. It's also a surprisingly big car inside. The interior is quite roomy, full size sedan roomy. You can fit an adult in the rear seats behind you. You can even get them with baseball leather interior which is A+. What was not A+ is how loving big the car feels. It's less of a bathtub and more a giant jacuzzi. It's not pillboxy, just big. Most sports cars feel like putting on a tailored suit, this feels like going to the big and tall store, pointing at anything and saying "yea that'll do, suit me the gently caress up". I get the point out, the clutch isn't bad and the shifter has a nice short mechanical snick snick to it. The V6 doesn't sound bad but it doesn't sound like the coyote. Oh boy does that coyote sound good. The steering is pretty numb but it has a good weight to it, and the ratio is decently fast. I get the go ahead and you know, I'm not sad about this. The V6 has a good amount of grunt and gets the car off the line well. I feels modern too, with a willingness to rev. I rode in a previous gen mustang with the 4.6 V8 and that was a lazy piece of poo poo motor. A great sounding lazy piece of poo poo. The V6 gives a solid shove into the back of your seat, it's right in that range of about what is really useable in a street car. I'd say it gives you more time to enjoy the exhaust but I've never really enjoyed V6s, they're the plain white toast of motors to me. Which fits the plain white toastness of owning a V6 mustang. It doesn't sound like a kazoo so there's that though. The car carries speed well up into second, and it's geared rather long. I forget exact speeds but 1st was around 30-40 and 2nd would hit mid 60s-low 70s. I suppose part of the appeal of mustang ownership is telling your friends how fast it hit the strip with the 3.73s but WAIT TIL THE 4.10S BRO but I'm used to brzs, miatas, and S2000s and my knowledge for anything except how slammed you can get that bitch on teins has faded. I get on the brakes for the first corner and they're not bad. They have pretty good pedal feel and quite a bit of power behind them. The V8s have the brembos but with a good pad, these brakes will suffice. I turn in and everything I knew about mustangs fades away as the front turns where I want it with a mild understeer push at the limit. Not bad mustang, not bad. I feed into the throttle and it's also not bad at all. The car is very controllable, it has enough torque to get some rear wheel slip if you want it but it won't overwhelm the rears without some really aggressive throttle. We come into a slalom and the car goes where I want it, with that little hint of understeer push towards the limit. It's a heavier car and a bit soft but the handling is actually rather nice. There's some heft up front but the spring/bar setup really are what is causing the car to be rolly and pushy. Dare I even say, this actually handles pretty well? I do. We charge through the rest of the front section, I have to wait on the car a bit because, you know, stock car, until I trail brake onto the rear runway and then I have one of those moments where I'm dialing in opposite lock before my brain has actually processed what is going on. Now I remember why I don't respect mustangs, solid loving rear axles. Now, there was a bunch of ballywho by Ford about how much engineering they put into the SRA and how little movement it has and how great it does and I will concede most people will never notice. But I'm driving the poo poo out of the car on a rough surface and you can be Gordon Ramsey making the best plated, most delicious looking, most Instagram liked giant cock on a plate ever to exist but it's still a loving giant rigid dick on a plate. Solid rear axles do their job at the drag strip and on flat surfaces, but they are finicky little shits when there is bumps tossing them all over the place, like the mild bowl surface at the end of the taxiway is tossing the car. And that's where the racing line is, and it's not gonna stop pissing the car off even if I'm not driving over it on brakes. So I have to slow down until this giant log can handle it, just knowing there's a few tenths to a second waiting right loving there. But that's not endemic to the V6, that's a mustang trait. The V6 is actually a pretty drat good mustang, as far as mustangs go. With some better shocks, springs, and swaybars, would be a pretty fun and quick car for autocross. I've read a lot of reviews that sing praises for the V6 and they're right, it's no longer a wheezy little asthmatic turd that's just a hobbled mustang. It's now a good sports car that is hobbled by being a Mustang. Muffinpox fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Sep 24, 2017 |
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Sep 24, 2017 02:25
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Do you do the autocross at Ayer?
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Sep 24, 2017 02:44
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:Do you do the autocross at Ayer? Yep, devens!
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Sep 24, 2017 04:16
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Muffinpox posted:Yep, devens! I go out there to chase trains pretty regularly and often see a bunch of Porsches and M3's lined up downtown on autocross days. I'd let you take my ATS for a spin except that I can't wear a helmet in this thing because it's got a sunroof and my head's almost brushing the headliner as is.
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Sep 24, 2017 04:21
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:I go out there to chase trains pretty regularly and often see a bunch of Porsches and M3's lined up downtown on autocross days. I'd let you take my ATS for a spin except that I can't wear a helmet in this thing because it's got a sunroof and my head's almost brushing the headliner as is. Some clubs allow ride alongs for the public, bring your helmet and stop by the airfield next time you see them.
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Sep 24, 2017 19:11
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Muffinpox posted:Thanks! I reviewed it in the last thread if you have archives, I can also repost it. No changes aside from the increasing front and rear camber and reducing rear toe which just is grip+++ compared to the last set up. Well then I just want to hear more about yours now that you've had it for a bit. The mods to it sound like they fix all the issues anybody could have with it.
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Sep 24, 2017 22:31
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Did you get a chance to drive one of the new civic si's?
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Sep 24, 2017 22:54
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Larrymer posted:Well then I just want to hear more about yours now that you've had it for a bit. I love the car but doing it all over again; I would have just bought a stock frs. It's not so much the car as it is boston, owning something heavily modified here is a pain in the dick since a second car is a $200/mo parking spot where I live. So far I've had a supercharger belt break, catch can freeze and blow out the oil pan Gasket, throw out bearing fail, tie rods die from slicks. They're relatively small and cheap fixes, but it's my DD and no shop wants to touch a modified car so it gets expensive, or ruins weekends when suddenly you're calling kraftwerks to overnight you new pulleys and belts at 6pm on Friday and need to be home to do the fix on Sunday. mariooncrack posted:Did you get a chance to drive one of the new civic si's? I drove a last gen one briefly not at autox. Someone just got a brand new si, maybe I can work my way in.
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Sep 25, 2017 06:05
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Muffinpox posted:I love the car but doing it all over again; I would have just bought a stock frs. It's not so much the car as it is boston, owning something heavily modified here is a pain in the dick since a second car is a $200/mo parking spot where I live. So far I've had a supercharger belt break, catch can freeze and blow out the oil pan Gasket, throw out bearing fail, tie rods die from slicks. They're relatively small and cheap fixes, but it's my DD and no shop wants to touch a modified car so it gets expensive, or ruins weekends when suddenly you're calling kraftwerks to overnight you new pulleys and belts at 6pm on Friday and need to be home to do the fix on Sunday. Sounds ok as a non dd though, but yeah I could see that getting stressful in that situation. Interesting about the catch can, never heard of one freezing but it makes sense with the vapor in there. Have you reviewed a 350z or G35 coupe? Is like to see you poo poo on my current vehicle (G coupe) even though I quite like it.
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Sep 25, 2017 16:52
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Muffinpox posted:kraftwerks to overnight you new pulleys and belts at 6pm on Friday OH, a Kraftwerks kit. I found your problem.
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Sep 25, 2017 17:15
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Larrymer posted:Sounds ok as a non dd though, but yeah I could see that getting stressful in that situation. Interesting about the catch can, never heard of one freezing but it makes sense with the vapor in there. I haven't, I actually don't see them that often up here. My roomate has a junky G35 they rebuilt and I could probably poo poo on it for when I've driven it to the store but not at autox. BlackMK4 posted:OH, a Kraftwerks kit. I found your problem. I've been happy with it, aside from the one belt snapping, the supercharger has never given me issues.
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Sep 25, 2017 19:58
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Over in S2k land they are plagued with belt issues, even after the 30mm ($$) upgrade, along with liking to break mounting bolts.
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Sep 25, 2017 20:00
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I've enjoyed the other incarnations of this thread, glad to see you back with chapter 3! I really wanted to get a FoRS, but ultimately, I couldn't justify the price for the 99% of the time I would just be sitting in traffic commuting. Sounds like a ball of fun in the wet, but I live in Phoenix so I'd never get to autocross it in the wet like that!
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Sep 26, 2017 04:10
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2013 Mini Cooper s My family has ended up buying two dogs we never intended to own in my life. Both times we went to a shelter to look at pups all the while thinking that we wouldn't just jump both feet in and buy an animal on a whim, you know, the logical thing to do. Both times we have come home from those trips with a new basset hound. There's just something there when those big floppy ears and jowly face and short little legs come running at you. They're 70-80lbs of not giving a gently caress about what you want unless you have food, but they are affectionate and adorable. Which is about the same reason why I got home from autocross and started browsing craigslist for minis. I like the mini, I like the way they look and everything I've ever heard about their handling has been along the lines of "stellar". They look like happy cars, little round lights, a bubblyish design. You can get union jacks on the roof AND the the side mirrors. Some slammed veedub owner might tell you they can get plaid seats and a dsg and 4 doors so everyone can put down their windows and vape in a sequential order to mimick a steam engine rolling down the tracks, but that's just loving weird. Not cute. I get into the mini and gently caress me there are toggles. I toggle them just to toggle and I pretend I'm a fighter pilot arming systems before firing up the car. Does this give the owner the impression I'm an adult? No. Do I give a gently caress? Also no. I'm going to forgive a lot of things about the interior because there are toggles. Normally I would mock them and I still will but not as severely. The seats are nothing to write home about certain they're comfy and supportive in a way you would want seats on a long drive, rather flat and not really gonna hold you in place with good tires, which this car had on. Like corvettes, you heavily use your knee to stop from sliding around. Unlike corvettes, the interior surfaces aren't lined in legos and won't grate the skin off of your body. The pod serving as the instrument cluster is an interesting touch, something new to someone who is jaded by the unending sameness of all the other cars. It's a round tach pod centerline with digital speed numbers in the bottom and all the lights in the display. I think there was another pod to the left but I forget since I was too busy toggling. There was a giant loving flava flave necklace clock speedo in the center of the dash: a. Passengers should have to noticeably look at the drivers speedo because any responsible driver is too focused on driving to see them mouth "holy poo poo" in the mirrors. b. What the gently caress? There are already toggles there I don't need any more distractions. I believe that speedo had a multifunctional display buried in the center but I was too busy driving and toggling the toggles to actually pay any attention to it. I think there was also a traction off switch? I'm telling you, I was really playing with those toggles. A lot. So I can tell you the traction off wasn't a toggle switch with 100% certainty, which now that I think about it is kind of a shame. I get the point out, the steering is pointy. The clutch uptake is vagueish and that shifter. I don't know what it is but I feel like all fwd have horsecock shifters. It's like a baby's arm holding an apple in the mini. But I said I'd let all this go. I get the go ahead and I'm not blown away. This is a stock mini power train wise, it only has good tires, a swaybar, and an alignment. I'm fairly certain this car had a diff because it's not gently caress me levels of power but it's enough to one tire fire and I didn't get any of that. Torque steer? Sure. But it's only ~200hp, and I lift. Not throttle though, never lift. The motor isn't underpowered, it has a good amount of pep. It makes some good turbo whooshing and four cylinder burbles too. This is living up to the expectations so far, and then I turn for the first corner and I know I need it. This is maybe the only stock car I've driven that turns in as hard as the street prepped cars, even more. The front end just goes. It is hilarious. It is front wheel drive so it will push but that front axle grip is comical for essentially a stock car. And it doesn't let up, the suspension is not stiff enough to be up to the task of the tires it is on but it is super well balanced and extremely tossable. My first run in the car was a few seconds off the lead cars but it was a solid time for a normal car. You turn, the car goes. The brakes are nice and modulate well, you can direct the front easily with your right foot on throttle or left foot on brake. They both introduced a nice bit of rotation. Until you get to the limits of the suspension. When cars are designed, the suspension is designed with specific grip limits in mind. A suv could probably do well at an autocross on stock tires, but you put in on good compounds and suddenly the grip ramps up, the suspension compressed more, and the car rolls more too. This leads to two wheeling, or rolling if you're unfortunate. This mini has stock springs and shocks but a nice stiff front bar. This keeps the front loaded and approximately compressed the same but the rear is still heaving over, and eventually one tire says I'm going in the air. Usually this isn't really noticable but the rear shocks in this mini are a bit toast so they go from body control to peace the gently caress out on turn and brakes and the inside rear comes up while it is still loaded and suddenly I'm asking "Drift? What do you mean drift" In an Alabama accent while I tag a cone with the rear passengers side and the passenger says "still need a dictionary?" This isn't a bad thing, and I quite enjoyed the sudden need for opposite lock in the mini, but it came in a very surprising manner once or twice which killed some time. The rest of the run goes in a stellar manner though, fwd is really hilarious fun to drive hard at autox. It's like the easy mode button in active diff cars where no matter how lovely your inputs, the car still carved a nice predictable path. It won't be fast, but it's shut off the mind and hoon. I'd have a hard time owning one of these as an only car because sadly now I've dipped my toes in the rwd waters and I can never go back. I used to think if I was to end up with a fwd car it would definitely be a gti, but I'm not so sure about that anymore.
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Oct 1, 2017 02:18
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The Locator posted:I've enjoyed the other incarnations of this thread, glad to see you back with chapter 3! Those who I've talked to have commented on it's "always on" hoon nature and that it isn't the greatest DD. Some cars I get to keep for longer periods so I get a bit more fleshed out feel for what the car is really like, which results in love notes like the one to the viper, or the drearyness of the Saturn sl1. Pretty much any car is fun when you're caning it at autox. Even an E36 m3. Wet autox is where Active diff AWD cars really show why they're different but even in the dry the RS will powerslide out of corners to keep its intended line.
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Oct 1, 2017 02:28
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I have a couple of friends that love them their Mini's and also autocross. If you are serious about going down that path for purchase, keep in mind that they are terrible in the maintenance department. They are constantly posting FB updates showing the cars on jackstands with large portions of the suspension or driveline out, because they are broken or worn. Don't know if that's purely an issue for autocrossers or not. Also, front tires get loving eaten alive by that car when autocrossing. Back when R compounds were the norm for stock classes, the Mini's would cord a set of Hoosiers in less than half the time that the other 'hot' FWD cars were doing it.
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Oct 1, 2017 03:12
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I was about to post how that review was making me do bad things on CL but I think that post just set me straight again. Maybe.
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Oct 1, 2017 04:01
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I will forever remember the oil cooler adapter we had to get shipped from germany because every us dealership was out of stock. The shop refused to do the gasket alone since they commonly fail soon after install, no matter oem or aftermarket. By the time it got to the mini's owner, it was near $600 for that one part. He apparently didn't bat an eye at the price, just said "yup, chuck it in". Granted this was for a supercharged mini, but still, gently caress minis.
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Oct 1, 2017 04:43
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I showed a random CL example of an R53 to my wife expecting a "hell no". "That looks like fun. What's wrong with it?" "It's a Mini, that's what." "So?" My wallet is already sore and it doesn't know why.
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Oct 1, 2017 06:51
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IOwnCalculus posted:I showed a random CL example of an R53 to my wife expecting a "hell no". Let me see if I can help you. These are stolen from one friends FB page. Note that these are all separate instances (well, one is fairly obvious since it's a different Mini). The comment on one of them is "I got the transmission out in just 4 hours since I was able to do it completely from memory this time."    There are a lot more pictures like this on the wife's FB page, but she's a shutterbug and has thousands upon thousands of pics that are not organized at all, so I gave up trying to find car pictures among all the butterfly and kiddo pics.
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Oct 1, 2017 07:54
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Muffinpox posted:Those who I've talked to have commented on it's "always on" hoon nature and that it isn't the greatest DD. Some cars I get to keep for longer periods so I get a bit more fleshed out feel for what the car is really like, which results in love notes like the one to the viper, or the drearyness of the Saturn sl1. Pretty much any car is fun when you're caning it at autox. Even an E36 m3. To second this, I pulled the Konis off of my ND last month because it turns out that I don't want to feel every small little imperfection in the road and that I don't want the car to stick like flypaper in every single situation. The factory Bilsteins are high pressure garbage that makes it look like the car's ready to hit the trail, but they're an absolute hoot when you're going 30mph and want to go full opposite lock.
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Oct 1, 2017 10:57
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The Locator posted:I have a couple of friends that love them their Mini's and also autocross. If you are serious about going down that path for purchase, keep in mind that they are terrible in the maintenance department. They are constantly posting FB updates showing the cars on jackstands with large portions of the suspension or driveline out, because they are broken or worn. Don't know if that's purely an issue for autocrossers or not. They're pretty common at autocross and I've heard enough stories to never want one without a warranty. I think they got more reliable with the R53s but they also look like a pain to work on. Phone posted:To second this, I pulled the Konis off of my ND last month because it turns out that I don't want to feel every small little imperfection in the road and that I don't want the car to stick like flypaper in every single situation. The factory Bilsteins are high pressure garbage that makes it look like the car's ready to hit the trail, but they're an absolute hoot when you're going 30mph and want to go full opposite lock. It didn't seem that bad to me, but I also don't really mind that stuff as long as you can just get in and drive the car. Even the viper was a good daily, it just seemed like a waste to be using it to pick up groceries at Trader Joe's. The only one that has been too much of an event to just go to the store was the Ferrari 348. Muffinpox fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Oct 1, 2017 |
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Oct 1, 2017 20:09
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Muffinpox posted:They're pretty common at autocross and I've heard enough stories to never want one without a warranty. I think they got more reliable with the R53s but they also look like a pain to work on. Yup and yup. My experience was with an R53 (first gen/supercharged) and work on it was an exercise in unwrapping the mechanical failure present left by BMW engineers. Plus, there's the BMW cost of parts. It was great fun, but always felt so fragile, like it wanted to break a couple different parts at any moment. That said, I looked at an R56 (second gen/turbocharged) as a project because they don't hold value for poo poo, and if you go into it with the mindset of it being a basket case, everything from then on is okay. Seller and I couldn't come together, probably better for me. Driving them, though? On the road you can have serious fun without getting into trouble, and that's a great feature for a car.
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Oct 1, 2017 20:47
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R53s are a little needy but some of the things that need to be done involve tearing the front of the car apart cause the supercharger is buried in there. I would not own a turbo model . I had a fat rear sway bar on the middle setting with the stock sport suspension in my r53 and it had like no body roll. Even with a stock alignment it ate front tires, but it also stuck to the ground like glue I've revisited the idea of getting one again a few times to drive in the winter because I miss the supercharger, but I don't know if I can do FWD again after five years of driving an s2000. I think if I got a FWD car I'd just get an RSX Type S and put a supercharger in it. Better platform IMO and way more reliable
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Oct 2, 2017 00:09
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Apparently I'm going on a fwd hot hatch rampage, I have a codrive for a stock fiesta st this weekend and might get a 2017 Civic si drive at the end of October.
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Oct 2, 2017 16:50
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Great writing as usual but you really need to start these threads earlier in the season so we can get you in some fine German automobiles down south. Muffinpox posted:Some cars handle amazingly and can go gently caress themselves controls wise, I'm looking at your E36 M3, you gently caress. 
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Oct 3, 2017 11:59
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Loving these write ups, great work!
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Oct 3, 2017 14:32
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Cop Porn Popper posted:I will forever remember the oil cooler adapter we had to get shipped from germany because every us dealership was out of stock. The shop refused to do the gasket alone since they commonly fail soon after install, no matter oem or aftermarket. By the time it got to the mini's owner, it was near $600 for that one part. He apparently didn't bat an eye at the price, just said "yup, chuck it in". I know this is sacrilege, but how are the naturally aspirated ones from a reliability perspective? My average speed around here is under 10 mph so I don't really give a poo poo if it has 200HP or not.
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Oct 3, 2017 20:05
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RIP Paul Walker posted:I know this is sacrilege, but how are the naturally aspirated ones from a reliability perspective? My average speed around here is under 10 mph so I don't really give a poo poo if it has 200HP or not. They're marginally better. They're still a value engineered BMW, and have the associated maintenance requirements and parts prices. My mom just sold hers and got a subaru, much to the joy of me and my brother. It's an engine out job to replace the clutch, and if you get 85k miles out of a clutch you're doing well. Given that you seem to have a lot of stop and go driving, it'll probably be even worse. Just say no.
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Oct 3, 2017 21:29
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The power steering taking a poo poo is a common failure, and it's somewhere around a $400 part.
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Oct 3, 2017 21:34
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