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All-Wheel-Drive
Sports Cars
All-wheel-drive
superstars
It's an age-old dispute among sports-car enthusiasts: Is four
better than two? While most race drivers contend they are quicker in
rear-wheel-drive cars, popular opinion (and the laws of physics) dictates that
all-wheel-drive sports cars have better grip and superior handling in adverse
conditions. Last month (see "The Best Handling Sports Cars in
America"), we dealt with this issue in a series of skid-mark evaluations
and tire-squealing tests, after which the all-wheel-drive Porsche 911 Carrera 4
came away as the best-handling car in America, besting its rear-drive
counterparts in impressive fashion. Even racing legend Mario Andretti
acknowledged the handling superiority of the Porsche. Evidence, then, that awd
can—at the very least— be successfully integrated into a top-notch sports
car.
This prompted us to take a closer look at these sophisticated machines. So we
gathered the most exciting all-wheel-drive sports cars on the planet—the
recently redesigned Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster, the sensational Nissan
Skyline GT-R and the Porsche 911 Carrera 4—and unleashed them on both road and
track, the latter an entertaining little road course at the San Bernardino
County Sheriff's Emergency Vehicle Operations Center, a driver training facility
known as EVOC. While at EVOC, we also did some wet testing, further proving
that, indeed, four can be better than two.—Sam Mitani
Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster
| In
the colorful ranks of automotive journalism, there is precedent for a
writer "writing off" a Lamborghini Diablo. A certain scribe—on
the staff of another major magazine—was doing showy power-on drifts for
his photographer at the car's introduction at the little-known Verano
racetrack near Modena, circa 1990. Let's just say they were a bit too showy. Kerr-runch!! Lamborghini personnel were none too pleased to see their life's work reduced to a $200,000 pile of crumpled aluminum, shredded carbon fiber and creased tubing, heaped against the guardrail. Upon his return to the U.S., that journalist was, er, assisted in updating his résumé. |
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Now, Road & Track is a great place to work…and to continue to work. And
that event of nearly a decade ago loomed large in my consciousness as I prodded
this high-strung bull through a series of corners, hard enough to load the
suspension for photos, yet carefully enough to avoid ripping chunks of tread off
the imposing Pirelli P Zeros—or leaving the asphalt altogether. Normally, wear
and tear on a set of press-car tires during a racetrack photo shoot is the price
of doing business. But this $311,000 thoroughbred, fresh off Lufthansa's cargo
plane with 192 miles on the odometer, had already been purchased by Richard
Berry, who graciously allowed us to drive the car for impressions, so the
kid-glove treatment was a must. Special thanks are also in order to Automobili
Lamborghini's U.S. distributer, Exclusive, Inc., for acting as the liaison.
And what a car this is, the ultimate permutation of the scissor-door Lamborghini
Countach. With the Diablo, stylist Marcello Gandini's original knife-edge
creases and folded-paper inlets have been smoothed and tempered, so the impact
is less hatchet and more mallet—a blunter implement, perhaps, but no less
forceful. Beneath the carbon-fiber engine cover lies another brute, a 530-bhp,
48-valve, 4-cam V-12 that sits in the same unusual amidships orientation of the
Countach: its flywheel end points forward, sending power to a 5-speed
transmission that resides beneath the wide center tunnel. The transmission's
output shaft then runs back through the engine's sump to the differential and,
in our Roadster's case, forward to a front differential via a carbon-fiber
propshaft incorporating a viscous coupling.
To fans of
rear-wheel drive (and that includes me), the Diablo's VT (for Viscous Traction)
system is the next best thing, as it behaves exactly like its rear-drive
counterpart until rear traction is broken; only then does the speed of the front
propshaft out-accelerate that of the front wheels. The difference in velocities
here causes the silicone fluid in the coupling to thicken, sending drive torque
to the front wheels. Experimenting in the low-coefficient world of EVOC's
water-soaked vehicle dynamics area, it was great fun to set the Diablo into a
drift, then squeeze the throttle gently and feel the front tires seamlessly take
up drive and pull the big Lambo straight…all seemingly in slow motion, like
astronauts on the Apollo 11 moon walk. On EVOC's pursuit training course, the
enormous 335/35ZR-18 Pirellis keep the tail admirably planted, so the
235/40ZR-18 front tires naturally scrub in low-speed, tight-radius turns, with
only a blip of self-correcting yaw with abrupt drop throttle. In deference to
the tires and considering that totaling a Diablo would be like wadding up a nice
3-bedroom, 2-bath Orange County home in Turn 2, I thought it better not to
explore the limits at high speed.
But you needn't push the envelope to appreciate the Diablo experience. Swing up
the door—pushing the latch pulls the beveled-edge side glass down out of the
seal—and lean way back like that Keep On Truckin' character of the Seventies
to slither beneath the door into the semi-reclined seat. The leather-wrapped
wheel is perched on a long column, nearly a foot away from the instrument panel,
and to your right is the broad, high center console. Wheel-arch intrusion is
significant, so you angle slightly toward the center of the car. Even so,
there's reasonable room in the footwell to operate the pedals, and there's even
a small dead pedal to the left of the medium-effort clutch. Head room is
generous, not nearly as claustrophobic as a Lotus Esprit or that champion of the
near-horizontal windshield, the Camaro. The expensive smell of leather perks up
your nostrils.
The Diablo's
starter whirs, aircraft-like, for a second before the big twelve catches and
settles into a low, guttural rumble, a sound that can be upstaged by the twin
cooling fans of the Diablo's rear-mounted radiators that drone like a couple of
Hoover uprights. Roll up the window and they're much less noticeable. Select
1st—to the left and down, in the so-called racing pattern—and gas it. You're
met not with the immediacy of, say, the Viper's V-10, but with a forceful
ramping up of power…a little soft at 2000 rpm, pulling harder at 3000 and
virtually exploding past 4000 to the 7500-rpm redline. Forward progress is
checked a bit by the exposed gate of the shifter and the healthy shove it takes
to engage each successive gear, but its 4.6-second clocking to 60 and 13.0-sec.
quarter mile at 115.0 mph place it at the pinnacle of production-car
performance. And unlike the whisperjet ease of a 911 Turbo or brute off-idle
calamity of the Viper, you have to work for the Diablo's speed. It's certainly
there, on up to a claimed top speed of 208 mph, given enough road and nerve.
For such a potent package, there's a reasonable dose of civility. Punch up the
softest of four shock-absorber settings on the center console, and there's ride
comfort similar to a BMW M3's. The base of the windshield is rather high and its
pillars quite thick, but the forward-dipping side windows lend a close-up view
while looking into the corners. The real sore point is the view to the rear; the
outside mirrors are filled mostly with fenders wide enough to cover the massive
rear Pirellis, while the inside mirror affords a view through a rear window of
bunker-slit dimensions.
Perhaps, as Art Director Richard M. Baron says, you just have to develop an
attitude of "What's behind me is not important." Which, in an
aggressively driven Diablo, is virtually every other car on the
planet.—Douglas Kott
Porsche 911Carrera 4 Cabriolet
| Given
his druthers, Mario Andretti confesses that when it comes to Porsches, he
would rather drive a 911 Carrera 2. "It demands more from the
driver," drawls Mario, in Italian-accented Pennsylvanian. See, Mario
feels he doesn't need help driving a car. "I like to be in
control," says the Formula 1 World Champion, Indy 500 winner and CART
champ.
Three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner, five-time Daytona and two-time Sebring champ Hurley Haywood, on the other hand, insists that all-wheel drive is superior. "It maintains its performance for a longer period of time," says Haywood, who won the 1988 SCCA Trans-Am Championship driving an Audi Quattro. |
|
Meanwhile, I am out of control—at Buttonwillow Raceway where an early morning
rain has left a nice glaze on the 2.5-mile road course. After struggling with
various 2-wheel-drive sports cars, any one of which is capable of putting your
best antiperspirant to the test, I breathe a sigh of relief as I settle down
into the firmly contoured driving seat of the latest 911 Carrera 4. Blasting out
of the pits and into the first turn, I wait for the inevitable—a lurid slide
off the track nose-first (in the trade we call this "understeer"), or
a snap-spin backward into the Kern County mud (that would be "oversteer").
But neither happens and, as the Porsche's four wheels get a grip on the track's
slimy surface, I notice something else—an almost imperceptible tug here and
there that keeps the Carrera 4 on course. "What the hell is that?" I
mutter.
"That," my friends, is Porsche Stability Management, a Bosch-developed
control system that acts as an electronic enforcer, delivering a bit of attitude
adjustment when the C4's driver attempts to overstep the limits of adhesion.
With myriad sensors monitoring every movement (yaw, roll, etc.), the device
sends appropriate commands to the brakes and throttle and makes you look like a
hero—or saves your butt. More about PSM (don't transpose those letters, son)
in a moment, after these words from R&T's Department of Vital Statistics.
For those of you who may have been stuck on hold for the last few months, the
Carrera 4 is the latest 911 variant to come out of Porsche's Zuffenhausen
manufacturing and assembly facility. It's your textbook 911, meaning that it
shares bodywork, suspension (give or take a piece or two), engine and interior
with the 2-wheel-drive Carrera. Feel free to peruse the data panel for further
information. Meanwhile, all you Porsche experts need to know to impress your
drinking buddies is that the C4 uses the same 3.4-liter, dohc, 24-valve,
296-bhp, water-cooled flat-6 as the C2 and goes about as fast—174 mph. Zero to
60 is 5.6 seconds for the C4.
Okay,
now back to PSM and other aspects of the Carrera 4, beginning with its
driveline. Generally speaking, this viscous-clutch-controlled all-wheel-drive
system is a carryover from the previous, Type 993-based C4. However, for better
weight balance and for simplicity (Porsche can now use the same transaxle for
both 2wd and awd models), the viscous clutch has been moved from the gearbox to
the front differential. This has necessitated some redesign of the front axle,
fuel tank and trunk (whose capacity is compromised somewhat).
Finally, on to PSM. Porsche hates it when I say this, but this Bosch system is
not unique to Brand P. Mercedes uses it. BMW too. In fact, many carmakers employ
some form of electronic car control on their prestige models. In Porsche's case,
what makes the device distinctive is that it's been fine-tuned by Weissach's
engineers to act as unobtrusively as possible. "The average driver won't
know if the system is on or off," says Haywood, now an instructor at
driving clinics staged by Porsche Cars North America. Echoing Haywood is Porsche
development chief Horst Marchart, who says, "The Carrera 4 retains the
driving behavior so typical of a Porsche."
With PSM engaged, understeer and oversteer are kept in check by judicious
applications of the ABS and/or by a feathering of the throttle, which is now
electrically and not mechanically linked. With PSM disengaged, the driver is in
control until he applies the brakes. Then PSM steps in as needed, tidies up any
potential problems, and exits as softly as it came in. This unasked-for
intervention may come as a surprise to those who believe that the system can be
completely turned off.
Following a two-day romp through the German Alps during which I often pondered
free-fall in a $90,000 Carrera 4 Cabriolet, the invitation to put an American C4
convertible through its paces on a racetrack was indeed welcome. For it was here
that one could fully probe the limits of the C4's adhesion. Our conclusion? As
advertised, the Carrera 4 still behaves like a 911. Because of its rear weight
bias it still understeers under power and oversteers under trailing throttle.
"That's just physics," commented R&T Online Editor Kim Wolfkill, a
longtime Porsche racer. But awd and PSM do a commendable job keeping the C4's
behavior in line, especially on the highway where the extra traction provided by
the front drive wheels keeps this Carrera tracking arrow-straight, especially at
high speeds.
Fine. But is all-wheel drive a panacea, as our
story would suggest? Or is 2-wheel drive still king of the road—especially in
the hands of a skilled driver in a perfect environment? "On a
racetrack," says Haywood, "the Carrera 2 would be faster for one or
two laps, mostly because it's about 150 pounds lighter. But over a five-lap
period the Carrera 4 would be quicker because it manages its tires better and
allows you to lay down power through all four wheels. That's why awd has been
banned from just about every racing series."
Okay, so maybe Mario doesn't care for awd. But then, Mario has raced mostly on
pavement, not off. Walter Röhrl, on the other hand, has spent his life driving
sideways—in international rallies (the SCCA Trans-Am too, but that was by
accident). From experience, Röhrl knows that when the going gets tough, the
tough rely on awd. That's why he's a Porsche Carrera 4 owner and just the man to
render this opinion: "It is just fantastic."—Joe Rusz
Nissan Skyline GT-R
| There's
nothing more painful in life than lusting after what you can't have. It
has driven the strongest men to their doom, the most ethical to sin, and
the rest of us just plain crazy. American enthusiasts of Japanese cars
have been dealing with this painful quandary for years, as
high-performance street machines, not for sale in the States, regularly
tease us from across the Pacific with head-turning good looks and
high-horsepower engines. And this tragic tale has reached Shakespearean
proportions with the introduction of the third-generation Nissan Skyline
GT-R, a car that has already been labeled the best "all-rounder"
in the world by the Japanese and British press.
When Nissan introduced the Skyline GT-R (R32) to the Japanese market in 1989, the stylish all-wheel-drive sports car developed an immediate following. And no wonder, for they had created a car that blended everyday practicality with European elegance and head-snapping performance. The all-new Skyline GT-R (R34) is basically the same animal, only better in every way. |
|
Recently
I sampled the right-hand-drive Skyline GT-R V-spec on the streets of Southern
California, where the car both impressed me and every motorist I happened to
pass. Upon first sight, it's obvious the Skyline GT-R is not your everyday
sports coupe. It's low and wide, with flared fenders reminiscent of a Detroit
muscle car. Its face is highlighted by an aggressive front air dam, housing a
large intercooler, and slim canted headlights that seem to glare at you in
anger. At the rear are the car's signature round taillights and a flashy rear
wing with an adjustable carbon-fiber element. Contributing to the sporty
appearance are low-profile Bridgestone Potenza 245/40ZR-18 tires wrapped around
6-spoke 18-in. alloy wheels. The Skyline GT-R is not a small car (especially by
Japanese standards), with overall length, width and height being 181.1, 70.3 and
53.5 in., respectively, which is about the size of a Mercedes-Benz CLK.
Wheelbase measures 104.9 in.
Inside the sheet metal, things are kept conservative. The interior is simple and
tastefully styled, highlighted by a large display screen that sits atop the
center dash. This monitor can be configured to show a number of different
functions, among them a turbo boost gauge and a meter indicating the amount of
torque going to the front wheels. The driver will find all controls are within
easy reach and simple to operate. There's plenty of head room for front-seat
occupants, and ample room for two children in the rear. Also, the cabin stays
remarkably quiet, even at speeds in excess of 75 mph. In fact, if it weren't for
the body-hugging sport bucket seats, which are surprisingly comfortable and
provide excellent lateral support, the Skyline GT-R's interior could easily be
mistaken for that of a luxury coupe.
But a luxury coupe it is not, a fact made evident when mashing the accelerator
pedal. Instantly, the car's four tires grab the tarmac and catapult the Skyline
forward like an F-18 jet fighter. Once off the line, the Skyline's acceleration
curve is smooth…and steep. The shift to 2nd gear is met with a chirp from the
rear tires, and with a slight whistle from the turbochargers, a teeth-clenching
surge slams you back into the seat.
Providing this acceleration is Nissan's
twin-turbocharged 2.6-liter inline-6 that produces 277 bhp at 6800 rpm (280 bhp
DIN) and 293 lb.-ft. of torque at 4400. (Although Nissan claims 277 bhp, the
Japanese maximum for production cars, we believe that the Skyline is pumping out
as much as 320.) The engine comes mated to a solid-feeling Getrag 6-speed manual
transmission with short throws and well-defined gates. At the test track, our
bright blue test car ran to 60 mph in just 5.2 seconds and reached the quarter
mile in 13.7. Because our test car had only 350 miles on the odometer (and the
engine hadn't been properly broken in), we are confident that slightly faster
acceleration times are possible after more mileage is accrued.
As impressive as the Nissan's performance is in a straight line, it lives for
the twisty stuff. Thanks in part to its rock-solid structure and sport-tuned
suspension system—MacPherson struts with an additional link up front, and a
multilink setup at the rear—the Skyline turns in crisply while exhibiting
minimal body roll. Then, Nissan's ATTESA all-wheel-drive system comes into play,
distributing power to the front tires (via an active limited-slip differential
with helical gears) when the rears lose their grip, providing a high level of
safety and driver confidence through a corner, especially in the wet. Also
assisting in this department is Nissan's Super HICAS 4-wheel-steering system
that accounts for the Skyline's razor-sharp steering responses. That said,
Nissan has incorporated a fair amount of understeer into the handling. And
although oversteer is easily induced by stomping the throttle in mid-turn, the
Skyline corners in a safe and predictable manner.
"Our main goal with the Skyline GT-R is to create the enjoyment of a
front-engine/rear-drive car, while providing a level of safety that isn't
possible in such a car," the product planning director of the Skyline GT-R
said.
The Nissan registered 0.89g on the skidpad and danced through the slalom at 60.8
mph. Stopping the car are Brembo brakes with vented discs and ABS. They brought
it to halt from 60 mph in 120 ft. and from 80 mph in 204.
After a day on both road and track with the new Skyline GT-R, it's easy to see
why the sporty Nissan is so popular in Japan…and it's catching on in the
States. On a few occasions, kids in souped-up Hondas, who recognized the car,
followed me to the office, wanting to check it out. In Japan, the Skyline GT-R
sells for approximately $45,000 to $50,000, which is cheaper than a comparably
equipped Porsche 911 Carrera. This prompts the question: Why didn't Nissan
develop a left-hand-drive Skyline for the U.S. market? It's a mystery to me.
But where Nissan has declined, a company in Torrance, California, called MotoRex
Inc., has accepted the challenge. It is making the Skyline GT-R (as well as the
original and second-generation models) available in the U.S. The
right-hand-drive, third-generation Skyline GT-R will be sold for
$89,500—putting it head-to-head with the Acura NSX and Porsche 911 Carrera 4.
It is currently 49-state legal (the company spokesperson claims it will be
50-state legal this month). And, unlike most gray-market importers, MotoRex has
actually crash-tested each version of the Skyline GT-R to meet federal
requirements, which means the company is quite serious about doing things by the
book. Interested? Then call MotoRex at (310) 224-5085 or check out the company's
website at www.skylinegtr.com.
Whether or not the car will officially be sold here by Nissan is, and will
probably always be, a question mark. It's a shame because I feel that the
all-new Nissan Skyline GT-R is the best Gran Turismo to ever come from
the land of the rising sun. Still, for those who want the car badly enough,
there is now a way.—Sam Mitani
On a separate note…Subaru Impreza
22B-Sti
| On
March 16 of last year, Subaru Tecnica International, the motorsports
division of Fuji Heavy Industries, began selling the Impreza 22B-STi in
Japan. In three days, the entire production run of 400 cars was snapped
up. Obviously this was no standard Impreza. In spirit, look and feel, the
handbuilt, all-wheel-drive 22B was the closest the rally-crazy Japanese
could ever get to owning and driving the Impreza that took Colin McRae of
Scotland to the 1997 World Rally Championship.
And now, thanks to a few rally enthusiasts at Subaru of America, Road & Track has had a chance to drive the only 22B in North America. Our quick assessment: Start selling it in the U.S. right now! |
|
Who cares if
Americans don't know much about rallying? This car is an absolute hoot, a
point-and-squirt sports coupe that's so entertaining it will open people's eyes
to the thrilling sport. At 4.9 seconds to 60 mph, the 2800-lb. 22B is
significantly quicker than any Mustang or Camaro, and its quick-ratio steering
helps make it more tossable than any production car I've driven. Of further help
here is a unit-body that has been seam-welded for extra rigidity, plus a
widened-track suspension whose Eibach springs and inverted Bilstein struts have
been tuned to excel on twisty
tarmac, not dirt.
This could be felt on EVOC's road course, where the 22B felt right at home but
did tend to understeer strongly while entering corners. The cure was to
sacrifice a bit of entry speed and allow the 22B to turn before getting back on
the throttle, rewarding you on the exit with a delightfully lurid power-on
drift, accompanied by a quartet of meaty 235/40ZR-17 Pirellis singing the
high-pitched song that never gets old.
A tuned version of Subaru's EJ22 powerplant makes all that wheel-spinning
torque, a turbo-charged 4-cam 2.2-liter flat-4 rated at the Japanese limit of
280 bhp but commonly believed to have 320 bhp. This engine—which has forged
pistons and the same rigid closed-deck block as the 1997 World Rally
Car—benefits from a large aluminum intercooler that receives plenty of cooling
air from the imposing scoop integrated into the aluminum hood.
Power reaches the 22B's BBS wheels via a close-ratio 5-speed transmission and a
twin-plate ceramic/metal clutch. This racing clutch is difficult to master, a
juddery on/off proposition that responds better to force than finesse. It's
certainly up to the task, however, its strong bite
apparent in the immediate forward thrust felt after each upshift. Also part of
the 22B driveline is a locking center differential that allows the driver, via a
roller knob on the center console, to vary the torque split from 35 front/65
rear to a locked 50/50.
With grip never a problem at EVOC, we spent most of our time lapping with the
22B's center diff open, the car behaving for the most part like a rear-driver.
In a brief experiment, though, with slightly more power going forward, the car
did feel more stable in power-on drifts, less likely to hang its tail way out of
line. On dirt, naturally, the differences would be far more dramatic.
Without a doubt, Subaru's 22B-STi is a dramatic car, purposeful in the extreme and a rare thrill to drive. Is there a better way for Subaru to celebrate its numerous rallying successes? I think not. —Andrew Bornhop
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