Aussie, German and Japanese fun!

[Scradley6666]

Yesterday I had the pleasure of driving 500km return down to Apollo Bay giving The Great Ocean Road a hiding. Turned out to be a great day for all four of us due to our different cars, my FG XR6 Turbo with ZF, a BA XR8 5SPD manual, a 6 speed 370Z and a R32 VW Golf '09 model with the DSG box. A good mixture of Aussie, German and Japanese engineering combined with FWD, RWD, AWD, Turbo, N/A with autos and manuals.

Anyways, after driving my FG turbo with the ZF and then jumping into the VW with the DSG, there really is no comparison. The DSG really is a peice of magic. Holds gears, matches revs, and is always in the power range. Something that the ZF does do occasionally, just nowhere near as good as the VW. Obviously my FG Turbo was the best for acceleration and it was all over the other four cars all day, but when it comes to mid corners, the VW and 370Z really shine. Especially with AWD with the VW.

Unfortunately the BA XR8 was struggling throughout the manual gears as both the autos were quicker to change up and down before and after corners. But it by far sounded the best. My Turbo spooling sounds good, the V8 just sounds that much better. The BA is lowered and tuned by Herrod and performed well all day. It's brute presence was felt by all of us with its bonnet bulge and lowered stance.

For anyone interested in the 370Z, it's gearbox is also a gem, matching revs in manual same as double clutching took me by surprise. It was the only car to keep up with the I6T for acceleration, though anything north of 75km/h I would start to pull away ever so slightly. When sitting in that car, it feels like your in a racecar, so low centre of gravity, it's well balanced.

I've always written off hot hatches, though yesterday, showed me that the VW Golf with a 3.2L V6, AWD and DSG really is the best packaged car for corners and can keep up with XR6 Turbo's, Nissan 370Z and an XR8. We all thought we would leave him behind. Definately not the case.

Just to clarify, I'm glad I had my car at the end of today. It pulled harder, handled better and braked stronger than all the guys expected. The Aussie built falcons did us well today, especially the I6T.


Speed limits were adhered too............