[Gwagensteve]

I'm not anti vitara at all- I don't buy in to the "hairdresser's car" thing at all, and the ease with which the front end can be strengthened and real improvements in travel made is great. I think too many people disregard the vitara when it would be a better car for their needs than a sierra.

But a design flaw is a design flaw. Sometimes they work to our advantage (no rebound stops) sometimes they can be overcome.

[MrRocky]

A chromo axle and cv is the solution (looks like it will never happen) i see the whole farm spec hilux cv conversion as a bit bootyfab and hardly a solution to what would otherwise be a good little 4wd

[got_bar_work]

Ur right. Its the only thing u cant buy for vits and gvs. Yet its the thing thats needed most. There would be a huge market for them. Cv are around $100 a pop . Doesnt take many trips to start adding up.

[ozzycouch]

got_bar_work wrote:

Doesnt take many trips to start adding up.

What's the trip to broken cv ratio your running at!?!?

[tanshi]

There would not be a huge market. There are not alot of people hard wheeling vitaras who would want to spend 1000 bucks on chromos

[MrRocky]

Global market would be decent surely

[Angus Martin]

Gwagensteve wrote:

Just goes to show it doesn't matter how terrible something is, someone somewhere will think it's great. People also seem to think wrx's handle well too, an idea that's so pervasive people look at me like I'm crazy when I talk about how dire they are.

Thankfully it's not hard to improve the handling of a vitara- it's probably be only car ever that handles better once lifted.

Completely agree on the bad handling a vitara has on a wet road, my girlfriend's is proof of that, thanks for explaining why.
Now I'm wondering why you think wrx's don't handle well, I've been in a few and thought they were great but like anything if you look close enough there are problems, keen to hear your thoughts.

[ozzycouch]

Angus Martin wrote:

Now I'm wondering why you think wrx's don't handle well, I've been in a few and thought they were great but like anything if you look close enough there are problems, keen to hear your thoughts.

Same here.

Attached are result from our last 'fast motokanaha'. No reversing, tarmac event, top speed ~ 70.
WRX fastest and 6th
I would have thought the Bora would have been a better handling, faster car - looked quick.
Both Bora and wrx in 6th were on road tires.

[MrRocky]

Being awd makes for a quick drive but i agree they dont handle well compared to alot of other cars. Recently watched ae86 rwd sprinter wipe the floor with the wrxs and evos in respect to cornering/handling at targawest. The big $$$ porsche's were a different story though.

[Gwagensteve]

The short story is WRX's have incredible turn in and grip, but the closer you get to exceeding adhesion, the less predictable they become. It's also impossible to transfer weight rearwards, even with adjustable torque split to the rear axle in the STi. (I had a 2005 STi for 5 years /140k. I never truly felt comfortable in at at speed they way I did in, for example, my 02 Renaultsport Clio.

The end result is a very one-dimensional car (grip) that never feels trustworthy. Sure, it's fast on a track but put it on an unfamiliar road with variable conditions and they're spooky. When people crash them they tend to be big crashes because they feel fine and then the grip dissapears and you're a passenger.

In my opinion "handling" has almost nothing to do with grip and everything to do with what the car does when adhesion limits are approached or exceeded. Good examples are the GT-86 which uses an "Eco" tyre to lower adhesion to make the car more playful at lower speeds, likewise the early MX-5. Cars with adjustable weight balance, steering feel, and weight balanced weight distribution. Other examples would be 3 series BMW's, S Chassis nissans and FD rx7's.