After a few slight hitches I finally managed to take one for a spin this afternoon.
The first attempt was postponed since the expected car was unavailable at the last minute. Todays attempt was almost postponed since someone pranged the Reading car, but they drove one down from Hatfield at lunchtime.
It was an '04 MY car in Atlas Grey (new colour - I like it), black interior with X50 upgrade, manual with 1200 miles on the clock.
Impressions:
1. Clutch feels very different, in this car it was very light (more Japanese feel then German) and made it difficult to feel the biting point.
2. The brakes were excellent. Despite being the same rotors and callipers as my C4S, you got the same stopping power for less pedal travel.
3. All other controls felt very familiar - seating position, instruments, view, etc. all as my C4S.
4. The general ride felt pretty much the same at the C4S - I couldn't really tell the difference.
5. More difficult to get smooth gear changes when trying hard, although at normal speeds, not too hard. Could be linked to 1.
6. Easier to stall than mine (although I didn't actually stall), so a little more difficult to pull away slowly (as when in traffic), could also be related to 1.
7. Now the obvious bit - it was fast. It is the fastest car I have been in. The figures from 3.8 to 60 and 8.4 to 100, seem entirely believable. I was not sure if I would notice that much difference, since mine is 5.1 and 11 respectively. But I can confirm what you probably already know - it is indeed another distinctive step up the performance ladder.
I did what Grant suggested and used 2nd gear with my foot to the floor, multiple times since I couldn't quite believe what was happening.
At 4000 rpm on full boost the mid range grunt is simply unbelievable. It is both addictive and a little frightening, since you easily go faster than you expect. I was so busy watching the view out of the windscreen that it was hard to watch the rev counter and speedo.
The ease and speed at which you reach licence losing speeds is very impressive.
Overtaking people becomes completely trivial.
8. I managed to get the ABS to work, which feels much the same as my C4S (due to the mixture of dry and damp conditions).
9. My car is over-tyred, but I can see why they are this size on the turbo, since I had a chirp from the rear tyres as they broke traction briefly under hard acceleration. I also managed to get the back to squirm slightly when under full power.
10. From the turbos you can hear some whistling as they spin, but I could not hear the dump valves or any pressure release mechanism, which I half expected.
11. You can notice some lag, or at least the build up of power, but it is not an issue. The brochure claims they pre-spin the turbos if you drive enthusiastically, and when on a charge this seems to be the case.
11. The exhaust sounds quite quiet, although you hear the engine noises more, which gives the car a different character.
Now the real question - did I enjoy it and will I part with any hard cash in order to get one?
I didn't want to give the key back, which is strange, since I don't recall feeling quite such an urge before. I really did want to keep the car.
I believe that you want more power until you get to the point where using all of it makes you feel a tiny bit out of control. Perhaps it is lack of familarity, but I found using all of the power a little intimidating. Therefore it must be just enough[
]
On the downside, it seemed a little too easy. It doesn't seem right that some idiot like me with no special skills can go so quickly, so easily. To observers you may seem some kind of driving god, but it was no harder to drive than a micra (if Nissan gave one 400+ bhp).
I can also see that it would be enormously frustrating to drive - any piece of open road is devoured until you are up behind another vehicle again. In order to not lose my licence would require enormous restraint - I would struggle to use it's capabilities which means that most of the time it would be wasted.
From a finance perspective, the nearly new ones with low mileages are close the price of new ones.
My heart says buy one, but my head is questioning whether it is really such a good idea at this exact moment. I need more time to think - although this means I will probably not do it. If I did buy one, I then have to wait for the 997 turbo to come out to replace it.
My ideal window for changing is around Novemeber/December time, so there is time (even if they did want me to buy a new one for July[
]).
Whilst I was there I added my name to the 997 list, so I have that base covered.
They seemed to think that after the C2 (and C4 I guess) there would be a C2S and C4S with larger engines. The sensible option is to buy the 997 C2 around Christmas, then change for the S version or wait for the 997 turbo.
Of course there is always the fourth model to come(?).
