Ferrari Scaglietti, Maserati GranSport, Porsche 911 Turbo S. Well, driving these, albeit round a short and twisty track was bound to be the excitement of the annual UK motor industry test day on a private test track. There’s also a high-speed banked track where you can drive up to 100 mph or so.
The supercars
Ferrari Scaglietti
Ferrari’s Scaglietti has a hard time living with the looks of the 575M Maranello. Still, the inside is great, and that’s where you drive from. You get a nice racy steering wheel with a central rev counter, small but easily read speedo on one side, and a multipurpose electronic display the other. It includes a small digital speedo, but has a white background instead of the black of the instruments.
There’s no gear lever, because this car had the F1 electro-hydraulic gearbox controlled by a pair of paddles on the wheel. You pull a tiny little T-bar to select reverse – a one-finger job. As I pressed back into the seat, checking the reach, I felt immediately at home. It fits like a glove.
Start the engine with a button in the center console. It’s not an instant starter. The big V-12 likes a few turns before lighting up with a throb that says ‘power’. It’s in neutral, so pull back on the right hand paddle for up, and it snicks into first. To get neutral, by the way, you pull on the up and down paddles at the same time.
I ease the nose gently out onto the road heading for the track and I make my way slowly out to the first of two roundabouts to be negotiated before I join the track. The ride is pretty hard, but not unpleasant, and the engine is so smooth I might as well be in a sedan.
Not so! Turn into the short straight, and push the pedal. Good response even though I’m little more than crawling along in third. Come to the twisty section and the car just steers around. Remember to hit the left paddle to shift down for the first hairpin, and wind her around. The Scaglietti goes around as if on rails, and hardly noticed when I put the power down on the way out.
Later, I came to the steep uphill to the next hairpin. Give it some boot, and off we hurtle enough to give the brakes a test. Great stuff. Go wide and hit the apex late so that I can get the power on quick – ah, but not for long, someone in the way, and it’s too narrow to overtake.
After a couple of laps of this superb motoring, using the power when the chance comes, diving up and down and hills, and swooping round the corners, I’m having a great time. This is a car you feel so in tune with.
I’d been using the normal setting, which controls the engine response, shift points and damper settings. Now, I switch the setting to sport and immediately feel the difference. The ride is much firmer – really hard at low speed - and the traction control allows more wheelspin. What’s more the gearbox won’t shift up on its own – it holds full revs until you choose to shift up.
I head out onto the high-speed bowl, and just wander on at low speed, letting a lumbering Range Rover go past. Drop a couple of cogs, doing about 60 mph and give her the gun – off like a dingbat, shift up at 7,500 rpm, and soon we’re up around 100 mph, shift up again into fifth, and then drop into sixth. With 540 bhp you expect fast acceleration, and you get it, all the way from 4,000 to 7,500 rpm - in the intermediate gears at any rate.
On top of that, though, you’ve got a 2+2 with a trunk, and you can hold a conversation at 140 mph – really – and it feels very steady and under control. A true supercar grand tourer.
Porsche 911 Turbo S
The new 997 version of the 911 Turbo S has yet to be unveiled, and some people think the 996s are the last of the ‘true’ 911s, just man and machine on test, without electronics. This is what I was driving.
Of course, the Turbo and Turbo S have four-wheel drive, so they’ve plenty of adhesion; the roads were dry anyway, and the track I was driving on is quite grippy. This is almost as fast as the Scaglietti, with a top speed of 191 mph, and a 0-60 time of 4.2 seconds. Very close to exotica acceleration. Like the Scaglietti, the 911 is a fairly practical 2+2.
The thing about this one is that it is so quiet when you start off, without the thrum you get with a naturally aspirated thoroughbred. Power comes on strong from 3,500 rpm and goes up to 6,000 – and very fast. At any speed you seem to have masses of power, good steering, and all from a good driving position.
Turn in is quick, and so long as you don’t sail in to the corner too fast, you feel you’ve plenty of grip and control. And the brakes are exceptional. Well, they should be: they’re Porsche’s ceramic composite discs. You can really stamp hard on these brakes and pull back oh so quickly and then turn into the corner feeding the power on as you get to the apex. The car seems to have masses of control.
Get yourself into a longish uphill corner, though, and she’ll start to understeer, but that seems fairly easy to control. A thoroughly enjoyable powerhouse, but you need to keep in control.
Maserati GranSport
Nowadays part of the Fiat empire, Maserati has refined its Coupe and Spyder, and added the GranSport. All are powered by the same 4.2 liter V-8, which also forms the basis of the Ferrari F430. It develops 400 bhp, and being priced in 911 territory is an attractive and competitive alternative to the German supercars.
The interior has that warmth and practicality that is characteristic of Italian cars, and the exterior has been sharpened up compared with the Coupe. Looks good.
The gearbox is virtually the same as on the Scaglietti, but it’s called Cambiocorso, and works a treat. The instruments are where they should be, and are simple and clear, and you feel nicely held – not just in a good seat, but by the console as well.
Start the engine, and you get a nice muffled roar, and you’re off out over the poorly surfaced road to the track. The ride isn’t bad, and the car has plenty of performance – it can get to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds. The engine will rev to 7,600 rpm, responding well, although 7,000 rpm is a better shifting speed. On very low-profile Pirelli Zero Rosso tires – 35 per cent at the front, and 30 per cent at the rear there is plenty of grip, and plenty of bump-thump on poor surfaces.
Cornering is neutral, without any sense of understeer, although this isn’t an understeering track really. Very little roll, and the GranSport feels a very capable smaller brother to the Scaglietti. Good value, too.
Well, after those, everything must be downhill, mustn’t it? Not at all. Here are a couple of really different cars. Let’s start with the Westfield Sport 2000 S, a staggeringly fast open-wheeled sports car of the old school. Inspired by the Lotus 7, the Westfield does things a little differently, with its own double wishbone suspension front and rear – they were many years ahead of Caterham in going to independent rear suspension.
Wesfield Sport 2000 S
The Sport 2000 S is a trackday car you can drive on the road, legally and have fun doing so. Power comes from a 2.0 liter Ford engine with aluminum block and head. It is tuned by Dunnell to produce 250 bhp – the car is so light that with the driver aboard you get a supercar power-to-weight ratio of 400 bhp per ton! You’ll need a Koenigsegg or Pagani Zonda to beat that! Mind you, this is the exact opposite of luxury with no sound deadening – those words aren’t in the vocabulary at places like Westfield and Caterham – and minimal protection against rain.
Nevertheless, this is almost supercar specification. The engine has a dry sump, and unusually, is bolted directly to the tubular fame – no rubber mounted engine here! That stiffens the frame.
Surprisingly, it has a sequential gearbox, not an easy thing for a small firm to develop. It’s a six-speed close ratio job without synchromesh, but it does have a clutch. They say you don’t need to use the clutch when you shift up, only when you shift down.
Starting off is a bit strange because you have to pull back into first, and then let the clutch in. With the engine bolted to the frame, you can feel the beat of the power, and hear the gears working together all the time. The engine is surprisingly smooth, though.
On the rougher parts of the track, the ride is so hard you bounce on the racing seat, but you corner completely free of roll. The sequential box takes a bit of getting used to, and is best used as a normal manual box but with a sequential shifter – a bit different form the Ferrari, but very effective, despite the lack of synchromesh.
For a 2.0 liter engine developing 250 bhp, the Ford engine has pretty good mid-range torque, so you can hurtle off from about 4,000 rpm – and I mean hurtle. What’s more, with the wind in your hair, the exhaust blaring and the steering transmitting exactly what’s happening, it feels quick. And you’re only a few inches off the ground. An absolute sensation, and not surprising with that power:weight ratio belting you to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds. The brakes don’t have any servo assistance, so you have to press quite hard, especially on the steep downhill sections!
A truly invigorating car to get you back in touch with the road. With that open-wheel style, of course, the Westfield hits an aerodyamic wall at speed, but this is one for having fun, not for posing.
By the way, you can buy a standard Sport 2000 with ‘just’ 190 bhp, which will get you to 60 mph in 4.23 seconds, despite the conventional five-speed gearbox. Or….
You can go completely manic and buy the Megabusa, which looks much the same but is powered by a 1.3 liter Suzuki engine tuned to the eyeballs to develop 180 bhp at 9,800 rpm! The car is so light it rockets to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds! Wow!
Renault oddball
Now for something that looks almost normal but which is nevertheless a real oddball. This is the Renaultsport ClioV6 255. The Clio is a supermini, and a very small one, and the guys at Renaultsport rip just about everything out of the standard car, including most of the rear floor, and they put a V-6 255 bhp engine in behind the driver, driving through a transaxle like on a grand prix car.
You get a good bucket seat, but the interior is very basic, sort of half racecar and half supermini. This isn’t a thunderingly quick car, but still gets around the place pretty quickly. The driving position is quite good, except that the gear lever is too far forward – odd really as they could have put it anywhere. Steering is sharp, and immediately you get the power on, you’re off into an enjoyable drive.
This is a noisy car, but it handles pretty well, turning in smartly, and as it is not too wide, you can make good progress over narrow roads – I didn’t drive this one on the track. Drive within the car’s limits, and the cornering is neutral, but when you push a bit harder, you can feel it wanting to oversteer.
Really eccentric and French, and you get one for about the price of Nissan 350Z.
Monaro (Pontiac GTO) and Mustang
I also tried some transatlantic muscle in the form of the Holden/Vauxhall/Opel Monaro VXR or Pontiac GTO – one of the General’s true internationals, made in Australia. With a 6.0 liter engine knocking out 398 bhp, it is well ahead of the Mustang in the power stakes.
It’s a great V-8 which burbles along at low speed and then turns to a muffled thunder at high speeds, so it’s a bit of a rubber burner. The handling didn’t feel too bad, but the car is spoiled by the poor interior, the gear lever being far away, and requiring long shift movements. Nor is the engine as responsive as you’d expect. Some times it responds quickly to the throttle, and sometimes there is a lag. Just a bit inconsistent, which spoils things. Still the car has a lot of appeal.
The Mustang GT was a disappointment, although I didn’t drive it far. Acceleration is quite good, but only once you’re up to 3,500 rpm or so - it didn’t seem to have much low-speed torque, which is surprising. Nor is the ride much to write home about, and everything just felt ordinary.
Hot hatches everywhere
On the other hand, the current crop of Euro hot hatches are hot and chuckable. We still rate the Golf GTI highly, but the new GM Opel/Vauxhall Astra sport coupe turbo and the Seat Leon Cupra R – same underbody as the Golf GTI – are worth a second look. The Leon Cupra R has 225 bhp from a neat turbo mill and handles and drives very well. At the moment it is the most powerful hot hatch around, and seems to have the road manners to match, with quite pronounced tuck-in on lift off.
The Astra is also very competent, with a strong engine, so the 240 bhp version coming soon looks set to become the top hot hatch. The instruments and steering wheel are fine, but the rest of the interior looks very dated. These are cars you can chuck into corners, lift off slightly to tuck them in and barrel on out having a lot of fun.
Now to end as I begin – in an Italian car, which is now reckoned to be part of the same stable as the Maserati. This is the Alfa GT, a pretty front-drive coupe powered by a 250 bhp V6. It has a nice driving position, not very good instruments, and quite a pleasant interior.
The Alfa GT is obviously quicker than the hot hatches, and most of the time handles well. Straight-line performance is good, but the rest of it didn’t seem so good. The gearshift is a bit woolly with long travel, and the driving position could be better. Also, occasionally it dances around in a rather disconcerting manner. I’ll have to see how it performs on our test route.
Overall, a great day, and thanks to the SMMT and manufacturers for making it happen – and for it not raining! Huge fun.
