Road tripping

I spent some of the holiday finishing up the interior. While this was going to be a road going car  it was also going to race. Creature comforts would be kept to a minimum. I opted to clad the aluminium interior panels with 2mm think rubber sheeting as this not only suited the stealth look, but helped with sound deadening and was easy to clean. A couple of days and a couple of glue induced headaches later the interior was done.

The Tillett seats had really turned out to be a good choice.

Now that the car was home and I was working on the interior I had the occasion to sit in the new Tillett seats for extended periods. The choice was turning out to be a good one. While the seats have no padding as such they are exceptionally well designed complete with ridge indent for your spine and set back headrest to accommodate a helmet. Very comfy and definitely worth the outlay in my mind. Time will tell if they remain comfy after a long trip.

View of the working environment 

Passenger side

Just short of the shift gate now and all is done

 January rolled on and the dyno opened again for business. This was the last step needed before a full blown road test. A slot was duly booked and we headed down to Mace to see what the 4.0l V8 could be convinced to produce.

We were running the locally produced Spitronics engine management system. Spitronics make a "package" specifically for the Lexus V8 and you get everything you need to get one going including the wiring and chopper wheel. All that is then needed is for the engine to be finally mapped on the dyno. Herman set things up, jumped into the car and gave it horns. Seconds later clouds of steam appeared from the front of a car and things where brought to a hasty halt. Investigations showed nothing more serious then a loose hose clamp on the front radiator pipe. This was sorted out, system was bled and act two kicked off. 

Herman did a number of runs getting progressively better figures until we settled on a very decent 205kw and 391Nm of torque at the flywheel.  The power curve was almost like a straight line rising diagonally across the plot while the torque curve was like a straight line across the plot. There was a slight peak in the torque curve at around 5800rpm after which it started to drop slightly. All good stuff. Considering the sub 900kg weight of the car this was going to be quite a fun drive.

Now it was really time for said fun drive to take place.

On the chosen saturday morning the weather was fantastic, howling South Easter aside, as three Harpers set out towards Stellenbosch on the N2. We had Craig in his own Type 5 (the original Type 5 now with over 30,000km on the clock) and Ant Cocks in his 2.0l turbo powered Type 5 for company. The trio of cars cut a fine spectacle on the N2 highway as we played Top Gear to allow photographs and video to be taken.

First impressions of the Type 6 where excellent.

The car is very civilised and easy to drive at low speed. Although it sports a 5 puck racing clutch, the weight of the car (or rather lack there of) makes pulling off very easy. First gear is a little short and hardly required given all the torque the engine has at low revs. Trundling around in traffic is a no fuss affair with no driveline shunt or bucking bronco antics often associated with lightweight, high power cars.

We lead the string of Harpers down the N2 towards Spier wine farm checking engine vitals as we went and pulled over at the petrol station for a chat. The car is rock solid at highway speeds and was virtually unaffected by the howling side wind. The quick steering rack fitted to the car makes for very precise handling without it being nervous. Its very comfortable driving down the N2 with an elbow on the side pod and a couple of fingers hooked into the steering wheel. You don’t have to work too hard to drive the car, which is a “good thing”.

Once all vitals were checked and confirmed at the stop we set off again out over the N1 and onto some lesser used roads behind Bellville. Here we did a couple of rolling runs in successive gears to get a feel for the torque and acceleration. This was the first time the Type 6 had seen some decent “wellie”. 

The acceleration is, how shall we say, startling! Third gear is the most impressive. Planting the right foot from around 40km/h in third results in a little squirm at the rear and ballistic acceleration. The Lexus V8, with it’s 390Nm of torque, is designed to lug an almost two ton car around. So, plugged into a chassis weighing quite a bit less than half that results in furious and relentless pace. The rev limiter intrudes awfully quickly and snatching fourth just produces more of the same. Even a planted foot in fifth gear produces a surge more familiar to superbike riders than car owners. All the while your ears are been treated to a heavenly V8 soundtrack.

Impressive as the engine’s power and torque is, what’s possibly even more impressive is the car’s road manners during these antics. Under hard acceleration the car always tracked dead straight and pulled up as if on tracks under hard breaking. There was no lurching or diving just a good solid feeling with excellent feedback through both the wheel and seat. You get the distinct feeling that, while the engine would love to rip your head off and pee down your neck, the chassis has everything under control and is totally unfussed by the raging caged beast in it’s belly.

All in all, Craig has created a very evenly balanced car that manages to combine brutal, if slightly terrifying, performance, unique looks and an everyday usability aspect all wrapped up in a package that tends to attract quite a bit of attention regardless of where you happen to be.

The trip was over all too soon and by the time we arrived home we had done some 150km. The car is great fun to dive, and nowhere near as scary in traffic as my Lotus had been. It's bigger and wider and other road users tend to see you more easily.

But you find yourself giggling like a girl every time you just so much as nudge the throttle. I think I’m in love with third gear.