thx247
01-18-2004, 10:36 AM
I recently bought a 91 hatchback with sport suspension and hicas package, VLSD. Until then I've been driving a base model hatchback with J30 VLSD installed.
I went to thunderhill today to explicitly find out the differences in hicas and non-hicas cars. To make a long story short, I only remembered that I was supposed to be testing the differences as I was loading up the car to leave.
The implementation of hicas in GRIP DRIVING is as far as I'm concerned, seamless. I did not notice anything peculiar about the car at all. The stock VLSD has a more noticeable impact on performance than anything else. In my old car (137wrhp) vs a car with 110rwhp (both with J30 vlsd) I could barely, and I mean barely close distances on straight aways. Even though I had 27hp advantage. With this new car, I can easily put several car lengths on against the car with 110hp. I think its all in the gearing. So while I did lose some straight-away speed because of the speed limiter (116mph), the acceleration more than makes up for it.
The stiffer sway bars are almost comparable performance wise to whiteline bars. I didn't notice a major difference between a car equipped with them, and my car. Entry speed is slightly better with the whitelines, but once in the turn....it was next to impossible to tell without a data logger. I imagine the fact that both cars have 140k on them does not help in giving accurate driving impressions.
Anyway, not very exciting news but interesting none the less imo.
Oh, final thought, hicas in the wet...(only on the street so far) = NO. It feels like the rear of the car is trying to twist itself up to the front of the car. A very alarming feeling. Hopefully I get a wet track day in soon.
* data logger coming soon. DL90 hopefully.
I went to thunderhill today to explicitly find out the differences in hicas and non-hicas cars. To make a long story short, I only remembered that I was supposed to be testing the differences as I was loading up the car to leave.
The implementation of hicas in GRIP DRIVING is as far as I'm concerned, seamless. I did not notice anything peculiar about the car at all. The stock VLSD has a more noticeable impact on performance than anything else. In my old car (137wrhp) vs a car with 110rwhp (both with J30 vlsd) I could barely, and I mean barely close distances on straight aways. Even though I had 27hp advantage. With this new car, I can easily put several car lengths on against the car with 110hp. I think its all in the gearing. So while I did lose some straight-away speed because of the speed limiter (116mph), the acceleration more than makes up for it.
The stiffer sway bars are almost comparable performance wise to whiteline bars. I didn't notice a major difference between a car equipped with them, and my car. Entry speed is slightly better with the whitelines, but once in the turn....it was next to impossible to tell without a data logger. I imagine the fact that both cars have 140k on them does not help in giving accurate driving impressions.
Anyway, not very exciting news but interesting none the less imo.
Oh, final thought, hicas in the wet...(only on the street so far) = NO. It feels like the rear of the car is trying to twist itself up to the front of the car. A very alarming feeling. Hopefully I get a wet track day in soon.
* data logger coming soon. DL90 hopefully.