Which would be quicker?

A big soft hunk of mass, which wobbles left and right along with the windscreen wipers, where you turn the wheel way before the corner so by the time you actually get to the corner, the car has relised where it wants to go. Your sat way up high, a slight vibration through the wheel, and where everything seems to be alittle “off” – Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 (100bhp, supposidly)

In the Dry

VS

A sub ton mid-engined rear wheel drive two seater convertable with a clever 1.8 140bhp engine. Amazing brakes, amazing handling, probably the best for the price. Basically a car made for corners, only unlike the Zafira PMV, the MR2 is in the greasy conditions of winter. Melting snow, cold temperatures.

Which is the quickest?

Back in the day when me and Chris use to drive the yorkshire hills everyday in a Fiat Uno and Vauxhall Astra we came across a situation while it was raining. We was cruising been safe and not pushing it at all when a Lotus Elise over took both of us and carried on down the hill, It was the kind of overtake which suggested he totally disregarded our cars which had less than 140bhp between us, he probably had 130bhp to himself . I still remeber deciding to chase that Elise, I telepathically heard Chris telling me to catch it. The suprising thing was although the Elise was trying, our old cars was catching up to the Elise with some ease. He was slow. With hugh amounts of validation in my awesome driving skills I decided to let him go after he seemed to be pushing too hard and looked alittle unstable. I did’nt want to kill the guy, so I let off the throttle and slowly reduced speed. Its a good idea not to brake at first when theres a Fiat Uno wailing behind you. When I saw he relised I had ended the pursuit, I took a breath, soaked up the adrenaling, and just pondered just how great we both was. Two under powered cars designed to be basic modes of transport, taking down the best and lightest car on sale. We was stigs offspring.

These days things seem alittle more clear. In simple terms I would say, in low traction conditions a MR car will lose over over 60% of its potential if not more. All of the advantages given to the MR layout is taken away. When the engine is in the middle its great. The traction you get from all the weight over the driven back wheels is immense. The front wheels are free to simply turn the car, and when you do its instant. But when in wet conditions, the traction isn’t there, so you just have a mass of weight which is pivoting from the front wheels. Your not just driving, you are sort of walking a tight rope and doing a balancing act. Do you remeber Sonic the Hedghog when he was on the edge of a cliff and he went off balance. Thats a MR car in the wet. So in the Yorkshire Hills you literally are driving around corners and balancing yourself so you dont fall off a cliff.

A front wheel drive car does’nt have such a problem, its much easier to drive confidently. There isn’t a balancing act, the car will always face forward, if traction is lost the wheels will just spin, the car wont. So the potential of the car in the wet isn’t reduced as much as a MR car. I’ve more than relised this latley while I’ve been driving my mum Zafira to work, taking the same roads and corners as the MR2. Unfortunatly I never go to drive the MR2 in nice conditions like we have had this summer, I can only compare the MR2 in the winter compared to the Zafira now in the summer. Thats how this post came to be. I like to keep track of speeds and attitudes of cars through all the corners, and recently I’ve come to a intresting discovery. The actual corner speeds are almost identical. Theres a favourite set of corners I enjoy which involve a downhill left into a downhill right and they are almost both right angled corners with abit of a sweep to them. Speeds in the MR2 in winter was about 42mph even maybe 42.5mph. In the Zafira today in the dry? 43mph maybe 43.5mph. Thats judging by the speedo which we all know can vary on accuracy. So my final conclusion is this. A MR car corners in winter at the same speed as an average MPV in summer. Just look at the science im involved in.

Thats not the full story thought. The MR2 still exited the corner much faster, and obviously with more power got to the next corner alot quicker, but saying that the Zafira enters the corner quicker. Not to forget these are common FF and MR traits and do also rember Im comparing the winter performance of the MR2 to the summer performance of the Zafira, which when regarding top cornering speed about 0.5-1 mph. But the overall picture is the MR2 would cane the Zafira in the winter and summer. So I hope that was a fresh and intresting read. Just for comparison the EP3 is about 10mph quicker exceeding 50mph at around 53mph and the Fiesta ST about the same if not quicker, but the Fiesta did have PZeros compared to the Type-Rs crappish tires.

ARTICLE STILL TO BE SPELL CHECKED AND PROOF READ