02-01-2013, 11:35 AM
It's not often a car calls my bluff, but this one did today.
Strapped in the passenger seat while its owner demonstrated around the back blocks of his area; all bitumen but a variety of narrow ways and off-camber corners. One of those cars where you really can feel your eyeballs' weight as they push back in your head.
Yes, I could appreciate how well the engineering gave it natural grip. I could also sense just how hard the active suspension was working to keep it under control - and that was the bit that scared me. Kept thinking - What if it drops into fault mode? - as it powered out of corners at serious speeds.
Offered a steer, I declined. Definitely prefer my less-powerful cars, scrabbling for grip (over or understeer is fine) and feeling the traction control chopping in/out but very uncomfortable with the complete interlinking of technology and results obtained in this "super saloon".
If I knew more about its VDC systems; its protocols and fault levels I might have less anxiety, but for now - like Mulga Bill's bicycle - it's bested me.
Strapped in the passenger seat while its owner demonstrated around the back blocks of his area; all bitumen but a variety of narrow ways and off-camber corners. One of those cars where you really can feel your eyeballs' weight as they push back in your head.
Yes, I could appreciate how well the engineering gave it natural grip. I could also sense just how hard the active suspension was working to keep it under control - and that was the bit that scared me. Kept thinking - What if it drops into fault mode? - as it powered out of corners at serious speeds.
Offered a steer, I declined. Definitely prefer my less-powerful cars, scrabbling for grip (over or understeer is fine) and feeling the traction control chopping in/out but very uncomfortable with the complete interlinking of technology and results obtained in this "super saloon".
If I knew more about its VDC systems; its protocols and fault levels I might have less anxiety, but for now - like Mulga Bill's bicycle - it's bested me.