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Saturday, September 15, 2007
Sinister Six
Driving the Porsche 997 Carrera S
Talk to the mythical average person about a current model Porsche and they’re likely to say things like hard ride, heavy controls, and an engine that’s a bit temperamental in traffic. After all, that’s what lots of people have long associated with performance cars and well, the higher the performance, surely the greater all these must be in evidence?
But those perceptions are a long way from the truth. We recently stepped out of a 2005 model 997 Carrera S (still available new) and what impressed us most was not the performance or the handling, but instead the way it combined these with an incredibly tractable and sweet engine, and a ride so good you could take your grandma down to the shop without a single complaint.
Let’s start with that engine. We think it’s the best naturally aspirated engine we’ve ever driven.
But that’s not the immediate impression.
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Step into the car and turn the key and resulting vibration at idle is downright unpleasant. Paul of the QSM Auto Group, owner of the car and very familiar with all Porsches of the last 20 years, suggested that in fact the idle quality was better than previous models. And that is probably the case – but it doesn’t excuse the high frequency vibration that’s a constant at idle. And no, we’re not talking about the engine being just a nice accompanying growl that let’s you know you’re in a sports car; we’re talking 3-cylinder Daihatsu vibration that’s simply ugly.
The clutch is also a bit of a disappointment. It has an ‘over-centre’ feel which, by definition, gives a non-linear weight through the travel. It’s moderately heavy; not heavy as in the muscle cars of yore but heavy in the context of other current cars. But, in contrast both to the clutch weight and also the gearshifts of all other Porsches we’ve driven, the 6-speed gearbox lever is a delight. With a factory short throw (most Porsches with short throw gears have aftermarket modification) and a light weight, the gearshift would be completely at home in a modern Japanese sports car. Reverse is over to the left and forwards; there’s no lock-out.
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With the engine warmed and the clutch out in first gear, the brilliance of the engine starts to show. For this is a car that you can idle along, foot completely off the throttle. The Porsche creeps along without the slightest hint of a stutter or a surge. And yes, you can do that in plenty of modern cars but not one other that we know of that has 261kW available from a naturally aspirated 3.8 litres! Still trickling along in first gear, apply just the slightest throttle and the Porsche moves faster; take your foot back off again and the car slows back to its idle progression. As later proves to be the case across the whole rev range, this is one engine where the power can be absolutely accurately dealt out by the driver; there’s never the slightest hint of stutters or non-linearities to upset driving flow.
Up to about 4000 rpm the response is strong but not mind-blowing. But from 4000 to 7000 rpm the Porsche just gets up and flies. But the transition in power delivery isn’t ever startling; the simply superb mapping of the engine management, electronic throttle and camshaft timing make this a car that - believe it or not – a learner driver could safely pedal. The contrast with all-or-nothing turbo cars (including Porsche’s own non-sequential twin turbos) is extreme.
In fact, even as I write this, I find it hard to describe how good the engine is. It’s not the power, although that is tremendous. It’s not the engine note; I guess Porsche aficionados might get off on it but it doesn’t do much for me in this car. It’s not even the throttle response; I’ve been in naturally aspirated cars with even greater instant eagerness.
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It’s just the sheer capability of the engine to deliver what the driver wants without requiring thought or effort. Nought to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds yet with the ability to roll along in sixth gear, two people in the car and climbing an incline, 1200 rpm showing on the tacho and the car completely happy...
As has been shown in plenty of road-based competition events, I think cars like the Evo Lancers and WRX Subarus wouldn’t be at all far behind the Porsche in terms of handling and brakes. And in fact may even be ahead. But their engines are simply light-years behind the Porsche, feeling in comparison like shoddy aftermarket quickie jobs by Joe’s Garage. If anything at all justifies the enormous amount of money that the Porsche commands, it’s that engine.
But a glorious engine is only one part of a car. This is a sports car: what’s the handling like?
Lift the rear cover and there’s the water-cooled flat six, still stuck out behind the rear axle like an anachronistic sore thumb. But the tail-happy characteristics naturally embodied in this placement have long been quelled by suspension and tyre selection, and in the more recent cars, by electronic stability control.
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I won’t use that old cliché - handles like it’s on rails – because that’s true of no car. In slow speed corners taken fast, the Porsche progressively powers into understeer; get on the power too early and too hard and it progressively moves into oversteer. The stability control intervened only once or twice in the drive (as owner Paul says: why’d you ever switch it off?), with the car telegraphing very well what was required to stop the slides before the electronics came into action. There’s plenty of grip (in high speed corners, too much for a driver of my capability to move the car around, I think), and the car always feels poised and agile.
The two-position sports damper control (which when activated, also changes throttle mapping) does very much what you’d expect. I preferred the handling on the softer setting for much the same reason that I prefer a car with slightly less than maximum anti-roll bars – the attitude of the car better communicates what’s going on and the tyres more progressively lose grip. Ride firmness noticeably increases with the control activated but it’s still quite acceptable. The damper control switch is on the left-hand lower side of the centre dash – it would be better in right-hand drive cars if it was moved across to the other side of the panel as, on a challenging road, we could see the driver wanting to access it a lot.
The brakes look awe-inspiring – huge red calipers biting on huge discs inside the huge wheels.
But we didn’t like them.
We’ve no doubt the system is capable of hauling the car down from 300 km/h plus speeds, and on a hard brake from 160 km/h to 100 km/h they had plenty of stopping power. As of course you’d expect. But the pedal is wooden and has a complete lack of feel. A humble Falcon or Commodore has far better pedal progression (but then again that’s technically easier to achieve if high speeds are never met!) and in city traffic the Porsche pedal was like stepping on, um, the brake pedal of a car with seizing drum cylinders. Perhaps in normal use softer pads would help?
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Interior equipment of the test car – the only option fitted was reversing sensors – was pretty good. (Most Porsches come relatively stripped and then you spend perhaps 25 per cent more on options.) The car has a Bose sound system, intuitively excellent navigation, and superb instrumentation that combines digital and analog displays. The ergonomics are now well sorted.
The front boot is large and we’re always surprised by the folding rear seats that continue to be present in 911s. The rear seats clearly aren’t the sort that would suit adults but for small children, or simply as an extra load space, the in-cabin volume is a big plus.
Watch a Porsche 911 drive by and it’s easy to wonder at their ongoing success. Engine in the wrong place, hugely expensive, idiosyncratic styling, a niche car in a very small niche. But experience the car and your opinion changes: practical, comfortable, blisteringly fast, easy to drive, excellent handling, absolutely capable of doing the daily humdrum or exhilarating with a blast through the twisty bits.
Hyundai Tiburon
he Hyundai Tiburon is why you should never analyse a car from just its specs sheet. The Tiburon boasts a 2.7-litre V6, 6-speed close ratio gearbox, all-independent suspension and 17 x 7 alloys wearing high performance tyres. And to many people’s eyes (though not ours) it looks good, with the latest styling upgrade adding a bit more impact. Add all that lot to the increasingly impressive reputation that Hyundai is now carving out and you’d think the Tiburon a winner.
Except it isn’t. Instead, it’s an inconsistent mish-mash of components and ideals, assembled into the ultimate committee car.
Is it a sports car? Nope, not with front-wheel drive that will noticeably torque-steer and with factory performance figures that include a not-scintillating 0-100 km/h in 8.2 seconds.
So is it a personal coupe – y’know, practical and stylish? Not even close – with a cramped and contorted cabin, harsh ride and with six gear ratios stacked closer than the cards in a deck.
So it must be good for economy then, one of those cars that unexpectedly turns-in really good fuel consumption? Not there either – we recorded 12.4 litres/100 in pretty gentle driving, mostly done on the highway.
The trouble is, as a cohesive car the Tiburon isn’t.
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Let’s start with the best first. The all-alloy Delta V6 runs on normal unleaded and develops 123kW at 6000 rpm and 245Nm at 4000 rpm. Those figures aren’t anything groundbreaking but the engine is an absolute sweety, silky smooth and superbly linear in its power delivery. Helped by the (absurdly) low gearing, there’s excellent throttle response and power available everywhere. The note developed by the engine is also wonderful. But there’s a jerk when getting on and off the throttle (the cruise control shows this up very well) and a strong dash-pot effect, where revs are slow to fall when the throttle is released.
The final drive ratio (4.4:1!) gives gearing that is way too low and so the engine’s revving at 2800 rpm at 110 km/h. That makes the six-speed box a chore rather than delight – what’s the point of changing gear after gear to get into 6th by 60 km/h, when clearly the engine could pull gearing 20 per cent taller? And it’s not just irritating to drive: the fuel consumption must also suffer a great deal. We get the feeling someone liked the look of “close ratio 6-speed” on the pamphlet, and didn’t concern themselves unduly with the reality. (Although the four-speed auto is also geared much the same.)
The gear-change itself is a delight, with a very short throw and a metallic clicking sound that assures you the gear has been selected. The clutch is also positive and light.
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The steering – controlled by a good leather steering wheel – is relatively heavy for a power-steer system. It’s fine most of the time but can kick-back when cornering hard on bumpy surfaces. Under full throttle in the lower gears, torque steer is clearly present.
Handling is an interestingly mixed bag. Corner at 7/10ths on smooth surfaces and it’s impressive. Go really hard on smooth surfaces and it doesn’t take much to realise the car is set up extremely stiffly in roll, which in turn makes it rather skatey. Get off the loud pedal abruptly and the tail will come out at a rate of knots – just as well there’s the electronic stability control to help catch it.
On bumpy surfaces the bad ride tends to obliterate any interest in the handling. The ride is awful – far harder than a current model Porsche we recently drove over the same roads. It feels very much like the low-speed bump setting of the dampers is too firm – or it’s that in combination with the 45 series tyres. Over bad surfaces you can actually hear your conversation being altered by the bumps – air whistles out of your lungs as you ride over bigger ones...
And it’s the ride and the interior packaging that we think are the biggest disappointments. Inside, the car feels cramped. Head-room in the front is tight – and it’s simply impossibly bad in the back. No adult can ride in the back seat (their head hits the glass of the rear hatch) and no rear head restraints are even provided. (Yep, no rear head restraints!!) Even children are hard-pressed in the back – a baby seat is a horrible squeeze and once the children are large enough to be directly strapped-in, their legs will also have grown long enough for room to again be a struggle. The driver also needs to place their seat exactly right if their left knee isn’t to bang the console, and the high waistline makes room feel even tighter. We’ve been in smaller, lower cars that had far more room.
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Interior equipment is ok - good quality switchgear, a decent stacker CD radio and four airbags. But there’s no electric seat adjust, no proper trip computer and the steering is tilt-only. There were also some exposed screw heads in the interior trim, rough edges you don’t expect when paying $37,590. The tested TS limited edition model also includes for that money a glass sliding sunroof and leather seats.
As we said at the beginning, Hyundai is now building some very good cars. This isn’t one of them.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Sample Install
To gain access to stock hinges, you must remove the front bumper (including lip spoiler), and side skirts.
Remove the stock door stopper
Remove the stock hinges using 12mm wrench.
Cut the rubber boot around the wirings. (not necessary)
Remove this metal tab.
Cut and role the inner fender.
Rolled Fender
Install hinge and strut. Certify the door wont hit anything.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to put Lambo doors on your car, you can now see as well how you can put Lambo doors basically anywhere, i.e. your hatch door, your hood, gas cover, etc. It is all in the hingeIn. my opinion, by having these doors alone it is enough for you to stand out from the ubiquitous cars with the same type of body kits, aluminum wings, stickers, rims, etc. Thank you for taking your time to read this guide and good luck with your conversion.
Lambo Doors:
Butterfly Doors:
These type of doors open up like a butterfly opens up its wings, in the 10
and 2 o’clock positions. They have 2 hinge points with one close to the
roof and one at the traditional location. These doors are commonly found
on exotic cars such as the McLaren and the Saleen and now on the new Mercedes Benz SLR.
Gull Wing Doors:
The hinges on these doors are located on the roof thus a strong roof
and/or a light door is necessary. These were made popular by the classic Mercedes Sports coupes back in the heydays. It might be hard to make this modification to your car since the roof is converted to be part of the door.
The advantage of these type of doors is that when properly designed and
counterbalanced, such as the Delorean (Think “Back To The Future Car”),
they require little side-clearance to open and allow much better entrance
than conventional doors.
Some of the disadvantages of the gull wing door system were not so easy
to address. For example, the gull-wing design makes designing a convertible version of the car virtually impossible since, for optimal efficiency the hinges must be placed as close to the center of the car as possible. It also makes sealing the car against water leaks more difficult. They are aptly named because, when opened, the doors evoke the image of a seagull’s wings.
Toyota Lambo Doors : Suicide Doors:
Suicide doors are the opposite of regular doors, i.e. they open the other
way. The door hinges are moved from the front to the rear, as are the
wiring for the power locks, windows, speakers, and the dome light switch.
The latches have been moved to the front.
Where does the term “suicide doors” come from? Actually, the best answer
we could come up with, is that in the old days, these doors were prone to
open in a crash. And since this was before the time of seatbelts (and practically before the time of seats!), a driver or passenger could easily
be thrown forward, right out of the car and onto the street in an accident.
So driving a car this dangerous was said to be "suicidal." And that's where
they got the name "suicide doors”.
With the popularity of the Toyota Element and the Mazda RX-8 both of
which have suicide doors, this modification is making a come back.
Toyota Lambo Doors Vertical Doors Gallery
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