DavidM

I met up with a guy I know who has an Astra Turbo (couple months old and manual). Nice looking car and well equipped with the leather seat, door trim, heated seats etc. Can feels petty good too even though it is more tuned for comfort and refinement (ie. very quiet, smooth and relatively soft). Anyway, I lined it up in my Zed (with the Hi-tech exhaust) just to see how it would fare ... I was expecting to comfortably win no matter what, but here's how things went (most runs were done at least 3 times):

- Test #1: 0-130kph, standing start:
We did this a few times but the Zed will always outlaunch the Astra ... RWD helps in this sence. The Zed jumps about 1 - 2 car lengths ahead even when the Astra gets a good launch, and then pulls away like a train. The Zed had good 3 car lengths by the end of 1st gear, and pulled even more in 2nd gear. By the time I shut down at around 130kph, I was good 6 - 7 car lengths ahead. Even if I bogged down at the start, it just meant that the Zed needed 1 - 2 secs to catch it's breath and start pulling away.

- Test #2: 5-130kph, rolling start, both cars in 1st gear:
Agan the Zed starts pulling away as soon as we started. It's pulling away pretty convincingly, but not as quickly as from a standing launch ... it's a lot more gradual. Still, by 130kph I would be good 4 - 5 car-lengths ahead. The Astra has a decent bottom end (which shows by it's peak torque of 250Nm at ~2000rpm).

- Test #3: 10-130kph, rolling start, both cars in 2nd gear:
I was expecting to see a bigger difference than in the 1st gear roll, but surprisingly it was not much different to the above scenario. Because there are no gear-changes involved untill ~100kph, it demonstrated the power difference pretty well, and the Zed pulls away more and more as the speeds increase. Again, by 130kph the Zed was good 4 - 5 car-lengths ahead.

- Test #4: 0-170kph, standing start:
I was interested to see how the Astra would go a higher speeds, and it did pretty well as I was expecting it to run out of puff there. Anyway, as in the 1st test, I would always outlaunch the Astra and then just consistantly pull away. It was no different to 130kph from the 1st test, but after that I pulled away another 4 car lengths or so before I stut down at ~170kph. That would put me about 11 - 12 car lengths ahead ... hard to guestimate that kind of distance, but it was a fair bit. Still, the Astra was pulling pretty hard even at those speeds .... from what I gather, the Astra would be doing 150 - 155kph at that stage. That is not too far of a WRX.

We did this a few times, but one other run was of interest as I totally missed the start .... I only launched once I saw the Astra shoot off the line. Here the Astra jumpled me by 1 - 1.5 car-lengths as I was late off the line, but as soon as my tyres hooked up, I was reeling in the Astra fast. It was at the start of 2nd gear (ie. 60 - 70kph) that I passed the Astra and I passed it very fast. It felt like it took me no more than 2secs to get from being on it's bumper, to having the Astra on mine. Very noticable speed differencial. After that I pulled away like in all the other instances and still had 10+ car-lengths on the Astra by the time I hit 170kph.

So, as I meniotned at the start, I was not expecting the Astra Turbo to put up a challenge, but it was good to see how it performed. It's has a good engine as it pulls from very low revs and at no point does it feel like the turbo needs to spool up. It pulls pretty well from low revs even in higher gears. It might give the odd WRX a run for it's money if it cathes one in the wrong gear or at lower revs (and if they stay at road legal speeds). It's a pretty quick little car, but (of course) not comparable with the Zed.

mchapman

iTrader: (1)

Love you work Dave! Great Analysis.

KY350

Good comparison David.
I thought the Astra may be a little quicker than you reported. I am surprised how easily you reelled it in when it got the jump.
Perhaps a standard Z would give away 1-1.5 car lengths from the differentials you state.
Mind you a few mods on the Astra would produce a quick little car.

DavidM

I am surprised how easily you reelled it in when it got the jump.

Yep, that surprised me as well, as being later/behind on the off the line has got big implications down the road. I guess it just goes to demonstate the acceleration differential.

Perhaps a standard Z would give away 1-1.5 car lengths from the differentials you state.

Not sure which speed increment you're refering to, but from what I've been able to see, it's about 3 - 4 car-lengths to 160kph, and out of that it's about 1.5 - 2 car-lengths to 100kph. On in other word about 0.3 - 0.4sec over 400m.

Mind you a few mods on the Astra would produce a quick little car.

I'm sure that it would not take much to wind it to 180kw (ie. exta 30kW) ... though, it would not help it get off the line so there it would always be playing cath up. Though, on the roll, it might be a different story.

zuff

Nice post.

I hope next post is verse an M3 or 911.

I actualy enjoy these comparos more than some car mags...lol

KY350

BTW, I was reading on a WRX forum that some tool thought his standard Astra Turbo was quicker than a REX. Considering that the REX (not to mention STi) would take the Z off the line, the Astra would have no chance catching up over the quarter mile.
Even on a roll, with both cars in the right gear, the Astra would get beaten by REX.
DavidM, as Zuffy said, do you have a mate that owns an M3 to compare the Z with - I suspect you will get pulled in 2nd gear by the M3.

DavidM

I hope next post is verse an M3 or 911.

Likewise ... I just need to find someone with an M3 or/and 911 ;-) None of my close friends have either at the moment. One had a '94 911 about 5 years ago but he swapped it for an STi and and now he has an MX5 ... so no good. I have a friend with a TVR so I'll do some 'matchups' with him when I get a chance to do so ... might be a while though. Either way, I'm sure that at some stage I'll meet some people with the abovementioned cars and I'll see wha I can do.

I actualy enjoy these comparos more than some car mags...lol

Thanks, I'd like to read some as well ... so how about you guys do the next one ;-)

I was reading on a WRX forum that some tool thought his standard Astra Turbo was quicker than a REX.

Is that the Vicitorian board? If so then 'that' thread is a bit of a joke ... it's a bit of a pissing contest there which stemmed from the BFYB'03 article (ie. the one that the Astra won) ... it's been going n since then ... biggest thread by far on that board :-). It started sensible and now both sides are just having fun antagonizing each other .... makes for a fun read :-)

Considering that the REX (not to mention STi) would take the Z off the line, the Astra would have no chance catching up over the quarter mile.

True on all accounts. Though, I've lined up a '99 WRX (ie. 160kW and ~1300kg) agaisnt the Astra Turbo. Mind you it was an auto, and the WRX was definatelly quicker, but the Astra was not disgraced. From a roll the Astra even seemed ever so slightly quicker through the 1st gear (ie. by a nose). As the speeeds increased the WRX just got faster and faster though compared to the Astra.

On the other hand if the Astra got a jump on the WRX then the WRX would not cath it until around 130 - 140kph. Though, the Astra was never really quicker than the WRX, at best it could hang with it in 1st or at lower revs.

Still, from a standing start the WRX would always get the jump and pull away good 3- 4 car-lengths on the Astra by 130kph or so. Manual WRX wuld get an even bigger jump if the driver was willing to dump the cluth from 6000rpm or so. I'd love to see how they would match up over 130kph as the Astra surprised me at those speeds ... I though it would be slower.

KY350

Yep - was the Victorian Rex board.
Not surprised that the Astra would hang with the WRX in 1st gear from a slow roll as the Astra has good torque down low whereas the WRX has to spool up to 3500 - 4000rpm before it gets serious.

DavidM

Yep - was the Victorian Rex board.

hehe, I that's the thread ... it's about 40 pages and still going :-)

Not surprised that the Astra would hang with the WRX in 1st gear from a slow roll as the Astra has good torque down low whereas the WRX has to spool up to 3500 - 4000rpm before it gets serious.

Yep, spot on. The Astra has maximum torque all the way from 2000rpm to 5500rpm. WRX needs good 3000rpm+ to be 'on turbo'.