I took it for a spin after washing, did a few clover leafs and onramps to get a feel for the handling and throttle. Still haven't found the cornering limits with the NT01's. The throttle is still really weird feeling to me, on most cars I've driven the throttle goes back at a downward angle. The lotus went more straight back, but the travel wasn't far so you didn't notice as much (also had drive by wire vs this car is cable). This car probably has a good 5-6" of throttle travel, and the pedal goes straight back, so your heel is actually moving a long way, just like the clutch, which is totally foreign to me. I'm used to being able to leave my heel in one spot to go WOT, impossible in this car.
The steering wheel mounted shift light is pretty handy since there is no redline area on the gauge. The first yellow light turns on around 6200rpm, the second and third in the 6500-6700 area, and the light flashes red just before 7000rpm.
Still haven't done a 1st gear pull, afraid it will just spin. 2nd gear is over immediately, which is about 60mph (now I really believe this car will do 0-60 in just over 3 seconds). Third goes by just about as quick and you're at 90mph. I am really surprised at how short the gearing is on this car, similar to the Lotus and DSM top MPH per gear. You also don't feel the speed in this car like you do in the Lotus. Before I felt like I was flying at 90mph and the supercharger is so loud plus the 8000+ rpm redline you just feel a lot faster. This car with shifting before 7000rpm and just feeling bigger and more solid, going 90 feels like a normal highway speed, much like the vette did. And it's really quiet inside at 70mph, I'll have to get a decibal reading later, but it's nearly as quiet as the Escort is, so I think I'll probably end up using the bluetooth handsfree feature that my radio has.
First impressions are that it's a cross between the lightweight/handling characteristics of the Lotus, and the GT car feeling of the vette. Steering feel is great for being power steering, but not quite as good as the manual rack on the Lotus. A track day will tell me a lot more about that I'm sure. I think I may get another suede D shaped wheel instead of the stock Momo leather/carbon wheel (already a 6 bolt hub so zero work involved for any aftermarket wheel). Loving the car so far, just need to get used to that throttle. The clutch is really nice, engages pretty smooth from a stop but grabs well between gears.
Met up with the new owner of the Exige and got a few pics of the cars together. Yes, there is a car seat in the Lotus, and he removed the roof and wing. Realized how much I miss that car when I saw them together.
It's hard to say which body style I like better, both have their highlights. It's hard to tell from pics, but the Noble is about 10" longer I believe, and wider so there is actually a center console to rest your arm on. Interior is way better on the Noble, plus the extra 1.2 liters of displacement is nice. The only thing I like better about the Lotus was the steering, it had a small wheel and a quicker steering ratio than stock, plus it was manual. Hopefully a new smaller steering wheel will help out the Noble in that department.
Did my first autox event in the car today. Beat all the SM class cars in raw time, but nobody was in XP with me. The car is crazy easy to drive. I was pretty nervous about pushing the limits since there are zero electronic assists, but since it has so much grip I rarely found the limit. I kept pushing it harder, and it kept gripping. One time I did brake way to late and the rear swung out a bit, but it was really easy to recover (unlike the Exige). Very neutral.
I think the best part was that in the slalom, I started out in the morning taking it easy, and increasing speed. The last two runs I had a lot more speed and wasn't steering fast enough, so I got behind a bit and thought I'd hit the last cone, but it still made the corner. Just wish I could have had a couple more runs to really turn quicker and trust that the car would grip. Still need to review the videos and logger data to see what sort of G's the car pulls, both in the slalom and the 180* bend at the end of the runway.
Overall, super happy with my first event, hopefully I only get quicker with each event. I beat my friend with a red Evo for the first time, so I was pretty pleased about that. Oh, and I'm slowly getting used to the throttle. The long travel does make for easy modulation though.
Vid of my best run on Sunday. Still need to hook up the tach and actual speed sensors, the speedo here is just GPS estimation.
Pretty excited that the car sustained 1.2 g's a couple times on non-slicks.
Bloody Seal Bounce Champion!
Linear Mode
