Last night I met up with a guy who recently got himself a 2002 model WRX (ie. bugeye). It's a manual and he's had it for about 5 months now so we went for some runs to see how it fares against the Zed. His car is pretty much stock ... I don't even think he had a custom exhaust. Anyway, this is how things went:
- run #1: 40 - 130kph, both starting in 1st gear:
First we tried a rolling start in 1st gear. We started from about 40kph as I thought that would make certain that the WRX was on boost. Though it turns out that the 1st gear in the WRX is really short and that he needs to shift to 2nd straight after we get on it. Still, my 350Z was always quicker. As soon as we started I'd be pulling away and by the time I'm in 2nd gear (ie. ~60kph) I'd have almost a car-length on him. The in 2nd gear I'd pull away another 1.5 or so car-lengths. Before we shut down at 130kph I pulled away even more and had good 3 - 3.5 car-lengths on him. He was consistantly falling back.
- run #2: 20 - 130kph, both starting in 1st gear:
On the 2nd rolling-start run we decided to start from 20kph as that seemed to leave the WRX still plenty of revs and should have already been on boost. I could watch the 1st gear difference a lot better here as from 20kph to ~60kph I was in 1st gear. This took only about 3 sec or so and during this time I pulled out good 1.5 car-lengths. So the advantage at these speeds was very noticably in the 350Zs favour. In 2nd gear the 350Z just pulled away more and by the top of 2nd (ie. ~100kph) I had good 3 car-lengths on him. By the time we shut down at 130kph I he was a fair way back ... it looked like 4 - 4.5 car-lengths to me. So pretty dignificant difference.
- run #3: 0 - 130kph, standing start:
We also tried a couple standing start runs. He tried a couple different launch techniques, but neither got the best out of the WRXs. In the 1st launch he dropped the clutch from ~4000rpm and that produced a quick chirp and then bogged down. Here I pulled away good 2 - 3 car-lengths by the end of 1st gear and just kept on pulling away strongly. By 130kph he was pretty far back ... I'd say good 6 or 7 car lengths.
On the 2nd run he eased the clutch out from around 4000rpm and that saw the WRX get a reasonabe launch. At least it didn't bog down. I still out-launched it and was about 1/2 a car-length ahead by the time my rear tyres hooked up (ie. ~30kph). After that I was pulling away at all times. It seemed pretty consistant and as the time/distance increased, so did the gap. I'd say I had him by good 4 car-lengths by 130kph.
I'm sure the WRX can out-launch a 350Z when you know what you're doing with the car. If it jumped ahead of me then I'd have to chase it down, but I don't think it would take long for the 350Z to catch it and pass it. I'd say that it would have to out-launch the 350Z by at least 2 car-lengths to make it reasonably close by the end of 400m. Not sure if it could do that.
- run #1: 40 - 130kph, both starting in 1st gear:
First we tried a rolling start in 1st gear. We started from about 40kph as I thought that would make certain that the WRX was on boost. Though it turns out that the 1st gear in the WRX is really short and that he needs to shift to 2nd straight after we get on it. Still, my 350Z was always quicker. As soon as we started I'd be pulling away and by the time I'm in 2nd gear (ie. ~60kph) I'd have almost a car-length on him. The in 2nd gear I'd pull away another 1.5 or so car-lengths. Before we shut down at 130kph I pulled away even more and had good 3 - 3.5 car-lengths on him. He was consistantly falling back.
- run #2: 20 - 130kph, both starting in 1st gear:
On the 2nd rolling-start run we decided to start from 20kph as that seemed to leave the WRX still plenty of revs and should have already been on boost. I could watch the 1st gear difference a lot better here as from 20kph to ~60kph I was in 1st gear. This took only about 3 sec or so and during this time I pulled out good 1.5 car-lengths. So the advantage at these speeds was very noticably in the 350Zs favour. In 2nd gear the 350Z just pulled away more and by the top of 2nd (ie. ~100kph) I had good 3 car-lengths on him. By the time we shut down at 130kph I he was a fair way back ... it looked like 4 - 4.5 car-lengths to me. So pretty dignificant difference.
- run #3: 0 - 130kph, standing start:
We also tried a couple standing start runs. He tried a couple different launch techniques, but neither got the best out of the WRXs. In the 1st launch he dropped the clutch from ~4000rpm and that produced a quick chirp and then bogged down. Here I pulled away good 2 - 3 car-lengths by the end of 1st gear and just kept on pulling away strongly. By 130kph he was pretty far back ... I'd say good 6 or 7 car lengths.
On the 2nd run he eased the clutch out from around 4000rpm and that saw the WRX get a reasonabe launch. At least it didn't bog down. I still out-launched it and was about 1/2 a car-length ahead by the time my rear tyres hooked up (ie. ~30kph). After that I was pulling away at all times. It seemed pretty consistant and as the time/distance increased, so did the gap. I'd say I had him by good 4 car-lengths by 130kph.
I'm sure the WRX can out-launch a 350Z when you know what you're doing with the car. If it jumped ahead of me then I'd have to chase it down, but I don't think it would take long for the 350Z to catch it and pass it. I'd say that it would have to out-launch the 350Z by at least 2 car-lengths to make it reasonably close by the end of 400m. Not sure if it could do that.