Another Pussy Motor Trend article
 

Motor Trend has been doing a long term test on a genpu. This is their final installment after little monthly updates on driving impressions, wear and tear costs, etc. To me it reads like one of those movie reviews whereby afterwards you're like "so did they like it or not?" After all their comments on the harshness, I would love to see them drive a fully bolted MS3 with stiffer mounts and louder tbe. And yes, this is the Motor Trend who never met a GTI whose dick they didn't suck.

I agree, when I finished reading the article I wasn't sure whether they liked it or not and shut up already about the torque steer!!!

who the hell buys this car for comfort? WHO?!

So much back and forth and half of the time they arent even talking about the fucking speed. Great article.

i love how they all bitch about torque steer


yet power oversteer is completely acceptable....

"we did like the new improved power of the "insert high power RWD car here", but getting anywhere near the throttle resulted in the back end becoming squirrely and required constant steering adjustments to keep the nose in line, and that got tiresome"


^^^never going to hear that from any car magazine

Well, I think they hit the nail on the head. It's not perfect, not much is for less than $25,000. I like the comparison to the "project" car, as many of us like to fiddle with this car from time to time, some more than others. Torque steer...grab some motor mounts and you'll just be spinning through the gears instead of always "going to the right." Big shifter a problem, spend a few hundred for the full-replacement from TWM, or buy a short throw used for cheap! If I had to disagree with one thing, it would have to be their faults with the clutch. Maybe Gen2's are different, however, I have not had a problem with this clutch (knock on wood).

Overall, I think they enjoyed the car like they did their cars of the past. I'm assuming most of their writers are of the Baby Boomer era or have an undying love for old V8's with no manners.

God I love this car...the Gen1 that is!

Anymore bitching about the car from motortrend, and you wouldve thought 8thgencivic wrote it. lol

Why would they spend $900 on Toyo T1R tires?

They bitched about some stuff, yes...but in the end seemed to like it.

Who are these people that write these articles?

They are not car people, that's for sure.

I love how the editor at the bottom bitches incessantly at the lack of a temperature gauge. As if the ones that are factory equipped are even remotely accurate to begin with...

Stop being butthurt. The article was not putting down the precious speed.

Articles like this are why I stopped reading motor trend. For a magazine devoted to cars there's very little sense of passion or enthusiasm not to mention the writers seemed so out of touch with car culture. If it was written to cater to accountants and shoe salesmen it would make a lot more sense...

I don't care what they say about the car it just that their writing is so goddamn dry and unimaginative, regardless of the ride. C'mon it's a car rag, not a dyi on filing taxes.

Not butthurt at all. I actually appreciate that a magazine included an MS3 at all. Usually it seems to be shootouts between fucking Volts and Leaf(s) or $80k Mercedes, BMWs and Lexus'. I'm sure there was a Mustang on the cover of this issue too.

because they dont pay for it

Lexi

Sexy Lexi :lew:

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

You don't hear people bitching about the tail whipping out on high powered RWD cars, yet every magazine and review on the planet is up in arms about fucking torque steer.

It's lame.

Eh

Oversteer > Understeer

Tail whipping out that you can control = fun

Car steering itself in a direction you don't intend = lame

That being said, the mazdaspeed 3 is more exciting to drive that any RWD car I've had the pleasure to drive. Torque steer may very well be a part of that, I just couldn't say - IMO what makes it fun for me is the low end torque and how well the chassis sticks on the shitty backroads I find myself driving on fairly often.

Fwiw, Autoweek just finished their long term gen2 test, and it was really positive.

They complained about shift feel and a squeaky dash, but had good things to say about the car in almost all other aspects (performance handling etc.)

Hell yeah.

Then you really need to drive a RWD performance car. :D

Well, to you credit I haven't exactly driven a "performance" rwd car. I drove an ap1 s2000 for a while, but that car was 100% stock.

Shifter was better by light years, car was soooo much more balanced, and driving it fast was... I'd say "liberating" - with the top down the feeling of freedom overshadowed the (relative) lack of torque.

I would say the ms3 isn't as good in most departments, but there's something about it that I can't put my finger on that just makes me giddy. I've had the opportunity to drive a porsche 911 turbo, and even with 415 bhp (it was a 2001) and awd, it wasn't that much more fun to drive than my goofy ass genpu. Faster? Christ, that car pulled like it was a goddamn space shot ride at the amusement park.

On top of that I would say I felt more "focused" and less "giddy" than when driving the ms3. It's a car that says "fucking around time is over", which is great if you're trying to win a race, but IMO you just can't use that kind of speed outside of a road course. Or, well, it would take a much better driver than myself lol.

The ms3 is exciting every day, and it's nice and slow so you can enjoy running it flat out without breaking 120+ mph every time you do.

I sure as hell would love to have a go in a new 2011 5.0 though.

In summary, I guess "exciting" may have been the wrong word. "Fun" is more like it.

It seemed like a fair piece to me, let's not kid ourselves. AWD > RWD > FWD that's just the way it is.

Obviously I'm on this site for a reason, but I appreciate the limitations of my car.

haha made me think of this:

Donate.
Get an avatar.
Rwd>awd.

Can they say sport compact?
Guess not...

people seriously need to nut the fuck up and hang onto the steering wheel -- to me, torque steer is only a result of driver error -- a d-bag that doesnt know how to grip the wheel and keep it going where its supposed to

STOP BEING A FUCKING PUSSY AND GRAB THE WHEEL

I have had the following awd and rwd cars:

BMW Mcoupe - RWD (no mods)
AUDI TT - 225 (extensive modifications)
Evo IX - heavily modified
Evo X - lightly modded
Nissan 350 Z - lightly modded

I've driven my friends':
1993 Supra - heavily modified
3) 1993 rx7 TT - heavily modified

I can say that although driving rear wheel drive is fun, there is a good reason that the engineers in charge of the Porsche 911, Lamborghini, Nissan GT-R, etc. are using AWD.

Front wheel drive definitely has its limitations with traction and handling.

The 911 Carrera 4, 4S, and turbo are the only 911s that are awd. The fast ones aren't. That has to stand for something. Also, the best stock Lamborghini is rwd only.

I'll put it to you this way, for a street car, my personal opinion is that awd dominates.

I guess one could make an argument that all out track cars (as in formula 1 etc.) are rwd, but for the street, my opinion is that awd (for the average enthusiast) provides the best handling characterstics to keep you from boinking your car into a guardrail.

I think heritage can be thrown into this debate.

Tapawhat?

Excellent point @08.5MS3 .

A great example: the Corvette

I think if it wasn't for the rwd heritage, corvette engineers would @ least entertain the idea of an awd corvette.

Awd cars understeer for the most, almost as bad as fwd cars. Oversteering is controlled through human instinct. Understeer control, especially at high speed is something that really needs to be taught and practiced. Your instinct is to hit the brakes, when you really need to look where you want to go and modulate the throttle to regain traction and pull the car back on track. It really is counter instinctual.

I agree with your points, for the most part, although having had some powerful AWD cars, throttle manipulation can tame the understeer, and my evos could swing the ass without much input.

I totally agree that oversteer is a characteristic of rwd, and awd and fwd, in general exhibit understeer.

Exactly the car I was think of! Gosh, I love me some Vette's. I don't even think my dad has taken the cover off his yet! Then again, he was in the hospital for 3.5 months...:sad:

AWD over RWD? Not to me. I have owned both. RWD is better balanced, offers better feedback, is lighter and saps less power. Plus a good driver will be quicker in a RWD car. Plus remember the quickest circiut cars are RWD F1 cars...