Car Enthusiast Thread
- Thread starter Lets Gekiga In
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Get back on GT4, son!Kim _Kaphwan said:
LordTakuban
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I thought there were car peeps on this board. 
I may have to dust off the Old GT4 and see what records can be had. Is this challenge just for drag racing? Or is there a specific course that people are supposed to run? I stopped playing GT4 a while back simply because the game basically requires the steering wheel. And since I didn't get the bundle when it came out, I'm not about to pay $130.00 for a steering wheel controller.
So I don't have too many vehicles to race with.
I may have to dust off the Old GT4 and see what records can be had. Is this challenge just for drag racing? Or is there a specific course that people are supposed to run? I stopped playing GT4 a while back simply because the game basically requires the steering wheel. And since I didn't get the bundle when it came out, I'm not about to pay $130.00 for a steering wheel controller.
So I don't have too many vehicles to race with.
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actually i pose youa challenge. buy a 1983 nissan 300ZX, beef it up all you want, tune it all you want. and i want you to run the second lemans track. and you have to get the used Z and do it as bestyou can. in my opinion it's one of the best performing cars in the game. up there wih the elise 111R, and CTR yellow bird. try it out. i was about to get into that last night but i was too tired.Lets Gekiga In said:
i've never owned the wheel, and see no need to. i can pull badass times with my cars on the standard PS2 controller. the wheel is for people who want that much more realism. but it's a videogame first and foremost and the controller is still a force to be reckoned with in the game. drifting, powerslides, cornering, it all can be done with the controller, you just need finesse and some tapping of the right and left on the D-pad.LordTakuban said:I thought there were car peeps on this board.
I may have to dust off the Old GT4 and see what records can be had. Is this challenge just for drag racing? Or is there a specific course that people are supposed to run? I stopped playing GT4 a while back simply because the game basically requires the steering wheel. And since I didn't get the bundle when it came out, I'm not about to pay $130.00 for a steering wheel controller.
but what pisses me off about GT4: wverytime i'm about to beat my lap time by something phenomenal like 4-6 seconds better something will happen and i'll beef it and then the ghost car drives past and i'm like "GOD DAMMIT!" the game can be a real piss off at times. i swear to god man 6 seconds better then whoops.
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LordTakuban
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Kim _Kaphwan said:
This is the first game that I felt the wheel was necessary. It could be because the steering is just too sensative with the controller compared to previous versions.
I know what you mean about the big crap right towards the end of an otherwise perfect run. That happens to me a lot too. I'll have to find some more time to play GT4. I have too many game choices right now so it becomes a little difficult. I recently started playing NFS MW on the xbox. It's very arcade-like, but still fun. Though the cars that I would want to have in the game are still locked. So I'm just driving an IS300 and beefing it up until the other ones become available.
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LordTakuban said:I thought there were car peeps on this board.
I may have to dust off the Old GT4 and see what records can be had. Is this challenge just for drag racing? Or is there a specific course that people are supposed to run? I stopped playing GT4 a while back simply because the game basically requires the steering wheel. And since I didn't get the bundle when it came out, I'm not about to pay $130.00 for a steering wheel controller.
The 1/4 mile is fun and shows how good at tweeking your car you can be.
But I mean all sorts of other courses too. If you guys have a course time you want to post up and see if people can beat that, go for it! Be sure to tell what car you used as well though.
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Kim _Kaphwan said:
I'll have to see what I can do. I'm also currently trying to save up for a Mazda 787B.
The best handling machine on GT4 though (from my perspective), is the Chaparral 2J. Unbelievable. It was so worth the 1,300,000 Cr. I saved for it.
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i've been wanting to get the 2J but i keep buying used cars and beefing them up and just dicking around with them. but my 2D's record on lemans stands at a nice 2'48 .574 which in my opinion is about as good as i can get with it. the lemans track is my personal favorite.Lets Gekiga In said:I'll have to see what I can do. I'm also currently trying to save up for a Mazda 787B.
The best handling machine on GT4 though (from my perspective), is the Chaparral 2J. Unbelievable. It was so worth the 1,300,000 Cr. I saved for it.
oh and the 300ZX record for me was 3' 35.005 i feel i did alright with it, but i could do better, i just don't wanna keep running the same laps. haha
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OH YEAH, TASTE IT FUCKERS. THE BUGATTI VEYRON ROCKS!
Bugatti Veyron
By Jeremy Clarkson of The Sunday Times
Utterly, stunningly, jaw droppingly brilliant
When you push a car past 180mph, the world starts to get awfully fizzy and a little bit frightening. When you go past 200mph it actually becomes blurred. Almost like you’re trapped in an early Queen pop video. At this sort of speed the tyres and the suspension are reacting to events that happened some time ago, and they have not finished reacting before they’re being asked to do something else. The result is a terrifying vibration that rattles your optical nerves, causing double vision. This is not good when you’re covering 300ft a second.
Happily, stopping distances become irrelevant because you won’t see the obstacle in the first place. By the time you know it was there, you’ll have gone through the windscreen, through the Pearly Gates and be half way across God’s breakfast table.
It has always been thus. When Louis Rigolly broke the 100mph barrier in his Gobron in 1904, the vibration would have been terrifying. And I dare say that driving an E-type at 150mph in 1966 must have been a bit sporty as well.
But once you go past 200mph it isn’t just the suspension and the tyres you have to worry about. The biggest problem is the air. At 100mph it’s relaxed. At 150mph it’s a breeze. But at 200mph it has sufficient power to lift an 800,000lb jumbo jet off the ground. A 200mph gust of wind is strong enough to knock down an entire city. So getting a car to behave itself in conditions like these is tough.
At 200mph you can feel the front of the car getting light as it starts to lift. As a result you start to lose your steering, so you aren’t even able to steer round whatever it is you can’t see because of the vibrations. Make no mistake, 200mph is at the limit of what man can do right now. Which is why the new Bugatti Veyron is worthy of some industrial strength genuflection. Because it can do 252mph. And that’s just mad — 252mph means that in straight and level flight this car is as near as makes no difference as fast as a Hawker Hurricane.
You might point out at this juncture that the McLaren F1 could top 240mph, but at that speed it was pretty much out of control. And anyway it really isn’t in the same league as the Bugatti. In a drag race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the Veyron. And you’d still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way faster than anything else the roads have seen.
Of course, at £810,000, it is also jolly expensive, but when you look at the history of its development you’ll discover it’s rather more than just a car . . .
It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, the swivel-eyed former boss of Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. “This,” he said, “is what the next Bugatti will look like.” And then, without consulting anyone, he went on. “And it vill have an engine that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph.”
His engineers were horrified. But they set to work anyway, mating two Audi V8s to create an 8 litre W16. Which was then garnished with four turbochargers. Needless to say, the end result produced about as much power as the earth’s core, which is fine. But somehow the giant had to be cooled, which is why the Veyron has no engine cover and why it has 10 — count them — 10 radiators. Then things got tricky because the power had to be harnessed.
For this, VW went to Ricardo, a British company that makes gearboxes for various Formula One teams.
“God, it was hard,” said one of the engineers I know vaguely. “The gearbox in an F1 car only has to last a few hours. Volkswagen wanted the Veyron’s to last 10 or 20 years. And remember, the Bugatti is a damn sight more powerful than any F1 car.”
The result, a seven-speed double-clutch flappy paddle affair, took a team of 50 engineers five years to perfect.
With this done, the Veyron was shipped to Sauber’s F1 wind tunnel where it quickly became apparent that while the magic 1000bhp figure had been achieved, they were miles off the target top speed of 400kph (248mph). The body of the car just wasn’t aerodynamic enough, and Volkswagen wouldn’t let them change the basic shape to get round the problem.
The bods at Sauber threw up their hands, saying they only had experience of aerodynamics up to maybe 360kph, which is the effective top speed in Formula One. Beyond this point Bugatti was on its own.
Somehow they had to find an extra 30kph, and there was no point in looking to the engine for answers because each extra 1kph increase in speed requires an extra 8bhp from the power plant. An extra 30kph then would need an extra 240bhp. That was not possible.
The extra speed had to come from changing small things on the body. They started by fitting smaller door mirrors, which upped the top speed a bit but at too high a price. It turned out that the bigger ones had been keeping the nose of the car on the ground. Without them the stability was gone.
In other words, the door mirrors were generating downforce. That gives you an idea of how much of a bastard the air can be at this speed.
Bugatti Veyron
By Jeremy Clarkson of The Sunday Times
Utterly, stunningly, jaw droppingly brilliant
When you push a car past 180mph, the world starts to get awfully fizzy and a little bit frightening. When you go past 200mph it actually becomes blurred. Almost like you’re trapped in an early Queen pop video. At this sort of speed the tyres and the suspension are reacting to events that happened some time ago, and they have not finished reacting before they’re being asked to do something else. The result is a terrifying vibration that rattles your optical nerves, causing double vision. This is not good when you’re covering 300ft a second.
Happily, stopping distances become irrelevant because you won’t see the obstacle in the first place. By the time you know it was there, you’ll have gone through the windscreen, through the Pearly Gates and be half way across God’s breakfast table.
It has always been thus. When Louis Rigolly broke the 100mph barrier in his Gobron in 1904, the vibration would have been terrifying. And I dare say that driving an E-type at 150mph in 1966 must have been a bit sporty as well.
But once you go past 200mph it isn’t just the suspension and the tyres you have to worry about. The biggest problem is the air. At 100mph it’s relaxed. At 150mph it’s a breeze. But at 200mph it has sufficient power to lift an 800,000lb jumbo jet off the ground. A 200mph gust of wind is strong enough to knock down an entire city. So getting a car to behave itself in conditions like these is tough.
At 200mph you can feel the front of the car getting light as it starts to lift. As a result you start to lose your steering, so you aren’t even able to steer round whatever it is you can’t see because of the vibrations. Make no mistake, 200mph is at the limit of what man can do right now. Which is why the new Bugatti Veyron is worthy of some industrial strength genuflection. Because it can do 252mph. And that’s just mad — 252mph means that in straight and level flight this car is as near as makes no difference as fast as a Hawker Hurricane.
You might point out at this juncture that the McLaren F1 could top 240mph, but at that speed it was pretty much out of control. And anyway it really isn’t in the same league as the Bugatti. In a drag race you could let the McLaren get to 120mph before setting off in the Veyron. And you’d still get to 200mph first. The Bugatti is way, way faster than anything else the roads have seen.
Of course, at £810,000, it is also jolly expensive, but when you look at the history of its development you’ll discover it’s rather more than just a car . . .
It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, the swivel-eyed former boss of Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. “This,” he said, “is what the next Bugatti will look like.” And then, without consulting anyone, he went on. “And it vill have an engine that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph.”
His engineers were horrified. But they set to work anyway, mating two Audi V8s to create an 8 litre W16. Which was then garnished with four turbochargers. Needless to say, the end result produced about as much power as the earth’s core, which is fine. But somehow the giant had to be cooled, which is why the Veyron has no engine cover and why it has 10 — count them — 10 radiators. Then things got tricky because the power had to be harnessed.
For this, VW went to Ricardo, a British company that makes gearboxes for various Formula One teams.
“God, it was hard,” said one of the engineers I know vaguely. “The gearbox in an F1 car only has to last a few hours. Volkswagen wanted the Veyron’s to last 10 or 20 years. And remember, the Bugatti is a damn sight more powerful than any F1 car.”
The result, a seven-speed double-clutch flappy paddle affair, took a team of 50 engineers five years to perfect.
With this done, the Veyron was shipped to Sauber’s F1 wind tunnel where it quickly became apparent that while the magic 1000bhp figure had been achieved, they were miles off the target top speed of 400kph (248mph). The body of the car just wasn’t aerodynamic enough, and Volkswagen wouldn’t let them change the basic shape to get round the problem.
The bods at Sauber threw up their hands, saying they only had experience of aerodynamics up to maybe 360kph, which is the effective top speed in Formula One. Beyond this point Bugatti was on its own.
Somehow they had to find an extra 30kph, and there was no point in looking to the engine for answers because each extra 1kph increase in speed requires an extra 8bhp from the power plant. An extra 30kph then would need an extra 240bhp. That was not possible.
The extra speed had to come from changing small things on the body. They started by fitting smaller door mirrors, which upped the top speed a bit but at too high a price. It turned out that the bigger ones had been keeping the nose of the car on the ground. Without them the stability was gone.
In other words, the door mirrors were generating downforce. That gives you an idea of how much of a bastard the air can be at this speed.
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After some public failures, fires and accidents, and one chief being fired, they hit on the idea of a car that automatically changes shape depending on what speed you’re going.
At 137mph, the nose of the car is lowered by 2in and the big rear spoiler slides into the slipstream. The effect is profound. You can feel the back of the car being pressed into the road.
However, with the spoiler in place the drag is so great you’re limited to just 231mph. To go faster than that you have to stop and insert your ignition key in a slot on the floor. This lowers the whole car still further and locks the big back wing down. Now you have reduced downforce, which means you won’t be going round any corners, but you have a clean shape. And that means you can top 400kph.
That’s 370ft a second.
You might want to ponder that for a moment. Covering the length of a football pitch, in a second, in a car. And then you might want to think about the braking system. A VW Polo will generate 0.6g if you stamp on the middle pedal hard. You get that from the air brake alone on a Veyron. Factor in the carbon ceramic discs and you will pull up from 250mph in just 10sec. Sounds good, but in those 10sec you’ll have covered a third of a mile.
That’s five football pitches to stop.
I didn’t care. On a recent drive across Europe I desperately wanted to reach the top speed but I ran out of road when the needle hit 240mph. Where, astonishingly, it felt planted. Totally and utterly rock steady. It felt sublime.
Not quiet, though. The engine sounds like Victorian plumbing — it looks like Victorian plumbing as well, to be honest — and the roar from the tyres was biblical. But it still felt brilliant. Utterly, stunningly, mind blowingly, jaw droppingly brilliant.
And then I reached the Alps where, unbelievably, it got better. I expected this road rocket to be absolutely useless in the bends but it felt like a big Lotus Elise.
Occasionally, if I accelerated hard in a tight corner, it behaved strangely as the four-wheel-drive system decided which axle would be best equipped to deal with the wave of power. I won’t say it’s a nasty feel or dangerous. Just weird, in the same way that the duck-billed platypus is weird.
View a photo gallery of the Bugatti Veyron
You learn to raise an eyebrow at what’s only a foible, and then, as the road straightens out, steady yourself for Prince Albert’s boiler to gird its loins and play havoc with the space-time continuum. No, really, you come round a bend, see what appears to be miles and miles of dead straight road, bury your foot in the carpet and with a big asthmatic wheeze, bang, you’re instantly at the next bend, with your eyebrow raised again.
From behind the wheel of a Veyron, France is the size of a small coconut. I cannot tell you how fast I crossed it the other day. Because you simply wouldn’t believe me. I also cannot tell you how good this car is. I just don’t have the vocabulary. I just end up stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone thinks I’m on drugs.
This car cannot be judged in the same way that we judge other cars. It meets drive-by noise and emission regulations and it can be driven by someone whose only qualification is an ability to reverse round corners and do an emergency stop. So technically it is a car. And yet it just isn’t.
Other cars are small guesthouses on the front at Brighton and the Bugatti is the Burj Al Arab. It makes even the Enzo and the Porsche Carrera GT feel slow and pointless. It is a triumph for lunacy over common sense, a triumph for man over nature and a triumph for Volkswagen over absolutely every other car maker in the world.
VITAL STATISTICS
Model: Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Engine: 7993cc, 16 cylinders in a W
Power: 1001bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque: 922 lb ft @ 2200rpm
Transmission: 7-speed DSG, manual and auto
Fuel: 11.7mpg (combined)
CO2: 574g/km
Acceleration: 0-62mph: 2.5sec
Top speed: 253mph
Price: £810,345
Rating: Five stars
Verdict: Deserves 12 stars. Simply as good — and as fast — as it gets
Source: Times Online
At 137mph, the nose of the car is lowered by 2in and the big rear spoiler slides into the slipstream. The effect is profound. You can feel the back of the car being pressed into the road.
However, with the spoiler in place the drag is so great you’re limited to just 231mph. To go faster than that you have to stop and insert your ignition key in a slot on the floor. This lowers the whole car still further and locks the big back wing down. Now you have reduced downforce, which means you won’t be going round any corners, but you have a clean shape. And that means you can top 400kph.
That’s 370ft a second.
You might want to ponder that for a moment. Covering the length of a football pitch, in a second, in a car. And then you might want to think about the braking system. A VW Polo will generate 0.6g if you stamp on the middle pedal hard. You get that from the air brake alone on a Veyron. Factor in the carbon ceramic discs and you will pull up from 250mph in just 10sec. Sounds good, but in those 10sec you’ll have covered a third of a mile.
That’s five football pitches to stop.
I didn’t care. On a recent drive across Europe I desperately wanted to reach the top speed but I ran out of road when the needle hit 240mph. Where, astonishingly, it felt planted. Totally and utterly rock steady. It felt sublime.
Not quiet, though. The engine sounds like Victorian plumbing — it looks like Victorian plumbing as well, to be honest — and the roar from the tyres was biblical. But it still felt brilliant. Utterly, stunningly, mind blowingly, jaw droppingly brilliant.
And then I reached the Alps where, unbelievably, it got better. I expected this road rocket to be absolutely useless in the bends but it felt like a big Lotus Elise.
Occasionally, if I accelerated hard in a tight corner, it behaved strangely as the four-wheel-drive system decided which axle would be best equipped to deal with the wave of power. I won’t say it’s a nasty feel or dangerous. Just weird, in the same way that the duck-billed platypus is weird.
View a photo gallery of the Bugatti Veyron
You learn to raise an eyebrow at what’s only a foible, and then, as the road straightens out, steady yourself for Prince Albert’s boiler to gird its loins and play havoc with the space-time continuum. No, really, you come round a bend, see what appears to be miles and miles of dead straight road, bury your foot in the carpet and with a big asthmatic wheeze, bang, you’re instantly at the next bend, with your eyebrow raised again.
From behind the wheel of a Veyron, France is the size of a small coconut. I cannot tell you how fast I crossed it the other day. Because you simply wouldn’t believe me. I also cannot tell you how good this car is. I just don’t have the vocabulary. I just end up stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone thinks I’m on drugs.
This car cannot be judged in the same way that we judge other cars. It meets drive-by noise and emission regulations and it can be driven by someone whose only qualification is an ability to reverse round corners and do an emergency stop. So technically it is a car. And yet it just isn’t.
Other cars are small guesthouses on the front at Brighton and the Bugatti is the Burj Al Arab. It makes even the Enzo and the Porsche Carrera GT feel slow and pointless. It is a triumph for lunacy over common sense, a triumph for man over nature and a triumph for Volkswagen over absolutely every other car maker in the world.
VITAL STATISTICS
Model: Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Engine: 7993cc, 16 cylinders in a W
Power: 1001bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque: 922 lb ft @ 2200rpm
Transmission: 7-speed DSG, manual and auto
Fuel: 11.7mpg (combined)
CO2: 574g/km
Acceleration: 0-62mph: 2.5sec
Top speed: 253mph
Price: £810,345
Rating: Five stars
Verdict: Deserves 12 stars. Simply as good — and as fast — as it gets
Source: Times Online
I truly am convinced that the Veyron really is a technical masterpiece, significant one for the auto industry.
I was quite skeptical about the whole project, the way it was emerging in the eye of the public. Seemed like it was never going to be finished.
But now.
You have to give it to Volkswagen and admire what they have achieved here.
I was quite skeptical about the whole project, the way it was emerging in the eye of the public. Seemed like it was never going to be finished.
But now.
You have to give it to Volkswagen and admire what they have achieved here.
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all this talk of the ultimate driving experience, and top speed just makes me wonder. what to you guys here, and i mean all of you what is the ultimate driving experience? what is the one time behind the wheel or in the shotgun seat that just made you feel alive and like every part of your body was in an intense and powerful orgasm of speed and throaty engine grunting to push on faster and faster? what is that moment for you? what is that shot that just made you want to cry and beg for more all at the same time? autombiles are not about the economy to me, they're about the poeticism of the race and the power under the hood and the desire to just touch the face of god on wings of goodyear running faster and faster beneath you. to me the ultimate driving experience and one that i think defined who i am as a gear head in and out was my uncle's brown el camino SS 454 from 1971, with born to run by bruce springsteen coming out of the tape deck as he floored it around a corner when i was about 5 feeling thoss tires slip and grab the pavement all at the same time and having the boss belt out that song about love and drag racing just made everything synch together. and now it's like just seeing that SS makes me want to piss my pants. my first car was an el camino, i love the caminos in and out. and once i can afford to i'm going to pick up an SS el camino from 71 and just rocket down the road.
we continued on the road with the rest of the born to run album playing til we reached his house which was across town from where my family lived. i think it was just another saturday get together with my aunt and uncle. but that saturday stood out like nothing else ever. that el camino just signified that to me. it was the ultimate experience to me. when i think about it now it's like losing my virginity or getting high for the first time. and just riding it. that car, and that song, and that turn at maybe 60 miles an hour nothing super fast signified to me the ultimate ride and the ultimate drive. i love that car, and yeah... this talk of the bugatti got me started so lets see what you guys have to say about your driving experience your first ever realization of what an automobile can do and of the sheer fear and emotion it can instill in you in one fell swoop. it's a truly visceral feeling that first time you get hit with it. but when you do nothing can match it, nothing.
we continued on the road with the rest of the born to run album playing til we reached his house which was across town from where my family lived. i think it was just another saturday get together with my aunt and uncle. but that saturday stood out like nothing else ever. that el camino just signified that to me. it was the ultimate experience to me. when i think about it now it's like losing my virginity or getting high for the first time. and just riding it. that car, and that song, and that turn at maybe 60 miles an hour nothing super fast signified to me the ultimate ride and the ultimate drive. i love that car, and yeah... this talk of the bugatti got me started so lets see what you guys have to say about your driving experience your first ever realization of what an automobile can do and of the sheer fear and emotion it can instill in you in one fell swoop. it's a truly visceral feeling that first time you get hit with it. but when you do nothing can match it, nothing.
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One of my greatest driving moments is when I smoked a Z28 Camaro even though he got a bit of a head start. 
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I certainly was.Magnaflux said:My Mark did that a few weeks ago.
You weren't in your SAAB were you?
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Here's something interesting:
First Drive: 2007 Suzuki SX4
Re-creating the small crossover
BOB GRITZINGER
Published Date: 12/5/05
If you thought Suzuki offered one small crossover vehicle in its Aerio five-door hatch, think again. Next September the Japanese automaker will introduce the slightly larger 2007 SX4, which it will market as a small “sport crossover vehicle.”
Premiering at the 2006 New York auto show in spring, SX4 will take on a wave of small-on-the-outside, big-and-practical-on-the-inside entries such as the Chevrolet Aveo, Nissan Verso and Toyota Yaris.
In SX4, Suzuki aims to capitalize on its heritage and strength in four-wheel-drive sport/utility vehicles. It must also overcome acknowledged Suzuki negatives: odd styling and weak chassis.
The SX4 could be the remedy. Styling is improved, whether in the more rugged sport/ute trim with fender flares and tough-looking lower front and rear fascia accents, or in the cleaner
Euro trim. While “sporty” isn’t the first word we’d use to describe SX4, test drives reveal minimal chassis roll, predictable steering, good brakes, stability at high speed, and excellent suspension control devoid of harshness.
The five-door SX4 is powered by a 2.0-liter, 147-hp, 135-lb-ft inline four-cylinder. The SX4 comes in front-wheel drive or electronically coupled four-wheel drive, each with either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.
With U.S. sales estimated at 30,000 annually, SX4 is expected to play a key role in doubling Suzuki’s overall U.S. sales to 200,000 units in 2007.
Source: AutoWeek
First Drive: 2007 Suzuki SX4
Re-creating the small crossover
BOB GRITZINGER
Published Date: 12/5/05
If you thought Suzuki offered one small crossover vehicle in its Aerio five-door hatch, think again. Next September the Japanese automaker will introduce the slightly larger 2007 SX4, which it will market as a small “sport crossover vehicle.”
Premiering at the 2006 New York auto show in spring, SX4 will take on a wave of small-on-the-outside, big-and-practical-on-the-inside entries such as the Chevrolet Aveo, Nissan Verso and Toyota Yaris.
In SX4, Suzuki aims to capitalize on its heritage and strength in four-wheel-drive sport/utility vehicles. It must also overcome acknowledged Suzuki negatives: odd styling and weak chassis.
The SX4 could be the remedy. Styling is improved, whether in the more rugged sport/ute trim with fender flares and tough-looking lower front and rear fascia accents, or in the cleaner
Euro trim. While “sporty” isn’t the first word we’d use to describe SX4, test drives reveal minimal chassis roll, predictable steering, good brakes, stability at high speed, and excellent suspension control devoid of harshness.
The five-door SX4 is powered by a 2.0-liter, 147-hp, 135-lb-ft inline four-cylinder. The SX4 comes in front-wheel drive or electronically coupled four-wheel drive, each with either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.
With U.S. sales estimated at 30,000 annually, SX4 is expected to play a key role in doubling Suzuki’s overall U.S. sales to 200,000 units in 2007.
Source: AutoWeek
