2004 Ultimate Street Car Challenge

Test 7 Grandma

Tuning for wide-open throttle is dang easy. After all, it's just a single throttle position. But tuning for all possible throttle positions, well, that's tough. Throw in the fact that it's more pleasant to have a car that's not spitting, farting and heaving every time it pulls up to a stoplight. Or shedding tread every time it encounters a pothole. Or creaking during a freeway cruise like an asthmatic iron lung.

Nick Wong's Skyline was hurting throughout the competition and that showed up on our 15-mile driveability course, which included freeway and city driving and two railroad crossings. The Skyline responded to most attempts at forward motion with sneering contempt. Beyond that it whacked up against bumps with harshness evocative of Barry Bonds swinging a 40-ounce Louisville Slugger at a petrified ham. And though it didn't overheat, it was rising toward that.

Jason Cameron's RX-7 needed a sledgehammer's touch to pound into gear and offered virtually no low-end torque-the turbo system added virtually no thrust at less than wide-open throttle. And when the boost arrived, it came on like it dropped out the back of a C-130. But the tough part was dealing with the heat sink the driver's feet were shoved into.

For a car with more than 112,000 beat-to-death miles on its clock, Scot Gray's Eclipse wasn't bad at all. But it loaded up at idle and surged annoyingly, the shift quality was Mitsu-lousy, torque was MIA until the turbo whacked in at about 2500 rpm, and there was some irritating wind noise from the rear hatch. There's no sliding scale for the odometer reading in this test.

Sparco's EVO VIII was a racecar cleverly disguised as a racecar and it behaved as such. The throttle doesn't need to move more than a few millimeters before the sudden onset of boost shoots the car forward. There are basically two throttle settings: off and kamikaze-on-meth. There's also an agonizing exhaust drone at freeway speed and the car bucks when attempting a cruise at lower velocities. Still, it rode surprisingly well.

The Buschur/RRE EVO VIII wasn't quite as hard-edged as the Sparco car and the engine was much more linear in its response to throttle inputs. But there was still a little sputtering at times.

Matt Andrews wisely didn't screw up most of his Supra. There was some turbo lag apparent but the shifter's action actually seemed better with nearly 80,000 miles worth of seasoning. Accelerating the exhaust sounded spectacular, but at freeway speeds it set into a mesmerizing drone.

Somehow Andrew Campbell's Miata had an engine that was sweet even before the turbo cut in. Then the turbo would hit like a virus and the car mutated into a ravenous rodent. Beyond that, the driver's foot roasted mercilessly near the clutch. But, hey, roast foot is a delicacy in Nepal.

The most remarkable aspect of Brad Bedell's MR2 was how unremarkably it performed. Driving this car you'd swear Toyota built it with a blown V6 in the first place right down to the slightly sloppy action of the shifter. Particularly impressive was the engine's seamless midrange power and particularly irritating was the strange three-into-two exhaust note. (Install a crossover!)

It was almost impossible to distinguish Marcel Horn's dang-near brand-new R32 from a stock version of the car. In fact, except for the extra power, which was sweet and manageable, it was a new R32 with few additional modifications. Yeah, it was sweet, but they didn't really take any chances either.

Bill Knose's 2.5RS ruled the driveability roost thanks to its absolutely spotless manners despite being an assembly of disparate Suby parts. Everything worked with slick precision, and it just doesn't get any better.John Pearley Huffman

Test 8 Drive