Track Time

I was reading an old Car and Driver comparison test today. They republish some classic articles from their back issues on their website. To me it is some of their most enjoyable and valuable content. The article that piqued my interest was a sport coupe comparo from 1985. Just about every 4 seat sports coupe of the day was included.

I didn't agree with some of the conclusions. The Mustang SVO was so far beyond everything else in performance. The editors indicted it for turbo lag and dated interior and tossed it in 5th place. I've driven the SVO and I never thought the turbo lag was too bad. It would have been quite a car with the 5.0 from the GT, and a new interior was coming for '87 but by then the SVO was gone.

What I did like is the way the test was done. They did the usual performance testing, with an extra slalom thrown in, then they hit the road, the PCH to be specific, to see how the cars did on the streets. It was nice to see the emphasis on driving experience. It seemed a bit of a welcome contrast to todays emphasis on track comparisons of performance cars.

It was a simpler time when reputations were not won and lost on Nurburgring times. We don't even know what the lap times of those cars were. We didn't know how many laps before the brakes would fade. It didn't matter because they were street cars.

I suppose from years of silly subjective results with unfathomable math formulas the reader now demands objectivity and thanks to the Intarwebs they have a few more outlets to provide that feedback. Automobiles in general are now far more capable, most beyond what can be controlled or enjoyed on the street, so we look to the track results to settle the differences.

I've learned my lesson about track results and the street. I drive my street car on the race track, but even then it doesn't matter how quick I go around it. I've been around long enough to know better than to put "race" parts on my car. How it works, how it makes me feel, how comfortable and confident it is, all matter more than a second or ten on a road course. I would never buy a car based on such things.

The Audi Coupe GT won the comparo. It was a dated design, with just 110hp and soft suspension. The controls layout, quality trim, comfort and over the road feel made the difference. I grew up through the 80's with Audis in the family. They really did get the basics and the details right in those days. They charged a few extra bucks but I took a look at the spec sheet and the price was pretty competitive, if you weren't focused on 0-60 and slalom speeds.

Sounds of my youth

Driving home from work tonight, I was thinking about all of the sounds I hear coming from my Subaru WRX. Gear whine, turbo spooling, recirculation valve chirping and more. It made me think back to my youth and how my fascination with automobiles led me to tune in to, and later recall, particular sounds.

I have been working on my own cars for years, from fixing my junkers to now putting "mods" on my new cars. Since I have diagnosed and fixed many maladies over the years, I have become very in tune with various noises and exactly what sort of malady or normal operations cause those sounds. This is a useful skill when riding in others' cars, I can tell them what to have fixed just by listening to the squeaks and clunks that these untrained people tune out. On the other hand I can drive my fiancée nuts when I turn down the radio trying to hear all the whirring and whooshing going on.

There was a time I can recall hearing various automotive sounds though I didn't know what any of these sounds were, from age 5 to about...well I am still learning more every day. Now I have the knowledge to realize what it was I was hearing. Took me about 30 years to put it all together:

Whirring of the transmission pump and torque converter in my Dad's 1976 Chrysler Cordoba

Clunking of differential gears when my aunt shifted her Oldsmobile into reverse

Studded snow tires on pavement

A moaning bad wheel bearing in my Grandmother's Gran Torino

Whining straight-cut reverse gears

Screeching fan belts

The sweet, sweet exhaust sound of a 1987 Buick Grand National

I think I was tuned in from a young age due to my curiosity about automobiles, something that I have carried forward to today. I doubt my sister remembers any of those sounds, or ever gave them a second thought.