In the early 1950s when design (as opposed to engineering) was finally being recognised as an intrinsic part of selling cars, a series of extreme concepts changed the thinking on what a car’s shape should be. From an era of protruding tail-lights, acres of chrome and rocket-inspired detailing, to a period of cars that were sleek and flowing, inspired by wind-tunnel testing and the study of aerodynamics. The Alfa Romeo BAT by Carrozzeria Bertone heralded in a new era of car design.

Think of a sports car that screams speed and you’ll probably be picturing a torpedo-shaped bullet drawn by Bertone. The sleek, shark-shaped nose on the 1973 Alfa Montreal? Bertone. That pointy-snout 1971 Lamborghini LP500 prototype that spawned the Countach? Bertone. Even non-car enthusiasts recognise these cars as beautiful, covetable examples of car design.

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Bertone was not one designer, though; it was a stable of exceptional designers assembled by impresario and visionary Giuseppe “Nuccio” Bertone. Nuccio founded and nurtured talented designers like Giorgetto Giugiaro, Marcello Gandini and Franco Scaglioni, and backed their uncompromised visions with his quality coachhouse building and vast selection of contacts. Bertone is the oldest Italian design coachhouse and possibly the most universally recognised because of the proliferation of iconic concepts pouring from Nuccio’s protégés.

In 1952, MG concept cars designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro led to a commission from Alfa for the Giulietta Sprint. Alfa had released its first standardised car in the early 1950s, and an Italian journalist wrote that he saw “lots of Romeos but no Giuliettas”, suggesting that the cars looked too masculine. The Bertone Giulietta Sprint, designed by Franco Scaglioni and shown in 1954, was presented as an embodiment of “la dolce vita”, a smaller, faster, slightly louche sports sedan (coupe, as indicated by the “Sprint” label) with elegant proportions and racing credentials.

At the same time, Bertone was releasing the BAT 5, 7 and 9 (designed by Scaglioni for Alfa) with stingray-like aerodynamics to display vehicles with the lowest possible drag co-efficient (BAT stands for “Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica”). The BATs forced designers to consider aerodynamic flow, and the Giulietta became the symbol of Italian GT.

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GT stands for Gran Turismo and represents a high performance vehicle – usually a two-door coupe – designed for spirited long-distance driving. Throughout the 1960s Bertone explored this concept with Alfa, Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, Fiat and Maserati, developing a signature swooping nose and spare, elegant lines towards the end of the decade. Consider the magnificent Iso Grifo, designed by Giugiaro in 1965 to compete with the Ferrari and Maserati GTs using Corvette and Ford components. Or how about the groundbreaking Lamborghini Miura, which was released a year later?

Innovative, beautiful and class-leading design poured from the doors of Bertone, demonstrating the breadth of talent at the coachhouse and clearly illustrating Nuccio’s master wrangling skills in keeping such high-profile egos under one roof.

The Alfa Montreal and the Fiat Dino coupe (from Gandini and Giugiaro respectively) featured Bertone’s signature long, low arching fenders and seductive fastback silhouettes. The Alfa was raked with shrouded headlights, though, and the Fiat Dino remained elegantly open.

When challenged to show “the ideal car” by the UK Daily Telegraph, Bertone produced the Jaguar Pirana, with its longer swooping bonnet and more bullet-shaped back.

A year later Bertone reinvented its own look with an extreme-wedge form of the Alfa Carabo concept. A mid-mounted engine meant the nose could taper to a point, while louvres wrapped around the headlights for uninterrupted lines. The car also stood less than a metre at its highest point.

Then, just when you thought a car couldn’t get any lower and pointier, Bertone revealed the abstract, futuristic Lancia Stratos Zero; a car with a more abstracted side profile than anything ever seen and so low it could pass below a typical vehicle barrier.

Riding high on the success of this new design language Bertone expanded production and worked with Lamborghini to create epic profiles like the Espada and the Countach; a car often cited by non-car aficionados – as well as car-lovers – as the car they would want to own. The rich and varied output was testimony to Nuccio’s ability to extract the best from his talented designers.

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Bertone flourished in the 1950s, 60s and 70s with its work for Alfa Romeo and Lamborghini (and others), but it flailed once its visionary died in 1997. The company rallied when Nuccio’s wife Lilli took over and oversaw the Pandion concept for Alfa, shown at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show.

The designer of the Pandion, Michael Robinson, was the last Design Director at Bertone, and the company went bankrupt in 2014. When asked what happened Robinson replied: “Having turned that page, I can’t afford to be dragged into this valley of tears.”

The closing of Bertone spawned countless retrospectives for a company that had more number one car design hits than any other company.

This one’s for all the naysayers, those that dismiss the new 1.5-litre MX-5 as weak and gutless.

Neither of those things are true, as the ND MX-5 1.5 has proved that thanks to its lithe 1009kg kerb weight, the downsized engine offers more than enough grunt to have a good time.

Still, a little extra power never hurt and now we have just that with the release of the ND MX-5 2.0-litre. As the name suggests, the biggest change is under the bonnet, where a 118kW/200Nm 2.0-litre four replaces the 96kW/150Nm 1.5-litre unit.

Unfortunately, the engine doesn’t sound great, more of a metallic buzz than a sporty growl, and the 1.5 feels a little more energetic, as well as revving to 7500rpm compared to the 2.0-litre’s 6900rpm.

Still, no-one buys an MX-5 to go drag racing, it’s bought for its handling, and it’s here the two cars diverge somewhat. The 1.5-litre is incredibly soft, which makes it very adjustable and agile, though at the expense of a little precision.

Even with 204/45 17s (as opposed to the 1.5’s 195/50 16s) there’s still not a whole lot of grip, especially in the wet, but it retains its sibling’s brilliantly balanced handling. Enter a corner a little too hot and it’ll understeer, but if you’re aggressive with the throttle it can be made to oversteer slightly, or a lot if it’s raining!

Larger brakes also appear, with 280mm rotors front and rear, and the pedal remains firm even under repeated punishment.

It’s not a deal breaker, but does perhaps swing the MX-5 pendulum back in favour of the 1.5.

Still, Mazda expects the 2.0-litre to take the majority share of sales (if only just) and it’s not difficult to see why when it costs only $2500 extra in standard guise and $1500 for the GT.

But based on this first drive we’re not entirely sure which ND MX-5 is the better drive. The suspicion is that the 2.0-litre will prove more capable at the outer limit, however the 1.5 will offer more accessible thrills.

The only sure way to find out is book both and take them for a back-to-back test. Stay tuned.

4/5

Specs Engine: 1998c inline-4, DOHC, 16v Power: 118kW @ 6000rpm Torque: 200Nm @ 4600rpm Weight: 1033kg (man.) 0-100km/h: 7.0sec (estimated) Price: $34,490 (man.); $36,490 (auto); $39,550 (GT man.); $41,550 (GT auto)

We can all admit that modern performance cars are as good as they have ever been.

We’ve never had faster, more comfortable or, arguably, as attractive performance cars as what is available to punters off the showroom floor today. It’s easy to point to old cars that nail one out of those three, but all together? Modern cars have them covered (as painful as it is for me to admit as an avowed lover of old tin).

So why would you modify one of these supposedly perfect creatures? Because there is still plenty of compromise and safety margin built into these cars. The engineering underpinning them can support so much more, so why not give them a tweak to unleash a bit more? Why not personalise the cars to stand out from the crowd?

It’s these questions that led MOTOR to kick off the first professional shootout for modified late-model performance cars in Australia back in 2008.

But how do you actually know if Company A’s package will do what it says, or if it’s better than Company B’s pack? This is where Hot Tuner comes into its own, putting professionally-tuned vehicles to the sword with the aim of comparing apples with apples and figuring out if anyone is telling fibs. If anyone is telling porky pies we find out double-quick and haven’t ever shied away from telling the world.

The cars themselves have represented every modifier niche in Oz. We’ve had everything from tiny supermini hatchbacks, bad-arse blown V8s, a Harrop-tuned 458 Ferrari and Tekno Motorsport’s Lamborghini Aventador turn up to run the gauntlet.

Despite only running nine cars this year, the demographics they cover means we have one of the most diverse fields in the event’s history.

We’re putting muscle cars, sports saloons, hot hatches, superminis and turbo JDM drifters together in a pot, stirring vigorously and baking on a high heat until one is crowned winner.

Smack talk between the various tribes who make up the tuner scene in Australia isn’t anything new, but as it’s such a wide church you often wind up with apples being compared to pears or, in some cases, candied bacon.

Running the cars we did this year allows us a unique opportunity to really show where each vehicle shines and why. It also allows us to compare bang-for-your-buck through the use of the BFYB algorithm.

The fact we charged an entry fee to cover the huge costs involved in running the shootout also meant tuners had to commit a long way out. Simply put, a few couldn’t put their money where their mouths were and didn’t sign up for the three-day event in the Harbour City.

This year we also held all entrants to a minimum level and standard of modifications. In the past it would have been all too easy to turn up with a Bugatti Veyron wearing carbon wrap and stick-on white wall tyres just to take a win, but having relevant cars with mods you guys and gals can relate to is far more important to us. And we make no apologies to the Thursday Night Maccanats crew for saying that we don’t count stickers as a modification.

We’ve also specified all tyres must have a 140 treadwear to count semi-slick R-compound rubber out of the competition. This is a rule directly borrowed from World Time Attack regulations and it’s all about having the vehicles represent what people actually drive on Aussie roads. While some do use them on their street cars, it really isn’t representing an honest street car in our books.

While it isn’t available everywhere, especially in full-freight E85 (most is around E60-E70), many tuners now have options to set their cars up on it and claim huge increases over and above traditional 98RON PULP.

Many of these gains come from being able to wind a lot more ignition timing into the motors, along with healthy boost increases. This assists in improving the boost threshold (response) on turbo cars as well as how aggressive tuners can get on aspirated or supercharged cars – the throttle response can be knife-sharp!

We hand-filled every car when they turned up to scrutineering on Monday night and then sealed the tank to ensure parity. Entrants were given the choice of 98RON PULP or E85, and many chose to show off their gasohol-tuning prowess and opt for the corn juice.

Tuners were also invited to use their own driver on the drag strip. Complaints levelled at the testers and procedures in year’s past encouraged, to put it meekly, MOTOR to throw the doors open for entrants to bring their own hot shoe along and launch the cars they built. However, while the tuners were given the option, nobody chose to take it up and instead left the straight-line testing of their steeds to the experience and natural born speed of Warren Luff.

The 2015 Toyo Tires Hot Tuner Challenge has been a massive effort from all involved, but running Australia’s only professional tuner shootout was never going to be easy. Read on to find out the skinny on who turned up, what they brought and who did what against the clock.

The Strip

We had Luffy test acceleration and braking at Sydney Dragway, literally over the crest of the hill from Sydney Motorsport Park. If you know how heavy a car is and how fast it covers the standing 400m sprint, you can actually extrapolate out how much rear-wheel horsepower it’s making with a surprising degree of accuracy.

We didn’t need to rely on the old Moroso slide calculator as we have a high-tech Vbox full of computer technology and quite a lot of witchcraft. Luffy did three runs in each car, recording the 0-100km/h, 0-400m and then 100-0km/h for each.

However, they all chose Luffy. They were also allowed to alter their tyre pressures for the drag-strip discipline. This was to allow more grip off the line, due to lower tyre pressures giving more “bag” to the sidewall off the line.

The Fuel

For 2015, a control fuel was used to ensure everyone played fair – either E85 or 98RON was fair game but it had to be hand-cranked out of the Hi-Tec Fuels drums.

Detonation in these circumstances could be catastrophic to these motors and we’re not in the engine-killing business, so we needed to know the fuel had the required octane for the tuners’ handiwork.

The Dyno

We once again had the boys from Mainline Dyno bring one of their gun chassis dynos along to Hot Tuner so we could record peak power at the wheels for all the entrants.

Mapping out the power curve also gives us an indication as to how the car will drive on the street, showing if the grunt arrives in a few hundred RPM, or climbs in a linear arc.

The difference is that the former will generally drive quite poorly outside its window and then come on in a rush of fury with all the subtlety of motoring journos at an open bar.

Cars are individually strapped down and run three times, back-to-back, to get the maximum power figure as measured at the wheels.

We once again called upon the blokes at Fast Torque Performance Engineering to house the dyno challenge.

With their location just around the corner from Sydney Motorsport Park, and with plenty of experience running dyno challenges, it made them the perfect guys for the job.

The Track

Performance testing modified cars on public roads isn’t smart, so we reserved a day at Sydney Motorsport Park’s twisting, tumbling South Circuit. We needed to know just how these cars behaved at their limit; and while the larger Grand Prix circuit at SMSP is faster, the tight South Circuit shows up glaring errors in handling set-up or deficiencies in tuning.

The tight, heavily undulating layout pushes tyres and suspension, two areas which can make or break an upgrade package. And it also shows when tuners are relying on a good factory package to hide a lack of their own R&D.

Thankfully, no journalists were harmed in the making of this event, although Morley got a bit of dirt in his eye and Glenn Torrens almost fell off the tyre barrier during a regular bout of over-excitement.

We have to thank Sydney Motorsport Park for allowing us to base the 2015 Toyo Tires Hot Tuner Challenge out of the South Circuit garage, using it as Parc Ferme from Monday night, scrutineering and also the hub for photography for the three days.

The Wheel man

Warren Luff: the man, the myth, the hairdo and smile so bright it can be seen from space.

His experience driving fast on road tyres and suspension, and with modern stability control systems, gives him the edge over most other testers, plus with suspiciously little encouragement, he can hang the tail out and blaze fatties like it’s going out of fashion.

Follow Luffy (and his dog Gnocchi) on Facebook, by searching for him, or Twitter – search for @wazzaluff.

Check out the cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Herrod Ford Fiesta ST
• Hi-Torque HSV Gen F Clubsport
• Herrod Ford Falcon XR8
• MRT Subaru WRX
• ROH Wheels Toyota 86
• CPC BMW M4
• Harding Volkswagen Golf R
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

BMW’s F82 M4 had been released to the public for what seemed like four minutes before the first modified examples were popping up on the internet.

Check out all the Hot Tuner 2015 action here.

It’s no surprise that the first forced-induction M-car carries a mind-boggling amount of hype, expectation and hope on its broad, be-flared arches.

The worldwide popularity among tuners for the new-generation of turbocharged BMW models, including 135i, 1M and 335i (among others), has changed the way the Bavarian marque is viewed, particularly among a younger demographic. The glory days of Group A tourers and highly strung N/A six-pot M5s have been replaced by easy power, cheap gains and plug-in computer upgrades.

This style of modifying was the domain of Japanese and American tuners for many years, but the Europeans have learned quickly. While there are plenty of guys going nuts on M4s, there are more companies like Sydney’s City Performance Centre taking a more progressive approach and weaning performance out of several areas rather than just winding bulk kilowatts out.

“We put the Akrapovic exhaust on it, including the down pipes with catalytic converters. Getting that sorted out with the right-hand drive was really good to have done. We also modified the intake on this, and we’re working on developing a new intake and airbox but it’s not quite ready yet.

“This car also has a flash-tuned trans to improve the shifts, along with the adjustable perch springs from KW and the HRE wheels. We did the HREs in a custom colour for the customer, and we’re now starting to shift sets of these HREs as word gets out we are a distributor.

Alessio admits the CPC crew took a new turn with this particular M4, trying flash-tuning for the first time. Flash-tuning is where a computer is used to make live updates to an ECU, rather than a pre-programmed box or downloaded tune.

“This car retains all the factory suspension function, including Dynamic Comfort, so it’s still a good road car. We’re looking for mods that a guy can drive in looking for a good package that is a solid mix of track performance while still keeping it a useable road car.”

Workshop

Car: BMW F82 M4 Who: City Performance Centre Where: Unit 2 / 39 Hotham Parade, Artarmon, NSW How long: Since 2000 Contact: (02) 9437 6077 Email: [email protected] Website: cityperformancecentre.com

Specifications

Drive: rear-wheel Engine: 2979cc inline-6, DOHC, 24v, twin-turbo Gearbox: 7-speed dual-clutch Suspension: struts, A-arms, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar (f); multi-links, coil springs, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 380mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers (f); 370mm ventilated discs, 2-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 19 x 9.0-inch (f); 19 x 10.0-inch (r) Tyres: 255/35 ZR19 (f); 275/35 ZR 19 (r); Michelin Pilot Super Sport

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Parts and Prices

Wheelspin hinders the M4’s title shot

The M4 was a seriously fancied contender for outright honours at Hot Tuner, and it didn’t disappoint. It struggled with grip during straight-line testing and its immense speed was cruelled by the South Circuit’s tight layout, yet it still came third outright against far more nimble, harder-tuned opponents.

A 37.15m result in the 100-0km/h braking test was its worst performance, while the 4.8 second 0-100km/h acceleration run was plagued by chronic wheelspin on a very green Western Sydney Dragstrip surface. Luffy was often deep into third before the big coupe hooked up and gripped!

On the circuit you could feel the M4’s considerable size. While the steering and transmission were typical high-quality BMW, albeit with the flash-tune on the shifting software, the huge top-end rush of the turbocharged motor felt like too much in the concrete confines of the South Circuit. Without Luff-level skills behind the wheel, I didn’t have confidence to really stand on the throttle and wind it out.

That said, under brakes and through the corners, the M4 was a revelation at how you could drive quite lazily and it would still power around the track like it was hoovering up miles on a freeway.

I drove the car in every mode, and even in Comfort the M4 was rewarding, fast and entertaining. It’s all too easy to get caught up tuning cars to be as hardcore as possible, but the real art to building a better street car comes in how it responds to part-throttle loads, rough roads and all the crappy stuff we have to deal with away from perfect racetracks.

It also sounds like complete aural pornography, too. The Akrapovic exhaust might cost a shade under $9500, but it gave everyone who heard it tingles up their spines. After all, a good exhaust note is an intrinsic part of the appeal of modified cars.

The massive amount of mid-range grunt, that makes the car so devastatingly fast on the road, also hindered it at SMSP’s South Circuit as it would start really moving just in time for yet another tight turn.

With its fantastic grand-touring potential and ability to demolish in-gear acceleration runs, it’s probably the perfect contemporary coupe to take from Melbourne to Brisbane via the outback, yet its pin-sharp steering and fantastic poise means it would also be incredible fun on the Oxley Highway.

Couple in the fact the M4’s build quality and interior spec level are A-grade – and the CPC mods make it a real visual stunner – this BMW is a jack-of-all-trades, and master of plenty.

Results

Overall result: 3rd

Luffy Says

“It feels like a bit of a caged lion because it’s got so much potential and the tight confines of the circuit don’t really allow you to explore the true potential of the car. But it’s such a fun car to drive on the limit. It’s so responsive to everything you do. The work that’s been done helps to sharpen it and make it more responsive. And the engine in these things is just so good. Take it onto the full circuit here and this thing would really show some people up.”

Check out the other cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Herrod Ford Fiesta ST
• Hi-Torque HSV Gen F Clubsport
• Herrod Ford Falcon XR8
• MRT Subaru WRX
• ROH Wheels Toyota 86
• Harding Volkswagen Golf R
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

Harding Performance brought a mildly fettled MkVII Golf R to Hot Tuner just to prove how good the new-gen platform is.

Check out all the Hot Tuner 2015 action here.

It was a brassy move considering the opposition, but Guy Harding admits the Volkswagen engineers had made it easier for his team having refined the Golf platform to a point of excellence for the seventh-generation model.

“Everything is new to us, so we have to start from scratch again,” he says. “It’s a complete fresh-sheet approach as the MkV and MkVI were very similar, we’ve had them since 2005. Everything we applied to the previous models over the last nine years no longer applies.

“We took the new cars out and tested them standard. It’s taken quite a while to get into the engine management and the new chassis; the suspension development has taken quite a lot of time as the new car is more stable and we can’t get the easy, quick gains we could on previous models, as Volkswagen has already taken care of those simple fixes.”

The R600 intake, Sports springs and monoblock front brakes are from Racingline, while the swaybars and alloy control arms come courtesy of HP and SuperPro. With a retina-pounding vinyl wrap, the angry R is finished off with Racingline 18-inch alloys shod in Yokohama AD08R rubber.

That restriction is balanced out by newfound opportunities with the MkVII platform in the form of dual-valve lift control. And, in bigger news, it can now run alcohol-based ethanol fuels.

“E85 is new for us because, since the introduction of direct-injection to the VW Group in 2005, we just haven’t had enough fuel capacity,” Harding explains. “The aftermarket parts for DFI just don’t exist for us; things like five-volt injectors and the management to run them.

So, with such a good base car does Harding see the trend for VW tuning slowing down? Far from it.

“We have a lot of young professionals buying these types of cars, and we have to include the Audi S3 on this as it’s the same car with a different skin. The new S3 is the biggest resurgence of Audi tuning that we’ve seen in a long time, like the old WRX and Evo thing.”

Workshop

Car: 2015 MkVII VW Golf R Who: Harding Performance Where: 1/56 Cambridge Street, Coorparoo, Queensland How long: Since 1998 Contact: 1300 730 949 Email: [email protected] Website: hp.net.au

Specifications

Drive: all-wheel Engine: 1984cc inline-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo Gearbox: 6-speed dual-clutch Suspension: coil-overs, A-arms, anti-roll bar (f); multi-links, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 370mm ventilated discs, 6-piston calipers (f); 310mm ventilated discs, single-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 18 x 8.0-inch (f/r) Tyres: 235/35 ZR18 (f/r); Yokohama Advan AO50

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Parts and Prices

Another win for Guy Harding and his steroid-fed Golfs

The whole is more than the sum of its parts” is an old saying, and boy, oh boy, did the Harding Performance crew prove that at Hot Tuner. While its spec sheet looked far too tame to take on the big guns in the garage, the reality is the MkVII is as close to an off-the-shelf sleeper as you could find. And it blew everyone who drove it away.

Okay, so the vinyl wrap is proper lairy, but in more traditional garb the APR Stage 2 R could pass as any other five-door hatch on a metropolitan street. It’s just that it’s also capable of mid-12-second quarter-miles, was fourth on the circuit by a super-slim margin and did repeated 4.31 second 0-100km/h runs as easy as pie, while other more fancied machines struggled with wheelspin.

It’s a credit to Harding Performance that they’ve created a comfortable, quiet street car that becomes a rapid, exhilarating turbo monster with a stab of happy pedal. Yet it retains all the factory niceties modern turbo Golfs are famous (and well-loved) for.

After topping the list for 0-100km/h times and coming second on the 0-400m times (by 0.15 seconds, to a car with more than double its horsepower at the wheels), it placed fourth in the 100-0km/h braking test with a 35.85m and fifth at the dyno after running a peak of 246.9kW. And this was enough to give it the win at Hot Tuner 2015.

While it was cracking hot on the short track, everyone agreed that the faster full circuit would have suited it even more as the suspension could get real load fed into it and the heavy-hitting motor could stretch its legs.

Punters experienced with turbo Japanese cars of the past are used to swapping weedy stock turbochargers out for bigger aftermarket offerings, but they’re in for a rude shock with the APR Golf. On the dyno it ran back-to-back passes, making between 240.4kW and 246.9kW at all four wheels on the stock turbocharger!

“We achieved 350kW out of a MkVI on a legal, street-driven kit, and we’re hoping to hit at least that,” he says. “We do have a huge advantage of increased fuel potential and dual valve lift on this car, which are our big advantages straight up. It’s why this car is making so much power out of the box.”

“A lot of people are buying these because they’re a quality, all ’round good car in a great package they can make very fast very easily. It’s something new for us to have something here with so few mods, but it’s early in the MkVII’s cycle so next year we should be considerably faster.”

We can’t wait. Congratulations Harding Performance and APR, winners of MOTOR’s Hot Tuner 2015.

Results

Overall Results: 1st

Luffy Says

“It’s a testament to these guys. They’ve taken the base of the Golf R and really brought it to life with the modifications. Probably a little bit stiff for this tight little circuit, but it would be really well suited to the full circuit here where you can really start to load the car up. It’s still nice and lively through all the tight and twisty stuff. And the engine upgrades bring that fantastic engine to life.”

Check out the other cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Herrod Ford Fiesta ST
• Hi-Torque HSV Gen F Clubsport
• Herrod Ford Falcon XR8
• MRT Subaru WRX
• ROH Wheels Toyota 86
• CPC BMW M4
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

Sometimes it takes real guts to do the unpredictable. I mean, how many times have you heard the warning not to take a knife to a gunfight?

Check out all the Hot Tuner 2015 action here.

And yet, here is Rob Herrod fronting up to Hot Tuner in an XR8 that boasts less power than the one MOTOR drove a few issues back. But, according to the big fella himself, sometimes – to borrow another cliché – less is more.

See, if the first version of the Herrod XR8 had a downfall, it was that it had too much power. Yeah, yeah, I know – heresy. But bear with us here. Take a big, heavy car with a distinct limit to how much tyre you can get under its butt, insist that (for Hot Tuner) it wears non-R-Spec road tyres and then stuff the engine full of boost and PULP. What happens?

All too often the result is a car that goes up in smoke off the line, even at a dedicated dragstrip like Sydney Dragway.

Don’t believe him? Okay, take the Hi-Torque HSV Clubby that was also along for the ride at Hot Tuner this time around. Herrod’s Henry was less than two-tenths slower across the 400m and was actually about three-tenths faster to 100 from rest.

And since they weigh about the same, used similar tyres and were driven by the same driver on the same day, you would reckon they would both be punching out about the same power, right? Nope.

Herrod’s other smart move was to opt for an automatic this time around. And hey, let’s not lose sight of the fact that 345rwkW is pretty handy next to the 335kW that Ford claims at the crank snout for the XR8. The big changes are the addition of an intercooler, a retune with Herrod’s custom engine and trans calibration and a cat-back exhaust. A K&N air filter helps and a high-flow fuel pump adds a safety margin.

All up, this XR8 represents a $17,038 (supplied and fitted) hike over the stocker, but if you just wanted the engine mods, you’d be looking at slightly less than 10-large.

Workshop

Car: Ford Falcon XR8 Who: Herrod Motorsport Where: 103 Northgate Drive, Thomastown, Victoria How long: Since 1978 Contact: (03) 9464 5100 Email: [email protected] Website: herrodmotorsport.com.au

Specifications

Drive: rear-wheel Engine: 4951cc V8, DOHC, 32v, supercharged Gearbox: 6-speed auto Suspension: A-arms, coil springs, anti-roll bar (f); multi-links, coil springs, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 355mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers (f); 330mm ventilated discs, single-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 19 x 9.0-inch (f); 19 x 10-inch (r) Tyres: 255/30 ZR19 (f); 295/30 ZR19 (r); Continental ContiSportContact 5P

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Parts and prices

No track star, but a better XR8 in every area

Just in case you somehow mistakenly took the introductory comments of the Herrod XR8 as some kind of message that it isn’t fit or, indeed, fast, think again. See, those 345kW at the Continentals probably equate to something like 430 or 440kW at the crankshaft. And that, as anybody who has ever piloted something with that sort of poke will tell you, is not something to be prodding with a stick through the bars of its cage.

True, the XR8 ain’t no racecar and, on road tyres and a slush ’box, it wouldn’t be our first choice of track-day weapon either. It is sharper than a stock XR8, though, and that’s all down to the suspension package that took up many hours in the Herrod workshop.

It works, too. The end result is not only sharper than a stock XR8, it actually rides better, too, and will soak up plenty of kerb-bashing before it starts to think about throwing a secondary bounce into the show.

Actually, this ability to behave more sharply but still ride well is possibly the most unlikely aspect of the car, but also possibly the one that you’ll come to appreciate most as the months and kilometres roll on by.

There are, of course, limits imposed by the laws of physics. That limit is reached when the front tyres can no longer deal with the combination of the steering angle dialled up by the driver and the sheer mass of everything south of the front axle that’s attempting to drive the whole plot in a straight line. Not surprisingly, the straight-line thing will eventually win out.

This physics stuff manifests in a lap-time of 64.4sec – hardly up the pointy end of things, but again, this is not a track car by any stretch. And to call once again on the comparison with the Hi-Torque Performance Clubsport, with which the XR8 most closely matches on weight and wheelbase, the Henry was almost two seconds faster around the track, despite all those extra kilowatts under the HSV Clubbie’s lid.

So a racecar it isn’t, but the way the grunt comes on hot and strong, and the long wheelbase of the Falcon package, means this would be an awesome drift car. The combination of fairly benign reactions and huge wallop means you can pile into just about any corner – no, any corner now I think about it – and dial in the amount of oversteer you want just by regulating how much clog you throw into the mix. From there, you can fine-tune the angle of lunacy with a very intuitive combination of tiller and gas.

This is also why the Herrod XR8 started losing chunks of its rear ContiSports about three laps into proceedings.

Results

Overall Placing: 4th

Luffy Says

“This is a really fun car. The engine modifications have given it that little bit more power, so it’s got really good low-down torque. It doesn’t hurt the driveability off the corner or anything like that and it’s still got plenty of traction. It’s got so much more torque and it’s there throughout the whole rev range. Herrod has tightened up the whole package and made it that bit more enjoyable to drive.”

Check out the other cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Herrod Ford Fiesta ST
• Hi-Torque HSV Gen F Clubsport
• MRT Performance Subaru WRX
• ROH Wheels Toyota 86
• CPC BMW M4
• Harding Volkswagen Golf R
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

Rob Herrod is not, whichever way you cut the deck, a quiche eater.

Want to see more from Hot Tuner 2015? Check out all the action here.

He builds big, fast cars and he got to where he is by calling spades spades and giving people what they want.

He is not the sort of bloke you figure would be messing around with piddly little four-cylinder hatchbacks. But then, I don’t actually place the Fiesta ST in that category in the first place. See, the Fiesta ST is a firm favourite around the MOTOR bunker and that’s because it is a proper hot-hatch, not some mildly spiced-up grocery-getter with a stripe kit. It should, in fact, have been called a Fiesta RS, it’s that good.

But the ramifications of losing our big, locally-made cars is not lost on Herrod. He’s also aware that cars like the Fiesta ST might well make up a big chunk of the future of high-performance road cars. So he got himself one, had a fiddle, and this is the result. “I hadn’t driven a four-cylinder hatchback for, oh, years. How long ago was the Nissan EXA? But they’re bloody good fun. And I reckon this one has turned out a ripper.

Herrod started with a pack from England from a mob named Mountune. It’s called an MR230 kit and claims to boost grunt to 230 horsepower (call it 170kW), but it does so while retaining the stock turbocharger and other hardware, making it pretty cost effective. Which, of course, makes sense in a budget-friendly jigger like the Fiesta ST.

The Mountune kit includes a new silicon charge-pipe, induction hoses and a bigger intercooler. There’s a new exhaust including the cat, and Herrod has adapted a Ford Motorsport cat-back system to finish it off and give it an awesome note.

Mountune also supplied the lowered, stiffer springs as well as a quick-shifter which is the only visual difference inside the cabin. But Herrod wasn’t done yet – he also added a set of 17 x 7.0-inch Ox Wheels alloys and ContiSportContacts measuring 205/40.

What’s possibly most amazing about all this is that the package is anything but a wallet-buster. Supplied and fitted at Herrod’s Melbourne workshop, the engine and suspension package tops out at a moderate $4980. And how does less than $1450 for the whole wheel and tyre package sound?

Workshop

Car: Ford Fiesta ST Who: Herrod Motorsport Where: 103 Northgate Drive, Thomastown, Victoria How long: Since 1978 Contact: (03) 9464 5100 Email: [email protected] Website: herrodmotorsport.com.au

Specifications

Drive: front-wheel Engine: 1596cc inline-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo Gearbox: 6-speed manual Suspension: struts, anti-roll bar (f); torsion beam, Mountune coil springs, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 278mm ventilated discs, 2-piston calipers (f); 253mm ventilated discs, single-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 17 x 7.0-inch (f/r) Tyres: 205/40 ZR17 (f/r); Continental ContiSportContact 2

1

Parts and Prices

What it lacks in outright speed it makes up for in smiles-per-hour

The stiffer Mountune springs are probably the first thing you notice on the Fiesta ST, even on a smooth surface like a race track. Then again, suspension compliance is not a Fiesta ST long-suit even in standard trim, so it’s not like the end result has gone backwards.

There’s also a whole lot more body control on the change of direction; something that the ST is otherwise pretty good at to begin with. It looks tougher being tied down a little, too.

Then there’s the grunt. Oh yes. To be perfectly honest, the Herrod ST does feel perkier than the stocker, but it doesn’t seem like a wholesale power hike. That, says Herrod, is because the calibration only allows for an extra three psi over the standard car’s 17psi, meaning that the improvement is mostly downstream of that, in the exhaust where the lower restriction system simply flows better, allowing for a more efficient air pump.

That was good enough to get the ST to 100km/h in 6.8 seconds and across the quarter in 14.7. The big issue, as always with front-drivers with plenty of squirt, is that the front tyres want to go up in smoke when you try to launch. Even so, with Luffy at the controls, the ST was still quicker with the ESC switched off, suggesting that Luff is a freak and that the Ford hooks up reasonably well.

But, again, it’s the in-gear squirt and roll-on thrust that makes the Fiesta such a blast to hammer around a track. Okay, so its 68.1 second lap was slowest of the bunch, but it feels fast and it should be a lot kinder to its tyres and brakes than some of the heavier gear here, too. Luffy backs up that assessment after a few laps, saying that the little Ford’s corner speed is probably its trump card.

Okay, so more grunt would make it even faster, but would it make it any more fun? Well, there’s already a fair dose of torque-steer when you get on the noise, and I don’t see that improving with even more urge trying to tear the front wheels off.

And one thing that doesn’t sound important, but you wouldn’t do without, is that short-shift kit. It makes gear selection not just faster, not just more accurate, but heaps more fun, convincing you of the need to shift just for the hell of it. And I reckon that quick-shifter is a metaphor for the whole Herrod Fiesta deal: it doesn’t cost much, doesn’t re-engineer the car in any major sense, but simply makes a fun car even funner. And, no, I don’t care that there’s no such word as funner.

Results

Overall Placing: 9th

Luffy Says

The Fiesta ST is a great little car. For too long hot hatches have become too soft and don’t live up to the proper hot-hatch tag. But this thing is a lot of fun to drive – you can throw it around, you can slide the rear, but it’s still got really good power and good overall dynamics. The modifications have really enhanced the overall package of the vehicle and just made it that bit better again.”

Check out the other cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Hi-Torque HSV Gen-F Clubsport
• Herrod Ford Falcon XR8
• MRT Performance Subaru WRX
• ROH Wheels Toyota 86
• CPC BMW M4
• Harding Volkswagen Golf R
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

It’s easy to get jaded by power figures thrown around on the internet.

Want to see more from Hot Tuner 2015? Check out all the action here.

It seems like everyone’s uncle’s flat-mate’s brother’s dog has a 1000hp (that’s 750kW in the new money) car hiding in a shed somewhere, and we’re all so blasé about it.

Fact of the matter is, however, that anything more than around 375kW (at the wheels) is enough to pucker sensitive parts of the body and turn grown men into whimpering jellyfish with nary but a stab of right foot.

And such is the case with this demure offering from Kent Dalton, the man behind Hi-Torque Performance in Queensland. While it looks like any other Gold Coast-spec Clubby, this Gen-F packs a genuine 700hp at the rear bags, which is enough to pull huge fourth-gear powerskids as Luffy so ably demonstrated at the South Circuit.

Dalton explains. “Our customer wanted something that was going to be different to the run of the mill. He wanted it streetable, and to look and operate like a factory car. I decided the best way to go about that was to run a supercharger instead of a turbo, especially with the torque in it.

So why use the more expensive HSV and not a cheaper SS boosted up? “Using an HSV to build this car off meant we had the best base,” Dalton says. “The HSV has the optimal diff ratio in it, it’s got the good ’box and it has that 6.2-litre LS3. It has plenty of torque, the ratios work and it’s got good brakes. We put coilovers in it to stiffen it up, but the stock bushes are all left.

“Years of research and development mean we know what the LS engines like. We didn’t have to delve too far into tuning every part of the computer, but we put more work into finding the right camshaft.

This is so that it can have a nice idle and doesn’t make the car stall, and ensures you can drive the car easily when you want to get into it. We also needed to ensure the valve spring combo could handle the horsepower as they’re a known weak point on the LS engines.

Workshop

Car: HSV Gen-F Clubsport Who: Hi-Torque Performance Where: 3/225 Brisbane Rd, Labrador How long: 10-plus years Contact: (07) 5500 6512 Email : [email protected] Website: www.hi-torqueperformance.com.au

Specifications

Drive: rear-wheel Engine: 6162cc V8, OHV, 16v, supercharger Gearbox: 6-speed manual Suspension: struts, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (f); multi-links, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 367mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers (f/r) Wheels: 20 x 8.5-inch (f); 20 x 9.5 (r) Tyres: 255/45 R20 (f); 275/45 R20 (r) Continental ContiSportContact 5P

Parts and Prices

Mild-mannered on the outside, psychotic under the bonnet

By now you should have seen the video on MOTOR’s Facebook page with Luffy hanging the Clubsport sideways at well over 100km/h around the back of the Sydney Motorsport Park South Circuit. The wall of smoke that was pumped out was equal to anything you’d see at a D1 drift comp… or the Summernats burnout finals!

Now, while I’ve driven plenty of overpowered street cars, I didn’t have the stones to attempt such a move in someone else’s borrowed car at that particular location. At least, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Sitting in the pits it’s a civilised, refined and thoroughly comfortable large family sedan. All the features work and it’s quite tame and comfortable to drive when you’re not trying to peel bitumen off the face of NSW terra firma. Everything works like a factory-built car and there isn’t much of a hint of the violence lurking within, apart from a bit of a cammy vibe at idle and that brutal clutch.

Plenty of tuners talk a big game about making hypercar power from a family car, but in practice they get the balance of race and street weighted too far towards the race side. We had a man at Hot Tuner with first-hand experience in a V8 Supercar, so everyone was keen to hear Luffy’s thoughts on the HTP brute.

He came in from his lap wide-eyed but beaming with praise for what Kent and the HTP boys had done. “If Holden built a car with 700hp that is how I’d expect it to drive,” exhaled Wazza.

The standard brakes and tyres, combined with a huge kerb weight, also saw it finish eighth in the 100-0km/h test with a 38.49m stop. Luffy also brought the big beast home in eighth on the track thanks to a 66.30sec lap time.

Still, it obliterated the competition on the dyno with a 517rwkW run, making 396.2kW more than the Fiesta! It was enough to see the Clubby finish fifth overall. But the scorecard doesn’t tell the real success story of this car.

That might seem like an illogical thing to say about a car which can bake the rear tyres at will in any gear, but the fact is this isn’t a machine you drive at full throttle, or steer as hard as you can go. It’s an exercise in restraint and moderation, using the huge response in the mid-throttle area to move the car in a smooth, seamless way rather than blasting on maximum attack.

Shockingly, there aren’t rattles or strange vibrations. And it didn’t get hot after a couple of punishing laps from Warren, or idling for extended periods in the pits. If you’d told someone 15 years ago that you could have a car as powerful as the Hi-Torque Clubsport with impeccable manners, they’d have had you locked up.

If power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, then I’m now as bent as a dog’s hind leg.

Results

Overall Placing: 5th

Luffy Says

This car is all about the engine. It feels like if HSV decided to bring out the Clubsport with 700hp at the treads, this is how it would come. Look, it’s got a massive amount of power and you can turn the tyres in any gear, but it still feels like what you would expect to buy it from the manufacturer. The work that’s gone into making it as driveable and liveable as what it is, is a credit to Hi-Torque Performance.”

Check out the other cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Herrod Ford Fiesta ST
• Herrod Ford Falcon XR8
• MRT Performance Subaru WRX
• ROH Wheels Toyota 86
• CPC BMW M4
• Harding Volkswagen Golf R
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

Don’t buy an STI. All you’re buying is a bullet-proof gearbox and some bling. This thing will crap all over an STI.”

Check out all the Hot Tuner 2015 action here.

And, with those words, MRT Performance head honcho Brett Middleton flicked the switch to duck-and-cover. But Senor Middleton is convinced that anybody after a road-burning Rex would do well to forget the STI and instead start with the base-model WRX which, BM says, is a better starting point.

“The WRX has a twin-scroll turbo, so it spins up faster than the STI. This thing (the MRT-modded car) is building boost longer; the standard car tapers off the boost too early. All you need to do is put a tune in it and it’s quicker than an STI.

So what exactly were those fiddles? Well, let’s start with the MRT Power Pack that gives the flat-four a new set of parameters to work with. There’s also an alloy pulley kit, a Verticooler top-mount intercooler (which is bigger than the stocker and tilted at a better angle for air to hit it) an E-flex sensor and an adjustable blow-off valve.

But if that doesn’t sound like a huge change, Middleton reckons the real sweat was in making sure it would all work in harmony with no trade-off in driveability or reliability.

Oddly enough, Middleton reckons the maximum boost you’ll see on this engine is the same 21psi as the stocker, but it’s that more rapid spool up and holding on to boost for longer that makes all the difference.

“That’s it, though,” he admits. “It’s engine-out to get anything more.”

Middleton has a rich rally background and that’s reflected in the way his cars also cop a handling upgrade as a matter of course. In this case, the trick was to fit a set of MCA coil-overs. A shift kit was added as well and a set of ROH wheels and Kumho Ecsta KU39 tyres fill the guards.

This level of modification isn’t cheap, of course, and once you’ve ordered your brand-new WRX, you’re looking at adding an extra $21,626 to the bill to arrive at this specification. Which is a total of $65,616. Just as well it will kick the butt of the $50K STI then.

Workshop

Car: Subaru WRX Who: MRT Performance Where: 1 Averill Street, Rhodes, NSW How long: Since 1995 Contact: (02) 9767 4545 Email: [email protected] Website: MRTperformance.com.au

Specifications

Drive: all-wheel Engine: 1998cc flat-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo Gearbox: 6-speed manual Suspension: A-arms, struts, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (f); multi-links, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 326mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers (f); 315mm ventilated discs, 2-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 18 x 8.0-inch (f/r) Tyres: 245/40 ZR18 (f/r); Kumho Ecsta Le Sport KU39

1

Parts and Prices

MRT’s super Rex is more than the sum of its parts

It’s a bit strange to jump into a tuned WRX and not be confronted by the active diff controls in the centre console. It’s a sharp reminder that this is a WRX, not an STI. But if anything, that just makes the anticipation all the more tasty. Can this thing really hand an STI a blood nose?

Um, not sure. I reckon I would want to back-to-back it with the hotter factory version before I made any bold statements. But I can tell you that the MRT Rexie is definitely as fast as the STI, despite giving away half a litre of engine capacity.

On the dragstrip that amounts to 0-100km/h in 5.8sec and a standing 400m time of 13.7sec. And that’s after Brett had leaned into the window of the car and reminded Luffy that he was dealing with a standard clutch.

Clearly, on-road roll-ons are going to be the MRT WRX’s thing. Did somebody say real-world performance?

The South (Amaroo) Circuit at Sydney Motorsport Park has a wicked little uphill section after the first couple of turns that points you at a blind crest and then into a downhill braking area before a don’t-mess-this-up left-hander. And the eye-opener for me was just how bloody fast the MRT Subie was across the top and into the abyss of that crest.

Where some cars want to lift a wheel on the kerb on the right-hand side, or feel like they’re gonna get all light on you, the WRX just smashed its way over the top and gripped up, with me hanging on like a terrified barnacle.

Unlike a lot of coil-overs (or, indeed, the stock STI) these aren’t rock hard. In fact, they almost feel a bit underdone when you’re pootling about, because the ride quality is better than any stock WRX derivative I’ve ever driven. But make them work and the control is phenomenal.

Yes, the MRT Rex will still understeer a fraction if you jam it in too fast, but it’s a mild case of the pushes and it only really happens in the slower stuff. Meantime, get your entry speed right and the MRT car just loves a good spanking. It actually seems to come together better the harder you flog it.

Maybe it would hand an STI its backside on the track, maybe not, but it would be a hell of a road car with so much more ride compliance, it’d be chalk and cheese. And if you wanted to save yourself a few bucks and delete the STI body kit, which would otherwise set you back $2500, this thing would be a real stealth bomber.

I imagine the problem will be that kids actually want all that active-diff stuff inside so they can play with it and actually make the car worse. But for us grown-ups, the MRT Rex makes a strong case for itself in the real world of speed humps, potholes and the Highway Patrol.

Results

Overall Placing: 8th

Luffy says

“Such a fantastic engine upgrade on this car and it’s got so much useable torque. All ’round the back sections and through all the tight stuff, it just uses third and fourth gear. You don’t really get above about 5500rpm. It just goes to show what a good tune can do for an everyday car and still make it really useable. This thing would be a really good pocket rocket on the roads.”

Check out the other cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Herrod Ford Fiesta ST
• Hi-Torque HSV Gen F Clubsport
• Herrod Ford Falcon XR8
• ROH Wheels Toyota 86
• CPC BMW M4
• Harding Volkswagen Golf R
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG

As sensationally wonderful as the Toyota 86 is, it’s not over-endowed in the grunt department.

Check out all the Hot Tuner 2015 action here.

Its outright speed isn’t too shameful – 0-100km/h in seven-odd seconds and about 15-flat over the quarter was V8 Falcon pace not that long ago – but its engine never really inspires.

Forced induction is the obvious solution, but apart from some tantalising motor show concepts, neither Toybaru manufacturer has offered a boosted factory variant as yet. “Not enough room”, “too hard”, they protest. The aftermarket is not so easily defeated, and Australia has been at the forefront of force-fed 86 development.

Regular MOTOR readers will be familiar with the ROH Wheels 86, as it’s appeared in these pages before. Unfortunately, the last time we drove it, during World Time Attack at Sydney Motorsport Park, things went awry when the engine let go, resulting in a costly rebuild for car owner, ROH Wheels’ Product Designer Glynn Helgeson.

The engine itself has also been cracked open, an HKS stroker kit increasing capacity to 2091cc and improving reliability courtesy of new rods, pistons and crank.

“We actually put it back together as a twin-charge set-up,” says John Healey of V-Sport, the crew responsible for the latest incarnation of ROH’s Toyota terrier. “[We] did some testing, but the biggest thing was just the intake temps – we just couldn’t get the intake temps down enough to keep it reliable.

The rest of the package is largely familiar, with RS*R coil-overs front and rear and a full complement of Whiteline gear (anti-roll bars, strut tower brace, Nolathane bushes, etc) handling the cornering forces, and ventilated and slotted DBA rotors (355mm two-piece discs up front; 330mm items at the rear) with four-piston calipers at each end pulling everything up nicely.

What is new is the rolling stock, one-off forged 18 x 9.5-inch alloys designed by Helgeson. The extra width has allowed 265/35R18 Yokohama Advan Neova AD08s to be fitted all ’round, though even with the guards flared it’s a tight fit: “the actual gap in the rear wheel arches is 275mm,” Healey says.

Workshop

Car: ROH Wheels 86 Who: ROH Wheels/V-Sport Where: Unit 1 / 204 Walters Road, Arndell Park, NSW How long: Since 2004 Contact: (02) 9679 8644 Email: [email protected] Web: www.vsport.com.au

Specifications

Drive: rear-wheel Engine: 2091cc flat-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo Gearbox: 6-speed manual Suspension: coil-overs, struts, anti-roll bar (f); A-arms, coil-overs, anti-roll bar (r) Brakes: 355mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers (f); 330mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 18 x 9.5-inch (f/r) Tyres: 245/35 R18 (f/r); Yokohama Advan AD08

1

Parts and Prices

Massive grunt and prodigious grip result in circuit mastery

It’s with a strong sense of trepidation that I approach the ROH Wheels Toyota 86, helmet in hand. Y’see, during our previous acquaintance at Sydney Motorsport Park the car proved mind-scramblingly fast, yet also one of the most challenging cars I’ve ever driven, seemingly capable of power oversteering in every gear. And John Healey of V-Sport says it has even more power now. Help!

In fact, on the Mainline Dyno it growled, hissed and popped its way to an impressive 286.6kW at the wheels – almost 300 per cent more than stock – straining against the tie downs as it came on boost.

Those numbers are significantly quicker than you’ll achieve in a stock 86, but far from a true reflection of the car’s performance. For a more accurate picture, check out its terminal speed – at 181.12km/h, the ROH Wheels car is more than 30km/h faster at the end of 400 metres than the stocker. It’s fair to say that on a sticky track, mid-12s would be there for the taking.

Back on track, sitting snug in the Velo driver’s bucket seat, the surroundings are familiar, but the swell of turbo torque that arrives as we leave pit lane is not. By 3000rpm it’s already propelling you rapidly down the track, and it’s accompanied by a soundtrack that’s both harder and deeper than the stock car, overlaid by all sorts of whistles from the turbo.

The ROH 86 wears fairly aggressive rubber by road-car standards, and the initial laps are spent building tyre temperature, the rears fizzing in second as the boost arrives. At this relaxed speed, it feels very much like a regular 86. There’s much less roll courtesy of the stiffer suspension, but the brakes have a reassuring firmness and the steering’s weighting and rate of response are easily identifiable from the stock car.

Before, the brakes felt to have far more performance than the tyres, but with wider rubber on the front (now 265mm) you can use more of the impressive stopping power (pulling up from 100km/h takes just 35.60m).

Initially the power is intimidating, but as confidence builds you realise that the inherent 86 balance is still present, only at massively higher speeds. However, with over 450 horsepower on tap, breaking traction in the slower corners is only a flex of the right ankle away. Heavily turbocharged cars can often be a right handful to slide smoothly, but the ROH’s smooth powerband makes it a hell of a lot of fun.

In fact, Luffy was full of praise for the engine’s response. And, combined with its impressive cornering capabilities, the ROH car clocked the fastest lap time of the event, a scorching 61.4sec lap pipping the Tunehouse 86 by a mere tenth.

It may no longer have the headline-grabbing twin-charge system, but the ROH Wheels 86 is a far more enjoyable and resolved car in its current iteration. It’s reasonably well-mannered, looks superb and while 50 large is a hell of a lot to spend on a $30K car, it would simply destroy any standard production car of a similar value. And that’s nothing to be scared of.

Results

Overall Result: 6th

Luffy Says

“This thing is so much fun out there. We know the 86 is a great platform to start with, but with everything that’s been done to this car, it just takes it to that next level. You can take it and use it as an everyday track car, but still have a fantastic road car. The engine’s really driveable and the suspension and brakes really work together. There’s not one part of the car that’s been left untouched and everything has been done really well.”

Check out the other cars that competed at Hot Tuner 2015:

• Herrod Ford Fiesta ST
• Hi-Torque HSV Gen F Clubsport
• Herrod Ford Falcon XR8
• MRT Subaru WRX
• CPC BMW M4
• Harding Volkswagen Golf R
• Tunehouse Toyota 86
• V-Sport Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG