Today, at sharp 6 in the morning Ajmat called me from his cell phone. Standing right in front of our building and with a very encouraging tone " Come down, I’m waiting to have heavy breathing!"
Forty minutes after that, a cup of strong Tamilnadu coffee, I get behind the wheel.
First thing what I notice is steering wheel centering position. Almost 20 degree tilted on the right side. Not a big thing though and doesn’t bother Ajmat a bit,
But!
From a company like Honda and car which is untouched for any steering issue is not acceptable to me. May be I am too finicky about all these small things but that’s the way we stupid art types are.
7 am and deep grey serpent like highway fades amongst those lovely hillocks. Shift down to second at 4500, shift up to third at 6500-7000, shift down to fourth immediately and allow the right side needle to reach 160…shift up again and fast to fifth. You have reached nirvana. Not for a long though. Because sitting next to me, Ajmat’s expression was not very happy.
Well, I’ve gunned the car few times (and for the first time) to feel pulse of thousand of VTEC lovers in this forum. I am happy that I’ve done this on a lovely highway and not in town. Way the rpm needle moves up to 6000+ range, it gives me a feeling that it likes to be in that range only. Sure, I’m not discounting the well-run 20,000km plus engine.
I’ve tried this on our Bombay office 1.5 EXI with stock tyres. Car was floating on express way to Pune. As all we know Ajmat’s baby runs on 185 wide shoes, the difference was pretty evident.
GTO, once again mild request to go for new wheels.
Good front view and right steering feel tells you "give me more". While going slight uphill engine goes little out of breath so down shifting is essential for VTEC types. For mere mortals, no shifting is required unless the car is loaded.
For a short (75km) first impression:
A real gem of an engine.
Rev limiter didn’t activate at 7000rpm at times. But did activate at 6000+ rpm. May be due to fine calculation of right air/throttle combination at given rpm.
Engine becomes noisy at higher rpm (probably a little more than what I’m use to).
Frequent shifting is necessary for enthusiastic driving.
Engine noise and rapid shifting may cause fatigue in long drive.
Rear suspension is too soft for a car of this nature.
This car has strut brace but I couldn’t make out the difference because I haven’t driven it before fixing that.
Psycho, my honest suggestion (of course without having any knowledge on cars and their dynamics) is to start any modification with better, stiffer rear suspension.
If I were Ajmat, I wouldn’t go for any serious modification on engine. Frankly you don’t need any.
Ajmat, a great piece of machine you have. Thanks a lot for giving me a chance to experience it. I am in love with VTEC's heavy breathing.
But for long drive, I would like have my ‘run of the mill’ car.
Next time you should try that. You won’t come back home unhappy. I promise.