in this month's car and driver, they took over a dozen cars to virginia international raceway to lay down numbers on performance oriented cars to see how well they really do. the only rules are that the cars can only come with with performance upgrades from the factory. i'd like to see what kind of time an experienced driver could lay down in a 5 spd tc with all, and only trd performance upgrades i.e. supercharger, cai, exhaust, trd lowering springs and shocks, strut bar, short-throw shifter, anti-sway bars, wheels and tires and maybe trd front brake pads.

it was interesting that a mx-5 had the slowest time due to its weakest straight line performance. the civic si had brake fadding after a couple of laps, the gti tester had worn brakes, the mustang gt had sloppy suspension and underpowered brakes. the chevy cobalt ss set a time better than the mustang gt which is pretty amazing given the 95 hp handycap and front wheel drive platform.

anyway, i'd love somebody to prove the racing ability of the tc and take an all trd scion tc 5 spd and see if they can set a lap time better than 3 min and 20.6 seconds. i know that car and driver editors are professional drivers or whatever, but i think it would be a great reference to see how a tc driver stacks up against pro's driving our greatest automotive rivals!

 

I'm interested in what they tested, any links or scans of the article?

 

i would love to see this. I would also love to do a track day there.

 

yeah, get this months of issue of car and driver with the mazdaspeed 3 on the cover. they didn't put it on their website. i'll be back monday with scans and a complete list of cars they tested and times.

 

is there any way to just go down to VIR and race their track or do u have to have a club affiliation, well hey if so do any scionlife people wanna go down there

 

There are clubs that host events there, Porsche of America, BMW and such, but you sometimes must be a member. Check the calender at Vir.com.

You can also become a member of VIR Club. For less than $4000 you can participate in every VIRClub track day. If I lived in the area I'd be joining that.

 

There are clubs that host events there, Porsche of America, BMW and such, but you sometimes must be a member. Check the calender at Vir.com.

You can also become a member of VIR Club. For less than $4000 you can participate in every VIRClub track day. If I lived in the area I'd be joining that.

 

sorry, i don't seem to know how to post a scan of an image, but the list of cars is as follows:
car lap time/mph
LL4 ($120,000-$240,000)
ford gt: 3:00.7/83.7
LL3 ($60,000-$120,000)
chevy corvette z06: 3:01.1/83.3
dodge viper srt10: 3:01.6/79.6
bmw m6: 3:10.0/79.6
LL2 ($30,000-$60,000)
lotus elise: 3:09/79.9
chevy corvette: 3:09.3/79.8
porcshe cayman s: 3:09.5/79.8
ford shelby gt500: 3:11.0/79.2 (bad pair of ignition coils and spark plugs= power loss. will retest another time. another fine example of legendary ford quality)
dodge charger srt8: 3:18.2/76.3 (only auto in whole test, also mistakenly came with all season tires.)
LL1 (under $30,000)
nissan 350z track: 3:12/78.5
mitsu lan-evo mr: 3:13.5/78.1
mazda rx-8: 3:19.0/76.0
chevy cobalt ss supercharged: 3:20.6/75.4
ford mustang gt: 3:20.9/75.4
vw gti: 3:25.1/73.7 (complained that the brakes seemed to have already been heavily used and made scary grinding noises that shook confidence)
honda civic si: 3:26.5/73.2 (brakes greatly faded after two laps, gearing required lots of extra shifting)
mazda mx-5: 3:29.3/72.2 (weakest straight line performance blamed)

this was a 4.2 mile road course with the lowest poing 378 feet above sea level and the highest was 500 feet above sea level. [/img]

 

This is inboard video from a Lotus Elise Type 111R meaning that it has the Toyota 2ZZGE Engine (from the Toyota Celica GTS). He catches everything on the track. BMW, Miata ,RX7,Mustang and Supra TT.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...74669557314515

 

Having driven an Elise in the mountains of Italy, I will tall you it has nothing in common with a Celica. Might share an engine block but thats it. The car is insane. Its like a slightly larger go cart.

 

The engine is the exact same as the Celica GTS: 2ZZGE.
The block and the entire bottom end, head and it's valvetrain, even the 6 speed transmission mated to the engine in the Celica GTS is the same one found in the Elise.
The differences are the intake, exhaust and ECU was warmed over by Lotus to achieve it's 190hp rating.

Maybe your referring to the S1 Elise? The first generation Elise with it's anemic Rover engine and did not share any Toyota components.

The S2 Elise (second generation and is the current model offering) is the one with the Toyota 2ZZGE. This is also known as the Lotus Elise Type 111R (One Eleven 'R').

 

i have to say that i'm not surprised anymore by the performance of the mx-5, i was racing one on the open roads, and my tc is stock except for trd cai and exhaust, he couldn't even get up to my tail. and we hit 120+ mph before we came up to traffic.

 

When you say "open road" I assume you mean a fairly straight stretch of highway? That isn't what the MX-5 is made for first of all. If you had been on a road course the Miata would have out cornered you and walked away (given equal drivers).

As for the MX5 results at VIR, it is the least powerful car in the group so it didn't stand a chance to actually beat any of the others. Put those same cars on a more technical course, like Summit's Shenandoah circuit, and I think the results would have been slightly different. Put them all on an autox course and the order would be more like this:
Evo, RX8, 350z, MX5, Civic, Cobalt, Stang, GTI.

 

+1. The MX5 may have a slightly weaker engine but it is over 350 pounds lighter and has a better suspension setup than the tc. Given equal drivers on a road course the MX5 will walk away from the tc.

 

This was in 2002 with a European spec elise. DOnt know much on the stats, just know I have driven both, and due to weigth and suspension, its not even worth mentioning they share the same engine. By mentioning it, it gives the impression that they are on the same level, which they arent.
Guess I need to dig up the video footage of the elise and sti the guy had.

 

Well, what I mention is FACT.
The Elise S2 (aka 'Type 111R' in other parts of the world) has the Celica GTS engine: the 2ZZ-GE. Now you could also say that since the Elise is 1000 pounds lighter with wishbone suspension all-around, due to this the car will behave very differently. Just because I mentioned that the Elise has the same engine as the Celica GTS, it was not meant to imply that they are on the same level but anyone doing some analysis can do the math and come to that conclusion. The chassis weight figures alone should alert anyone of the differences between the two vehicles.

I also have driven both. I have driven the Celica GTS and the Elise S2 here in the states.

IMHO I think the Scion tc can be most improved by stripping out weight, better tires and suspension work. Especially for running at VIR.