Report of aaltezza 280t test drive

[superchargedmorph]

Test drive the Tom's 280T this weekend.

altezzaR

.NET Newbie

Joined: Nov 22, 2000

Posts: 81 Posted: 2001-01-07 21:26

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hi

just want to share my drive on the 280T this weekend.

well first experience on the car, well the sparco seats were non adjustable, they felt awfully tight . can't imagine sitting through a long traffic jam.

the gear lever had a shorter through than the normal box, must be a short shift kit. the clutch had a dry plate system, when you press the clutch pedal to the floor you would here this "bzzzzzzzzzzz" sound. the dealer took me for a drive, at low revs the car felt just like my altezza. for 5 mins i was wondering what was the fuss, seemed just like my car. then we got onto a highway, we still drove slowly to see were there any police, then on our return trip he switched off the aircon and pressed the accelerator.

WOW, the car was fast. i felt my back being pushed to the back seat. the revs were just rising sooooo. fast. seem like a honda vtec. you can feel the boost at around 3500 revs and they shoot up quickly from there. below 3500 it just feels like a normal altezza. he pushed on third gear and in no time we were doing 180kmh. we could still go faster but to be safe we slowed down.

the car was fast, felt like 70% on the Gtr i sat in a week ago. but on the gtr i could feel the mass but on this car i could feel the agility. the exhast note was even quieter than my car. when i got out of the car i had a good look at the exhaust . seems like a group n style. wasn't stainless steel but titanium. the exhast was quiet not like my car

time for my try, when i got in the drivers seat the dealer told me remember to blip the throttle more than normal on the first gear. he said because of the special clutch and flywheel that was the best way to start the car. So i press the clutch blip the throttle and into first gear and go..the car stalled.

i started again and it still stalled. i must say this car has a very sensitive throttle.

it was till my third attempt that the car drove off. took some time to adjsut but was ok afterwards.

in my mind then i was thinking about "altezza's " comment about the oxygen sensor problem rather than the clutch problem.

first gear i went to around 7000rpm, boy was it fast. if my car was doing around 8.00sec for 0-100 then this car must be in the 6 or just under 6. through to second gear and i could hear alittle "back fire pop sound" from the exhaust may be because of the turbo. by then i have passed 100km . revs were alot faster than my AT maybe because of the MT trans. but the dealer told me it is because of the light flywheel.

it was a blast, the turbo has just transformed the car. great fun. i will not be scared of EOV 5/6's and STI's if i drove this car on the streets. I will be eating type r's for breakfast.

for the suspension i realised the the car was alittle stiffer than my. to my contray i always thought the advox was softer than my tanabe's but they felt alot stiffer. may be partly due to the very thinly padded sparco seats. the car was on standard roll bars ( i was surpised tom's didn't change it).

after getting out from the car i inspected the brakes and was further suprised that this uprated model was on normal pads and non braided brake lines. don't 280T come with better brake options.

well overall i must say that this car is a great car apart from the first gear stalling problem. is there any way to solve this problem. because its hard to imagine to control the car going slowly forward in a traffic jam, parking or moving over a speed bump slowly. the body kit with the special speedline 3piece alloys just make it one of a kind. though it seems to be quiet difficult to justify the extre cost.

I am still considering