I drove the first one we got in to work today. Spent a few hours with it going over it all and taking it for a spirited drive.
Firstly it does look pretty bloody nice in person. Really nice to sit in with decent seats. They really hold you in place which surpised me a little bit. Not exactly the most spacious car to be in though. I'm 6'2" and i had about 5mm clearance between my head and the roof which made it interesting going over bumpy roads. Anyone taller you wil definitely not be very comfortable and will more than likely be hurting your neck. Even without much head room i was very comfortable....there is no way you could say the same thing for anyone you try to stick in the back though
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The rear seats are 100% useless even if you put a midget in there. With my seat in the right spot for me, it was all the way back on the rails and siting about 1cm from the rears. Was the same for the passenger side. There is just no way you will ever be able to put someone in the back seat.
Everything felt like it was in the right spot for me to enjoy the drive though and how many times are you likely to be carrying people around in a car like this but it would have been nice to have a little room for say the kids.
The gear box is nice and tight and feels like its about right for the engine to keep it in the power when your changing up. Started out a little notchy for the first 10k's or so (it came straight off the delivery truck) but after that it sarted to get nicer. It has a short throw which i enjoyed as it's what i was use to from previous cars i have owned. I found for me I would rather be sitting in third or forth around town depending on how you like your engine to rev but never 5th or 6th.
I was actually really happy with the handling and how well it stuck to the road. After the usual few k's of running it all in and driving around making sure everything was working fine, the way it should, I found a nice bit of windy road i could play on.
Gave it a fair boot full and the whole time it just handled so nicely. Obviously i couldnt go too insane but i was happy with how it handled the corners i put it through.
Cant say the same I'm very impressed with the engine though. It just fees like it needs something extra. I think it would have improved greatly with just a larger capacity but some sort of charger would have made it an absolute blast!! It pulled continuously the whole way to redline but it just didnt have that sort of punch or urge that i was hoping. It might grow on me once i get some more time to play with it but i was hoping for a bit more power wise.
Just a bit of info on the car.......The one i had was the base model GT manual in black with the 16inch rims.
Apparently we have an orange GTS on its way in the next week so too.