Test drove a VY

[Gradenko]

Well, test drove a VX II Clubbie R8 and VY Clubbie R8 back to back today. I'm not going to bother comparing the subjective side of things. Interior and exteriors change with the fashion. I think you'll all be more interested in the performance side of things - how it goes, how it changes directions and how it stops. Both cars, unfortunatley, were automatics.

First up was the VXII. My Dad had the first drive. For some reason he more interested in seeing me behind the wheel, so he kept it short and we changed seats in a side street within 10min. The LS1 is bugger load more refined than the old 5L, it just seems to want to rev and makes a tasty noise doing it. Auto gear changes also seemed to have refined beyond the old neck jerker that was in the VT. Driving out of the side street, the first order of the day was the try and get it sideways onto the main road . It wouldn't lose traction tho, just buckled down and took off. Same corner in my car would have at least had the inside wheel spin. I guess with 1.7 odd tonnes, it takes a fair bit of pushing to get the VXII sideways. And on the R33, the power comes on more suddenly making control a little trickier.

Headed straight for the freeway for some speed runs. It certainly doesn't lack power, putting the right foot the firewall resulted in a growl from the exhaust and the speedo rapidly climbing. Oh, and dad boucing about the passenger seat asking me to take it easy . By the seat impression - my 'line would be able to keep lineball in a rolling start and probably standing start, if not in front. The extra 5kW of the VY only makes a difference in the brouchers. Nothing between the VXII and VY on the road. At 160kmh or so, acceleration seemed to be lowing down markedly - more so than in my 'line. Bit of a dissappointment, aren't these supposed have top end?

Throttle control by the way, is fantastic compored to the VT and more so compared to the 'line. I guess its something a turbo will never have, but it came as somewhat of a shock after driving the R33 for so long.

I was hoping beyond hope that the absolutley shithouse steering of the VT had been fixed but there was only a marginal improvement in the VXII. It was still waay too light, had no feedback, and worse, couldn't tell the driver what was going on at the wheels. This alone would make me puke at the thought of buying one. Ewww. Bad Holden. Bad HSv. Who are they making these cars for? The VY's steering is a vast improvement. Has some wieght to it and on centre isn't just a dead zone. Still not R33 quality, but its night and day compared to previous models.

Suspension tuning is a bit of a mixed bag. The VXII was moderatley firm and it handled bumps well, but it was still too much of a comprise. High speed bends had the car feel like is was floating and while it didn't feel out of control (or as bad as the VT), it didn't feel planted at all. The VY suspension is much improved, no floating and it felt planted on the same corner. The VXII didn't feel as good as my stock suspensioned R33 but the VY easily matched it for road holding and bettered it for ride quality. Didn't get to try either in twisties.

Braking wise, the VY is very nice. 4 pot calipers with 348mm rotors pulled up well. As a comparison, the R33 has 4 pot with 296mm rotors and 300kg odd less to pull up. Didn't get the chance to give them good enough testing to draw a comparison, but they're a big step in the right direction.

Overall, I felt the R33 stacked up well against them in outright speed and has much better feedback and suspension design. Be careful if you try and take them on, they DO pack a punch. Hopefully, dad will choose the VY cause the VXII is as shithouse as the VT. Summoner, you have some big gonads taking your VU to 260kmh .

If my words sound biased, its most probably because they are. I am after all, a R33 driver

Note: If you're an anti-holden biggot who wants to spread hate, don't bother replying.

[ix9]

Wow!

A good all round view comparing 3 cars really, the VXII, VY and an R33.. just what I wanted to hear.

I do give holden credit for all the refinement they've done over the years, I can still honestly say they don't compare to the research and development put into the Jap cars.

Good review Gradenko

[Boostzor]

Im sure thats all well and good there m8 but ure leaving one thing out.

Do the chicks dig it? big cars like that just oooze appeal to the less car minded ppl.

Oh yeah u gotta get it for a nite and let me take it for a run;)

Yeh and good review beats the hell outta one of those car mag crappin on about how great the new dash looks and how much room the 2.3 kids have.

[ix9]

well.. some.. if not MOST chicks don't even know what a skyline is, so they just think "oooh, stato..." and "oooh, clubbie R8 mooite"

[Guest GR33DyMANGO]

Originally posted by Strich9ine

well.. some.. if not MOST chicks don't even know what a skyline is, so they just think "oooh, stato..." and "oooh, clubbie R8 mooite"

HHAHAaa... alot of chicks i know wouldnt go out with anyone that owned a commodore... and some wouldnt even talk to u if u owned one. pretty funny.

all they think is commy =bogan..... i know thats not true... i try and tell them most commy drivers are unfairly stereotyped, but what shuts them up is saying that they dont know a thing about cars so they should shut the 'ell up b4 they embarrase themselves..

[PSIKO]

an ex-girlfriend of mine didn't like commodores at all, she said she wouldn't go out with anyone who drove one, and said (like justin did), commodores=bogans

hence, emphasis on the ex part of the above paragraph

I wanted to get a VT 5.7L at one point in time, I was going out and looking at them. I saw a REALLY nice raven black gen3 for about 22,000 down in thornlie once but that sold. Now I see the SS's are coming down to about that price!

but I'm more than happy with mine now

[puckish]

Have they sorted the rear suspension yet?

Drove one for over 500Km in one day and was REALLY scared above 90 Km/h with the rear end doing all sorts of weird things.

Also has the build quality improved?

Summoner you did WHAT? Hope you had a couple of cement bags in the tray!

[ix9]

my mate had a 99 VT seriesII... what a POS...

like you said puckish that rear suspension shakes/rattles/whistle's over about 90km..... 120 is just scary!

i still wouldnt mind a drive in a gen3 tho just for comparison.

[summoner]

haha cement bags.. no

nothing in tray, car sits steady as a rock, took it to 260(ran out of revs in 5th) tried 6th but slowed me down to 220(stupid aerodynamics/not enuff power).

Fitting bigger brakes to assist with the slowing down this week haha

[Gradenko]

Thanks for the comments, ppl.

puckish, the rear end of the VY felt much more planted than the VXII at speed (> 130kmh), no shakes or rattles and I could confidently take sweeping bends at 160kmh without wanting to lift off of hit the brakes. Doing the same in the VT requires a lot of faith and although the VXII wasn't bad, it still felt a little unsure. The VY comes closest to matching the R33s high speed stability.

They haven't solved the problems with wind noise though. Theres still a loud rustle (audible in the cabin) coming from around the A pillars at speed. The R33 is better designed in this area too.

Build quality, not much to say on this. I poked and pushed at the dash and its quality a big step over the VT style. The climate control buttons are especially improved. Didn't get enough time to test build quality further but in the showroom, there was a pristine VY Senator that had a plastic interior screw cover sitting on the floor. It'd fallen off some part of the car, and the car was brand new! i guess some things don't change.

Strich9ine, go take a drive in a VXII and see how it goes. Dealers are *real* desperate to get rid of their demo models and I'm sure they'd be happy letting ppl test drive them. lol, after driving the VXII, I told the salesman how substandard I thought the steering and suspension is and he fully agreed, saying the VY was better in a lot of respects. Then 10mins later, the boss comes over and starts telling us: "what a sweet car that blue auto VX R8 is. Best handling car out of the lot. I really like it over the VY". We just looked at him in stunned silence. He blew it big time:lol:

[puckish]

I'll never forget the dash on the VX at night. You could see the light globes through the black backing. Drove a AU2 for two days and was blown away with the handling and steering. Engine lacked grunt in the midrange through.

Gen 3's are okay but take a lot of rev's for a V8 to get going. Got taken in my mates VT Gen 3 (one of the first in Perth) and thought ho hum, threw him in the Soarer and he nearly wet his pants!

For what it's worth the BA Falcon looks the goods, but some recent write up's are worry some. Apprently Carpoint tried to pop the hood on a XR6T ute and the handle popped off !

[summoner]

he wet his pants in a soarer? BAHAHAH what a gumby.

While its true a gen3 is a rev happy v8, no soarer can match it for performance out of the box. I find it very hard that any soarer(tt v6 or v8) can make a gen3 driver wet himself.

thanks for the laugh tho

PS, yes i have been in soarers very ho hum

[SkyDragon]

Originally posted by summoner

he wet his pants in a soarer? BAHAHAH what a gumby.  

While its true a gen3 is a rev happy v8, no soarer can match it for performance out of the box.  I find it very hard that any soarer(tt v6 or v8) can make a gen3 driver wet himself.

thanks for the laugh tho

PS, yes i have been in soarers very ho hum

My mates stock TT Soarer auto has raced a Gen3 VT manual. 2 of us in the soarer, one guy in the gen3, he only pulled on us at about mid range for a couple of seconds, then was even. not much in it at all.

[Gradenko]

puckish, I haven't driven an early ls1, but hsv's 255 and 260 don't need all that many revs to really get going. The VY had (seemingly) a touch more poke down low, probably had more timing dumped on, but neither was "ho hum" at low revs. Of course, it could have beeen the auto playing tricks on me. With power mode on, it didn't take very much for it to drop a gear and go for it, so it always felt on the boil.

Was your Soarer modified? Cause I agree with summoner, a stock Soarer isn't likely to scare my grandmother.

[SkyDragon]

Originally posted by Gradenko

Was your Soarer modified? Cause I agree with summoner, a stock Soarer isn't likely to scare my grandmother.

Yes Soarer is stock, the gen3 was the winner (and so he should have been with all that claimed power and a manual to match!), but as i said there was not a lot in it. i wouldn't underesitmate the soarer by all means, i know they aint the best round corners, but they can suprise in straight lines..

[Spada33]

One of my mates has a VY Clubbie on order (gets it in 2 wks...)

Can't wait to see how it compares to my 33...

Another thing....I was reading motor magazine and they claimed the Clubbie doing 14.2 down the 1/4 and the SS doing a 13.9....WTF???

[summoner]

ok i'll run the soarer, altho my 1/4mile time will probably be slower now due to 18's on.. but i'm sure will be fun

considering my stock gen3 was more than a second quicker than mates tt soarer should be fun

[R34]

Just between us I owned a V6 Vt supercharged 'S' pack before the R33.

Mine was fine and I quite liked it for what it was.

Once daughter No1 got her car and we hardly ever went out together as a group I didn't need the room I got rid of it for the 33(a car for me not the family)

I love my Skyline but the dunnydoors aint bad.

Followed a new SS tonight which I suspect is a Holden test car with vic plates "VYSS 04" on it.

Looked cool in that bright green. Also getting used to the Magna rear end with Hyundai Elantra front end on it. Mind you the bodykit on the SS helps too

Cheers

Chris

[kjb_r33]

wish i had shares in the company that makes gen 3 pistons, id be laughing now....

some dealers are rebuilding 3 a week, lucky to make the first service.....

[R34]

Is that related to the oil surge problem they had?

I thought they would have fixed that by now