Swervin_Mervin
12-02-2006, 21:43
Mr Zollo kindly offered me a blast in his Willy 2 on saturday rather than standing around freezing watching other peoples' cars on the rollers. I've never driven one yet and he'd never tried a valver.
Well, well. It's not one bit like I was expecting. I was expecting it to handle similar to mine but better. It was, however, totally different. The ride seemed marginally softer and it didn't tramline were the first 2 things I noticed. This has made me wonder whether to try the proper 185/55 tyres size in the GSD2 as opposed to the 195/50 GSD3s I run.
Beyond that, the behaviour is still wildly different. It stays flatter in the corners, with much less roll, yet turn in is slightly less keen and damping a little better. The 2L lump is also far more tractable pulling clean through from low revs, without that bogging down the 1.8 suffers below 3.5krpm, before coming alive. My only criticism is that it certainly didn't sound as nice at the top end of the range.
Before commenting too much I let him try mine, and after commenting on how he couldn't heel and toe in mine (I knew it wasn't just me) he began to spot the obvious differences from the front end.
After a chat when we got back with GazTwo who's owned both, we're pretty sure that whilst the Williams probably is a better b-road car, the valver is still an all time great hot hatch in it's own right. The approach it takes is far different though. The reason it seems to pitch and roll more is, we think, down to the camber it runs.
They really do have quite pronounced camber levels, and I suppose that when cornering this is more likely to result in the car pitching over. It's less progressive in it's pitch than the williams, and once over it seems to love to grip. I guess it's because it's effectively pivoting over on to the flat of the outside tyre. It also has the 1mm narrower front ARB.
Would I have one or build a hybrid? Not sure. I want to try one on track now and see how it takes those corners in comparison. At the moment I love the pitching motion of the 16v followed by that sudden grip. It's a bit like getting used to the passive rear steer on the 306/Xsaras.
If I like the way it handles on track I might well be tempted to at least fit the wider track and different dampers, maybe with some 172 Cup springs. Not sure I'm that arsed by the 2L lump though.
Well, well. It's not one bit like I was expecting. I was expecting it to handle similar to mine but better. It was, however, totally different. The ride seemed marginally softer and it didn't tramline were the first 2 things I noticed. This has made me wonder whether to try the proper 185/55 tyres size in the GSD2 as opposed to the 195/50 GSD3s I run.
Beyond that, the behaviour is still wildly different. It stays flatter in the corners, with much less roll, yet turn in is slightly less keen and damping a little better. The 2L lump is also far more tractable pulling clean through from low revs, without that bogging down the 1.8 suffers below 3.5krpm, before coming alive. My only criticism is that it certainly didn't sound as nice at the top end of the range.
Before commenting too much I let him try mine, and after commenting on how he couldn't heel and toe in mine (I knew it wasn't just me) he began to spot the obvious differences from the front end.
After a chat when we got back with GazTwo who's owned both, we're pretty sure that whilst the Williams probably is a better b-road car, the valver is still an all time great hot hatch in it's own right. The approach it takes is far different though. The reason it seems to pitch and roll more is, we think, down to the camber it runs.
They really do have quite pronounced camber levels, and I suppose that when cornering this is more likely to result in the car pitching over. It's less progressive in it's pitch than the williams, and once over it seems to love to grip. I guess it's because it's effectively pivoting over on to the flat of the outside tyre. It also has the 1mm narrower front ARB.
Would I have one or build a hybrid? Not sure. I want to try one on track now and see how it takes those corners in comparison. At the moment I love the pitching motion of the 16v followed by that sudden grip. It's a bit like getting used to the passive rear steer on the 306/Xsaras.
If I like the way it handles on track I might well be tempted to at least fit the wider track and different dampers, maybe with some 172 Cup springs. Not sure I'm that arsed by the 2L lump though.