I was sitting back the other night contemplating the meaning of life and cars in general. Scratching my weary head, I wondered about the given amount of energy needed to accelerate any given weight car. A '70s 302ci Ford Falcon V8 manages the same quarter mile as a measly 50kW Charade turbo, so obviously mass plays a major role in straight-line performance. But how sensitive are certain cars to having the inevitable added weight that comes with subwoofers etc? And what effect does an extra passenger (or two) have on acceleration?
In search of the answer I fired up the wonderful Quarter Junior computer program and started punching in the specs for different cars.
A bog-stock Holden Commodore with its 1313kg (2888lb) curb weight shouldn't be under too much stress with another 2 passengers on board, I thought. So adding in another 150kg (330lb) of human ballast, its quarter mile time grew by 7 tenths over the normal to 16.3 seconds - which I thought was pretty good going for the faithful old V6 Commo.
From the other extreme I tried a 1984 Daihatsu Charade turbo. Having owned one of these cars, I know how much slower the car becomes with just one extra person on board. It was so sensitive that I remember leaving the spare wheel and reserve fluids at home just to shed some extra kilos! Tipping the scales at a lean 700kg (1540lb) with 50kW available from its 3-cylinder donk, the car was listed as a 17.2 second quarter mile machine. Add another couple of friends scabbing rides and the thing falls in a heap. Again with an extra 150kg (330lb), the quarter mile now takes over a second longer at 18.3, and four added people drags that out to a massive 19.3 - not very good for trying to impress a larger passenger audience... And to maintain the hitchhiker-free 17.2 second quarter the car needs another 25kW (33hp), and that is 37% more power!
From this Quarter Junior data, it becomes plainly obvious how sensitive light cars are to additional weight. But what denotes "additional" - additional to what? It comes down to what you can do without.
The Charade came fitted with a tow-bar, but because I would never dare tow anything with it - plus I didn't have anything to tow! - it got the boot. This saved around 10kg (22lb), while other things that vanished were the heavy airbox assembly and some minor trim pieces. The abandoned spare wheel trick got rid of a few more kilos to bring the total loss to around 35kg (77lb). And according to Young Mister Quarter, this struck over 2 tenths off the quarter mile - a small improvement sure, but a no-cost improvement. But by this time, the car had also received a heavy sound system to offset any advantage there might have been...
But how else can a car shed weight without making it compromising something we've come to take for granted? I'm not sure, I guess we could always try driving around with the absolute minimum amount of fuel required for any journey, and maybe drain some of that unnecessary radiator coolant and engine oil...
The other week I was fortunate enough to be driving about in a Soarer/Lexus LS400 for our Pre-Owned Performance feature. Packed with every conceivable gadget and gizmo, the car was a virtual playhouse with leather padded walls (and no, I don't live in a room with padded walls). Designed to take on the BMW 840CSi and other top-line vehicles, the Soarer is undoubtedly one of the most opulent vehicles I've ever been in. And amazingly the owner's asking price was only A$40,000, despite the new price of a Lexus being approximately A$100,000!
And I'd hate to think what an equivalent BMW 840CSi would still be worth!
The reason its so cheap (relatively speaking), is the Soarer was never commercially released here in Australia. This particular example had been imported directly from Japan with minimal kms for a financial song. Take a look through the Unique Cars auto classifieds magazine and you'll see countless ads for Japanese import vehicles selling for a fraction of their real worth. Like Nissan 180SX turbos from around A$15,000, Skyline GT-Rs from A$45,000 and Mitsubishi 3000GTs from A$40,000 - the list goes on.
And for those of us in the market for a modern high-performance car at a good price, the appeal of Japanese import cars is major. However, there are some downsides to some of these cars, such as insurance difficulties, registration, and other red-tape problems. Some cars are powered by engines which weren't released here in Australia, making access to spare parts much more difficult - if possible at all. And the same goes for body panels - bend one and you might be struggling to find a replacement part...
But one of the untold problems with the import car scene is the impact it must be having on traditional auto retail outlets, and on the value of our local cars. In sunny Queensland the Toyota Hilux 'Surf' is a big hit. Why? Because they sell for less $$ than the local cars, are usually fully optioned and have travelled (sometimes dubiously) low kilometres. But getting back to the big Soarer, I understand Toyota Australia aren't all that pleased with the influx of bargain priced Lexus 2-doors - as they are often purchased in preference to their dealer-delivered saloons.
Perhaps I'm a naive fool, but I would have thought the collective strength of all the major local car companies would swiftly crush such an industry, yet they haven't. And I suppose the longer they wait, the harder it will become, as more and more Japanese import dealers pop up around the place and the number of import cars on the road increases.
Personally, I'm unsure as to whether I'd buy a Japanese import car. It would depend on what parts are available for that particular vehicle, as living in little old Adelaide doesn't give me terrific access to the major importers like Melbourne's Crossover Car Conversions to source parts. And then there's the problem of me in my early-20s trying to insure such a car...
It'll also be interesting to see what happens to the resale price of these Japanese import cars a few years down the track, when there'll be a heap of them cruising our roads. Certainly our locally delivered cars will suffer big time, and I wouldn't be too pleased if I'd shelled out nearly 100 grand a couple of years ago for a domestic 3000GT and saw a Japanese import for less than half that...
Maybe some piece of Government legislation will come in banning, or heavily limiting, vehicle imports and the market will dry up. Time will tell - but enjoy the wave while it lasts!
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