rabbitstew Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Well, ive just got back from 3 1/2 weeks travelling around Oz and for some of it I had the horrible of experience of driving around in a 1.2 Hyundai Getz which quite possibly has to be the worst car ive ever driven. I meet up with some Oz friends near the end of my trip and all the guys are drooling over this Monaro v8 which is sitting in the car park. Ive not really heard of them, of course they are Holden over there, but Vauxhall do it in the UK. The guys proceed to give me the low down on it. 5.7litre V8, 350+ horsepower, pure muscle car... blah blah blah. Anyone would think it was a brand new lambo or ferrari from what they were saying. Anyway after most of the guys had left, all still dreaming of this Monaro v8 I discover that one of my mates knows the bird who turned up in the car. So, we get chatting and find out its not actually her car, its her boyfriends. She then asks me if I want to drive it, throws me the keys and wanders off! I'm not really too fussed to be honest as its not my cup of tea, but given that all the guys had been drooling over it I figured it would be rude not to, so off I go. First impressions, interior was awesome, nice deep black leather, electric everything. Accelerator was seriously heavy, like pushing a heavy spring. Horrible. Physically it felt much bigger than the zed and didnt handle as good. Performance wise, well, the noise was incredible... that v8 induction roar, and theres no 2 ways about it, it was quick, but I just couldn't get used to the low rpm shifting and torque, compared to my zed which screams up to 7500rpm. At one point (after redlining it in 2nd) the car started beeping at me like mad which gave me a small heart attack. I had visions of this birds boyfriend being some 7ft 25stone nutter and ive just broken his car. Turned out the beeping was down to the car having a built in warning on the dash which beeps and shows you a message telling you if you exceed 120km/h! doh! As we were up in the hills near the sunshine coast and there were some seriously scary drops on the mountain roads I figured id better take the car back before I ended up trashing it. All in all, a good fun car, and it was great to get out of the crappy hirecar and back into a decent car. I wouldnt buy one tho, I definitely prefer the zed. Made my zed feel a lot lighter and miles quicker which is saying something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I have seen some vids of this car and by all accounts it has terrible understeer, to the point that the steering wheel is utterly ineffective... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexx Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I have seen some vids of this car and by all accounts it has terrible understeer, to the point that the steering wheel is utterly ineffective... Try driving before basing your judgements on vids alone. I own the Monaro's successor, and it's fantastic. I have also had the benefit of driving both the CV8 model and the VXR500 models. Both were crazy fun, and didnt suffer from any understeer at all. Bucket fulls of oversteer though! If you want more info on the Ro's, go to HSV.org.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 It wasn't a judgement, it was an observation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Tbh the Zed's got pretty bad understeer from the factory too, but then 95% of cars do as the manufacturers have no idea if they're selling to someone who can drive or a complete numpty, so they dial in the understeer on purpose as it's the safer option. When cars go out to test days for the media they'll set the cars up far more neutrally for better write-ups, or in the case of Clarkson they'll set it up for massive oversteer. Any car with a huge engine up front is going to have issues with understeer if you don't get the weight transfer correct during cornering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 The big old Aussie V8 Monaro goes well. Driven a few, plus a few GTO's and HSV's. They're definitely a heavy car, not as agile as the 350, but still fun to drive. The big Holden's/HSV's this end of the pond are very popular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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