X1/9s & Mustangs Are Simply Different Cars (Parent Rant)
designed with very different design goals. There is nothing wrong with keeping your Mustang as a straight line speedy special as it is well designed for this and difficult to top for $$$$ spent vs power. The X is twisty road car that a driver basically wears. The X has the ability to connect the driver with the driving experience few cars offer today. The Lotus Elise / Exige is what the X1/9 could have been if the concept was modernized. Here is what happens when compared side by side to a Mustang on a road course:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL2MYm1bjto"]YouTube - Top Gear - Lotus Exige vs. Ford Mustang speed racing from Top Gear - BBC[/ame]
It is also one of the best cars to teach anyone how to drive a road souse due to it's chassis dynamics and low engine power. On a road track course, the driver is forced to be smooth and preserve the cars momentum and use every bit the chassis cornering ability and grip rather than using power to compensate for poor driving. We have a Porsche GT3 owner on our LeMons race team and driving the X has improved his driving in the GT3 by forcing him to be a smoother driver on the track.
How far can one extend the performance of an X1/9?, it turns out, this chassis is very capable when the proper alterations are done to it. Nearly every imaginable FWD drive package has been installed into an X and the chassis is quite capable of supporting nee 600 Bhp with few problems. But, where can one really drive a X with this much power full throttle 100% of the time? If you had a Mustang with over 1000 Bhp, where would or can you drive it 100% full throttle all the time? This much power might be fun and thrilling at the stop light grand prix and build car ego, but realistically, it's a limited way to experience what the world of driving experience has to offer, there is more to driving than accelerating hard in a straight line. Your post mentions what can be done to increase accelreation and cornering ability, but what about stopping and brakes, and feel of the car? Ideally a truly fast performance car goes, corners and stops extremely well and is a car that the driver basically wears as an extension of their body. Here is what happend when the car's ability way exceeds the ability of the driver:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUZJVY-sHo"]YouTube - Richard Hammond drives F1 Renault R25 car at Silverstone - Top Gear - BBC Autos[/ame]
Examples of an X1/9 0n a road course:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCg5QW4m8Nk"]YouTube - Fiat X1/9 AutoSlalom - Alfredo Giamboi[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dol4gGYhhKI"]YouTube - Di Fulvio Racing: videomix 27° cronoscalata Cesana Sestriere[/ame]
While Not a Mustang or X1/9, this is another of my favorite cars, Lancia Intergrale. Note the car control and ability of these cars and their rally drivers:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sKXY6WRmeo"]YouTube - Lancia Delta Integrale Tribute[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPZ1jqhFDkI"]YouTube - The very best of Lancia Delta Integrale[/ame]
I have a teenage daugher of 15 years old and she is just as itchy as any teen to get a driver's license. Yes, she has done the driver's ed thing at school and got her papers to get a permit, but I have placed a requirement of her going to track day school to learn car control before she is even allowed to try for a driver's license. IMO, it is too simle and easy to get an driver's license in the US. Take and pass a written test, then a quick driver around the neighbourhood and it's done, NOT good enough. Little is done to develop car control or what to do when the car get's side ways or learn how a car behaves at the limits of adhesion and what to do at the limit.
Teen's have a need to seek new and exciting experinvces in life and driving FAST is one of them. I have nothing aginst this at all, but if your going to drive fast and at the car's limit, do this in a safe enviorment and learn how to do this properly. Too many teens are killed or seriously injured each year racing on the streets in cars that have performance abilites way beyond their abilities. I don't want to hear you became one of them, specially in an X1/9 or Mustang.
So, do the proper and intelligent thing. You have in your possession a very good car to teach you how to drive well. Get your X run well, put a decent set of wheel & tires on it and head off to a local track drivers school, open your mind and learn how and what it means to drive well, or this could be the end result:
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=DxJ-eflHjfo&feature=related
Here is a video of just one driver's school focused on teen drivers:
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/03/teens-dont-know.html
http://www.teenroadtosafety.com/
Going fast safely requires driving skill, intelligence, maturity, experience and cubic $$$$$$$. The best investment you can make in your journey of motor sports is improving your abilities and maturity as a driver. There will always be cars that can go faster than your abilities.
Bernice
