Quote: Originally Posted by Goonery
Paul I'd like to know about the noise levels inside the cabin when its at idle, being driven normally and when it being given the beans ?
Surprisingly civil when idling or pootling around, much like a regular
JCW S. When you floor it though very nice indeed. Exhuast is amplified a lot, sounds quite loud but not as loud as some cars I've driven with aftermarket systems such as milltek, and very, "raspy" when you're really gunning it, and the super charger of course sounds lovely when you're up high in the rev range.
The track is extremely hard on cars (it's mainly a motorbike place) so the brakes took a hammering (as did the clutch I'm sure). The only thing I felt let the car down in this situation was the brakes, but apparently (according the drivers, not the "
PR people") all cars they'd had on there really suffered with the demands of breaking, every corner basically is a 2nd gear corner, there's only one twisty section you don't have to brake for!
The way the rear end handles is very different from the regular S, much more controllable and predictable I felt. It's a very managable car, I would think very easy to have fun with. The effects of the spoiler kick in around 80 km/h apparently.
As for the rear view, I asked about that. Apparently the changes to the under car aerodynamics, and the lower, but further out position of the spoiler, creates a very low pressure area (of course), but it's further out than the regular S, so under testing (in September in Germany) they found it no worse than the regular S, in fact less so, so the rear wiper delete shouldn't really be a big issue.
The rear spoiler is carbon (the flat area), the side parts are plastic (to mould carbon in that shape they didn't think worthwhile). This also has an effect on the air flow around the rear sides of the car.