Nagari 2008 Test Drive
You peel off the Peninsula Freeway near Mornington and ahead lies the 34 corners of the steep ascent to Arthur's Seat, 314 metres (1600 ft) above sea level). On this day we get a completely clear run all the way to the summit and the Nagari carves the corners like a vet race car, accelerating relentlessly between the tight hairpins and dancing, slightly tail-out, through the fast kinks in between. There are just two positions – foot flat on the throttle, foot flat on the brake. You can tell if a car is good if it will maintain that discipline right through a course – no throttle feathering or coasting to corners. And the Nagari is good. Thoroughbred. It just delivers, whatever you throw at it.
You know when you are going pretty quick when an experienced motoring man in the passenger seat is braking ahead of you. So it was with Campbell Bolwell on this day – bravely strapped into the second seat and inviting me to do my worst – or best.
'Are you getting a bit of oversteer on the fast ones,' he says calmly, while trying to pull the armrest off the door.
'Yes,' I say ' but we are near the limit and the kinks here are mainly off-camber. '
In fact, the tail just steps out a fraction and virtually self-corrects. Nothing more than a flinch on the tiller, or you can drive it through the drift with the throttle.
The automatic is sensational to use in this application – you can left foot brake into the tight corners, while shunting down the gearbox for the right slot. Going up the box you can leave it to self-shift at its own limit as the computer selects the ideal intersection of torque and revs, flaring smoothly in the up-shifts so that all the engine output is maximised.
This is a great road, famous for its remarkable variety of challenging curves, but it is not billiard-table smooth. One of the impressive things about the Nagari is the way it catapults you through bumpy and undulating curves without shifting a millimetre off-line. Enormously confidence-inspiring. We tear-on over the summit, and run the ridgeline right down to Red Hill and beyond, carving through the vineyards and sleepy farmlets of highway C789, experimenting with different shift techniques (manual, paddle, auto) and shift points. Then we do it all again in reverse. And again. Too much fun. The action photos attached were shot on this road. Look closely and you can see just how flat and neat the car handles the turns, despite near-the-limit pace.
- Rob Luck
You know when you are going pretty quick when an experienced motoring man in the passenger seat is braking ahead of you. So it was with Campbell Bolwell on this day – bravely strapped into the second seat and inviting me to do my worst – or best.
'Are you getting a bit of oversteer on the fast ones,' he says calmly, while trying to pull the armrest off the door.
'Yes,' I say ' but we are near the limit and the kinks here are mainly off-camber. '
In fact, the tail just steps out a fraction and virtually self-corrects. Nothing more than a flinch on the tiller, or you can drive it through the drift with the throttle.
The automatic is sensational to use in this application – you can left foot brake into the tight corners, while shunting down the gearbox for the right slot. Going up the box you can leave it to self-shift at its own limit as the computer selects the ideal intersection of torque and revs, flaring smoothly in the up-shifts so that all the engine output is maximised.
This is a great road, famous for its remarkable variety of challenging curves, but it is not billiard-table smooth. One of the impressive things about the Nagari is the way it catapults you through bumpy and undulating curves without shifting a millimetre off-line. Enormously confidence-inspiring. We tear-on over the summit, and run the ridgeline right down to Red Hill and beyond, carving through the vineyards and sleepy farmlets of highway C789, experimenting with different shift techniques (manual, paddle, auto) and shift points. Then we do it all again in reverse. And again. Too much fun. The action photos attached were shot on this road. Look closely and you can see just how flat and neat the car handles the turns, despite near-the-limit pace.
- Rob Luck
