Marysville to Reefton Map
What made it even more fun was that one of my mates was tagging along in his dark purple Holden Monaro CV8. Known in the USA as the Pontiac GTO, and in the UK as the Vauxhall Monaro, this 2004 build example is the last of the original classic shapes before they got the Septic styled bonnet vents. All in all it's a nice looking car with a purposeful stance. It sports the Chevrolet sourced Gen III 5.7 litre V8, pumping out 245kW and 465Nm, giving it an 85kW edge over my 2002 build WRX, but also hauls an extra 300kg.
Even so, every one of my 160 kilowatts was lugging an extra 2kg on average, so the Monaro definitely had a lot of straight line squirt. In my favour, the CV8 was a 4 speed auto... (oh and a big heavy lump). We were both running Goodyear F1 GS-D3 tyres, though mine were 17" and his 18".It was a brilliant day for an attack on a mountain pass, with not a cloud in the sky and temperature up around 30 degrees. To be honest, it was actually a bit hotter than ideal for the WRX, with the turbocharged engine preferring cooler denser air, the better to cram into the cylinders, but as it turned out that was nothing to worry about.
Winding up out of Marysville we were stuck behind a little Corolla for a few minutes, so I had a big purple Gen III looming in the mirror like a big playful doberman. Once the Corolla courteously pulled over and let us passed, we picked up the pace a little, but the straights and flowing curves meant that we were both pegged at the 100km/h speed limit.
Finally that sign that we all know and love appeared. The little squiggle with 35km/h recommended speed.
Left hander first... Here we go...
Late braking, blip the throttle into 2nd, point it in, nail it just before the apex and around you go. The corner tightens up but you can just wind on more lock and tuck the nose in... still accelerating. Exiting the corner, changing into third and straight into a right hander... short straight, on the brakes again, another left, another right.
The CV8 is nowhere... absolutlely nowhere to be seen. Within about 90 seconds I've put about a kilometer between the two of us. I back off and once the road opens out into short straights and sweepers, the big V8 comes looming in the mirror again. The top end of the Gen III is fabulous when it can be put to good use.
Then once again the road tightens up, snaking left and right with added savagery. The bitumen is smooth, sticky and limits of adhesion are very high. The WRX is in its element again, changing direction eagerly, transferring all 160kW to the road with the wonderful surge you get with a turbo Subaru and hurtling through the forest like a tiny white rollercoaster. I back off again and in short order I see the Monaro exiting the corner behind me nice and flat, but with a little twitch as the tail tries to step out. Off we go again.
Once or twice I enter a corner a touch too fast, but a slight lift of the foot rotates the tail out and nose in to put it back on line. Sometimes if you hurl it into the corner too eagerly, the tail comes out a touch before settling and hurtling onward again. It's a very easy, forgiving car to drive fast and it's easy to see why the WRX was a target for theives and ram-raiders. The sting in the tail is that if you do reach it's limits, you're going very, very fast!!
A passenger who rode in both cars commented that the Monaro was much more comfortable to ride in, but you could also feel the rear end twitching on corner exits as it tried to put down all 245kW through the 18" tyres.
All in all we had a great day enjoying two nice performance cars in an environment that they were meant for.
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