Two months living with Heidi has left Luca feeling frustrated…steady now…
| Driver's Log | |
|---|---|
| Date acquired: | April 2014 |
| Total kilometres: | 11,234 |
| Kilometres this month: | 5000+ |
| Costs this month: | $0 |
| L/100km this month: | 10.4 |
My GTI continues to shine in all its German discipline and perfection. We have done nearly 5,000km this month and it’s been a pleasure. I still get big smiles when the DSG is changing gears for me and that noise it does while upshifting is quite entertaining. At the end of the day, 220bhp from a hatchback would have been unthinkable ten years ago. Today, modern technology makes this a walk in the park. Plus, the impressively stiff chassis makes the car feel nice and composed under power. It’s a pretty incredible effort.
I also appreciate the electric steering, which is both precise and direct. At the same time, it’s still a bit numb for my tastes, even if there’s very little bodyroll and understeer: it’s remarkable how she commits to corner entry.
Yes, the frustration over Volkswagen‘s electronics – which I mentioned a few months ago – is still very alive. I enter my favorite highway junctions and bridges at high-speed and immediately start hearing the ABS biting the brake discs individually to try and keep the car inside the lines, taking the control out of my hands:
“No Luca, no understeer!! No Luca, no oversteer!!” “Luca! are you trying to trail brake with me? Are you nuts?” Luca!! for God’s sake! Why are you trying to push brake and gas pedal at the same time!??”
Yep, she really doesn’t like these things. She likes to drive like blades on ice, without spraying ice particles in the air. A friend of mine, a race driver, asked me how this car performs, and I told him it’s great but also not a lot of fun beyond certain limits. He suggested that maybe the new Golf R might be better. I however, given my experience with the GTI, imagine it would be even worse! Imagine all of these electronics combined with four-wheel drive in a hatchback that weighs 60 kg more.
I made my studies and the whole “Stupid Proof – Dont Hurt Yourself – System” is based on the ABS Ecu, hence I have no chance of disconnecting the fun castrating system without simultaneously disconnecting the ABS. Too bad.
Yes, my Heidi Klum is beautiful and she’s great company but when the night comes, she prefers to sleep in her own bed. I have to find a magic poison.
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