FD1 (VTi) performance in Wheels Active Safety Program
I thought I would quote from the article in this month's Wheels (which I'm reading as I wait to finish my FD1 being serviced at Rick Damelian).
In summary about the program, there are various real-world style crash avoidance tests (as opposed to the typical crash worthiness tests conducted by NCAP) whereby they compare top selling cars and their ability to brake hard, slalom test, high speed lane changes, and overtaking (60-100km/h). This is done on the top selling models as well as opposed to the flagships, hence the 1.8L Auto VTi is used. Note there were 14 cars incl. the Corolla, Camry Altise, Ford Focus, Mazda3, Lancer (new), etc.. and the Lancer did really crap overall.
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Whitbourn
The Civic was actually better than its eight-overall rank suggests. Kinda. Despite a strong showing in five of the six dynamic tests, with top-six results in the brake, circle and slalom tests, among others, a poor result in the high-speed lane change dragged its score down. And quite rightly, we might add - sure-footed high-speed dynamics are an absolutely vital part of a vehicle's crash-avoidance skill set.
Interestingly, and going against the more popular perception that smaller cars are more agile, the Honda managed an entry speed of just 105km/h into the lane-change exercise - just 3 and 4km/h better than Territory and RAV4 respectively - before its rear end started doing the pendulum thing. Every vehicle you could expect might beat it here, did, with the exception of the Corolla. This result was at odds with the Honda's solid performance in the slalom (sixth), demosntrating that swerve and recover ability is speed-dependent.
The Civic's reversing vision was poor for a small car - our 'average-height two-year-old' was obscured at any closer than 5.42 metres from the rear bumper, which placed the Honda ninth. Incredibly, its result here even put it behind the much larger Territory and Commodore.
Despite the 1240kg Civic VTi being lumped with an auto-backed 1.8, it put its 103kW/174Nm to excellent use in the overtaking discipline, ranking a credible sixth, beaten only by the sixes and the 2.0-litre Lancer and Mazda 3.
Similarly, the hot-lap test favoured the more powerful cars, but here the honda's blend of capable dynamics (below 100km/h, at least) and moderate straight-line acceleration saw it rank fifth ahead of Commodore and Territory and trailing only the Corolla, Focus, Mazda 3 and the hard-charging V6 Aurion.
Source: wheels magazine (March 2008) p107
In terms of the statistics; 100km/h-0km/h was 41.3m (ranked 5th), Max G was 0.79G 10.19secs (4th), Slalom was 8.89secs (6th), High speed lane change was 105km/h (10th), Hot lap was 28.81secs (5th) and Overtaking (60km-100km/h) was 5.91secs (6th).
Reviewer/tester notes the car turns in quite cirsply and finds good grip but lane-change exercise highlighted stability issues when pushed, and needs ESP.
Compared to other small cars, Focus did 60-100 in 6.11secs (8th) despite having a 2L manual (107kW/185Nm 1268kg), the Yaris did it in 6.65 (12th) in a 1.5L 80kW, Astra CD 1.8 auto 6.53 (11th), new Lancer VR in 2L CVT in 5.31 (4th!), Hyundai Getz 1.6L auto 7.75 (13th), Territory Ghia in 5.27 (3rd), RAV4 2.4L auto in 6.13 (9th) and Corolla 6.21 (10th) for 1.8L auto 100kW/175Nm 1310kg.
