Not really apropos of anything, but I autocrosssed an ND2 for the first time yesterday at a Regional. (Never driven an ND1, either.) My driving experience in it before my first run was a 3 minute trip down the access road around Barber. PAXed 2nd of 70 and was just beginning to get the hang of the it. The car is an autocross beast.

My 3rd event (and first National) in an S2000 I trophied at Dixie Winter last year. That car was really well setup with fantastic shock damping. A lot of folks say the S2000 is competitive in CS. That's nuts. The S2000 should NEVER be able to beat an ND2. The game has moved so much further on. Running one in CS is tilting at windmills.

The ND2 is so damn good. Yes, the springs are really soft and the one I was in could have used some more shock damping. But, wow does that light weight make it great! Love the motor, too, though the throttle response is weird at low revs. It never bothers you during a run.

I wish Porsche would use some of their engineering talent and produce a small, lightweight sportscar. There was a 2011 Spyder there and a 2011 Cayman... they seemed huge by comparison. The Cayman was particularly well-driven and raw-timed me by 0.2s taking 3rd PAX. What a car that would be at, say, 2500lbs!

 

ND2's horsepower numbers aren't very impressive, but it has great low-end torque and better gearing than we have, great suspension, and a ton of lightness. And it just hauls! I've compared my data to CS ND2s locally and at nats in 2019 and it's depressing to watch them out-accelerate me in a straight line and pull higher gees in corners. Even more insane in STR prep! They're phenomenal cars. I just wish I fit comfortably in one.

 

I drove an STR-lite prepped ND1 on one fun run at 9/10ths and gave up on my STR project immediately thereafter.

What's most impressive to me is how the car does everything exactly as expected. Totally textbook, no surprises, no quirks to drive around. Balance with a telegraphed response to everything that's going on at each corner. Want understeer? Easy. Want to summon light oversteer? No problem. No e-diffs, brake vectoring, turbo lag, adaptive dampers to try and keep happy. Boneheaded on the throttle? No worries, there's just enough torque to adjust the car, not enough to murder yourself with. Want to precision carve? It takes a second to set, but will do that all day. Want to wring it's neck and chuck it around? It's light and predictable enough that you can get away with it.

It's a perfect autocross car. And I find that very boring.

 

As good as the ND is, I never liked the steering feel. Definitely fun though, just a different kinda than what most of us drive on here.

 

Ah, it's not quite perfect. In Street.

One setup for STR could very well be perfect.

 

At the risk of reviving a dead-ish thread, I totally agree on way ND can accelerate out of a slow corner. Only a handful of cars accelerate in a way that looks visually quick on an autox crouse, but somehow an ND is one of them. Up in DC I've been lucky enough to watch Karwan, Layton, the Garfields, Shrivastava, Chinonn-Rhoden, etc all battling it out in STR prepped ND over the last 4 or so years. Those cars with those guys behind the wheel do things that boggle the mind