Clio 1.8 16v Vs Corsa 1.8 16v

[rockport]

Whats the first thing that springs to mind when you hear the word "Vauxhall Corsa" ?..... (language timothy!!)

so.. last week i was pulling off from the A13 heading to Basildon via the Tesco turn off and this Corsa is stuck to my rear bumper all the way down the slip.. dont know about you lot, but this is one of my pet hates!!!

so im thinking... lets show the c**k head a performance car in action... toed it from a rolling start... say 30mph?! flying through the gears, at around 5k in third, look up at my wing mirror, this corsa is still stuck to my arse like glue!! looked back at the road.. bloody read lined it in third!! DOH!

Anyway quickly recovered, in both 4th and 5th... at this kind of speed bends are looking like 90 degree corners, looking ahead im thinking... ill have the turnip on this bend, hell have to brake!!! HA HA corsas cant handle!! but to my shock his still on my bumper!!! taking this corner as if it was invisible!

pulled over into the slow lane, still with my toe down, he couldnt overtake me.. and i think if it was a longer straight i would have started to gain above 120...

so their you have it... Corsa 1.8, one to look out for... have a look here for specs,

http://www.vauxhall.com/showroom/search/technicalSpecifications.jhtml?driveCode=AG08&driveCodePack=KE5R&description=SRi+1.8i+16v&brand=Corsa


surprised me big style! apparently Lotus have designed their suspensions system, maybe that accounts for the good handling...

anyone else raced one of these new shape 1.8 corsa SRIs?

 

[Ben H]

Thats odd.

The new 1.8 16v Corsa develops 123(ish) bhp if I remeber correctly. The Valver therefore has the power to weight ratio advantage over it as it has 15bhp more and weighs at least 50kg less.

The handling of the new generation Corsa is far better than before - and youve got to remember that the Corsa is a 2000 design; the 16v is a 1990 design (albeit still better).

I still havent seen a good car mag rate the Corsa SRi - and I reckon that maybe a service is in order for your car (? - no offence intended!).

 

[jimbo1]

the answer to that is torque. the corsa puts out more torque, at a lower and more useable rpm. thats the reason why the f7p needs revving, because the torque is low and peaks high in the rev range. bhp sells cars, torque wins races!!

the only palce the f7p is any gud, is at pulling the car outa corners at high speed, like back lane bashing, rather than the straight line drag.

jimbo

 

[rt172]

If "torque wins races", then why are we all not continously panned by diesel drivers?!

Rhys

 

[Ben H]

OK - see the torque comments logic. But the F7P is better than you suggest!! You cant tell me that a car that pulls 0-60 in 7.7 standard (0-62 in 8.0 to avoid confusion!) is no good!!

Moreover - the Corsas 122 Lb/ft of torque is at 4600rpm. The F7P in the Clio 16v makes 116 Lb/ft at 4250rpm.
a) Thats only 6Lb/ft extra
b) For once, the Valver gets peak torque at lower revs!!
c) The 16v still has 15bhp extra as standard in a car that weighs more than 100kg less!!!

I reckon weve got a better than average Corsa here - but it aint no Valver beater!! I still reckon a well-maintained and fit 16v will quite safely have this Corsa SRi.

P.S. Am more than willing to prove this to any Corsa-comers!!

 

[aaronc]

Yeah any corses want a caining? Gimme a shout.

 

[Nick Read]

I bet you were gutted mate. If I ever got beat by a Corsa Id give up and walk everywhere...

 

[Man-Chun]

The peak torque maybe higher but it proberly has a flater torque curse as well. Pretty impressive stats for that car tho. We are looking at 0-100 at about 22 ish seconds. Its proberly modded tho.

Chun.

 

[Matbrown]

Ben,

It would hardly be a fair fight between your car and a corsa though!

Mat.

 

[emicen]

To answer rt172, diesels would cane your arse in most cases in a torque battle.

Example, if you were sat at 70 on the motorway in 5th and beside u was a golf tdi at 70 in 5th. Both of you put ur foot down, off he goes.

Diesels struggle in drags tho because the diesel engine requires a higher compression ratio than petrol engines = heavier reciprocating parts to handle the pressure = greater rotating mass (inertia) = cant spin up as quick.

Then again, come up against diesel beasties like my dads BMW 530d and most cars will struggle (0-62 is bout 6.7secs). Ive got him cruising Glasgow looking for a CTR to anihilate (true racers never grow out of it, they just get bigger, faster toys).

 

[emicen]

To answer rt172, diesels would cane your arse in most cases in a torque battle.

Example, if you were sat at 70 on the motorway in 5th and beside u was a golf tdi at 70 in 5th. Both of you put ur foot down, off he goes.

Diesels struggle in drags tho because the diesel engine requires a higher compression ratio than petrol engines = heavier reciprocating parts to handle the pressure = greater rotating mass (inertia) = cant spin up as quick.

Then again, come up against diesel beasties like my dads BMW 530d and most cars will struggle (0-62 is bout 6.7secs). Ive got him cruising Glasgow looking for a CTR to anihilate (true racers never grow out of it, they just get bigger, faster toys).

 

[jimbo1]

exactly!! the only thing that lets diesels down are the very narrow power band, therfore u need lots of gearchanges to acc well.

as for the corsa, the torque they produce is pretty much linear, uv got a big wedge of torque after 2k rpm onto the 4600rpm peak, whereas the f7p is quite lame below 4k, only peaking to 116lb/ft at 4500rpm. a mate of mine has a mk4 astra sxi 1.8 16v, and til about 5k rpm it shifts really well, after that it sorta dies away, whereas my 16v doesnt get going til 5k rpm.

jimbo

 

[rockport]

Ben,

yeah i get what your saying, but i dont think hitting the redline line help me..

valver is a phase 2 with only 50k on the clock, its not a sh*tter.. always serviced regularly etc etc... dont think it was the motor letting the side down.. maybe the driver!

like i say if the stretch of road was alittle longer i think i would have had him....

im not saying he beat me, it was just really close... at no point did he over take me, i even pulled into the slow lane to see if he could....

all the posts above tho are valid points...

nick read is right... if he had of overtaken me id hold my head in shame, but he didnt!! so long live the clio!!!

 

[wongy008]

you need to red line a valver if you dont you will be only using a small power band and lots of cars that shouldnt be able to will keep up

i dont change gear till at least 7.3k revs.if notm it just dont wanna move at all. its just the way valvers are.

wongy

 

[rockport]

Wongy, is your Clio chipped? i thought you needed to change @ 6500k for max power!?

when i redlined it in third, the limiter kicked in knocking me back, felt like a mid air stall!... quickly recovered in 4th tho...

i think its good to redline the valver every now and then... say maybe twice a month to blow out all the crap in your engine

 

[nickg123]

Wongys definitely right - redline in every gear is the quickest way with the valver!

 

[Pugboy]

As the proud owner (but not for much longer) of a car with similar characteristics to your valvers and possibly 172s (ill find out soon), the key is with engines with a wide torque spread, they can be driven much lazier. its quite easy to be shown up by old vauxhall sris and stuff if youre caught off guard. i put my foot down at 2000 rpm and not much happens but short of driving round at 5000 rpm, i have no choice than to be selective about when to race. low torque spread and peaky power means they arent slower than most of the turbo diesels (except maybe uphill or loaded up) but must just be kept on the boil. as a general rule lighter cars require less torque. good example, put a race ducati engine in a 1200kg car (about 170bhp and not much torque) and it would struggle but with only 200kgs to power its a rocket.

pugboy

 

[wongy008]

thats where the valver fails and that due to the crap spread of torque, thats why reno gave the willy engine a shorter crank (1,9 diesel). it revs less but makes more torque and a better spread too. the 1764 (16v engine) requires ranging for dear life to get the best for it, its more like a peaky race engine and def not a engine for lazy people

thats why there are mixed opinons on the 16v

those who love ragging cars thinks the 16v is fast

lazy drivers think its slow due low torque nature of the engine

own a 16v than rag the sh*t out of it or you wont be going no where

yes i have a chip and the rest lol
limiter set at 7.6k gives me a nice 3.5k power band, below 4 k car is crap and yes older 8v motors are esier to drive fast.

wongy

 

[Craggy]

that corsa does 0-100 in 23 secs so im not surprised

craggy

 

[Ben H]

I was just out in my car on Saturday, using it the once a week Im using it now (blowing exhaust, havent found a good garage in Edinburgh yet - am cycling to work!).

Ive not driven the car above about 4000rpm in the last month or so. I know its hard to believe, but Im just taking things easier these days (maybe Im getting old!).

But I was in a 40 zone village, which opened up to a national limit. I had some irate Mondeo driver behind me, obviously unhappy with doing 40 in a 40 zone. So I hesitated, then dumped it into 2nd.

You forget just how fast a Valver is at these sorts of revs. Instantly we hit 5000rpm and the Mondy is a spec - not that the aim was to roast it, just to remind myself of the beast the Valver is.

Yes, the Valver is quick in scenarios like this. But its also quick elsewhere. Even at 70mph theres plenty of torque (OK - not by TD standards). And the 50-70 in 5th of the 16v is about 1 second quicker than the Williams to boot.

I know the Valver is better in certain situations than others, but so too are other cars. The main point is that the 16v is very good in more situations than most so-called "hot hatches". Figures cant always tell the whole story, but Im confident that the 16v can still mix it with the best of even the most modern super-hatches in a broad range of situations.

 

[BenR]

what you doin in scotland?

 

[Ben H]

Summer grad job - with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Didnt really want to be here, but the Festival is on, the city is pretty and my g/f is away for three months - so I thought why not.

 

[philglover]

Its always good to hear a valver kickin some ass. Ive only seen one 1.8 corsa to date and that was in traffic so I cant comment. I have, however, had an Audi A3 1.8T (normal, not quattro or S3) give me some stick and I was more than able to stay ahead of him, unless he was holding back - but I dont reckon he was! The point about TD motors is a good one and the new ones are faster than you think. At the top end the speed in my 16v is about the same as a passat TDi on the motorway - i know cause i was chasing one but i couldnt quite have him and that was at ***mph!! (dont tell anyone though...)
There are some cars that you respect and some you dont. I have to admit that I do look for cars to chase that you might not think about normaly. I had a BMW 323 chase me up the sliproad of the M25 and I coped pretty well. 306s and Focuss are the best though. I have a special kind of hatred for focus drivers - not sure why, just do! Is it just me are they all penises?? I
Would think twice about a straight race with something like a VTS or a Pug 106 gti - smaller car, power figures not a million miles away from a valver... beware!!