Julian Edgar, 44, has been writing about car modification and automotive technology for 17 years. He has owned cars with two, three, four, five, six and eight cylinders; single turbo, twin turbo, supercharged, diesel and hybrid electric drivelines. He lists his automotive interests as turbocharging, aerodynamics, suspension design and human powered vehicles.
Driving the XR8
Drove a car the other day that’s a good example of a fundamentally excellent design ruined by some strange decisions. The car? A Mark II BA Falcon XR8 – that’s the one with the 6-speed trans.
So what is wrong with it? Well firstly – and probably most critically – the gearing is simply way too tall. The very sweet 260kW 5.4 litre DOHC-per-bank engine has peak torque (a massive 500 Nm!) up at 4250 rpm. That’s not a problem in itself, because the engine is also superbly mapped, being tractable and progressive at any rpm. However, with an engine like this, you can’t run ultra-tall gearing and expect a strong performer. Not unless you drive around always two or three gears lower than ideal.
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