this is quite an interesting thread
and a lot of differences in opinion all with valid points.
first the over 40 thing
im another 40+ air stealer:lol:
and yes you are correct in saying 'you do look a cock driving one of these cars' but in all fairness i think everyone looks a cock driving them young or old as the mere design of the car alone has ''look at me'' written all over it, so if you dont want to be noticed ''for the wrong reasons'' then its not the car for you!
now put it on a race track and the design thing and age thing goes out the window, it then becomes just another track car on an equal playing field8), age and car styling is irrelevant as the talkings done on the track.
as for the handling thing....george said earlier about feeding the car slowly into a bend (when standard) to get best handling with awd....sorry george but i totally disagree with that!
you need to be chucking the car hard into a bend then gentle with power on exit as thats when it will be at its worst with understeer, you gain nothing with soft in and hard out technique as it will just wash out on the front. these cars like the heavy handed approach and a bit of countersteering to kick the rear end out which is why they are very good at short sprints, hillclimbs etc.
now do a few tweaks to suspension, geometry, rigidity and you then have a car that handles very well too.
ive owned/driven evos and dare i say scoobys on a track and road and they are good but imo very wooly handling although the evo is far better i have to say....the R is more than a match for any of them on a track and you also get the pleasure of knowing that YOU are driving the car and not the other way round, you dont get that feeling with any other car other than something completely radical such as a caterham, aerial atom or rwd bike powered car such as the megabusa etc.
ive been known a few times to run down our cars in the respect of the big power thing etc and i stick by my guns on that, but one thing i will not fault them for is their fun factor and handling when setup properly, the sheer rawness of them makes them an unbeatable car for the money they cost and youll get mucho respect on track from many others with machinery that cost 10 times (or more), the shock factor alone is worth its weight in gold when a crappy nissan sunny comes flying past their very expensive track prepped porsche etc:lol::lol: