Murtaya - Enthusiastic first impressions by Mark Sansby
Posted by Madabout News on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 11:09 PM |
 When I visited Adrenaline Motorsport last week I was given the opportunity to be taken out for a drive. Well it’s not the sort of thing you turn down now, is it?
The first thing is getting in. No handles here. The driver has a remote button on the key fob and there are buttons on the dash to open each door. Getting in, you lower yourself into the Cobra bucket seats and strap into a 5 point harness. A bit extreme for the road?? Well you certainly ain’t movin’ far.
There is plenty of room for both the driver and passenger and with my 6ft frame I still could only just touch the front bulkhead with my toes.
As the engine is started, the rasp of the exhaust note will be familiar to many who have driven a Scooby (or similar). The 4 cyclinder turbo is a basic model kicking out iro 260bhp. Weighing less than 950kg, that should help you to understand some of the reason behind that harness.
Off we plod down the narrow farm roads around the Adrenaline premises. Initial impressions are good. The roads are bumpy, yet the suspension is doing a good job of making it comfortable for the passenger (me).
When we turn out onto the main road, Neil (director and my driver) gives me a little idea of the acceleration. Mmmmm, pretty swift I think to myself. But the car isn’t fully warm yet and Neil is taking it easy. He needs to as Andy is following in his Astra. At (and near) the legal speed limits I did notice you get a bit of buffeting from the wind. This demo car has not had the side windows fitted yet, so I would imagine this will be sorted when they are.
It’s not long before Neil gets bored. We approach a long sweeping left and accelerate (yes I did say accelerate). My weight shift to the right of the seat and we exit the bend ready to slow for the sharper right. My weight shift to the left of the seat and we exit with no fuss. That harness is starting to make some sense now.
Having given Andy a little time to ‘catch up’, next comes a series of long sweeping downhill bends. I know the road and am aware it can be a bit testing on the suspension and handling, especially as there is a bit of a dip part way down. We maintain the legal limit and the car handles the bends admirably. As we round the last bend, it seems the local council have decided today is a good day for some temporary lights. With a row of half a dozen cars, we need to stoppppp!! I now noticed a problem with the Murtaya. No, nothing to do with the breaking performance. That was fantastic. The problem involves a 5 point harness and my feet searching for a solid bulkhead to brace myself. Let’s just say that if I was 5’10” I would talk slightly differently now.
“Oh yes, we will have a footrest on the production car” comes the voice from the drivers seat.
After a photo session we head back to the workshop. No waiting around now . . . Along the first straight, my head is pinned to the seat for a second. I’m more prepared for the brakes now, so get more chance to see how good they really are. They shed masses of speed quickly while the chassis stays stable at all times. Cornering is incredible, with no noticable body roll. Acceleration is to supercar standards, with 0-60 iro 3.5 sec. The lovely pop from the turbo and roar from the engine is pure music.
Along one long straight I thought Neil shortshifting up the box, so I watched closely on the next one. No, with your foot down the engine revs so freely that the needle seems to fly round the dial. No sooner have you hooked one gear and 6500 revs comes along and another change is needed. In the few seconds it takes to grab 5th, you are well in excess of a ton (. . . well in excess!). It’s not all revs though, there is plenty of torque and in normal driving you’ll have no problems overtaking without touching the gearstick.
As the car was on trade plates, there was no chance of me driving, but I’ve been promised a go in the near future. I think they want me to buy one!
For further information about the Adrenaline Motorsport Murtaya please visit their website at
www.adrenalinemotorsport.co.uk
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