Thank you @VicVictory for letting us drive the 1969 Suzume Hosho GS. A retro import with a 2.9L boxer6 engine. Question is, will this be a well refined Japanese (?) sports coupe, or will it be less controllable then a fat lady in the chocolates section in the supermarket? Only one way to find out…
Lap 1 (02:53.741)
Instantly, I can tell that this is a classic car. The rear end is really slippery. More slippery then the slippery slope that Uncle Tom is on with his alcohol habits. And this car is like a Japanese emperor. It demands respect. God forbid that you disrespect it…You’ll get publicly executed. Being too liberal with the accelerator can end in disaster, unless you know what you’re doing, which I don’t.
Lap 2 (02:53.703)
Me attempting to be the Allies by trying to defeat this Japanese emperor, it ends in disaster. I loose the battle despite my greatest efforts. The rear end of this thing spins out bad. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, THOU SHALL NOT CONQUER MY EMPIRE. REAR END SLIPPAGE, I SUMMON YOU. Thinking that I can handle this, the emperor proves to me that no one, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, can touch his empire. So rear end slippage uses loss of control against test driver and it’s super effective. Hence the non-existent lap time improvement.
Lap 3 (02:41.608)
The learning curve is steep. All that could be done is regroup and try again. Try again with more respect towards the car. The brakes like to lock up, like any other car of this era, so one needs to be careful. Also, the handling when going out of corners is really unpredictable. This is when this Japanese emperor turns into Godzilla on PCP. It doesn’t want to be driven by a yokel. The car is too good for trash like me.
Best lap: 02:41.608 (Lap 3).
Positives:
- Has quite a lot of power, rarely need to shift to 1st.
- Can corner well if you know what you’re doing.
- Is decently fast.
- Stable at high speed.
Negatives:
- Hard to control.
- Steep learning curve.
- Drifty rear end.
- Thinks it’s a Japanese emperor.
Final verdict: It’s a Japanese emperor. It doesn’t want to be conquered or tamed by trash like me. Only those who know what they’re doing are welcome. The spastic rear end makes it a not very driveable experience. Not APDT Approved.