Stagea Testdrive Impressions please

[gts4diehard]

just wanting to get some feedback on your first impressions of your stageas.

I have been thinking about getting one for a while and finally took one for a testdrive, and it wasnt quite what I expected. It was a 1997 RSFour with about 48000kms on the clock and in very good condition.

The first thing that put me off was the airy-fairy steering, something reminescent of my old u12 SSS bluebird, and the booming sounds coming from the rear from road noise. I know it is a station wagon/ family wagon but I expected a bit more 'feeling' from the steering and a little less noise as it is a bit more upmarket and sportier than the average station wagon, it didnt feel as solid as one would expect from a 1600/1700 kg car. I also realise that the car is heavy but expected some sort of 'turbo' performance when it reached about 3000-4000 rpms when the turbo reaches boost.

Is the normal acceleration very linear without any noticeable increase in the rate of acceleration (seat of pants feeling) - when it is making boost?

My expectations is based on the experience of my R32 gts4 which I've had for about 5 years which is pretty much still stock and whilst it is not quick by todays standards it does have that 'turbo' rush. The steering is very positive and it feels solid when you are driving. I like my cars to be very close to what I want from a car without having to redesign suspension systems etc, I dont mind doing bushes/shocks etc

To me it seems like it would take a lot of changes just to get the car feeling right. Maybe I am expecting 260RS performance from a RSfour I dont know.

To any 260 RS owners, is the steering and suspension sporty feeling or at least ahead of other station wagons you've driven and somewhere on the road to sedan performance?

Good points - car has lots of features over other cars.

car looks good, has skyline bits which I assume would translate to Skyline reliability.

is this a average stagea or did I just testdrive a 'bad' one?

Stephen

[32vspecII]

they are quite heavy and auto and 4wd and the rb25 is a much more linear type of engine than the 2l

but with the usual mods that will all be forgotten .

[tigerleo62]

Changing from the 225/16/R50 tyres to 235/40/R18 made a big difference in the handling of the car for me - I will have the anti-sway bars changed in a week or so. The car felt VERY soft and floating when I first got it and i am not convinced the shocks don't need upgrading, however after a couple of weeks of driving the car i am getting used to the soft ride...

I don't find the car noisy at all - my previous car was much noisier from tyre/road noise, so I find the Stagea very pleasent to drive. For the fist couple of weeks I didn't have much audio in the car to talk of so I did a lot of driving with the windows down and no stereo going and found the car quite quiet...

I don't feel like I am driving a wagon that much - well not in a straight line any way . Going around corners is a bit freaky with the standard sway bars though... Compared to a Magna station wagon the Stagea is an outright sports car IMHO. Even though the Stagea is a largish car I don't feel as if I am driving a large car (except when going around corners and carrying a load in the back )

As for the turbo - this is the first turbo I have owned, so I can't compare it to much at all. However the car doesn't give you that intitial feeling of gut wrenching power when you press the metal - the car seems to run fairly effortlessly and smoothly through the changes. I find the car plenty powerful and swift enough - but depends what you want - I prefer a car that is smooth and fairly quiet and can live without wheel spin and other outward signs of 'bruteness'.

Overall with some relatively minor changes in the ride the car is much improved so I wouldn't be too put off by the spongey ride the 'stock' car gives - afterall in the wagon category and in the price range there really is very little choice, probably no real choice at all.

[Sydneykid]

Hi gts4diehard, your comments are pretty similar to my experiences.

I also find the steering a little vague (have a read in the Stagea Suspension thread), the Whiteline stabiliser bars helped a lot. They stopped the exagerated roll and made the chassis respond quicker, but it really needs more caster on the front to give it some turn in. A set of Whiteline adjustable front radius road bushes are waiting (already on the garage shelf) to go in. I do like the long wheelbase stability and compliant ride, so I am upgrading to Bilstein shocks but keeping the standard springs, I will use the lower spring seat circlip grooves to get the height to where I want it.

I find ours looses a bit of the vague feel when it has some front drive, I need to have a bit of throttle on in the corners. Then it simply rockets away from the apex without any apparent effort, in the wet this is quite freaky. I have absolutely no doubt that after the stabiliser bars, caster (inc full wheel alignment) and Bilsteins, our Stagera will handle better than most cars and way better than any other waggons. After all it is really a GTR waggon, so the potential is there.

As for NVH, I really haven't noticed any "booming". Most people comment on how quiet it is inside for waggon. No, I haven't upgraded the stereo yet.

Engine performance is similar to the R33 GTST, being very linear. But hauling around another couple of hundred kilos and the 4wd losses takes the edge off it up to around 100 kph. Then you start to feel the turbo push, if you didn't drive it out in the open, then you would only feel the heavy weight. Stageas have 2 stage boost limits with very low boost in 1st and 2nd, so you don't get the turbo surge to help overcome the inertia. An inexpensive and mild boost upgrade, thus removing the lower limit, will help immensly. I am going to try the Jaycar electronic boost controller on our Stagea.

I don't like the look of the compliance cat fitted to our Stagea, it looks small and inefficient. It will be replaced along with the rest of the otherwise standard exhaust system. From the turbo back, it's all going.

As the others have already said, ours cost $16K and with another $4K spent on upgrades, I will have a 200 awkw waggon that will out perform and out handle most sedans and coupe's easily. For $20K there isn't another waggon that even comes close.

[gts4diehard]

thanks for comments guys. The one I saw was $23000 up here in Brisbane and if it needed $4k spent on mods I would be inclined to buy an awd magna for the money. If I were able to get something all up for less than $20k with mods then that would sway the equation a little more in favour of Stagea again.

Stephen

[burkey22]

I imported mine for about $17Gs 1997 RS4 with 34000Ks.