Road v Race - FPV F6

The F6 is a V8-killing non-linear torque-delivery weapon. It should come with a warning label - 'may bite if cornered'. Especially if you turn the ESP off. Doing so is potentially rewarding (that's not advice) although the caveat implicit in declining to accept ESP's protection is that you'd better be running the same version of the driver 'software' as Steven Richards.

Sadly, though, the only place most of us are eligible for that upgrade is in our dreams. Stability control either protects average drivers from themselves, or it costs great drivers five seconds a lap like it did in the F6 - easily the difference between being a back-marker and taking the chequered flag.

Calling the F6 'punchy' isn't the half of it. The right boot goes down, torque production spools up, amplified by the turbo. Suddenly, you might have more squirt on hand than you'd reckoned on, which can be interesting. It has a superior power-to-weight ratio than the FPV GT, weighs less, and brings 2.5 percent more torque to the party. And $66,590 for all that mayhem? The term 'bargain' comes to mind.

It's just as fast as a GTS from zero to 100km/h, but significantly quicker from 80km/h to 120km/h, and from 120km/h to 160km/h.

Okay, so it's 1.5km/h slower than the GT through turn two and onto the main straight, yet it's 8km/h faster on the straight and generates more braking both in terms of peak G and average G down the other end. It's almost 6km/h faster through the kink, and 4km/h faster on the back straight. Being 50kg lighter than the GT is likely to have played a significant role here.

The F6 also pulls exactly the same top speed down the main straight (209.3km/h) as the $12K-dearer HSV GTS, even though the GTS carries 3km/h more speed through turn two and, notionally, offsets its slightly higher mass (24kg) with seven more kilowatts of peak power. The F6 is also 2km/h faster than the GTS through the kink. And all this despite a slight (on paper, at least) tyre deficit - the F6 runs 245/35ZR19 Dunlop Sport Maxx on all four corners compared with the GTS's 245/35 (front) and 275/30 (rear) 20-inch Bridgestone Potenzas.

Most impressive feature? For the briefest instant, at 199.4km/h coming off the end of the main straight and on the way into turn one, its brakes generated more than one million watts of raw power. Moment
of silence, please. That's 1000kW, and not even the HRT ride car managed that.

The F6 pulled its 1805kg mass into just over one G of deceleration at just under the double-ton - crunch the high-school physics on that trinity of parameters, and you get in excess of a megawatt - that's more than triple the output of the engine.
Price $66,590
Engine in-line 6, dohc, 24v turbo
Capacity 3.984 litres
Bore/stroke 92.3/99.3mm
Compression 8.5:1
Power 310kW@5250rpm
Torque 550Nm@1950-5200rpm
Transmission 6-speed manual
Kerb weight 1805kg
Power-to-weight 172kW/tonne
Tyres Dunlop SP Sport Maxx, 245/35ZR19 (f&r)