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As you suggest, I think the 5-speed automatic made the difference in this comparison. The 2002 seemed a little quicker off the line, but the 9-3SS seemed to shift more quickly.
I did 6 runs in each car on the same stretchs of road and I can't explain why the variance in the 9-3SS is larger than in the 9-3SE. Probably poor stopwatch control.
The 2002 has always been run on 93 octane gas, but I don't know what has been run in the 9-3SS. I'm guessing it has had 93 octane since it has been used at press events. It had 93 octane in it at the time of the comparison.
The 2002 has also been driven aggressively so it has "learned" to use aggressive engine/transmission parameters. I'm guessing that the 9-3SS has also been driven aggressively at the press events. (Although you'd be amazed at how poorly, and slowly, some auto writers drive.)
As you mention the times seem pretty slow, but I didn't do any brake torquing to improve the times. The temperature was also close to 90 degrees which had an effect on engine performance and the A/C was on in both cars. (It was too hot in the car to run without A/C!)I'm sure you could get faster times in both cars but I just wanted to get a fair comparison. And I also tried to be conservative with the stopwatch so I wasn't unfairly "improving" the times. I started the watch when my foot hit the throttle and I stopped it when the needle crossed 60. This may have artifically slowed the times as well since the car probably didn't start moving as quickly as I hit the throttle.
Bottom line, the new Linear with an automatic seems as faster than the current SE with an auto. Partly this is the trans, and partly it is the engine. I also think the new car may actually weigh less than the current car. I'm trying to figure out how I can weigh the 2 to get an accurate comparison.
I know this doesn't give us any indication of how the manual trans cars compare, but it's fun anyway. I'm still betting on the 9-3SS Arc/Vector being faster than a 9-3SE.
Cheers.
posted by 12.38.25...
, Sun, 29 Sep 2002 18:00:06, Sun, 29 Sep 2002 23:02:06
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