Top Drawer
Toyota’s Celica GTis twice the car it used to
be, Audi’s Coupe GT just gets better and better. But which front-drive 2 litre
is more deserving of your £12,000? The answer isn’t clear-cut, but answer there
is.
Until
recently, if you wanted a front-wheel drive coupe of a certain style and a
certain size for around £12,000, the choice was unlikely to have you pacing the
bedroom at midnight, because there was no choice.
Instead of
sleeping pills, you bought an Audi Соupe. Critics of the studiously sober
German coupe would probably argue that the Audi was the better bet, anyway, if
all you wanted was a good night's kip. And it has to be said that pizazz is a
commodity for which you will search in vain in the Audi Соupe - whether it be
the 2.2-litre quattro or the basic four-cylinder 1.8-litre version. The 2-litre
GT featured here is, perhaps, the best balanced package of all, boasting the
sweetest five-cylinder unit-Audi make, genuine 120 mph performance and very
respectable economy. That it handles secure^ ly, has comfortable seating for
four and is well made is almost taken for granted. But for some, its measured
competence, however classily presented, is not what coupes are supposed to be
about. Toyota, it must now be assumed, knew exactly what these people wanted
when they made the new fwd Celica GT’ It has more pizazz than Liza Minelli.
At £11,999,
Toyota’s new sporting flagship is not only nearly £4000 more than the rear-
drive model it supersedes, but £159 more than Audi. If the Japanese giant had
any doubts about faking on Europe’s best middle-weight coupe, it wasn’t
reflected in their pricing policy. The Celica GT is a confident product, with modern
design features calculated to make the Audi look more staid than its detractors
would have you believe it already is. What the MR2 did to Fiat's X1/9 -
overwhelmed it with the strength of its performance, handling and i sheer all-round
ability - the new 2-litre Celica plans to do to the Audi: to give it a good
mugging on level terms; price included.
If styling
is spelt “striking”, the Celica is the more stylish car. It’s clean and curvy,
with lots of glass and conspicuously slender pillars. The body-colour tail
spoiler looks less of an afterthought than most and, with a Cd of just 0.31,
the shape is undeniably slippery. The Audi seems desperately unadventurous by
comparison - just like the 90 saloon with a fastback. But from many angles it
is the better looking car. Although less glassy than the Toyota, its more
angular lines are just as clean and contrive to look more masculine. Its
proportioning, too, is extremely good and this, as much as anything, has
prevented the Audi from dating as much as some of its contemporaries. Its Cd of
0.36, though, gives the game away.
It means
that even if the Celica had the Audi’s engine it would still go faster by dint
of its superior aerodynamics. As it is, things are even worse for the Audi,
because against the 115 bhp of its injected five-cylinder engine, the Celica
can field a crushing 148 bhp. The Audi’s output may be unexceptional for a
sporting 2-litre but there’s little question that the Toyota’s is almost unreasonably
good. Mind you, it is developed at a frenzied 6400 rpm - a full 1000 rpm higher
than the Audi's - and when it comes to sheer lugging power, the Audi’s 121 lb
ft of torque looks less troubled by the Toyota 16- valver’s 133 lb ft at a high
4800 rpm. The Audi is also quite a bit lighter than its Japanese rival. Even
so, when it comes to the stopwatch showdown, not only in top speed (128.1 mph
for the Celica against the Audi’s 118.3 mph) is the German coupe seriously
beaten. In the sprint from rest to 60 mph, the Audi lags a second behind the
Toyota’s 8.3 sec; at 100 mph, the gap has widened to around 8 sec, the Celica’s
time of 23.9 sec putting it in the genuinely fast car league. The Audi can hold
its own with the Celica in fourth and fifth, though: both are capable of running
7 sec fourth gear 20 mph increment times anywhere between 30 and 70 mph.
Subjectively,
the Celica seems far more peaky than these figures would suggest, but the engine
is deceptive. While the 16- valver feels a little flat from low revs, there is
real strength in the mid-range
which, in turn, is overshadowed by tremendous top end vigour all the way to the
7250 rpm red-line. If you want the last ounce of performance you have to use
all the revs but power delivery while smooth, is also noisy at the top end:
prolonged flat-out motoring can get tiring.
Not so in
the Audi. It may lack the Toyota’s top-end bite but its engine is just as
smooth and quiet, its throttle response marginally crisper. What it most obviously
lacks is the Celica’s stunning breadth of power but, despite that, the engine
has a surprising amount-of “edge” and is the best-sounding of Audi's
“fives". It’s the most economical, too, returning a creditable 26.4 mpg in
the Coupe GT against the Celica’s 23.8 mpg.
Good as the
Toyota’s gearchange is, it is neither as light nor as slick as the Audi's,
which gains points for having the best set of ratios, too. The Celica's, while
usefully long, are a little widely spaced. The Japanese соupe fights back when
it comes to handling — a considerable achievement against a car which has set
the standard in this area for so long. The Celica’s ace is its terrific
balance! There is none of the scrubby understeer normally associated with powerful
front-wheel drive cars. In-stead, the Celica turns-in and powers round a
medium-radius bend like a well-sorted rear-drive car, with just a touch of oversteer.
Killing the power increases the oversteer but within readily defined limits
clearly communicated to the driver. Outright, it betters the Audi’s too.
Although
the German coupe feels somewhat tauter and more precise, there’s no disguising
the fact that its front wheels are driven. Understeer is the predominant
characteristic and there’s little the driver can do to ring the changes. Safe
and predictable it is, though, and the tightly-con-trolled body movements are
initially more reassuring than the Toyota’s apparently “soft” suspension
settings, which allow generous roll and promote an impression of slight
vagueness about the straight-ahead. But an impression is all it is. Once accustomed
to what the Toyota is capable of, the initially discouraging messages from the
helm can be forgotten about. The Audi rides a little more firmly than the
Toyota, but its suspension control is superior, the Toyota trading some damping
tautness for superb suppleness. Strong, progressive brakes are a common
feature, too.
But there
the similarities stop. Like its styling, the Celica's interior is
self-consciously stylish - an amalgam of harmoniously crafted curves trimmed in
light, jazzy materials. It smacks of "modern” but it also smacks of
"Japanese”, though its comfortable, supportive seats, easy driving
position, clear instruments and sound ergonomics are solid plusses. The Audi’s
interior could hardly provide a greater contrast. Up-dated by the obviously
talented Martin Smith, its "hi- tech" switchgear is almost perfectly
judged within the overall context of the cabin’s subtle, if slightly sombre,
good taste. High quality materials are superbly assembled and finished, lending
the interior an aura of classy maturity rare in such a modestly- priced
machine. The Audi’s driving position is a little more sit-up- and-beg than the
Celica’s but its front seats are even better, its instruments (although fewer
in number) slightly clearer and its rear room notably more generous.
If the Audi
Соupe GT had the Coupe quattro's more muscular 2.2-litre engine - as it
previously did as the Coupe Injection - it would be almost irresistible. Almost,
but not quite. As it is, it remains the sensible £12,000 fwd coupe buy - a car
which will continue to look good and command a high secondhand price when most
of its Japanese contemporaries are looking decidedly frayed round the edges.
But the Celica is the better car - the one we'd want to drive. It does almost
everything well.
Conclusions.
Coupes have
taken a long time to gain respect in the fast-driving community but, judging
from our findings here, they’re not likely to lose it in a hurry. The technical
impetus the market cried out for has arrived with a bang, though some might
find it chilling to note that the Japanese challenge arrived at the same time.
The most
technically advanced engines in this group are Japanese - the Toyota’s and the
Honda’s boasting 16-valves apiece, the Isuzu’s and the Nissan’s excellent
turbocharger installations. Sophistication isn’t necessarily synonymous with
success, but you would have to take a distorted view of events not to recognise
the Honda’s white-wash of the Scirocco and the Toyota’s narrow victory over the
excellent Audi as significant landmarks in the seemingly inexorable progress of
the Far East. The only Japanese disappointment was the Piazza, which put up a
surprisingly weak fight against the cheaper Nissan Silvia, but the Silvia is a
strong product and the Scirocco would have fared little better.
But let’s
not lose sight of the raw elements which go to make a good coupe: the style,
the ability to cover miles in a relaxed yet entertaining manner, a cabin that
fits the driver like a glove, chassis responses that are dependable, adjustable,
progressive. The Capri Injection - dated as its instruments and control layout
might be - is the only car in the line-up that balances these virtues with real
flair. The Alfa has the better engine but it costs over £1000 more and is sadly
deficient in most other areas. A charismatic car, yes - more alluring in some
ways, than any of its Oriental rivals- but near the bottom of the pile -as a
total driving package.
In the
final reckoning, though, we’d place the Alfa ahead of the Isuzu which, styling
apart, is very much yesterday’s car. We would have expected the Scirocco to
come higher than sixth in this company, but the quality of its chassis and
gearchange failed to live up to the promise of its wonderfully vigorous engine.
If says something about the high overall standards of the group that the very
capable and keenly-priced Silvia Turbo is a mid-field runner, too, squeezed out
of the limelight by the similarly quick but much more smartly appointed Honda
The Honda's engine helped sway the decision, too: it’s a gem. The Audi just
stumbles at the last hurdle. The roomiest and most practical coupe in the
group, it does everything well but nothing with true star quality. A classy,
beautifully finished car, nonetheless.
If a final
decision must be made, it’s between the sheer ability of the Toyota and the
more finely balanced charms of the Capri. Both are special cars, the Ford
offering unmatched value for money, the Toyota state-of-the-art design. We’re
tempted - very tempted - to plump for the Ford,
realising that to do so would involve a degree of deception. But the cold-blooded
choice must be the Celica. It brings new standards to its class but, perhaps
more than that, it is a complete and desirable driving machine.
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