Cross Turismo on & off road review

[RAHRCR]

Sponsored

 

[kempez]

About to watch it now, love Harry and thoroughly enjoy his video’s but haven’t been hugely impressed with his electric car reviews so far, they’ve felt a bit one-sided and old fashioned, but with lots of truth too as plus points. He is a professed petrolhead, so I guess he has a definite bias.

 

[RAHRCR]

About to watch it now, love Harry and thoroughly enjoy his video’s but haven’t been hugely impressed with his electric car reviews so far, they’ve felt a bit one-sided and old fashioned, but with lots of truth too as plus points. He is a professed petrolhead, so I guess he has a definite bias.

He drove the car pretty hard and gave an unbiased review.

 

[smoothound]

You get Harry's honest opinion - and he knows his way around cars of every stamp. Amazing how it handled the wet grass. My PEC on Tuesday.

Watching this vid just made the wait for my CT-T that bit harder - Was supposed to be built Friday gone - Presently estimate as end Oct for delivery - but no news yet so not holding my breath - much - well a bit - well......

 

[WuffvonTrips]

Spec sheet (at 1:42) doesn't include PDCC, making the positive comments about the ride and handling all the more impressive.

 

[RAHRCR]

Spec sheet (at 1:42) doesn't include PDCC, making the positive comments about the ride and handling all the more impressive.

Agreed. In general, I found this review to be more useful than most.

 

[backslashed]

I hope I will like my leather free interior! I am not a fan of leather! Harry sure seemed to not like it, I am surprised he said it is not good quality.

 

[ThePaddyWan]

I've always enjoyed Harry's reviews, he's quite objective and balanced in his feedback. Pretty spot-on video.

 

[TDinDC]

I like his review. His thoughts summed up why I passed on Taycan until the CT, and then ran in to put in my order. So far, so good.

I disagree with his criticism of being one-dimensional. That's the same argument used to oppose the elimination of manual transmissions and other tech advances. To me, that's not what constitutes engagement (and yes, I know, I know, my 911 is RWD, Manual, and has a delicious normally aspirated flat 6 with power pack and 8,500 redline so I know). I mean, we can all continue to drive 930 widow makers and suffer the occasional shart when turbo lag catches us off guard at corner exit, but if that's engagement, no thank you. I think engagement is steering input and throttle/brake responsiveness, and the Taycan has that in spades. My sole serious criticism is the weight. Yeah, I know that it's just part of the EV experience, but you can feel it. That's the biggest difference between moving from 911 to Taycan and back . . . it's the weight, not the transmission or even the noise or the lack thereof (and yeah, a 16 year old exhaust wailing away at 7K is enough to make any of us giggle foolishly). If I could have the suspension of the Taycan on my 911, I would take it in a heartbeat.

 

[f1eng]

I like his review. His thoughts summed up why I passed on Taycan until the CT, and then ran in to put in my order. So far, so good.

I disagree with his criticism of being one-dimensional. That's the same argument used to oppose the elimination of manual transmissions and other tech advances. To me, that's not what constitutes engagement (and yes, I know, I know, my 911 is RWD, Manual, and has a delicious normally aspirated flat 6 with power pack and 8,500 redline so I know). I mean, we can all continue to drive 930 widow makers and suffer the occasional shart when turbo lag catches us off guard at corner exit, but if that's engagement, no thank you. I think engagement is steering input and throttle/brake responsiveness, and the Taycan has that in spades. My sole serious criticism is the weight. Yeah, I know that it's just part of the EV experience, but you can feel it. That's the biggest difference between moving from 911 to Taycan and back . . . it's the weight, not the transmission or even the noise or the lack thereof (and yeah, a 16 year old exhaust wailing away at 7K is enough to make any of us giggle foolishly). If I could have the suspension of the Taycan on my 911, I would take it in a heartbeat.

I agree.

I also thought his "lack of involvement" was my joy in for the first time not having a motor totally hobbled by gas flow requirements. Sporting IC engines are only good over a very narrow engine speed range.
Basically in an IC engine the power you can have is determined by the oxygen you can get through it which is dependant on valves, ports etc but also valve timing and resonance in the inlet and exhaust tracts, these only match a very narrow rpm band and whilst we do get variable length inlets and variable valve timing on some engines basically what it means is you only get best power over a very narrow engine speed range, necessitating multiple ratio gearboxes to keep the engine more or less in its ideal speed range over a broad range of road speed.

I suppose if you enjoy the effort of always being in the right gear, having 3 pedals and a manual gear lever you probably don't want traction control or stability control either and that is "engagement".
Admittedly, that is me sometimes, but I DO have a car like that and I don't use it for anything other than, mainly short, fun runs. That sort of engagement I can do without in my every day car - an electric motor's ability to perform from standstill to top speed with no clutch is brilliant IMO.

 

[whitex]

Evidently he thinks the offroad design package gives the car higher ground clearance. It really show how deceptive marketing of this feature is.

 

[kempez]

I like his review. His thoughts summed up why I passed on Taycan until the CT, and then ran in to put in my order. So far, so good.

I disagree with his criticism of being one-dimensional. That's the same argument used to oppose the elimination of manual transmissions and other tech advances. To me, that's not what constitutes engagement (and yes, I know, I know, my 911 is RWD, Manual, and has a delicious normally aspirated flat 6 with power pack and 8,500 redline so I know). I mean, we can all continue to drive 930 widow makers and suffer the occasional shart when turbo lag catches us off guard at corner exit, but if that's engagement, no thank you. I think engagement is steering input and throttle/brake responsiveness, and the Taycan has that in spades. My sole serious criticism is the weight. Yeah, I know that it's just part of the EV experience, but you can feel it. That's the biggest difference between moving from 911 to Taycan and back . . . it's the weight, not the transmission or even the noise or the lack thereof (and yeah, a 16 year old exhaust wailing away at 7K is enough to make any of us giggle foolishly). If I could have the suspension of the Taycan on my 911, I would take it in a heartbeat.

I agree with the point on the Taycan not being one-dimensional too. After my track day it was very obvious it's anything but. The weight is definitely a valid criticism though and you can feel it when it's loaded up.

I agree.

I also thought his "lack of involvement" was my joy in for the first time not having a motor totally hobbled by gas flow requirements. Sporting IC engines are only good over a very narrow engine speed range.
Basically in an IC engine the power you can have is determined by the oxygen you can get through it which is dependant on valves, ports etc but also valve timing and resonance in the inlet and exhaust tracts, these only match a very narrow rpm band and whilst we do get variable length inlets and variable valve timing on some engines basically what it means is you only get best power over a very narrow engine speed range, necessitating multiple ratio gearboxes to keep the engine more or less in its ideal speed range over a broad range of road speed.

I suppose if you enjoy the effort of always being in the right gear, having 3 pedals and a manual gear lever you probably don't want traction control or stability control either and that is "engagement".
Admittedly, that is me sometimes, but I DO have a car like that and I don't use it for anything other than, mainly short, fun runs. That sort of engagement I can do without in my every day car - an electric motor's ability to perform from standstill to top speed with no clutch is brilliant IMO.

I've watched this now and I enjoyed it. I'm glad he likes the car now, he didn't seem to 'get' the 4S Saloon at all (albeit he did also have a bad charging experience too). I think he is honest in his reviews, but I still think there's some things he's not researched/knows about in terms of electric cars themselves. Things like pre-conditioning for charging and battery temp and some of the car settings as well as Tesla opening up their charging network. But I guess it's an approach that maybe shows how the general public may get into an electric car with. I found his comments on the brake pedal interesting as I had the opposite view in that it was modulated brilliantly and full of feel, especially considering it was mostly regen.

 

[tutis]

With regards to the whole "one-dimensional" aspect, Harry didn't go into a whole lot of detail but I can agree with him to a certain extent, and for a couple of reasons:

1. Driving the Taycan is "too easy" meaning you don't have to think about gears, RPM, turbo lag, grip, etc. You just press the pedal and go very fast very easily. It feels a little like playing Monopoly with already a very thick stack of Monopoly dollars. There's just not a lot of thrill in it
2. The adjustability of the car mid-corner just isn't there. Maybe that's the same issue as the weight, maybe it's the AWD, maybe it's the PSM, maybe the long wheelbase, and maybe all of these plus more. I just find that it's just not very natural to (a) find/predict what the limit for the Taycan will be before entering a curb ("will the car understeer, will it grip, am I going too fast"?) and (b) when at the limit adjust the car on throttle or brakes. My prior gen 911 felt way more predictable and adjustable, like an extension of my arms/bum.

I know there's a fine line between ease of driving/challenging/engaging etc. but I find that a little challenge to the driver goes a long way towards maximising the driver's satisfaction. I sometimes find that the Taycan veers a little too much towards the "super easy to drive fast" end of the spectrum. I don't want to drive fast per se, I want to have fun whilst not driving too fast.

 

[f1eng]

Driving the Taycan is "too easy" meaning you don't have to think about gears, RPM, turbo lag, grip, etc. You just press the pedal and go very fast very easily.

That is a big attraction to me for an every day car.

My sports car is fun to drive when there isn’t much traffic but when there is being in the right gear to get good throttle response requires leaving it revving its bollox off all the time which is wearing and burns a lot of fuel.

Having an engine good enough not to need multiple ratios to match its narrow band to the road and having instant throttle response is the reason electric motors are so far superior to IC engines..

 

[tutis]

That is a big attraction to me for an every day car.

My sports car is fun to drive when there isn’t much traffic but when there is being in the right gear to get good throttle response requires leaving it revving its bollox off all the time which is wearing and burns a lot of fuel.

Having an engine good enough not to need multiple ratios to match its narrow band to the road and having instant throttle response is the reason electric motors are so far superior to IC engines..

Fair point.
Maybe my issue is thinking the Taycan can be both a daily and a thrilling drive. It does the former better than the latter.
Having both a DD and a fun car as you do is maybe the better solution. I only have space in my garage for 2 cars, one of which is occupied by my wife. So my DD also needs to be my "fun car"; the issue is that while it is a great DD, it lacks a little on the thrill side for reasons I explained earlier in this thread.

Sponsored