Finally got my hands on the '02 Turbo. Went for its 60-mile maiden voyage last night. Pix to come. I'm still using film in an old Nikon N6006 w/28-105 Nikkor lens --- to whom can I mail film if I want to receive a hi-res CD-ROM back?
Had 18 mi. on it. This car is silly. I'd buy it just for the brakes, and I'm told they get much better as the pads bed-in to the rotors. The clutch is like a light switch; it's either in or it's out. The whole car is so stiff and harsh and loud at first --- way different than the M5. For what I'll be using it and the fact that I'm a young-ish 30, it's fine. If I were 50 I'd definitely not want this car. I'm a little apprehensive about the wife's take. She's out-of-town for a week. Oh well, too late now!
The steering is weighted so nicely. Makes other cars seem to have progressively faster ratios as you dial in lock --- the Turbo is perfectly linear, with tons of feel. Visibility to the rear is great, which I wasn't expecting. I saw 0.4 bar on the boost meter one time in third while running up to my self-imposed 4200rpm rev-limiter. Stock engines at full-tilt register 0.9; modded cars on pump fuel get to 1.1-1.2 as far as I know.
After my 3 hour ride (I was stopped gawking at the car from outside much of this time
), I came to the realization that you just need to use a different style with the Turbo. It wants very deliberate inputs to the controls. Once you become more "forceful" and less hesitating with your driving, it seems to wake up and want to play.