An Australian 2006 Honda Legend at the track described recently. This and other discussions result in opinions that Honda really needs to get at least a 6 speed in this car. The 5 speed has such a wide range, that some of the gears just don't do it in performance driving. Of course, how much do any of us take the RL out on the track or drive that way on public streets. By the way, in Australia, he says in another message, that the Legend comes with 235/50-17 Yokohama Advan Sport which is a summer max performance tire, which I guess would be OK down under...Probably don't get a lot of snow there, but I never really researched that.

Very interesting read:

Tracking the Legend
Well I finally did it. Actually put my ’06 Legend on the track at my local race circuit. Just to see how it would go, and not to see how fast I could be at ten tenths.

It was a glorious spring day, the race car wasn’t quite ready, and a friend was trying out his recently purchased ’05 WRX STi.

What was I to do, but to tag along and give my Legend a thrash and find out what the big girl could do?

In the interests of tyre life I lifted the cold pressure of the front tyres to 46psi, with the rears set at 42psi. I set out at about seven tenths, getting a feel for how the car was using the tyres, and trying out the manual mode with the auto ‘box. At that pace I could drop down into 3rd to activate SH-AWD in helping to rotate the car around the apexes. Unfortunately, as I lifted the pace, the increase in cornering speeds meant the computer would no longer allow me to manually drop it into 3rd gear, meaning I was not getting the drive off the apex, and SH-AWD was not being engaged to advantage.

Funnily enough, if I left it in D, and then accelerated hard just before the apex [as you would for a laggy turbo car] the ‘box WOULD select 3rd gear and help rotation. Go figure. De-activation of VSA allowed the car to be rotated under brakes, minimising understeer. It struck me that at normal road speeds, the VSA allows a fair degree of oversteer, maybe 15 deg of yaw, before it interferes, but on the track with MUCH higher cornering speeds it would not allow hardly any yaw before activating.

While the Legend does not understeer to any degree at normal, fast road speeds, carrying too much corner entry speed does make it understeer on the track. So the classic slow in, fast out is the way to go. Driven this way you can really get on the power early and let the SH-AWD pull you through the corner, with the car tightening its line, or gently drifting wide if you have carried a little too much cornering speed.

Power wise it was adequate for what it is, a sporty luxury car. Coming off the open 180 degree corner onto the main straight [taken at about 90kph] it is a steep up-hill climb to the half way mark of the straight, then it plunges down to a 90 degree corner at the end of the straight. About 600 meters in total length with an elevation change of maybe 15 meters. On the road I have never felt that the Legend lacked power for highway overtaking, with the urge it generates feeling quite strong. But on the track, coming out of that corner, dragging up the hill, the weight that car carries was very noticeable. Much more so than in the corners. As a comparison my friends WRX STi was on my rear bumper one lap, and he had pulled past by the time we had gotten a third of the way to the top of the hill. By the braking marker at the end of the straight, he had probably edged another 4 or 5 of lengths ahead. Of course, in context, the fact that an STi pulled 4 car lengths in that situation is not necessarily a disaster!

We weighed our cars on the scales at the track. With our spare wheels and jacks removed [every little bit helps] the Legend weighed in at 1795 kg and the WRX Sti weighed 1485 kg. So the Honda does have some power.

But not enough. As I pushed harder in the third session, I found that the Legend no longer had the power to use the SH-AWD to rotate the car as well as it had at nine tenths, in the previous session. At slightly slower speeds, there was enough engine power to offer some acceleration, which activated the SH-AWD. But not at the higher speeds I could attain when pushing harder. The chassis was ok, if you carried the appropriate corner speed, it stayed quite neutral during the corner. But with SH-AWD at lower speeds you could actually accelerate off the apex and increase your speed and tighten your line. As speeds rose, there was less power for acceleration, which meant SH-AWD didn’t help rotate the car as much, and the little bit of acceleration gained off the apex, before you finished the corner, the nose ran ever so slightly wide, Not enough that you needed to ease off on the accelerator, but enough to use the front tyres more than was optimum.

The first track session indicated that the car could do with less tyre pressure in the rear to help the car rotate. For the second session I had reduced the rear [now hot] tyre pressures by 6psi. On the track it helped rotation a fair degree, without the rear end feeling loose. For the third session, I reduced the pressures down to the standard setting [equating to 36 hot or 32psi cold]. It did help rotation a little bit more, and the rear was starting to feel loose, so I think it may be at an optimum level at that point.

The brakes were excellent, with very little fade after 5 laps, but as they got hotter, they did loose their initial bite, without affecting retardation too much. Having said that, careful use of the brake pedal allowed me to stay out for 15 laps without any brake issues [other than a slight warping of the discs due to the excessive heat generated].

So how fast was she? Driven with the same verve as my NSX I was about 3 seconds a lap slower in the Legend with 74 second laps. But some other cars at the track may give a better indication. A Subaru Legacy B4 was ever so slightly faster than the Legend [also driven by an experienced driver]. With all of it’s speed advantage coming from better acceleration down the straights.

There were also two Euro Civic Type R’s circulating. At first they were slow, but with some useful set-up advice they improved markedly during the day, with one driver able to stay with me around the lap. He had to back off after four or five laps because he was really leaning on the brakes to keep up.

So what does it prove? Nothing much really. I did about 30 laps in all, at a respectable pace for a sporty luxury car. But as for those doomsayers out there worried about how badly the Legend/RL underteers I say bollocks. If you could see the tyres, they have the mearest hint of some feathering on the outside edge, at the front, but hardly noticeable. I had great fun, turned some fun laps mixing it with MUCH sportier cars and used a tankful of gas.

That night I got home, washed the car, and used it as a luxury car to take my partner and another couple out to dinner. At the end of the night, my guests complemented me on what a great luxury car the Legend is.


http://www.vtec.net/forums/one-messa...sage_id=708132

 

^ nice write up

 

Wow...that's cool! We have a track near us called the Autobahn (http://www.autobahncountryclub.net/) but it is very exclusive (read expensive!) to run on. I've only been there a few times and never with the RL.

Anyway, Great write up and thanks for sharing Chas2!

 

Great find Chas2. For a stock Legend that car did really well. A modded one I think should be able to do alot better.