The world adores matt hayward

It’s pretty easy to rattle the cage of a Honda driver. They tend to be a bit headstrong about their beloved VTEC. It was causing a bit of friction in the melbccr.com car club forums. So we decided to put them to the test. Is the Honda brigade seriously running on hopes and dreams, as so many turbo lovers would suggest?

The gauntlet was laid down to the Honda contingent for a contender. The challenge: to match a Honda against our French connection, a Peugeot 306. Enter Vinh, our Honda owner, who had the gall (more sense of humour) to step up to the plate.

Some of you might laugh at the notion of the Peugeot vs Honda. But this particular Pug came highly recommended by MCCR club loyals the perfect FWD Euro challenger.

Firstly we wanted to make this a clean fight. So both cars have relatively mild mods.

Vinh’s ‘Del Sol’ Honda CRX has mods, but just the cool stuff. “A muffler, intake and alloys are all you really want as a P Plater” He reckons. He’s also fitted some King springs and drilled brake rotors and an arsenal of Clarion sub woofers behind him. But essentially, most of this car’s motorvation is from the stock package. No forged pistons or worked cams.

Enter Alex, our Peugeot 306 owner. Although the Pug was born the base model and unremarkable, a trip to the auctions found him a written off GTI-6 with tip-top running gear. It was an upgrade he just couldn’t say no to. Otherwise except for the 17” ROH rims, it’s relatively stock.

“It was a torquey family car, but it had no power” he reckons of the former 75kw single cam donk, pre upgrade. Now the Pug has a 124-kilowatt, DOHC beasty in front of the firewall.

First ride is with Vinh in the Del Sol Honda. With the rear window down and the targa top open, there is just no better way to hear that trademark VTEC praaaaah kick in. It certainly makes enough noise through the tunnels and skyscrapers of Melbourne.

First thing you realise with this CRX is that despite it revving reasonably freely to the upper rev ranges, VTEC seems to kick in quite late. Quite often when you are just about to stamp on the brakes. For the unacquainted (reading me), it takes a bit of getting used to.

As a passenger, it takes a bit of getting used to. As a driver, you need to know how to use that short-throw gear stick (I find Honda shifts too short a throw personally) to the full to make the most of each throaty rev this sucker puts out. And it’s something that Vinh has certainly mastered.

The CRX is certainly a nice package to be wrapped in (literally) and a good performer. It comes as no surprise that fellow melbccr.com club member Jame’s CRX is soon to be the fastest FWD in Australia. In slightly modified form, she’s a noisy and feisty little package, albeit not to everyone’s taste.

Our Pug on the other hand is surprisingly similar to the Japanese rocket. It keeps up on the straights, has an exhaust note full of praaaaahy goodness. The Pug has a variable length inlet runners thingo (Alex assures me this means something) it uses to get a similar effect to Honda’s VTEC. And like the Honda, just when you think (it sounds like) you’ve hit the redline, you’re only half way there.

How the Pug differs though, is that it has a lot more low-down torque than the Honda. Go from second to fifth (even sixth) and it doesn’t miss a beat.

The steering wheel is about the perfect size (reading small) for fast fangs through the twisties too. Probably the best of any car I’ve driven.

The shifter is also a very short throw, but a bit more fluent to the unacquainted. I am used to the wide throw of the Nissan Pulsar SSS, which is truck like in comparison.

Now speaking of twisties, the Peugeot comes into its own. Where normally you’d steering wheel locking torque steer mid-corner, you get lift-off over steer. She can be pushed round a corner with her arse out worse than on of Sir Mix-a-lot’s girlfriends! Alex reckons it’s because the Frenchies put in equally balanced drive shafts and an LSD. And by god does it make a difference.

The CRX in comparison loves the twisties, but after the Pug experience, feels more like a straight-line car. I’m not quite sure id be so comfortable if the VTEC to kick in mid-corner, whereas the Pug is, for lack of a better word, is less laggy when it kicks in. Albeit I’m a bit biased, as most VTECs I’ve been in were straight up set up for drag racing.

In a straight line, the Peugeot’s, variable intake technology is a bit more noticeable, kicking in at about 3.5 grand. It’s own trademark praaaaah (through a stock pipe, Vinh has the Japanese ‘grapefruit’ style massive muffler) kept ringing it’s sweet symphony in my head for days. Vinh’s CRX has all the subtlety of a Slayer concert in a retirement home – which can be a good thing!

As the Pug’s revs build, Mercedes and Beamers all quite wisely let this French puppy through in a most surprising show of respect. As the French would say, it’s a tour de force and as George W Bush would say, should not be misunderestimated.

For a first timer to Pugtech, VTEC and praaaahtech in general, both cars were addictively sexy sounding, a riot to drive* and just a great experience. But the Frenchy won on the day. And that should rattle the Honda cage for a long time yet.

* Alex would like to thank Con from Muzzatech Performance of Altona for the engine set up on the day. He had been tuning the car by ear all morning.

* The CRX was the less experienced car on the day because of overcast weather. So this story will be continued!