Brand association is usually the surest sign that a product has resonated with the market and achieved undisputed success. When you think of fizzy drinks, you think of Coke. Sticky tape? Scotch. Similarly, when you think of fast, expensive supercars, Ferrari is the brand that anybody would first name. A Dodge Viper would immediately bring to mind its thumping NA V10 mated to a manual box. An Elise would conjure up the nimblest and rawest of driving experiences served with the most delicious of steering feel. When it comes to this week's "Poor Man's Ferrari" however, the image- no, the scenario that first comes to mind is somehow, a 2 litre bottle, about half full, and horizontally sashaying about, the water within violently and uncontrollably sloshing back and forth in the process.
As well known a fact in the auto industry as "never unscrew a coolant cap when the car is hot because it's a surefire way to get horribly injured" is that driving a second generation MR2 is a surefire way to die from having one's butt ferociously and unpredictably introduced into a randomly selected tree with snap oversteer, best represented by the half full bottle of water sloshing about. Toyota engineers were so obsessed with the idea of bringing the joys of rear mid-engine motoring to the masses in a relatively cheap package, that they didn't stop to ponder if they should, instead of just whether they could. What we end up with is a car that has a short wheelbase and rear springs that wouldn't feel out of place in a Camry. Mid corner, you get a choice of understeering into a tree by not lifting off the gas, or oversteering into a tree by lifting. Either way, death is sure to result. And if that's not grandiose enough for you, the GT-S grade of the MR2 lets you add turbo lag into the mix, which is akin to a firefighter spraying gasoline from a fire hydrant into a fire. I mean... they're professionals, right? They had to have known what they were doing, right? They set all this up consciously and knowingly, right? Some committee would've had to greenlight this, right? So how the hell was this the end result?
In Gran Turismo Sport however, the car is... surprisingly pleasant, mild mannered, and easy to drive. There isn't even a hint of the horrific snap oversteer or lift off oversteer that the car is so notorious for in real life and in earlier Gran Turismo titles. What we end up with then, is a cheap car with stunning good looks, a rear mid-mounted engine, a manual gearbox, a stylish wing, and even pop up headlights! What's not to love? I daresay that it handles even better than the NSX-R in this game, which makes me wonder if lift off oversteer is even programmed into the game. Without the car's Achilles' Heel, it's actually a superb drive, though it's a little hard for me to fall in love with it just because of that, because that's akin to saying that cheating on your spouse is great if the risk of them catching you and you contracting an STD were magically removed from the equation. On some levels, I'd still hesitate to get involved in the act, in the same way I'd hesitate to get emotionally invested in the MR2, because I've been conditioned for years to think that those are bad things. I feel as if liking an MR2 would be the equivalent of knowingly unscrewing a coolant cap when a car is hot.
If I've any complaint against the car, it's that the engine in this sounds as uninspired and has the same drone as a typical econobox car, which is a bit of a turn off for me. Otherwise, it's brilliant.
Apologies for the shorter write up. The past few days have been really crazy for me. I still want to be part of Car of the Week guys I'm a good person I swear I just want to be loved and accepted.
The defining trait of the world of Vision Gran Turismo cars (VGT) is that they simply cannot be defined by existing parameters; they fit no need, no category, and no rules — and yes, sometimes that includes even those of physics. From 700km/h monstrosities you need a G-suit to "drive", to sci-fi projects propelled by lasers or something, or just surprisingly down to earth stuff, like a Golf with its roof chopped off that would never pass a rollover test, yet is still eligible for FIA GT3 competition. Everything is fair game: a wide open canvas free from the constraints of profit margins, practicality, or even reality itself, for designers to freely express themselves, and most likely to also indulge in some customary peacocking in the process. This unsubstantiated cock fest is something I find completely childish and meaningless, hence my general disdain for them and the roll of my eyes whenever I have to drive one.
Even in such an insane and unthinkable world that can only be defined by its total refusal of definition however, the Daihatsu Copen RJ Vision Gran Turismo is heads and shoulders above its peers in its sheer oddity. About the only thing it shares in common with its fellow VGT cars is that it sits on four wheels and costs a million credits. Everything else is simply... weird, which is quite the statement in a world characterised by its lunacy. Where other manufacturers use the in-game description of their break room creation to explain why their car is the bestest and why their company is the most amazingest, and then try to make some sorry attempt to claim some relevance, the description of the Copen VGT is... simply empty — the only car in the game with such an omission. It has no flashy PR Package nor explosive reveal, and no designers or engineers to proudly explain what they've created, nor is anyone given any reason to really care that much about it as a result. It just sits there quietly by its lonesome, condemned into the dumping grounds that is Group X, never utilised or even mentioned by this E-Sports focused title, for which it is an exclusive, yet feels so out of place being in. It's just... weird.
So, what do you get for a million of your hard earned credits a wiser man would've spent on something else? Well, an engine displacing exactly 660cc that somehow squeezes out 146HP (108kW) at 6,700rpm and 202.5Nm (149.4lb-ft) at 5,000rpm with the aid of a turbocharger that's probably bigger than the engine itself, sending power exclusively to the front wheels. If you know of a sentence with less sex appeal than that, please, keep it to yourself; even the world of VGTs is not ready for such savagery. The Otaku among you may already have your oversized anime eyes light up at the mention of the magical "660cc", which is the limit of displacement for the unique Japanese segment of micro cars, known natively as the "Kei Car", though with missing dimensions data, it's hard to tell if the elongated splitters and overhung rear wing would've pushed it out of the Kei class, and it's hard to tell what exact engine layout would give a total of 660cc exactly.
As though actually fitting into an existing category of road cars isn't weird enough for a VGT, the Copen RJ furthers its weird credentials by actually having mass! Imagine that! 600kg (1,323lbs) to be exact, which is stupidly light even for a Kei car. Using a second generation Copen as a base, this VGT even sports a fully rendered interior — a rarity in the land of smoke and mushrooms that is VGT land — complete with working gauges straight out of the road car that's sadly not even in this game. The livery of the car has a logo of Seico Industrial Design Works, who have experience modifying said second generation Copens. What we essentially have here then, is something that started out life with only about two thirds the size and mass of a racing car, then given racing car treatment with canards, splitters, wings, bucket seats, five point harnesses, and roll cages by an aftermarket tuner — or so we're left to infer. And if I'm to be honest, it's a rather intriguing recipe on paper.
In practice however, it really didn't do much for me. The styling of the car doesn't really jive with me, because I really dislike how the second generation Copen moved so drastically away from what made the first gen Copen, and arguably Kei cars as a whole, so lovable to begin with: their cute looks. It's almost like an angsty teenager who's ashamed of being called cute, and thus tries very hard to overcompensate for its past cuteness by being overly edgey and aggressive without any real substance backing it up. I mean, it's a Kei car. It's meant to be cheap and cheerful. Who are you trying to impress or intimidate with a Copen?
It certainly isn't very intimidating to drive, either. It's a small, front wheel drive car that handles like a racing car: composed, neutral, darty, and immediate. Because it's an FF, there is no drama at all to be had from behind the wheel. With only 146HP going through the ample Sport Medium tyres by default, kept in check by a well tuned diff and stiff suspension, understeer into of corners is virtually nonexistent, no doubt helped by the minuscule wheelbase. Sure, it handles well, but it's not fun or exciting, either. And besides, no amount of tuning is going to make corner exits in a "powerful" FF car okay, nor will it alleviate the boredom of having to manage said understeer and the agony of knowing you could've been in a rear drive car this whole time. The microscopic engine in the Copen RJ has enough fuel efficiency to bankrupt several petroleum companies and put the entire oil industry into a recession, because the game estimates I had enough for 168 laps of Tsukuba flat out with a full tank during race day, if that's your sort of thing. But just like the handling of the car, the engine hasn't much of a personality either, sounding extremely dull and generic. Whatever weird gearbox this seven speed unit is doesn't even blip the gas on downshifts, making downshifts a rather weird and jarring undertaking, as you almost need to manually count the gears you drop in braking zones, and the first two gears are completely useless even on a tight and technical circuit like Tsukuba.
With wheelbases too dangerously short for a RWD layout, an FF layout makes a lot of sense both from a safety and practical standpoint in a space constrained Kei car. It's just that I'm not one to like driving FFs at all, which would probably explain why I got so bored with it after just 30km of driving it — not even enough to hit the Daily Workout quota — before hopping into something else.
If you're looking for strange, fictional concept cars you can't experience anywhere but Gran Turismo Sport, you can have the Mazda Roadster Touring Car for a tenth of the cost of the Copen. Just like the road-going Copen, the Roadster TC is a convertible, but it's rear wheel drive, packs more power, will out launch, out accelerate, and out corner the Copen despite having two less forward gears, while being a whole lot more fun to drive. It also has proper cutesey looks with tacked on carbon racing bits, roll cages, and a fully rendered interior modified from the road car. Not to mention, the Roadster is a hell of a lot more relevant in this E-Sports focused title, being featured in several One-Make races both in Daily and FIA races, and is eligible for N100-N300 races as well, instead of being condemned to Group X. All this attention also means that you'll have a lot more user created liveries to choose from in comparison to the barren wasteland that is the Copen RJ's Discover section. And if you don't mind the complete lack of an interior, you can pay even less for the Toyota S-FR Racing Concept, the cancer meta car of N200-N300.
I know the original spirit of Car of the Week is that we get to try out odd or overlooked cars we would never have bat an eye at otherwise. While I do very much appreciate having my eyes opened to this oddity, I still don't understand what's the point of this thing after a whole week with it, especially at one million credits. I think I'd have liked it a hell of a lot more if it were something more "reasonable" at, say, 50,000 credits, which is still insane for a Kei car, granted, but it would've made the Copen RJ an amazing racecar for some entry level FF One-Make races. I feel like this VGT would make a lot more sense with the complement and contrast of a real, base version of the car, and a lot more manufacturer involvement with the game in the vein of what Mazda and Toyota have done with the RX-Vision GT3 and GR Yaris respectively. With Toyota unveiling the highly anticipated Copen GR Sport over a year ago, this thing feels all the more like a huge missed opportunity for advertising and relevance, while highlighting the absence of highly anticipated cars in the game, which is a little hard for me to not begrudge. And while I do have an unhealthy appreciation for the weird, it's not nearly as weird or charming as the midship single seater rear wheel drive car with a proper manual and the same weight distribution as an FC RX-7 that Daihatsu produced 25 years ago. I'd much rather have a Midget II over the Copen RJ.
