The first things that meets the eye of course, are the unassuming parts of the seemingly whimsical FR convertible: it's tiny Kei car specs. At 63PS (46kW), it's just shy of the self–imposed limit on Kei car max output, and while its 700kg (1,543lbs) kerb mass is incredibly light, we expect that of Kei cars. At 304.76PP stock (v1.59), it's also rated very similarly to its Kei peers like the Honda Beat and even the 6–speed midship S660. So far, so very ho–hum. But should you dare overlook the Cappuccino just because of what its numbers suggest, you might be in for a very rude awakening when it comes time to wake up and smell the coffee.
You see, the monsterous part about the Cappuccino is in how it completely belies and undercuts its own specs and rating numbers to bring absurd performance into classes where it absolutely has no business belonging in. The turbocharged 3–Cylinder of the Cappuccino is set up to give the most buzz in the mid–range, with peak torque of 85.2N·m (62.8lbf · ft) served from as early as 4,000rpm, with peak power following soon after at 6,5. Those might seem reasonable peaks for a normal engine, but the F6A engine in the pre–facelift Capp has its rev limit firmly in sport bike range of 9k! I suspect the reason why Suzuki chose to brew the Cappuccino this way is to give it the most performance possible while remaining under the 64PS limit for Kei cars, giving it unhealthy levels of boost in the low and mid range before sharply toning down the shots when the revs start to factor more into the power equation, resulting in an almost comical level of caffeine crash past 7k. The end result is that the Cappuccino's 63PS feels almost like that of an EV's, with its strong, sustained torque pulling much harder than the 64PS of its naturally aspirated peers that have to rev higher to find their fleeting power. On corner exits at mid revs, the turbo FR would dump even the RMR Beat, and on high–speed tracks, the low drag of the Kei car would even let it humiliate full–sized cars with full–sized power, such as the Demio and Jimny Sierra. The Cappuccino was so busted in fact, that we've had to raise the PP cap of our weekly lobbies from +10PP over the featured car to +40PP, just to find close competition for the Capp!
One might not presume a 63PS FR Kei car to be much trouble to drive even when hustled, but the Capp does demand of its driver to be awake and not take it for granted. Man, if only there was some readily available drink that can help with that, huh? The reason for the slight trickiness of hustling the Cappuccino is that its suspension setup is really rather soft, and worryingly, they seem to have very little travel for said softness, meaning that the car seems to reach the ends of its suspension travel quickly when the driver leans on it in the corners, resulting in a very sudden and unexpected loss of grip when the tyres should be gripping the most in theory. Because of the short spring travel, hitting kerbs when the car is too off–neutral can spill hot coffee all over the track as well. It's in dire need of much firmer dampers than it comes with stock, and luckily, we can easily fix that in GT7.
I'm sure it doesn't fall onto me to break this news to anyone, but the Cappuccino becomes even more of a giant slaying monster when upgraded. Because of the esoteric kinks of GT7's PP system, many of the most important upgrades for a tuner car—such as the custom gearboxes, body rigidity increase, and even Mass Reduction Stage 2 for some reason—actually drops its PP rating of the Cappuccino instead of raising it. Throw the entire parts catalogue of Understeer, GT Auto, and the Zandatsu–ed heart of an FD RX-7 at it, and you end up with a car that would genuinely struggle to break 600PP, yet has lower mass and higher top speed than even an LMP1. For some context as to the kinds of speed one should normally expect of 600PP as of v1.59, the Jaguar XJ220 is rated at 599.59PP completely stock. The Cappuccino, weighing half that and packing even more power on aftermarket suspension, diff, gearbox, and RACING SOFT tyres, undercuts that!
Of course, with its short wheelbase, extremely limited aero and tyres way too narrow, a maxed out Cappuccino is a bloody nightmare to drive. The speeds it can achieve completely overwhelm the tiny tyres, modest aero, and the best brakes that would fit under the 13–inch wheels its owner can downsize to. It completely warped my sense of speed and distance when I drove it. But just like the Escudo of GT2, it's so bloody overpowered that one can drive like dog diarrhea and still reasonably expect to win by quite some margin. At the infamous Tokyo credit grind race, I spun out lap 1 and still lapped the entire field sans Miyazono's Amemiya FD with a one–stop run, hitting 370km/h (230mph) on the home straight. As such, you can also reasonably expect lobby hosts to kick you should you rock up to a PP lobby in a Brappuccino. The EA11R then, is truly the heir to Suzuki and carries on its tradition of terrorising and breaking the game wide apart. It might well be the most traditional part of Gran Turismo 7 bar none.
Racer and I crossed the line on Tuesday's lobby at the exact same time down to the thousandth of a second! Too bad we were fighting for second last instead of the win!
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