For the last 150 miles, all I had been thinking of was buying a New Idria souvenir T-shirt, but based on the advanced age of the pig carcass blocking the road, it seemed pretty clear the gift shop would be closed. Tourist traffic? Not in New Idria.
Everything, in fact, was closed, boarded up, covered with no-trespassing signs and even the occasional written threat. The map legend translated New Idria, Calif.'s hollow dot as a population of 2,500 or less. A population of three, it turns out, qualifies as less than 2,500. A single-digit population may mean no garbage man to pick up your pig, but it also makes for very light rush-hour traffic. That made the road to New Idria, an innocuous little grey line called J1, the ideal first drive for the new, 2002 Sentra SE-R Spec V. We first introduced you to the new SE-R back in the April '01 issue, but we didn't officially get to drive one until now. Unofficially, of course, we drove the snot out of a prototype test mule and had so much fun doing so that we were giddily anticipating the production car. Finally, with the SE-R's product planner, Joel Weeks nipping at our rear bumper in anther SE-R, we had a whole day to wander California's most desolate grey roads and search for the new car's soul. As fun as it was for us, it was even better for Weeks, who had, until now, never had the chance to go out and enjoy his own creation.
If you didn't catch April's introduction, the new SE-R pairs the Sentra's plain-Jane four-door body and cost-cutter chassis with Nissan's new 2.5-liter QR25DE powerplant. While the QR25 is a big four-banger displacing 2488cc, it takes up less space and contributes less to the curb weight than the venerable 1998cc SR20. At a rated 180 hp and 180 lb-ft of torque, the new powerplant is unusually torquey. Torquey engines are usually matched with tall, performance sapping gears, resulting in a decidedly uninteresting driving experience. The SE-R, in Spec V trim at least, comes with a box full of short gear ratios-six in all-that turn said engine torque into spinning tires. The resulting acceleration is forceful, but stunted. Power peaks at a low 6000 rpm and a rather forceful rev limiter cuts the fun at only 6100, so there is never a chance to ride out the engine's natural power curve. You're left feeling like every shift is too early, with the resultant impression being akin to talking on a phone that cuts the last syllable from every sentence.
That's how it feels blasting from stoplight to stoplight, at least; on J1 however, the power delivery is fantastic. Huge torque is translated into impressive exit speed from every corner. A helical limited slip differential seamlessly channels every pound-foot of torque to the ground while simultaneously helping rotate the car. The effect is similar to the hideously complex ATTS (that's Active Torque Transfer System in Honda-speak) on Honda's Prelude SH. On the Prelude, power is diverted to the outside wheel through a complex system of clutches and planetary gears. The effect is to rotate the car like a tank, simply by pushing more on one side than on the other. With the SE-R's helical limited slip, the effect is similar, but less pronounced. There is a mechanical honesty to the limited slip, however, that the computer-controlled ATTS can't match. Surprisingly, despite the reasonable cost and the substantial handling benefit, the SE-R and the recently departed Integra Type R are the only U.S.-market front-drivers to use such a differential.
The fat torque band also proved invaluable when J1 started getting mountainous. Blasting up a steep, twisty section, the last Civic Si inevitably came to mind. That car, which had a powerband that started where the SE-R's stops, required quick shifting and an abusive driving style to keep the little 1.6-liter on boil up a mountain.
In the SE-R, you don't even notice the hills. And, in the unlikely event you get stuck behind a dawdling New Idrian, passing is just an itchy toe away.
We didn't see any New Idrians, however, and our wanderlust compelled us to move on. On the map, the J1 stops at New Idria, making the entire journey a 150-mile detour. Up ahead, though, the road seemed to continue through a row of boarded-up miner's barracks, up a hill and through a series of yellowish slag heaps. OK, it was more a rock trail than a road, and yes, the SE-R's 215/45ZR-17 tires are about as unsuitable for rock crawling as ballet slippers, but our insatiable need for forward progress dragged us into the hills. It wasn't until 4 miles down the rocky road that we learned the slag heaps we were driving through came from New Idria's abandoned asbestos mine.
After another half hour spent testing the climate control's recirculate feature, we emerged on U.S. Highway 25, a smooth, sinuous ribbon of two-lane that should be littered with sports cars, but by virtue of its remote location, was littered only with grasshoppers. A freak infestation of the little buggers had them covering the road like gravel from an overturned dump truck, giving us a unique chance to test the SE-R's cooling system. With the SE-R's eager powerplant dragging us to near triple-digit speeds, the front of both cars were soon painted with a thick coat of whatever yellow bile makes a grasshopper work. Despite the fact the lower grille and half the upper grille were completely blocked by a blanket of bug carcasses, the temperature gauge never moved. This bodes well for those planning to fill the lower grill with an intercooler.
The SE-R displayed a remarkable eagerness in the twisties. Its handling lacks the razor-sharp precision of the Integra Type R, but makes up for it with substantial grip and that all-important limited slip. The Sentra's Multi-Link Beam rear suspension keeps the rear of the car a little too well planted, however. The beam is designed with 2mm of toe-in and has no provisions for rear toe adjustment. The result is a rear suspension that follows the front-no matter what.
In contrast, the Type R, or even the original SE-R, felt more tossable, with the rear easy to rotate with a quick lift of the throttle. It's clear the chassis team did everything it could to shift cornering load to the outside rear tire in an effort to get that rotation. As a result, the SE-R is prone to lifting its inside rear wheel clean off the ground in quick transitions and hard turns. There seems to be a limit, however, to what this new chassis is willing to do. Such handling traits would be much more frustrating were it not for the fact that the limits are so high. Unless you charge in like a madman, the SE-R just sticks. In fact, on unfamiliar roads, the SE-R's consistent handling may actually be more confidence inspiring.
The rotation issue resolved itself when the 25 ended and we shuffled over to an unmarked grey road. For 10 miles or so, the winding ribbon of joy continued, but at its end was nirvana. A simple yellow sign with these black letters: Pavement Ends.
It was wrong, yes, but with nary a glance toward Weeks for approval, we somehow ended up playing rally car with the SE-R. On this almost incomprehensibly smooth, flowing gravel road, the SE-R handled brilliantly. Not that gravel roads are supposed to be in the SE-R's repertoire, but in the unlikely event that this matters to you, be confident the SE-R will gladly hang its tail out turn after turn after turn.
Being the uncompromised performance maniacs that we are, subtleties of interior design, ride quality, and sound systems are seldom part of our standard critiques. With more than 550 miles of the best two-lane thrashing in memory under our belts, however, a few things did finally sink through.
First, the seats are brilliant. They are not, as we reported last time, from the Skyline GT-R. They are, in fact, sourced from the lesser Skyline GTS25. While the incredible body-hugging buckets of the GT-R would be preferable for those of a certain build, your average meat-and-potatoes American would probably be uncomfortably tight. The GTS25 seats in the SE-R accommodate a wider variety of posteriors, and still provide excellent lateral support.
The optional Rockford Fosgate sound system, complete with a trunk-mounted subwoofer and six-disc, in-dash CD player was actually impressive enough to notice over the squealing tires and constant splatting of grasshoppers. No price has been announced on the system yet, but whatever it is, its probably worth it.
You should have learned two things by now. New Idria is worth visiting, and the SE-R is worth driving. That's great, but how fast is it? Our drive, unfortunately, was in a prototype, and Nissan still doesn't have any production cars available to test. SE-Rs will be available in dealers by November, and we should have our hands on one shortly before that. We're first in line.