Grin factor comes at a price
Nick Bates
2010-03-08
Because I hadn’t seen my old pilot mate, Hilton Jet Jock, in a while due to his insanely busy flying and training schedule, I headed off for a visit to Jacaranda City in Daihatsu’s insane Materia Turbo.
The pilot always takes great interest in what I’m driving and this time simply blurted out, “what’s this thing?” once the car had come to rest.
In the most boring voice I could muster, I informed him it was a Daihatsu Materia.
“Well, what’s so special besides the fancy black wheels with red pin striping, some body kit bits and lowered suspension,” he queried.
“You’ll see,” I mutter as he plonks himself in reach of the standard CD/Radio, which has been pimped with a subwoofer. The Momo steering wheel adds to the attraction of his gaze, which has now been hidden behind the mandatory G15 Ray-Bans so favoured by fly boys.
He’s perched on the bench-like front seat as we negotiate a dozen speed humps around his Irene domicile. We get clearance and I boot the Jap’s loud pedal with resultant squeals from the front tyres closely resembling that of hungry puppies.
There’s a loud addictive popping from under the bonnet as I whiz through the gears and the wastegate does its duty as it releases the extra boost on each gear change. In contrast, there’s a deadly silence from the usually garrulous pilot. The sound of his voice has been replaced with a grin that stretches from ear to ear. No doubt the noise from the 1 500cc turbo mill is easily more satisfying to his ear than that created by the twin CFM turbines bolted to his lumbering 737-800.
That said, and aptly described by colleague, Tristan, the Materia turbo is a hoot to drive. Instead of a mediocre 76kW, a healthy 110kW inhabits the scoop-adorned engine bay while torque is 190Nm up from the standard 132Nm. This is more than enough to propel the funky, yet spacious Materia to 100km/h in 8.9 seconds (three seconds faster than the standard version) and onto a top speed of around 195km/h.
Interestingly, the turbo boost is set at a mere 0.4 bar, hence the frequent loud popping the Materia enjoys emitting. It also means the engine is not highly stressed and longevity, too, is unlikely to be affected.
More interesting is that the Materia Turbo is said to deliver similar fuel usage to its standard sibling, even with all that prodding between gears, and is still sensible at 9.2 litres per 100km. The fun and grin factor was certainly worth the extra fuel usage, while the stunned silence from Jet Jock was equally priceless.
What isn’t priceless, of course, is the tag hanging on its mirror on showroom floors, which has a cool R50 000 added to it compared to that of the standard Materia.
Then again, this derivative is a whole lot more appealing and at least the manufacturer-backed 3yr/100 000km warranty is retained.
