Suzuki Swift Sport
I first got to test out Suzuki’s Swift in the rarefied air of smokey ol’ Joburg, and the one impression the Swift left me with, was that it wasn’t. With a passenger and some luggage on the endless straight highways, the overall impression was a motoring parody of wheezing emphysema. The little engine that couldn’t. Compact, small, impractical and as much fun as last week’s newspaper. After Tweety bird was finished using it to decorate the bottom of his cage.
After the recent test of the Daihatsu Materia Turbo that left me unimpressed, the prospect of another small budget hatch made hot was leaving me underwhelmed. A quick drive on a straight road or two had the 0-100 time of 8,9 seconds confirmed. Quick, but hardly quick enough for hot hatch status. And so we tootled along with the mundanities of daily life. That evening had me taking the long way home via a little local, tight mountain pass and I was preparing myself to commit some derogatory handling terms to this article. The engine even seemed reluctant to rev.
Flawless braking going in, crisp turn in, holding the road like a hero, punching way out of its weight class, as the suspension loaded, the bumps and roots of my favourite track, I mean public open mountain pass, were being reeled in, and as only happens in the best of cars on the best of days, each corner ceased being taken as a single experience, but a connected ribbon of undulating entries and exits, with the little sporty Swift joining the exit point of the one flawlessly to the entry of the next. Second and third gears always being spot on. More remarkably, she pulled smoothly right up to the red line. That initial reluctance to rev, gone. Somehow this little 6l per 100km econo-hatch had transformed via superb grip into the little sports car that could. I was in automotive nirvana once more.
It is fantastic when the unexpected enters your reality. While I was bracing myself for a yawn inducing experience, the automotive gods for once were delivering irony in conflict of Murphy’s Laws of the Universe. Everything will be alright in the end. The sporty dynamics, road holding and brakes that never seemed to fade, transformed the daily driving experience. Suddenly the basic nature of the car became a surprising delight. The small boot space, the cramped rear, all made sense in a sub R200k genuine hot hatch. Climate control is here, but iPod connectivity and Bluetooth are not. Sure the 0- 100 time lets it down but that isn’t the point of this one. The point is crisp intuitive steering, superbly predictable handling and excellent brakes. 1.6l and 92kw have no right to feel as sporty as this. This is how it works when the parts are well thought out and come together.
