Hey Y'all...so was in Tenerife again last week and this time decided to get a G29 for my weekly adventures. This was my first time driving a G29 so was excited about what the good and bad points of the new Z car might be.
I've said this before, but worth saying again...the driving and roads in Tenerife are on another level, it's a phenomenal island that has so many great driving roads you can spend days attacking the next set of twisty volcano roads. The tarmac is velvet smooth and there is very little traffic or police so can really drive spiritedly if you want to. I set off from the Adeje coast at 6am and it was 17c....and 60 mins later up the mountain it was -4.5c....so you had to be on your guard as the car began to slide quite a bit coming out of the hairpin turns. There were lots of fast sweeping turns blending into tight 180 hairpins that are wide enough to practice a bit of slide control. Overall, I genuinely think there can't be many better places to drive on this planet. The scenery is breathtaking...2500m above sea level you feel literally on top of the world, the air is crisp and it's so quiet.
As for the car, what I found is that it's a lovely daily, very smooth comfortable and refined....what I didn't find was a decent sports car. It lacked any real steering feel, the brakes were fairly dead and it was very unsettled under load coming out of tight bends. The biggest dissapointment was the ZF gearbox, it was constantly in the wrong gear in auto, and in manual it changed up on it's own accord...so when you know you wanted to still be in 2nd with the revs high, you were caught out mid corner as it is now in 3rd. 8 gears in a sports car is just too many IMO. The noise was also extremely dissapointing, just a lot of noise, but nothing nice.
So, if you're looking for some winter sun with fun driving added in, then Tenerife is a good choice, but maybe don't go with the G29 and get the 124 Abarth instead....
I've said this before, but worth saying again...the driving and roads in Tenerife are on another level, it's a phenomenal island that has so many great driving roads you can spend days attacking the next set of twisty volcano roads. The tarmac is velvet smooth and there is very little traffic or police so can really drive spiritedly if you want to. I set off from the Adeje coast at 6am and it was 17c....and 60 mins later up the mountain it was -4.5c....so you had to be on your guard as the car began to slide quite a bit coming out of the hairpin turns. There were lots of fast sweeping turns blending into tight 180 hairpins that are wide enough to practice a bit of slide control. Overall, I genuinely think there can't be many better places to drive on this planet. The scenery is breathtaking...2500m above sea level you feel literally on top of the world, the air is crisp and it's so quiet.
As for the car, what I found is that it's a lovely daily, very smooth comfortable and refined....what I didn't find was a decent sports car. It lacked any real steering feel, the brakes were fairly dead and it was very unsettled under load coming out of tight bends. The biggest dissapointment was the ZF gearbox, it was constantly in the wrong gear in auto, and in manual it changed up on it's own accord...so when you know you wanted to still be in 2nd with the revs high, you were caught out mid corner as it is now in 3rd. 8 gears in a sports car is just too many IMO. The noise was also extremely dissapointing, just a lot of noise, but nothing nice.
So, if you're looking for some winter sun with fun driving added in, then Tenerife is a good choice, but maybe don't go with the G29 and get the 124 Abarth instead....
North West Surrey
