A look at the in-gear figures shows just what a broad power and torque spread this V8 has. The power just comes pouring in, without any of the unseemly rush common with so many high-performance turbocharged engines.
The rev counter is red lined at 7600rpm, but on the test car the limiter cut in at 7400rpm. With its low gearing, it didn’t take the Mondial any great time or distance to reach its top speed of 144mph, equivalent to 6900rpm, or within a whisker of the top of the power curve.
At low speeds the steering can be heavy. But as speed builds, the heaviness disappears, leaving the driver knowing exactly what the front wheels are doing. It’s when the car is being driven on ordinary roads that the amount of bump steer can be felt, twitching the car slightly off line as it passes over manhole covers and other irregularities. This never amounts to anything serious, and the quickness of the steering makes this behaviour easily countered.
The handling is virtually neutral, with perhaps a hint of understeer. With such a flexible engine, it’s possible to move the rear wheels off Iine in a corner, but never suddenly. Despite its size, this is a very easy car to drive quickly. Ride quality is remarkably good, for one might expect over-stiff springing and rock-hard damping.
If there is criticism to be aimed at the braking system, it is that in town it can feel over-servoed. One soon gets used to being slightly feather-footed to prevent the car from being brought to an unseemly and snatchy halt. It takes only 20lb pedal pressure to achieve 0.36g - the sort of retardation on which passengers start to comment. And with just 30lb more pedal pressure, the car was brought up at 1.0g, with the fronts just starting to lock.
As one might expect from a car in this class, the brakes coped with our accclerated fade tests extraordinariIy well, hauling the speed down at 0.5g from 95mph 10 times in succession without any problems.
