From a standing start the Bora fairly rockets away with just a few yards of wheelspin and a real shove in the back. The standing quarter time was only 14.6sec and we reached 100mph in just over 15sec and 130mph in comfortably less than 30sec. These figures are pretty shattering, being quicker than those for the Jaguar E-type V12 and a pretty good match for the now-obsolete Lamborghini Miura P400S.
On a French autoroute we recorded 5750rpm in top gear, which equates to 162mph. At that speed stability is excellent and there appears to be no unpleasant aerodynamic effects at all.
We never found the limit of adhesion on normal roads and are quite prepared to believe the factory claim that 0.8g laterally can be maintained before the big Michelin XWX tyres let go. Mostly the cornering characteristics are neutral, with a noticeable trace of initial understeer which is easily killed when the driver turns on more power. With the mass concentrated so much between the wheels, when the Bora does slide it tends to go all together rather than one end before the other. However, the limit is way above the speeds we are prepared to corner at, even on a closed circuit.
It takes a while to get used to the zero-travel arrangement of the brake pedal, and new drivers to the Bora tend to be harsh and non-progressive at first.
