GT4                                   GT5

0-60 mph: 11.000 seconds               11.548
0-100mph: 31.133 seconds              33.881

Real-life car-reviewers typically LOVE the Honda Odyssey. Think I'm lying? Look up some back issues of Road & Track. Car & Driver. www.Edmunds.com. Early 1st-generation Odysseys (similar to the Isuzu Oasis) were nothing special, but the 3rd-gen version in our game is perhaps the best minivan ever built, according to many.

For this generation, Honda set out to make sure the Odyssey drives with a car-like maneuverability; and in everyday settings (like on that turnpike mentioned above with the frustrated dad & his family) it mostly does drive & handle like a car, I can say this because I've driven several real Odysseys. Accurate, responsive steering, stable maneuverability....traction and stability controls eliminate most of the worry drivers used to experience as they drove thru rain, snow, and amongst cell-phone talking birdbrains.

But what about in the game?

GT4
First the good stuff. The all-wheel drive drivetrain. It is never at a loss for traction. This traction is partially aided also by all that weight + lack of power, but whatever....it's still a plus. Also, there is some understeer, but (compared to some other all-wheel drive autos) it's actually manageable. Weight transfer in corners is something to pay attention to, yet it actually takes some real lead-foot activity before the Odyssey loses it all towards the expected spin.

I have to admit, at times the front-end enters corners a bit vague with a question mark, and it'll be a struggle to keep the Odyssey pointed where you want it at these times. But remember, we're piloting a MINIVAN thru Gran Turismo! Things could be much much worse. Honda has therefore topped itself, and done the unthinkable.

Also, the driven rear wheels will never become an issue...they simply aid the van out of corners; mostly you'll never notice the much-needed traction and stability they provide. Don't forget to thank them for all they silently do.

Okay, now the bad stuff. You WILL need to brake heavily and early, otherwise, that vague understeer I mentioned above will suddenly occupy ALL of your time. The Odyssey doesn't recover well from bad driving, no surprises here. When leaving corners, understeer (although not heavy) still dominates...meaning the throttle will need to be let in carefully at times when you want to plant it. Also, the Odyssey, even though it's pretending to be a race-car, is still just a minivan. Do not forget this! Its weight will be felt as it slogs around. Stock, sports, or semi-racing suspensions are calculated with better-than-average coils, and the body-roll & diving you'd experience in a Caravan is miles away, but despite its "chuckability" in and out of corners, the Odyssey does get clumsy at its limits, just as we'd expect....

....and when we go beyond those limits, things can get ugly FAST, especially if all 3 weight redutions have been applied. The front-end simply understeers; but the back-end suddenly gets prone to a very dangerous zone, for the rear will want to swing wide into a full spin once those rear tires lose their usual ho-hum grip on the road's surface. This can actually be fun at times--as the Odyssey also starts to trail-brake somewhat aggressively if you are good at approaching corners at warp speed.

And then I was even able to get my mommy-wagon to get almost fully sideways at the end of some straight sections at Route 246 and Fuji in the Japanese Championship (see pic above). Once the driver gets good at power sliding into those corners, the Odyssey's all-wheel drive will crawl out of them with a very high success rate. ;-)

 

Here I decided I'd do one of my little experiments. In this game, the Odyssey comes stock with medium radial tires instead of sports, so guess what?  That's what I drove upon as I pretended to be a typical soccer mom, and not a bad-looking one if I do say so myself. Odysseys for this year did not have stability control, but they did have traction control, so this was also turned on. Everybody ready for a laugh?  As I prepared the Odyssey I did so while playing the game's default classical and bossa nova music, the type of music soccer moms seem to gravitate towards, judging by what I've heard while driving their vehicles. Aren't you jealous?  Only thing missing was some Christian rock, or perhaps a 'book on CD' for the kids. :)

 

Drove this one around Tsukuba as I prepared for the Clubman Cup, and then switched to Route 246. Even though Cape Ring Periphery is the third track featured during the Clubman, I did not prepare for this place at all; the Ai screws up here so bad it's not worth it. First thing that's noticed is: yea, this one doesn't seem to like the turns very much. During Tsukuba's hairpins the Odyssey crawls through. Try a stab at the throttle, and you'll soon wish you hadn't as understeer is all we'll get. Sometimes it's moving so slowly here, the automatic transmission winds up dumbing down to 1st gear! 

 

Leaving those turns, the poor minivan now struggles to make any sort of numbers. Once again, it's a shame we can't get our hands on that V6, even mom agrees. The only thing good we've got to say at this point is the fact that the Odyssey's traction is just as exemplary as it was in GT4. Despite reaching desperately down to 1st gear at least twice per lap, from here I could always drop that gas pedal like a stack of barbells, having no fear of wheelspin (not even a hint of it) showing up. If this one were a front-drive, would we still have this ability?  Perhaps so, but as power is raised, we'd also lose the AWD's safety.

 

At Route 246, mom decided to get a little funky, and fired up Cana do Brazil on the van's CD player, making the kids cringe "not again!"  And again, it was the understeer, that now relentless understeer, which caused the most pain. Brake-tap after brake-tap, re-calculation after re-calculation. The engine struggles, the van leans heavily like a one-and-a-half ton mall-shopper's nightmare, while the pit crew's best technicians wonder how in hell they're gonna get this titan-mommymobile to actually win. About the only thing good to say here in Tokyo is that brake distances aren't quite as long as they are in many other cars, but this is because this van's too slow to make them longer! Towards the end of the long Route 246 straight, I was amazed to find I'd actually cracked 100 miles per hour! 

 

But soccer moms are rarely perturbed. They are rarely upset by bad news. "C'mon, turn that frown upside down, you can do it!" she cheered.

 

.... and she's right. Soccer moms are always right, doncha know?  With her pep and her cheer, the crew chief decided he'd better just follow suit ('cause mom is fricking annoying the hell out of him), and worked on mom's emerald-green minivan well into the night with his crew, while mom looked forward to driving a more-powerful version of her everyday vehicle. Honda's stock suspension was traded for shocks and springs from Koni, and a closer-ratio Mugen transmission (plus better clutch & flywheel) was installed as well. Looks like mom just might have a chance. Finally, the Michelin all-seasons were tossed for some Toyo medium-grade sport racing tires.           

 

During the race the odds (there's another pun ) were looking slim. Several strong contenders were on the grid at Tsukuba including a rear-drive Skyline and a front-drive Civic, both well-reputed races here in the Clubman Cup. But the Odyssey, and Soccer Mom persevered, despite the fact that her daughter Princess and son Anthony came along for the ride. With the two of them (plus her own self) the minivan now weighed 252 pounds more than usual, for a total of 4,000 altogether. ;-)

 

Despite this, the Odyssey did quite well. It braked later into turns, and could hold better lines. Not once did it truly push in or out of Tsukuba's three hairpins, although there was some light understeer here and there. Amazingly, mom managed to catch the leading Nissan Skyline GTS-t type M being driven by S. Gaudin, but could not pass him, and it was not due to this car's handling nor its sluggish uptake. It was actually due to its size. There were several times the Odyssey could have passed some other smaller car, but it had to wait for the right moment because it's too big to squeeze through.

 

But overall, handling was vastly improved. Not only did mom make second place, the van itself now leans half as much as it did while turning hard. Leaning, pitching, and squatting are all much more controlled with the sports suspension in place. At Route 246, the van now had more probs with understeer, though I would rate the pushing the van exhibits somewhere between mild and average. Nothing too drastic, especially with the sports tires in place. Forced to occasionally squeeze by others with unorthodox turning lines (...the Odyssey hates unorthodox turning lines!) it was really a struggle at times. The van was driven on rumble strips several times, and also made to take outside cornering lines to get by an odd Nissan or Alfa.

 

But the thing is, once the traffic is clear and the Honda is able to make some classic out-in-outs, here is where it begins to shine, like a soccer ball making its goal. Steering directions are taken seriously by this van (just as they are in a CR-X or Civic), and it's easy to hold a line if there is no need to spontaneously manipulate it. There was some small body-swaying during Tokyo 246's larger switchback curvy areas, meaning that the van gets a little wide, then winds up possibly smacking a wall with its rear. Traffic could also be difficult to deal with. On the other hand, if the heavy Honda gets side-swiped or punted by another car, such actions barely make a dent. There was a moment when a competing MR2 tried to pit-maneuver mom's van, only to find it had (instead) wound up losing this battle.   

 

But 1st place the Honda did make, amazingly!  ... passing by a front-drive Peugeot early in Lap 3, mom managed to keep the van well ahead of this hatch towards the very end, where the Pug's better power almost caught up to the behemoth Odyssey. Bu such was not to be.   

So....full of surprises this one is...and not all of them are bad. 

 
CONS--------------------------------------------------------

1). Be sure to give plenty of brake-time. The Odyssey doesn't like surprises, and will pay back with all the understeer you'd expect if brakes aren't applied enough. Oversteer (in the form of sudden spins & back-end goofyness) happens suddenly when needing to bring this 5½-foot tall vehicle to a stop from high speeds. This is truer in GT4, oddly. ;)

2). Sluggish acceleration & top speed. Always. ALWAYS.

3). Even with full upgrades, the 2.4 liter DOHC 4 feels gutless.

4). Heavy. Too heavy for this lack of power (even after full upgrades).

5). Stock transmission is tallish; not geared for racing. Close & super-close transmissions are both useless for 90% of racing after the Sunday Cup. Why are they 5-speeds instead of sixes?

6). Short-career syndrome. Because of the lack of power upgrades, there aren't many races to tackle in an Odyssey. GT5 is worse than GT4, even with this one's easier set of Beginner and Pro Series races. 

7). A rather low redline (6,000) considering this is a Honda we're talking about. And it's a 4 cylinder. The RPM limit also doesn't allow much action past the redline. Perhaps I'm spoiled by all the car-Hondas I've driven. GT5 won't allow us to keep the automatic tranny in gear, meaning that acceleration in this game is even worse than before.

8). Sports, semi-racing, and full-racing exhausts don't enhance the Odyssey's sound much.

9). GT4: No intercoolers available for turbocharging.

10). Any fantasies we may have had of creating a supervan to capture the World Cup (like the Renault Espace F1 of GT2) shall be quickly squashed once we visit the parts sales department!