(Shown L to R: Bradley Buchanan, Toby Leslie)

(Shown L to R: John Wamsley, Richard Parisi, Shane Breuninger)

Not Shown in photos: Adam Webster, Naoki Tani, and Steven Jones

Our first impressions of the Odysseys were on the local roads around the HMA facility. We didn't push the vehicles particularly hard, but did get a chance to run some low speed acceleration and braking tests. We also got to feel the ride quality on real world roads. Acceleration was surprisingly strong and we were impressed with the improvement in shift quality. The transmissions held gears longer and shifter more quickly and firmly than stock. Both cars had more rorty exhaust notes than stock, with the #72 car being more raspy and loud. While the #73 was quieter, we actually preferred the aural qualities of its modified stock exhaust. Ride quality, while substantially stiffer than stock, was actually quite good. While not what the minivan demographic would want, both vans actually rode better than many OEM sports cars while offering outstanding roll/pitch control and high limits.

Following our brief on-road test drive, the HMA team took us to a portion of their evaluation test track, an 800 meter long venue used to test production vehicles. Here we hooked up our Vbox performance computer and measured 0-60 mph and 1/4 mile acceleration, along with 60-0 braking. Both cars were tested on used Michelin PS2 tires. Conditions were 94 F and 87% humidity, hardly ideal for performance.

The #72 car went first, recording 0-60 in 7.4 seconds, and a 1/4 mile time of 15.9 seconds @ 89.1 mph. Braking from 60-0 took only 112 ft. Using density altitude calculations and NHRA correction factors, this would equate to a 15.2@93.6 mph at sea level on a cool day. That's fast and very impressive. In some ways the #73 car was even more impressive. Despite less hp and more weight, it was almost as quick with a 0-60 of 7.7 seconds and a 1/4 mile of 16.2@88.5 mph (15.4@92.9 mph corrected). And with smaller tires it managed to stop in only 109 ft. While 3 ft is within the margin of error, its amazing that stock brake hardware and smaller tires could stop so well. The #73 car did seem to have a more aggressive torque converter, allowing for quicker step off, and its possible that the smaller wheels/tires allowed better acceleration and braking (less rotational inertia) since neither car was traction limited.

Handling wise, we pushed both cars through a short slalom. While we didn't push too hard (due to the close proximity of fences and our inability to comprehend just how much stick these cars had), we found amazingly neutral balance, minimal body roll at the limit and a very forgiving nature for both cars. The bigger tired #72 certainly felt like it had more grip, but neither car failed to impress. Be sure to check out our videos of the test to see what happens when one of the HMA team pushed the cars to the limit on the test track.

In the end, we were thoroughly impressed by the entire HMA racing team. We've been to the HMA facility in the past and met uniformly friendly, competent and good natured associates. Now some of those fine folks have built some amazing and cool race cars. They have our thanks and admiration. And don't think that this is the end of the story. The team's strong showing in their first outing has only whetted their appetites. They asked us to keep their future plans hush-hush for now, but rest assured that they will be adding lots more hp, more stick and some other sweet goodies that any enthusiast would love to have on their minivan. And when they do, we'll take another trip back to Alabama to evaluate their progress. NOTE: Be sure to check back for our video interview with the team leader as well as some footage of our antics at the track.