Though not thought of as a performance car, the Lancer GLXi outclassed many of its 'sportier' rivals but not by much. Four of the mid-sized cars were timed within a one- second band starting from 18secs. Hard braking unsettles this wonderfully poised car.The Astra loses the war within the first few seconds of the commencement of battle. One of the heavier cars, it is slowest off the blocks and then keeps losing time, but not at as rapid a rate, throughout. Even though the 4-cylinder 1598cc multi-point fuel injection engine churns out a respectable 93bhp, the power to weight ratio at 83bhp per ton is one of the lowest, higher than only the diesel Mercedes-Benz C200

The Astra takes a leisurely 3.31secs to get upto 40kmph and though it shows a little more urgency after that, it still takes over 15 and a half seconds to get to 100kmph - well, that's more than the time the top five cars took to get to 100kmph and then come to a stop. Though the Astra has many outstanding features, straightline performance is definitely not one of them.The car is fitted with 14-inch wheels which are shod with 175/70 radials. With decent sized rubber the car does not display any histrionics under severe braking and has one of the better braking performances of the non-ABS cars. Brake response is good and the car maintains a straight line under braking.

I've had many a faster Accent but try as I might, this Accent would just not go any faster. And despite the fact that the Accent has tyres which are on par with its competition, it languishes towards the bottom of the pack, something that is a little difficult to fathom.

The ton comes up in slightly under 15secs and then braking is a very careful affair with the tyres locking up at the slightest hint of pressure. The best that the car could manage during the braking turned out to be the worst time among these 17 cars with only the Maruti Esteem covering a longer distance before coming to a standstill.
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Another car with sporty pretensions falls by the wayside with brakes being the worst culprits. Even though the wheels are shod with decent sized rubber, they lock up at the slightest hint of extra pressure.

Speedometer over-read and the roar of the exhaust made me feel much faster than I actually was; 100kmph only came up in about 14secs. The distance the car took to stop was longer than that taken by all the other cars apart from the Maruti Esteem. In terms of stopping time too, the Ikon is better than only the Hyundai Accent and the Maruti Esteem.

The Opel Corsa is similar to the Ikon in many respects including the maximum power its engine generates as well as the wheels it comes fitted with and even the tyres are similar. Where the two differ is in the weight, which puts the Corsa at a slight disadvantage in terms of the 72kg extra weight it carries. Even then

both took similar times to get to the 100kmph mark. Where the Corsa gained a definite advantage was under braking, coming to a stop 2.74m before the Ikon. Brake response and feel on both the Ikon and the Corsa are poor with the brakes feeling spongy to a certain extent and then locking up the wheels in the next instant. What is interesting though is that just 0.7secs separate the Ikon from the four cars above it. The Corsa comes factory fitted with steel disc wheels but the one provided to us for testing by the company came with alloys which might have given it a slight advantage over the normal car.

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