Tone,
I'd love to see that video. And there used to be one of you on a track (and something about Porsches) - is that still around? As for NOS, just how safe is that?
morgan-tec,
The Axiom looks mean from the front. I think a lowered kick-arse street monster version of that would be pretty sweet.
t2p,
Your comment about the magazine article was right on. I believe the quote you're referring to is this:
In the twisties, that means the VehiCross is probably the best-handling SUV made, save for the nearly $70,000 Mercedes ML 55 AMG.
It comes from Four Wheeler's 2002 Four Wheeler of the Year issue, here: http://www.fourwheeler.com/roadtests/5034/index.html
It's a good read, very positive about the VX, and basically the VX won everything performance-wise but they didn't like the interior, griped about the rearward visibility, and said there was no grab handle on the rear door even though there's a pic of a tester using it in the article. And none of that really affects the off-road capability, so if they were really looking to crown a four wheeler of the year, the VX was the rightful winner.
I totally agree about maintaining the on-road handling characteristics of the VX. We can safely take a tight curve like very few SUV's can, if any. I have been in a few situations where I swerved hard and I swear it behaved better than my old Dodge Avenger ES, and the strongest point about that car was its handling (out-slaloms Eclipse GS-T's)! I like having a very capable off-road vehicle even in stock form, and that's enough for me. I've decided I won't do much real serious off-roading and it spends the great majority of its time on the street. Plus since I got into rallycross, handling is paramount and lifting it would be a negative. I could try to lower it a bit, but any gain in a rallycross respect would be negligible and the stock clearance is nice to have when I need it (and I love being able to just slide under there to work on it!).