Shawn, I think you are on the right track.

My admittedly unscientific comparison is between a well-used 2-32 (no
laminar flow on those wings any more - if ever!) and a couple of ridden
hard and put away wet, tied out in the Arizona desert for all their
working lives, G-103 Acros. I actually prefer the 2-32 over the 103,
as the control harmony is much nicer - closer to a heavy K-21. It's
like a big Cadillac cruising around with a couple of giggling
teenyboppers in the back, or a father with his wide-eyed little son
next to him...or for that matter a happy XXL size pax in the front seat
who has been told he can't fit in any other glider.

Plus the 2-32 is such a blast to spin, and it's got those awesome
terminal-velocity limiting brakes; great for getting a paying passenger
back on the ground before he/she gets "upset"! It's a shame acro is no
longer allowed by the chicken**** Schweizer lawyers - anyone who saw
Laz Horvath's acro routine (flown from the back seat with his future
ex-wife in the front) which finished with a half reverse cuban 8
straight to a landing will never forget it!

And it was a secret X plane (X-26A/B) and saw combat in Vietnam
(slighly modified as the YO-3A)!

Anyway, while it takes work to climb - fast and steep if you hope to go
up at all, much like Moffatt's description of the HP-8 (no prizes for
guessing what book Santa brought for Christmas), once you got it up to
speed, it seemes to be flatter than those (probably no longer very
laminar) workhorse 103s.

All that being said, new vs new, I would probably have to put my money
on the plebian Grobs, performance-wise (sigh).

Kirk
66
2-32 fan