The Best ///M/Barge/General Rant/Look at this/O/T (Vol XVII)

[Patrick Bateman]

L100NYY said:

One that looks like my pic above with 190bhp and a couple of tweaks here and there would be a cracking little package and cost peanuts to run too.

How docile are they towards the limit? With good tyres and correct alignment that is...

[L100NYY]

Patrick Bateman said:

L100NYY said:

One that looks like my pic above with 190bhp and a couple of tweaks here and there would be a cracking little package and cost peanuts to run too.

How docile are they towards the limit? With good tyres and correct alignment that is...

Twitchy but no more so than most mid engined rear drivers imo.

[sleep envy]

L100NYY said:

Golf GTI MKV

III, non?

[olly755]

Leins said:

I forgot about the Rover 220GTi too.

Seem to remember the headline grabbing Turbo being lamented as an 150mph car back in the day.

I did the Astra GTE/GSi thing. By all accounts a stunning engine nailed to a pretty crap car.

Red "16v" badge spotting on Mk2 Golfs and Astras was fun back in the day though.

[L100NYY]

sleep envy said:

L100NYY said:

Golf GTI MKV

III, non?

Fat fingers.

Always liked these wheels -

[W00DY]

L100NYY said:

My brother got one for his girlfriend and they both love it (std bhp not 190). My chum sold this one a while back which I was rather tempted with, it just looked so right;

Surprisingly purposeful. The 190 engine does make them a lot more appealing, presume it's a fairly simple swap?

[Patrick Bateman]

W00DY said:

Surprisingly purposeful. The 190 engine does make them a lot more appealing, presume it's a fairly simple swap?

From what I've read, relatively so, as far as engine swaps go anyway. Chucking a V6 can be more problematic.

[L100NYY]

olly22n said:

Have we had the zx 16v, the s16 and the mkv xr3i? (last one was a deliberate mistake!)

Sure gandalf will be along banging on about some bl pos soon enough

I mentioned the Volcane if that counts? Was the model before the 16v came out. The one below the Volcane was the Furio :geek:

MkV XR3i was available in 105/130ps variants and the RS2000 was above that at 150ps. Later facelift car was available 4wd.

Mu Uncle had a black early RS2000 co car. Love that thing!

[L100NYY]

[L100NYY]

Nnnnngh.....

[olly755]

This looks well.



A good 16v is the Mk3 of choice IMO. Never really liked the VR6 to drive despite the rather sonorous donkey.

Wonder how well it would drive these days?

[Crook]

L100NYY said:

The Champ is back...

[L100NYY]

Crook said:

L100NYY said:

The Champ is back...

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Ah but do you remember the mkIV escort mexico?!

[L100NYY]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Ah but do you remember the mkIV escort mexico?!

I'd rather just forget it! It was an Encore or an LX with a badge I think!?

[Bloquai]

Have a feeling this may have been done already - but what is the house view?

http://www.ubergt.co.uk/used-cars/bmw-alpina-readi...

Always loved the look of these and it seems like a reasonable price. Are they ruinous to run and maintain?

[Crook]

I remember myself and my older brother (a confirmed Ford nut) shouting at the TV when that ad came on that it wasn't the champ because it wasn't rear wheel drive.

[Patrick Bateman]

Bloquai said:

Have a feeling this may have been done already - but what is the house view?

http://www.ubergt.co.uk/used-cars/bmw-alpina-readi...

Always loved the look of these and it seems like a reasonable price. Are they ruinous to run and maintain?

That seems cheap for the miles. I've never seen many for much less than that and they always had another 40k miles on top of that one.

[rejn]

olly755 said:

rejn said:

Our immediate car concerns are over our daily FFRR - dealer cock-up has led to a new engine, then a new steering rack (thankfully £ all picked up by the LR main dealer) and it's just been back as the electronics are now doing something weird on start-up (possibly fixed by a new battery) - this is all leading Mrs rejn to take the view that we need a new one... That may be the end of the Elise budget for me.

Would issues like this with (I'm assuming) a pretty new, high end and expensive vehicle put you off buying another?

I think it would me.

Yes, it has definitely put me off. We bought a 3 year old FFRR as I thought it would be great - and it is/was great - definitely a brilliant car. Unfortunately all these issues (which to be fair all seem to have stemmed from a mechanic making a catestrophic error) have put me off our specific car. We are both wondering what will be next to break...

Mrs rejn is of the view that we should just buy another similar car (or in her eyes, let's just get a new shape FFRR), but I'm thinking we should just get a Ford S-Max (or similar) instead - it's got loads of space for all the children's stuff, but it's abour £50k cheaper. (It might also leave £ for an Elise!)

[rejn]

L100NYY said:

Be quick I'm off in a couple of weeks!!

new job? tell us more? still somewhere where you can source an Elise should things pan out the right way for me?!