That David and Goliath moment

[300bhp/ton]

To set the scene, finished work early. Sun's shining best part of 20 degree outside. So I decided to take a left of the main road and head home via the wonderful back roads. Some of Ox's and Buck's finest B and C class roads you could wish for.

Roof off, stereo off, just the way it should be

At one turning this pulled out in front of me:




Couple of points.

Mr TVR owner your car looks and sounds fantastic!!! Simply love that colour

But bloody hell do your exhausts wobble about a lot. Looked like the continually wanted to fall off! And Tuscan's have shockingly poor brake lights. That car really needs a 3rd brake light.


Oh yeah - and move over next time



In fairness, I suspect the wonderful back roads, complete with their current additional (fun) dips, dives, bumps and lumps did suit my car slightly better. That straight 6 TVR motor did sound the business though.

Nice blast

[Mastodon2]

So wait, what were you driving?

Those TVR lights do look near invisible though, lol.

[300bhp/ton]

Mastodon2 said:

So wait, what were you driving?

Very good point

I was in this:

Mastodon2 said:

Those TVR lights do look near invisible though, lol.

Amazingly difficult to see, even more so as the indicators are high up, so you never really know which part of the TVR to look at

[Mastodon2]

Ah, the Smart roadster, I sat in one before I bought my Cupra R. The roadster was never really on the cards, but I loved the idea of a low, 2 seater car that is truly small. The sequential manual box is a great idea but I hear it's ponderous on the shifts, and that the wheels can buckle and bend quite easily. I can't say I loved the interior, particularly the errant clocks that sit on the dash, would have looked nicer if they were properly integrated like in a Focus ST. Still, I'd love to have a go in one.

Meeting a TVR in one might well be David and Goliath, but as you proved, an MR2/Smart/Mx-5 with a good driver can be more than a match for something with a lot more power!

[wackojacko]

TVR's don't need brake lights ..... Or reverse lights ........ That work

[300bhp/ton]

Mastodon2 said:

Ah, the Smart roadster, I sat in one before I bought my Cupra R. The roadster was never really on the cards, but I loved the idea of a low, 2 seater car that is truly small. The sequential manual box is a great idea but I hear it's ponderous on the shifts, and that the wheels can buckle and bend quite easily. I can't say I loved the interior, particularly the errant clocks that sit on the dash, would have looked nicer if they were properly integrated like in a Focus ST. Still, I'd love to have a go in one.

The box is ok when you get used to it. It'll upshift at a similar speed to a person with a regular manual. Downshift is a little slower to engage but allows huge amounts of engine braking far easier than a normal manual.

Brabus 17" rims are made of cheese, luckily mine is base model (the lightest) and runs 15" rims that have no such issue.

I don't mind the interior, a bit plasticky, but it was only a £14k car new.

Mastodon2 said:

Meeting a TVR in one might well be David and Goliath, but as you proved, an MR2/Smart/Mx-5 with a good driver can be more than a match for something with a lot more power!

[grgrgray]

........or he wasn't racing you?

[300bhp/ton]

grgrgray said:

........or he wasn't racing you?

Maybe not. But I don't think I'm that foolish or unlearned to not know when a car is being pushed

[v8will]

grgrgray said:

........or he wasn't racing you?

This.

I got a drive in one of those Smart roadster thingies once. The owner got a go in the MX-5 I had at the time, which lets face it ain't no rocket.

I'd say with the exception of novelty value, the MX-5 was a better drive and better package in just about every way.

[Mastodon2]

grgrgray said:

........or he wasn't racing you?

It's not always about racing

One thing I've noticed about performance cars is that they can feel so relaxed at speed over tough terrain, try an Impreza say, through some tight, twisty lanes even at up to 60mph and the car can feel so relaxed, numbing the sensation of speed. This makes it easy to cruise in a relaxed fashion at higher seeds than say, a Nissan Micra. The driver in the TVR could be driving quite quickly but not in a hurried fashion, just fast enough to block the progress of someone in a smaller "David" car but still not quite fast enough for the smaller car to be pushing it like their driver would prefer to.

My current car will travel down roads, without even slightly challenging it's grip or balance, that would have my Fiesta near it's humble limits. As such, I can cruise with less effort at high speeds in the Cupra R than in the Fiesta, but if someone came ripping up behind me in a Corsa, clearly wanting to travel faster than me, I'd do the nice thing and move over and let them get on with it!

[geeteeaye]

More likely the TVR driver saw a 'character' in a Smart behind him trying to keep up and could barely drive for laughing.

[Hell27]

My Favourite one of these:

A mate of mine had just bought one of these on EBay for £600.00 -



Me and him together look a bit like this:



He is going on about what a great little car it was, really quick etc. Ok I said, lets have a drive! I grabbed his keys, and off we go. We get out of my estate, and go up the main road. It's like driving a go kart.
Pull up at some lights and one of these pulls up next to us:

.

The Merc owner goes for it off the lights, so I thought, why not, and let the XR go quite quickly. We caught him up in 1st gear, then went past, cue an astonished looking merc driver! Great comedy moment.

[adycav]

OP, both the TVR and your Roadster look great and ideally suited to early spring hood down blasts.




As Friday night often equals thread silliness I'm just hoping that this thread doesn't become one of these...

[Motorrad]

I can easily believe you kept up with one on a tight twisty road or were even more comfortable and able to go faster.

I used to live very near Bispham and found I'd be pushing along trevors from the factory in my 205GTi as the back way to Preston just doesn't suit a high powered RWD car.

[300bhp/ton]

v8will said:

This.

I got a drive in one of those Smart roadster thingies once. The owner got a go in the MX-5 I had at the time, which lets face it ain't no rocket.

I'd say with the exception of novelty value, the MX-5 was a better drive and better package in just about every way.

Oh I'm sorry, were you sitting in the seat next to me??

Nope?

So what would you know what happened?

[busta]

Nice story and it's certainly been the weather for open top sports cars, but seriously, David and Goliath where actually trying to hurt each other. It's not a story about how David proved his worth to Goliath by following him around for a bit while he went about his business.

[300bhp/ton]

geeteeaye said:

More likely the TVR driver saw a 'character' in a Smart behind him trying to keep up and could barely drive for laughing.

Was it your TVR then dickwad? Sorry name calling, how childish, bit like trying to pretend you knew what happened

Edited by 300bhp/ton on Friday 25th March 21:21

[300bhp/ton]

Motorrad said:

I can easily believe you kept up with one on a tight twisty road or were even more comfortable and able to go faster.

I used to live very near Bispham and found I'd be pushing along trevors from the factory in my 205GTi as the back way to Preston just doesn't suit a high powered RWD car.

The roads certainly favoured me I agree. And evidently on any straights they could pull ahead, but the thing is, from a roll and only reaching 'x' speed on lanes it's quite hard to truly use straight line speed as such an affective tool.

I could brake later, corner faster and accelerate out of the bends sooner than they could. So even though a sprint from 20-60mph (ish ) The TVR could in theory out accelerate me, I was as a rule already travelling faster and able to get on the power sooner.

[geeteeaye]

300bhp/ton said:

W£as it your TVR then dickwad? Sorry name calling, how childish, bit like trying to pretend you knew what happened

Now now petal, don't get overexcited. Just snuggle up in your power ranger duvet and think of all the amazing races you can have tomorrow!

[v8will]

300bhp/ton said:

Oh I'm sorry, were you sitting in the seat next to me??

Nope?

So what would you know what happened?

No, You'd have noticed me open the passenger door and ask 'Are we moving yet'

Or

I'd have had the squeakiest or squeaky bum times. You'd fail to ignore the smell of fear. That's what happens when you combine the awesomeness of a Smart car and a nervous disposition.