Agile / Nimble / Fun

[tallstevef]

Jumped in my Mum's X plate Ka (with a paltry 23K on the clock!) yesterday to do some errands. Despite just jumping out of my 135i, I had much more of a "fun" drive with just 60bhp or so under my right foot in and around the tight suburban SE London roads - better ride quality too (thank you M Sport and runflats)...

What other cars (maybe with a touch more power!) are just much more agile / nimble and fun than they have a right to be?

I put forward my old Ignis Sport, which was excellent fun to zip about in at modest speeds - shame the ride was soooo crashy!

[300bhp/ton]

tallstevef said:

Jumped in my Mum's X plate Ka (with a paltry 23K on the clock!) yesterday to do some errands. Despite just jumping out of my 135i, I had much more of a "fun" drive with just 60bhp or so under my right foot in and around the tight suburban SE London roads - better ride quality too (thank you M Sport and runflats)...

What other cars (maybe with a touch more power!) are just much more agile / nimble and fun than they have a right to be?

I put forward my old Ignis Sport, which was excellent fun to zip about in at modest speeds - shame the ride was soooo crashy!

I wouldn't let you delude yourself too much. for instance if you normally drove a 60hp KA and then jumped into a 135i you seriously wouldn't then say the KA is more fun.

What you experienced was just a placebo like affect of simply driving something different that you aren't as familiar with.


That said, keeping to the Ford theme. A SportKA is a rather handsome little hatch and a lot of fun, as are Puma's.

But compact and lightweight also plays to the MR2 (Mk1 & 3), MGF, MX-5 and smart Roadster. They won't feel like a fwd KA, but do the lightweight nimble thing rather well.

A 106 GTI or Rallye is likely a good bet too.

[tallstevef]

Fair point on the placebo effect, although until 6 months ago I was driving a Ka - so am used to what they feel / drive like. I guess the 135 (good / excellent though it is) just seems too fast and too competent - I'm hardly touching the performance available, whereas in something lower powered you feel a bit more like you're REALLY driving it...

Never driven a SportKa or Puma, I guess something like the Fiesta Zetec S in in a similar vein? Similarly I've never driven a 106 Gti / Rallye. Did enjoy the Fiat Panda 100hp - so am guessing the 500 Abarth might have the fun factor?

Any others, I was thinking more of the non-overtly "sporty" makes / models that are good fun drive...

[Disco You]

The 1.3l enduro engine is a hateful piece of st.

[LordHaveMurci]

I have a Clio 172 Cup & a 996 C2 Coupe. Driving the 172 is always great fun for the reasons you have described, wouldn't want it as my only car though!

[aka_kerrly]

Ah you have realised that in the real world it's not always about having the fastest car in the straight line or the car that has huge amount of HP.

The fun from driving such cars as the KA is you get to go flat out through 1st >4th without breaking most speed limits, it has a wheel in each corner so the handling is surprisingly lively, the car isn't carrying 100kgs of sound deadening so it doesn't need some artificial noise to remind you that there is something in the engine bay, there is a wire between your foot and the accelerator, likewise the clutch. The steering has a minimal amount of hydraulic assistance and you are perched on a seat made of 1 inch thick foam so you feel what is going on.

All in all, for short blasts around older lower power cars are a fantastic antidote to modern cars which on normal roads with normal drivers are surprisingly uneventful!

[300bhp/ton]

tallstevef said:

Fair point on the placebo effect, although until 6 months ago I was driving a Ka - so am used to what they feel / drive like. I guess the 135 (good / excellent though it is) just seems too fast and too competent - I'm hardly touching the performance available, whereas in something lower powered you feel a bit more like you're REALLY driving it...

Never driven a SportKa or Puma, I guess something like the Fiesta Zetec S in in a similar vein? Similarly I've never driven a 106 Gti / Rallye. Did enjoy the Fiat Panda 100hp - so am guessing the 500 Abarth might have the fun factor?

Any others, I was thinking more of the non-overtly "sporty" makes / models that are good fun drive...

The trouble is. Something like an Abarth 500 is actually fairly rapid, I seriously doubt you'd really be able to use it's performance any more than you do so in your BMW.

This is going to be true of any car with "more power" though. And the trouble is, although we all say we like trashing low powered cars, we also always want more power.

[300bhp/ton]

Realistically is you want "fun" and sense of occasion, you'll struggle to beat one of these for all round ability and VFM.

[Engineer1]

Disco You said:

The 1.3l enduro engine is a hateful piece of st.

And seriously un killable.

[kambites]

Engineer1 said:

Disco You said:

The 1.3l enduro engine is a hateful piece of st.

And seriously un killable.

In this particular case, I think that could be considered a bad thing.

[big_boz]

Aygo

[aka_kerrly]

The 1.3 Ka engine was fine, circa 63hp from a 1.3 with mostly 70s technology was above par.

It's just people's memories are of those that haven't had the valve clearances adjusted in thousands of miles which gave them that horrendous TAPPPA TAPPA TAPPA TAPPA on idle and tinny metallic noise when you start abusing them and generally rubbish performance.

[big_boz]

aka_kerrly said:

The 1.3 Ka engine was fine, circa 63hp from a 1.3 with mostly 70s technology was above par.

It's just people's memories are of those that haven't had the valve clearances adjusted in thousands of miles which gave them that horrendous TAPPPA TAPPA TAPPA TAPPA on idle and tinny metallic noise when you start abusing them and generally rubbish performance.

Above par? are you sure? 48BHP per litre was very much under par, fiat were making the same from the 1.0 FIRE engine in the late 80's and more by the time the KA appeared. Toyota were making over a ton from a 1.4 (albeit MPI not SPI), VW were a bit lacking, the 1.4 Polo of the time made 60BHP but the 1.0 made 50, at the time the 1.25 ford/Yamaha engine was making 60BHP per litre, Plus the Ka engine sounded awful even from new and very agricultural, nice car to chuck around the bends but a Cinq Sporting kicked its arse for the money

[dave7692]

The most "fun" car I've owned was my X reg Zetec S Fiesta.

I got it when I'd just passed my test, which might be a part of it, but a 1.6l engine in a car as small/light as that was guaranteed fun.

[aka_kerrly]

big_boz said:

aka_kerrly said:

The 1.3 Ka engine was fine, circa 63hp from a 1.3 with mostly 70s technology was above par.

It's just people's memories are of those that haven't had the valve clearances adjusted in thousands of miles which gave them that horrendous TAPPPA TAPPA TAPPA TAPPA on idle and tinny metallic noise when you start abusing them and generally rubbish performance.

Above par? are you sure? 48BHP per litre was very much under par, fiat were making the same from the 1.0 FIRE engine in the late 80's and more by the time the KA appeared. Toyota were making over a ton from a 1.4 (albeit MPI not SPI), VW were a bit lacking, the 1.4 Polo of the time made 60BHP but the 1.0 made 50, at the time the 1.25 ford/Yamaha engine was making 60BHP per litre, Plus the Ka engine sounded awful even from new and very agricultural, nice car to chuck around the bends but a Cinq Sporting kicked its arse for the money

Sorry what I meant is that for an engine designed in the 1970s it wasn't bad , compared to the 1.25 that had 20+ years of development time it is ancient and inefficient.

[Ved]

Never heard a bad word against the Fiat Panda 100HP and they look the part too. Very cheap too.