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

[barchetta_boy]

Turbo 2... yes please! Had a yellow Corgi one in motorsport livery as a lad (still have it in fact). Sponsored by Calberson

[L100NYY]

[barchetta_boy]

Literally that one! Mine has a bit more patina though :-)

[L100NYY]

Talking of retro....

The Alfa passed it's MoT last week

[Cheburator mk2]

Speaking of Pug GTIs - what about the forgotten but hugely capable 309 GTI?

[ferrisbueller]

Cheburator mk2 said:

Speaking of Pug GTIs - what about the forgotten but hugely capable 309 GTI?

Hard to find a good one now. I looked a couple of years ago but gave up.

[shalmaneser]

L100NYY said:

Gruber said:

Today I mostly want a 205 GTI...

But having had a look at the classifieds, prices seem to be set by Mr Magoo's Random Number Generator.

Hey ho. Another boat missed.

Afternoon Grubes,

I would love an early 1.9 (ie pre facelift/with ambers) or a 1.6

Looks like my old one...



Except with silver wheels and much nicer, obviously.

[L100NYY]

Would be great alongside the rest of the fleet....

https://m.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C977208

[Fast Bug]

L100NYY said:

Talking of retro....

The Alfa passed it's MoT last week

That's lovely!

I had a 164 24v Cloverleaf that I really regret selling

[Gruber]

L100NYY said:

Gruber said:

Today I mostly want a 205 GTI...

But having had a look at the classifieds, prices seem to be set by Mr Magoo's Random Number Generator.

Hey ho. Another boat missed.

Afternoon Grubes,

I would love an early 1.9 (ie pre facelift/with ambers) or a 1.6

Yep. Not helping. They really did nail the design.

What's the view on this generation quick Clio? Any good?



https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I'll be turning 40 later this year and all our cash will be going into a house purchase, so cheap thrills are the order of the day...

Edited by Gruber on Wednesday 11th April 21:19

[ferrisbueller]

Gruber said:

Yep. Not helping. They really did nail the design.

What's the view on this generation quick Clio? Any good?



https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I'll be turning 40 later this year and all our cash will be going into a house purchase, so cheap thrills are the order of the day...

Edited by Gruber on Wednesday 11th April 21:19

The 200 has a good bit more torque (relatively speaking). You really need to spank them, but they like it.

[Patrick Bateman]

I haven't driven one but I can imagine they continue the 182's trend of having a superb fun : price ratio.

Edited by Patrick Bateman on Wednesday 11th April 22:05

[Fast Bug]

I had an RS Twingo, they're great fun too.

[L100NYY]

I had a 197 F1 edition and it was utterly fantastic. Stupidly quick cross country and grin inducing but very short geared so motorway driving was not its forte and affected mpg.

I'd have another.

eta

Would want a Cup with Recaros though (ie like my F1)

[Patrick Bateman]

L100NYY said:

I had a 197 F1 edition and it was utterly fantastic. Stupidly quick cross country and grin inducing but very short geared so motorway driving was not its forte and affected mpg.

I'd have another.

I imagine the short gearing does make it ideal on a B road?

The 182 is geared pretty well for it but a slightly shorted 3rd would be nice.

[Rocket.]

I had a 309 GTI about 20 years ago, fantastic alertness about them and brilliant steering and chassis, the 205 was undoubtedly the better looking car but to drive it take the 309 everytime, 6 months into ownership I decided to convert it to a race car, managed to waste a load of cash ruining a great road car, but great fun for a season and a half of Rain X Road Saloons before the cash ran out !

Drove one of RSRNurburg Clio 200 around the ring for about 5 laps a few years back, what they lack in out right pace they make up for in handling, as someone else said they love to be driven hard, a good one would be a keeper I think, I preferred it to my 500 Abarth. Also drove a 182 Clio Cup again recently, had forgotten how good they were, to think I bought one brand new just over 10 years ago for about £12k iirc.

[s m]

ferrisbueller said:

Cheburator mk2 said:

Speaking of Pug GTIs - what about the forgotten but hugely capable 309 GTI?

Hard to find a good one now. I looked a couple of years ago but gave up.

My friends owned a fair few 1.9 205s when they were available new. I think they went through about 6 altogether, starting with D/E regs up to H-regs



Great little cars

I had a go in the 309 and preferred it so bought one of those instead



Rarely see a 309gti now round here but see several 205s

[Rocket.]

RIP John Miles, I missed this but happend a few days ago. Imo was one of the unsung heros of Lotus, great racer and engineer, also told he was a top chap too.

[Rocket.]

Today I want this



3.6 996 turbo lump with 648bhp, it did 310kmh at Nardo, central driving position with 4 passenger seats ! Small issue of £136k however...

https://m.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C980403

[Cheburator mk2]

Gruber said:

Yep. Not helping. They really did nail the design.

What's the view on this generation quick Clio? Any good?



https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I'll be turning 40 later this year and all our cash will be going into a house purchase, so cheap thrills are the order of the day...

Edited by Gruber on Wednesday 11th April 21:19

I haven't driven the road car, but I have a lot of mileage in the Full Fat Renault Sport Cup car which spawned off it - Brands, Nurburgring, Snetterton and Spa.

If I wasn't such a stupid badge snob and if I was a bit smarter with my money, I would have never gotten involved with racing classic Porsches. That Clio, which belonged to a mate, who was kind enough to let me drive the wheels of it on my own for probably more miles than half the miles he did overall, was all the car a budding club racer could want. In terms of £ spent/miles of fun the Clio was an utter delight. Reliable and so biddable. Also, I cannot quite put a finger on it, but I have driven several Motorsport cars, and they just feel different. Better, real, well put together with no compromises. Simple non-adjustable dampers, but somehow I was going as quickly around Spa as in my 500bhp Porsche. Maybe because RS built the dampers on the Clio, while the dampers on the 928 were build by a bloke called Gaz in Essex...

Actually, I dare say it, the only car that I have owned that have come close to the Clio in terms of driving fun has been the GT3, with bills/worries 3x higher.

If the road car is just 1/2 of the full fat racer, it would still be worth it...