No such Thing as a slow car
Discussion
but yes op, you could cane the nuts off a prius to keep up with an m3 at a leisurely pace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F04MXepYiBs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F04MXepYiBs
blueg33 said:
I had similar at work, I took the offender for a spin in the Tuscan, he was totally gobsmacked that a car could accelerate like that.
I really think that people who haven't driven or ridden in a "fast" car driven well have absolutely no idea what the cares a capable of. I have driven a few fast cars but the 575 Maranello still amazed me with its acceleration when it was already doing well over a 100mph
Totally agree with this.I really think that people who haven't driven or ridden in a "fast" car driven well have absolutely no idea what the cares a capable of. I have driven a few fast cars but the 575 Maranello still amazed me with its acceleration when it was already doing well over a 100mph
I had a fast passenger ride in an Audi RS5, the first modern "quick" car I'd been in (0-60 in around 4 secs). The acceleration off the line is of course massively impressive, but it's the relentlessness of it that made a far greater impression. Both in terms of the lack of any noticeable pause in acceleration between gears thanks to the dual clutch transmission, and the way it just kept pulling past 100 mph. This level of accessible, drama-free performance simply wasn't available in a standard road car until very recently. I only highlight the RS5 because it's the one I experienced. There are of course many others out there.
Yes, "cooking" models have got a lot quicker in recent years, and modern diesels often feel quick in daily use, but modern performance cars are at a different level altogether. I can't think what you'd need to be driving, and how unbelievably aggressively / illegally you'd need to be driving it, to out-drag, out-corner or otherwise "beat" that RS5 on the public road.
veccy208 said:
I think what OP is trying to say is there's no such thing as a 'too slow' car in the UK. They will all get you from a-b (providing they don't overheat on the way.) This annoys me too. People saying such and such a car is 'dangerously slow.' The danger is in the driver not adapting to the car and available power.
I take it you've never driven a Vauxhall Corsa C 1.0 12V then???Not possible to safely join a dual carriageway / motorway in one of those. I owned one for a very brief period as I was skint, even a full bore launch from a motorway services car park straight down the slip road at full chat and you still could not join at more than 45-50mph, you had no power to out accelerate anything already in L1, and if you eased off to pull in behind something already alongside, you'd get rear ended by whatever was behind that as you wouldn't be able to accelerate up to their cruising speed.
I get what you're trying to say, but there are still some woefully under powered cars out there that I don't think are suitable for motorway driving.
BrewsterBear said:
Although he hasn't communicated it very well I sort of agree with the OP. I used to have a Pug 106 1.5D as a snotter for work. It had a heady 57bhp when it left the factory and I doubt the 140k miles it had on it helped improve that. However, I could drive my 45 mile rural commute at a very good pace and was quite often held up by far more powerful and capable machinery over the Lincs Wolds. People braking for bends that did not require it, terrible road positioning, not willing to overtake much slower vehicles, etc.
It was possible to overtake in the Pug at a number of spots, but quite often rather than letting me go these idiots took umbrage and prodded their throttle to stop me. So I'd be forced to drop back and sit behind the brake dabbing, corner tip-toeing arseclarts. I don't, for a minute, think I'm a driving God, but that little car taught me to drive again. Because it took so long to get to NSL speeds it forced me to learn how to carry that speed through the corners rather than relying upon a more powerful engine to get me back up to speed.
That's what i drive now lol, not slow, OK it's not fast but i can manage to join motorways and A roads without issue.It was possible to overtake in the Pug at a number of spots, but quite often rather than letting me go these idiots took umbrage and prodded their throttle to stop me. So I'd be forced to drop back and sit behind the brake dabbing, corner tip-toeing arseclarts. I don't, for a minute, think I'm a driving God, but that little car taught me to drive again. Because it took so long to get to NSL speeds it forced me to learn how to carry that speed through the corners rather than relying upon a more powerful engine to get me back up to speed.
I do Herts to Swansea twice a month in it and have no issues at all appart from dropping into 4th in some of the londer hills on the A465 or on the A417 coming up the hill out of gloucester where i'm down into 3rd just before the roundabout, no idea how many BHP it has left after 130 thousand miles but it's actually quite fun to stir along, just takes skill is all, so in that respect i agree with the OP and with the poster i quoted
MissChief said:
No doubt OP would have immense fun in a Nissan Serena diesel. 0-62 in 28 SECONDS.
Oh there are slower vehicals out there, and i've owned most of them, i think looking back the only dangerously slow one was an LDV400 AUTO with the 2.5 NA land rover engine and a ton of diabled tail lift in it's arse, 50 MPH flat out and 25 coming up the A406 into E london and no amount of driving skills would make that (what i would consider) safe but then it wasn't built for A roads and motorways it was built for town passenger transport which it was "ok" (ish) at, i've driven serana diesels and they are slow but NOT dangerous, just slow, the serana replaced the LDV, then a lucida, then a transit now a 1.8Td mondeo as the family disability hack, fist one was a 1.7 non turbo sherpa (with the 1.8 MGB engine converted to diesel for use in narrowboats!), 40 BHP in a 7 seater but it had an LSD so was fun enough in the snow to put up with for the other 364 days of the year 
Gary29 said:
veccy208 said:
I think what OP is trying to say is there's no such thing as a 'too slow' car in the UK. They will all get you from a-b (providing they don't overheat on the way.) This annoys me too. People saying such and such a car is 'dangerously slow.' The danger is in the driver not adapting to the car and available power.
I take it you've never driven a Vauxhall Corsa C 1.0 12V then???Not possible to safely join a dual carriageway / motorway in one of those. I owned one for a very brief period as I was skint, even a full bore launch from a motorway services car park straight down the slip road at full chat and you still could not join at more than 45-50mph, you had no power to out accelerate anything already in L1, and if you eased off to pull in behind something already alongside, you'd get rear ended by whatever was behind that as you wouldn't be able to accelerate up to their cruising speed.
I get what you're trying to say, but there are still some woefully under powered cars out there that I don't think are suitable for motorway driving.
it's rubbish like that that "i think" the OP was having a pop at.I live near the famous Hartside Pass in Cumbria and it's always fun to fly past the occasional foreign M3 or local hot hatch in my 106 Diesel. Sure, it does 0-60 in about 8.5 years, but it's surprisingly good in the corners if you know the road well.
This is assuming slow, tight roads though. I can't imagine I'd be keeping up in the Highlands.
This is assuming slow, tight roads though. I can't imagine I'd be keeping up in the Highlands.
On my driveway there is a 70bhp Peugeot 1.4 diesel van, a 200bhp Civic, a 340bhp M3 and a 400bhp Lotus. The difference between the Civic and the BMW/Lotus is that in the Civic to make "swift" progress you must thrash the arse off it, but the other two can ride a reasonable torque wave. The Peugeot however requires full throttle a large portion of the time to simply make normal progress. It can be quite good fun hustling it but you would need an unthinkably large rift in driver ability to make it noticeably quicker than even the Civic.
However, I would happily concede that going A-B the difference in speed between the Civic and the Lotus is nothing to do with the car but simply how little the driver cares for his/her licence or life.
However, I would happily concede that going A-B the difference in speed between the Civic and the Lotus is nothing to do with the car but simply how little the driver cares for his/her licence or life.
There are many factors,
All modern cars are fast enough to keep up with general traffic, a lot of classics struggle, we have had two Fiat 500s and they could generate a tailback going up a long hil,, my uncle had a Jowett Bradford pick up from the thirties that could provide and even bigger one, anything like that is hard work.
Satisfaction, we have a C1 with 68 bhp, a Fiesta with 140 and a Mercedes with 388, guess which is the most satisfying, yes the Citroen is more or less adequate in most situations, the Fiesta is a little bit more than adequate for every driving situation, the Merc is overkill
Point to point speed, if that is the main concern, buy a Lancer Evolution, I am sure a Mini Cooper S would dissapear down country lanes from my barge, dont care, dont think a Ford Ka would but it isnt always about outright acceleration or journey times, going faster than something else in a Ford Ka doesnt mean anything, it is still a Ka, perfectly decent supermini but I wouldnt be yearning for one from my CLS because it is stuck to my bumper down a country lane, would just wait for good straight to dissapear or let it past and have its "victory"
I cant punt our C1 along at a fair old lick, I wouldnt generally end up going, in a lot of situations any faster int he Merc, in fact our Ford Galaxy was probably the one I drove the fastest, great handling for a bus, enough power for what it was and a good view of the road ahead, great on the motorway at speed.
There are slow cars, of course there are, its all relative !
All modern cars are fast enough to keep up with general traffic, a lot of classics struggle, we have had two Fiat 500s and they could generate a tailback going up a long hil,, my uncle had a Jowett Bradford pick up from the thirties that could provide and even bigger one, anything like that is hard work.
Satisfaction, we have a C1 with 68 bhp, a Fiesta with 140 and a Mercedes with 388, guess which is the most satisfying, yes the Citroen is more or less adequate in most situations, the Fiesta is a little bit more than adequate for every driving situation, the Merc is overkill
Point to point speed, if that is the main concern, buy a Lancer Evolution, I am sure a Mini Cooper S would dissapear down country lanes from my barge, dont care, dont think a Ford Ka would but it isnt always about outright acceleration or journey times, going faster than something else in a Ford Ka doesnt mean anything, it is still a Ka, perfectly decent supermini but I wouldnt be yearning for one from my CLS because it is stuck to my bumper down a country lane, would just wait for good straight to dissapear or let it past and have its "victory"
I cant punt our C1 along at a fair old lick, I wouldnt generally end up going, in a lot of situations any faster int he Merc, in fact our Ford Galaxy was probably the one I drove the fastest, great handling for a bus, enough power for what it was and a good view of the road ahead, great on the motorway at speed.
There are slow cars, of course there are, its all relative !
As a fellow driver of a Peugeot Partner, I feel you are very wrong OP.
There are sections of road where I get held up by much faster cars, but this is simply because I know the roads extremely well and they aren't particularly pushing their cars all that hard.
If they were driving with the same enthusiasm as I was, I wouldn't be anywhere near them!
The problem with keeping momentum up in low powered cars, is losing that momentum with low powered brakes and small tyres, should you need to stop in a hurry.
There are sections of road where I get held up by much faster cars, but this is simply because I know the roads extremely well and they aren't particularly pushing their cars all that hard.
If they were driving with the same enthusiasm as I was, I wouldn't be anywhere near them!
The problem with keeping momentum up in low powered cars, is losing that momentum with low powered brakes and small tyres, should you need to stop in a hurry.
Gary29 said:
I take it you've never driven a Vauxhall Corsa C 1.0 12V then???
Not possible to safely join a dual carriageway / motorway in one of those. I owned one for a very brief period as I was skint, even a full bore launch from a motorway services car park straight down the slip road at full chat and you still could not join at more than 45-50mph, you had no power to out accelerate anything already in L1, and if you eased off to pull in behind something already alongside, you'd get rear ended by whatever was behind that as you wouldn't be able to accelerate up to their cruising speed.
I get what you're trying to say, but there are still some woefully under powered cars out there that I don't think are suitable for motorway driving.
I owned a Corsa C for 2 years when I first passed my test! fNot possible to safely join a dual carriageway / motorway in one of those. I owned one for a very brief period as I was skint, even a full bore launch from a motorway services car park straight down the slip road at full chat and you still could not join at more than 45-50mph, you had no power to out accelerate anything already in L1, and if you eased off to pull in behind something already alongside, you'd get rear ended by whatever was behind that as you wouldn't be able to accelerate up to their cruising speed.
I get what you're trying to say, but there are still some woefully under powered cars out there that I don't think are suitable for motorway driving.
k me was that thing slow!!! Slip roads uphill and I'd be joining the motorway at 45-50 mph. I do believe that were too slow.AB57 said:
Henzy said:
This thread reminds me of my EX. She used to say "I don't understand why you buy fast cars - 70MPH is still 70MPH" - she just didn't get it either.
Sounds like my mum.. Woah hang on a sec!Even non enthusiasts who dont know about all the geeky crap generally have a level of performance they dont want to drop below as it is frustrating, it is why Turbo Diesels are so popular, people love the power delivery, nice low down grunt, shove in the back and none of that revving it nonsense, might break it, use too much fuel, make a noise etc.
AB57 said:
Henzy said:
This thread reminds me of my EX. She used to say "I don't understand why you buy fast cars - 70MPH is still 70MPH" - she just didn't get it either.
Sounds like my mum.. Woah hang on a sec!
Who's had the pleasure of piloting one of these back in the day? God awful. Incredibly loud, ridiculous dog leg first gear only needed in order to drag its sorry arse fully laden up an incline and very very slow indeed. Never has the three pointed star been more misplaced. Anything from the Eastern block or merry old BL was far better than the 207/307 D van.
andy-xr said:
Roads, conditions and traffic are the limiting factor, I'm of the opinion that being on the roads is 'travel' and is more getting from a to b. It's not really interesting enough to need a sub 5 second 0-60 car. A 10s one is absolutely fine, a 15 second one will feel a bit snoozy, but you still get there.
We have a lot of back lanes that take you out into the countryside maybe a mile from where I live. There's 20 square miles of countryside. Can I VMAX my car or really test it's handling? Nope, there's hills and corners that you cant take at more than 25-30'ish no matter what you're driving because you cant see what's coming the other way. There's sheep, cattle grids, cyclists and other hazards and dangers that mean you're probably going to be pretty irresponsible and potentially change someone's life if you go out there cornering it on the door handles and drive it like a rally stage.
If I actually want to drive like that, there's tracks and specific places to do it safely where I'm not going to come across some duffer on a shopping bike pulling his dog along
Yeah, that ^^We have a lot of back lanes that take you out into the countryside maybe a mile from where I live. There's 20 square miles of countryside. Can I VMAX my car or really test it's handling? Nope, there's hills and corners that you cant take at more than 25-30'ish no matter what you're driving because you cant see what's coming the other way. There's sheep, cattle grids, cyclists and other hazards and dangers that mean you're probably going to be pretty irresponsible and potentially change someone's life if you go out there cornering it on the door handles and drive it like a rally stage.
If I actually want to drive like that, there's tracks and specific places to do it safely where I'm not going to come across some duffer on a shopping bike pulling his dog along
I only buy faster cars for those rare opportunities where visibility and road surface are not limiting factors, unfortunately for the majority of the time these things are what stops you progressing.
For most drives I suspect I could get there just as quick in a 2.0 TDI. Doesn't mean I want another 2.0 TDI though.
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