another dream car thread

Blitzkrieger

My knackered oul fiesta is up for NCT next september so you might think it's a bit eary to be thinking about what to replace it with, but the suspension could drop out any day now so I could be rushing to replace it

My dream car would be a Ferrari 360 Spyder but thats obioviously not going to happen so I was think about something in Subaru Impreza territory. I wasn't planning on the WRX cos it's way out of my league but the WRX is the only Impreza to be sold in Ireland so that's out the window straight away.

It's probably just as well. I was planning on buying something further down the range but then it would have just been an ordinary saloon. The new WRX isn't that hot anyway. I don't like it's looks as much as the old one. Touted as the car for the 'playstation generation' (who are about 15 now) it was always a young man's car, but now it seems to have gotten older along with it's customer base. Inside it's supposed to be more comfortable and better equiped but you pay for this with reduced performance over the old WRX. Also it has the same old clutch problem. If you're stuck in traffic the clutch tends to over-heat and stink like hell. It's probably not good for the car either. This used to be a problem with Ferraris and Lamborginis in the old days but you don't expect it in a modern Subaru. Especially with a £32,000 price tag

Don't get me wrong - on the open road this is a great car and would suit my daily commute down to the ground. If you bought this car you would love it. It's price tag is creeping up but it's still amazing performance for the money. The closest things you could compare it too would be it's closest rival the Mitsubishi EVO 7 (similarly priced), the BMW M5 (£65,000) or the Nissian Skyline GTR (£90,000). It's a lot of car for your money.

If I was spending the money though, I'd go for the EVO 7. Again, I don't like it's looks as much as the EVO 6 it is replacing, and again it is more 'grown up' compared to the EVO 6. The interior is vastly improved, better equiped and of course this makes the car heavier. Unlike Subaru however, Mitsubishi have used lighter components in the car to reduce this and the car only gains 40kg. A trivial amount really. Just leave one of your mates behind if you want performance.

A better ratio'd first gear means the 0-60 time will be little differnt from the EVO 6 if at all, and overall the EVO 7's performance is as gut-churning as ever. There's very few car's out there that will give this sort of performace and still double-up as a practical family saloon. You'll get four mates in no problem with their luggage too, and it's even got button's to play with . You can adjust the 4WD system for tarmac, gravel or snow, so you have the added safety of 4WD. In price, it'll probably under-cut it's closest rival (the Subaru) by a smidgen and it's next closet (the BMW) by over £30,000.

The only reason I won't be buying a EVO 7, is it's £30,000+ price tag. It might be incedible performace for the money but it's still a lot of money. And don't forget - not only will you want it but every joy-rider will know more about it than you do and want it too. Insurance could be sky high too. I think the popularity of the EVOs and WRXs is on the ebb

Another contender will be the Focus Cosworth. Now that will be a big car. Colin McCrae is sweeping all before him in the WRC (apart from reliability probs) in a 1.8 turbo-charged Focus. The Focus Cosworth, due in september will be 2.0 litre turbo-charged. Insert drooling smiley here. I'm not a big fan of the look of the Focus, but I wasn't a big fan of the Sierra or Escort either, and the Cosworth versions converted me. The price will probably under-cut the EVO and the WRX by about £4,000 but they're probably going to be even more popular with both thieves and the cardigan brigade. Every balding forty-something who ever owned a Cosworth before will want one, and it's cred is likely to suffer because of it.

For below £20,000, which is where my price range will be, it's not all bad. A (current) top of the range Focus will set you back just under £20,000 and will come with bucket loads of equipment and a 2.0 litre fuel injected engine. I've driven a 2.0 fuel injected Ford before and boy was it fast! This Focus is lighter and is both faster and more economical. It uses an intellegent injection system. It's off while you are in the low revs about town, but put the foot to the floor and it kicks in, and feels like it literally kicked you back in your seat. It won't perform as well as the EVO but you probably wouldn't know the difference, until your insurance bill arrives.

So - the Focus it is for me then. I'm still looking at other cars though. Punto sporting, 206 Gti and others. We're spoilt for choice really.

Blitzkrieger

I spent ages typing that and not one bloody reply

While I'm on the subject of cars, might as well have a rant. 96fm were on about a study done in england where they found most people didn't know the meaning of road signs Apparantly men scored better than women (women drivers - they don't even know the bloody signs ) but an amazingly low 10% of people correctly identified the 'end of motorway' sign. muppets

They did a similar survey of their own and got pretty much the same results. One guy was able to identify a 'clearway' sign! Most muppets thought it meant pedestrian zone! Ffs pedestrian zone! They didn't notice a lot of traffic anywhere there's a clearway sign?

One oul biddy rang up to harp on about how awful it was, and to profess that she kept the rules of the road book in the car at all times, then when asked didn't know how to go around a roundabout properly! She came up with the bizare excuse that her rules of the road book was old - 1998 Oh we didn't have all these roundabouts back in the good old days of 1998

shockin

How about a 'worst thing you've seen on the roads' competition?

I've seen worse but I'll get the ball rolling with :

Silly old twat in a beamer

Coming from Douglas towards the Jack Lynch tunnel there's a long sweeping on-ramp to the dual-carrigeway. At the end of the ramp there's a slip-lane which is about 250m long. Not that long but plently of time to merge with traffic. The speed limit on this is 30mph but everybody does 45-50, almost everybody.

One day I'm crawling down this ramp behind some oul one in a BMW and at the end of the ramp she stops! Stops in the middle of the damn ramp! The slip-lane sits confused and empty in front of her as she cranes her head to see if there's anything coming down the dual carrigeway!

At this point you feel like screaming at her "OF COURSE THERE'S SOMETHING COMING YOU ****ING MUPPET. THERE'S ALWAYS SOMETHING COMING - THAT'S WHY THERE'S A SLIP-ROAD"! I actually remeber taking a deep breath and calming down. I looked in my mirror and saw several red-faced drivers who were probably less calm and then divine providence smiled on her and there was a break in the traffic, and she moved off.

She was probably mystified as to why people kept speeding past giving her the finger

[This message has been edited by Blitzkrieger (edited 07-05-2001).]

Victor

Thats cos we either can't afford cars or are not interested in them?

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Changing call sign to SIERRA PAPA OSCAR OSCAR FOXTROT.

Trojan

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Blitzkrieger:
How about a 'worst thing you've seen on the roads' competition?</font>

Not the worst thing ever but today someone just cut us up 3 times on the same roundabout. It's one of those small 2 lane roundabouts (@ top of Prospect Hill, Galway).

First he didn't realise there were 2 lanes (look at the lines man, the white lines!!). After cutting us off there, we were in the inside lane (going past him as right and proper) and he came round the outside 1/2way round and cut us off turning off the roundabout. Then he didn't pick one of the 2 lanes to go in (he went outside as he should then cut inside, thus cutting us up for the 3rd time).

Ah well. If you see a North Tipp recent reg silver 306 with a number one greater than 3000 watch out!

If you own this car, we really were trying to tell you that there were two lanes, and it was very rude to give us the finger. Your girlfriend is pretty goodlooking btw.

Al.

Dont be at yourself

Personnaly, I'd love to own a Nissan Skyline GT-R......... excellent performance, killer looks and a shedload of gadgets. A shade under £80k for it I think. Best start saving.

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Eye ham zee Walroos.
You ham zee Flyhead.

Trojan

I'm nearly (only a year or 2!!) out of the can-only-afford-to-insure-1.0L-Micra category, woohoo!

I was gonna go for one of a) 318 (old shape - 91 - 99) or b) 406.

But a muppet who lives with me just bought a 406 so I think I'll go for the bm...

When I've a job ...

Al.

Excelsior

My dream car is a MCC Smart Car.

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My Adolescent website:
http://www.iol.net/~mullent

[This message has been edited by Excelsior (edited 08-05-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Excelsior (edited 08-05-2001).]

Blitzkrieger

it's a Focus for me cos I can't afford my dream car. I don't want a second hand Porsche or the like. Odds are it'd still be in good mechanical order and go like stink but it just wouldn't be for me. I was actually behind a 2.0i Focus today in my old man's 2.0i Granada on my way to Shannon at 6am and could barely keep up with the thing.


what motoring board?

Blitzkrieger

o - just saw the motor board under community

tell you what - the boards are getting spread out a bit eh?

Kali

seen the new Ford Focus RS200 at the british motor show.. phoar.. ag stopgap till the Cosworth comes in, its still only FWD but with 200bhp, a crazy amount to be putting through the front wheels, still they assured me theres no torque steer

206CC instead of GTI
Punto GT instead of Sporting.

why isnt this on Motoring board?

ButcherOfNog

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Blitzkrieger:
So - the Focus it is for me then.</font>

this is yer ending to a thread u called 'another dream car' ... ummm ... why a ford focus?

why are you only looking at new cars? if you have 20k to spend you can get 'a dream car' but it won't be new.

this should be on the community car boards as well )

Blitzkrieger

lol - just looked at the board and saw a topic "dream car thread". My "another dream car thread" was because I posted a similar thread on this board b4.