Have just got back from a weekend of events in the sierra. Last night was a road rally in Devon which we had to retire from because the brakes went crazy. Today was grass autotests which went much better after ditching the ABS and braking assistance. Despite being an ancient car with an ancient engine and soggy suspension it proved itself to be very very capable, depsite being against some supposedly better cars - 325i sport, MX5, 205 GTi, 205XS, Nova 1.2 and my mk1 MR2. The heavy pig iron engine lead to a bit of understeer but that was normally sorted with a dip of the clutch and
5krpm resulting in huge power slides and huge grins :)I was mostly just having a laugh but set a few fast times. On the last test my old MR2 was setting the fastest time of 1 minute, which I couldnt beat (turns out drifting isnt the quickest way of competeing, strange that!) but Andy, the MR2 driver, had a go in my car and set a final time of 56s in a very tidy fashion! So I'm very pleased with the old girl, even if she needed a better driver than me to get the best time!
Have also learnt a lot about how the car handles beyonds its limits, which i think is a useful thing to know. Also managed to do the best donuts of the days - proper on the spot stuff, none of the rubbish everyone else was managing! And apart from pulling a tyre off the rim and everything being covered in grass the car seems to have come away unscathed! Hopefully there'll be some pics at some point, just a shame no one had a video.
Now thinking about selling the XR though, as I've had my fun and now I've got the ZX i dont need a second bigger car. So if anyone wants something fun for the wet autumn/winter roads for not much money, let me know!