Mk2 golf chrome grill + gti badge

The badge should be on Golf GTis, and you can get them from GSF, Eurocarparts etc. And VW...

How about a fully stainless grille

Better to completely remove all badges

Burgerman

Heh, I remember someone on the radio saying if you put a GTI badge on your GTI the insurance would go up if you declared it etc.

What about debadging or underbadging (like Escort Popular badges & exterior trim on an RST for example)

Well I wanted a theme of chrome and matt black paint. Swapping the big bumpers for some thin ones with chrome inserts, Porsche 944 (polished) door handles and chromed mk1/2 smaller wing mirrors.

Havn't decided on the wheels yet, I was thinking about getting some Porsche Cup 3 alloys and polishing them up but I havn't decided yet.

Aren't they all woefully lacking in the power stakes ? I don't recall you owning a V6...

And aren't their brakes all s**te ? I've always found that stock brakes fade away in a VERY short space of time, on a country-lane blast. My current 4-pot Brembos are the first set I've ever experienced, that actually let you *drive* the car without needing to apply any brake-sympathy.

I've seen an indicated 120mph in a 1.2 8v Vauxhall Corsa. You don't need a lot of power to go fast.

The peak power output doesn't tell the whole story of an engine's performance either.

The wops are generally regarded as making engines with lovely driving characteristics. Of course it helps that a lot of bits have fallen off or rusted away and the cars aren't nearly as heavy as they were from the factory. (c:

If a car has good grip, composure and handling, I find that I only really need the brakes for minor speed adjustments near corners.

Douglas

Careful, you are getting close enough there to need to insure it as a Porsche.

To be fair he didn't say they were slow :-D

And all those electrical gubbins don't sap any power after about 6 months 'cos they've all broken.

My brakes are the same ones as found on the GTi and GTi 180, both of which are much heavier and more powerful, so they are quite over specced for the car, so they do cope very well.

Of course you do ! Don't you find your A to B times are almost entirely dependent on the other traffic on the road ? The more power you have, the easier the required overtaking becomes. It's no good having a top-speed of 120mph, if it takes 20 minutes to get there :)

I drove down to Hull the other week in one of the work pool-cars (Fiat Idea,

1.2 I think) and it took a *lot* longer than it takes me in my own car. Having to wait for long, empty straights to overtake, absolutely *decimates* your average speed :)

Nah, you don't say :)

In a 1.2 8v Vauxhall Corsa, or 1.2 Fiat Idea, I'd agree. But in anything with a bit of go, you need much more than a "minor" speed adjustment when you reach a bend/roundabout...

No small engined piles of s**te are all about momentum. Unfortunately neither of the 2 mentioned are very good at corners...

Horses for courses. The slowest car I've had to drive on a regular basis was a poverty spec 1.9 NA Diesel 306 Estate. Plentynuff grip, handling and composure for me to nail it out of corners onto the next empty straight to overtake and little need to use the brakes on the whole. I'd go as far as to say that I don't come across a lot of overtaking opportunities I could pull off in my 150bhp Clarton or my

124bhp BitchX that I couldn't manage in a Diesel 306 or 205.

I wouldn't drive a 1.2 corsa by choice, I'd probably just set it on fire and find some way of getting a proper car.

I think we probably do different sorts of driving. I only drive long distances on A and B roads at the moment in my free time and as such, set my departure times to when I know there won't be much other traffic about.

Well you seem to attatch a lot of significance to it. From my limited experience of SO Alfas, they don't necessarily require a V6 to be driven like a complete lunatic. Perhaps you are also discounting that SO Alfas are often lighter than similar cars in their class, so have better power to weight.

I obviously tend to drive with a bit more brake sympathy than that. I'll pop it down a gear or two going into a corner to lose momentum, hard on the brakes just makes the car a bit edgy, without a margin for things like diesel spillage or slippy nonsense on the road. I have smoked the brakes on a fair few of my regular vehicles but only when I was taking the piss.

Douglas

I'd agree with that. But if your Carlton had 200bhp, then you'd find a fair few extra overtaking opportunities. It only takes a tiny bit of road to nip past a 40mph car, and you'd be surprised how quickly you can pass a 55mph granny.

Agreed. Both the Punto and the Idea that we're currently using, are

*horrendous* :)

Yes, it's very different driving "off-peak" so to speak. If I'd took the 1.2 Idea to Hull in the middle of the night, I bet I'd be within 5 minutes of my own-car time.

Well providing you use the gearbox properly, it's pretty much the biggest factor determining a car's A to B performance.

That may well be true - I have *zero* experience of them. The 146 is the only one I know by sight. Oh and the little late-90s Coupé thing, but I dunno what it's called.

I certainly am :)

I sometimes do - it depends on the journey. But if you HAVE to do it, then the brakes aren't upto the job.

Yep, me too if I'm just on an average amble.

Can't say I've *ever* encountered "slippy nonsense" on the road, in 10 years of driving. Except I once drove through a strip of green emulsion paint, and I was very glad my TI had mudguards :)

Perhaps I'll find out when I graduate to quicker machinery, but the BX is probably about the same weight and has nearly double the power of the

306. I prefer to be carrying at least some of the extra speed required before I overtake. I don't often find places I can't pull the same manouvre in both cars.

That said, the Carlton was capable of in indicated 85ish in 2nd. I usually overtook more cars at once in it. (c:

QED. Similarly, if I was driving at a peak time to a greater or lesser extent I would just sit in the traffic and move with it rather than try to overtake it all.

For example, try the A9 between Perth and Inverness during a typical day in the holidays. Utilising the take it easy tactic is much, much less stressful:

Between the mad Dutch and the utterly insane Italians, speed limited lorries and shandy drinking grey haired hat-wearing southerners, the overtaking lanes where 85% of people jump into the outside lane and Vmax for their car (which may be 75 or 120mph) and the local Traffic divisions with a lot of very expensive long range fund raising equipment, its not always quicker to overtake, you end up dead, with a light wallet or not very far ahead of where you were an hour and a half ago. (c:

For me, its the grip and cornering capabilities, once you take outright overtaking performace largely out of the equation by travelling when its not busy.

I thought you might be.

I was involved in an "incident" in a 205 due to an enormous diesel spill and I've been taken by surprise by unexpectedly slippery roundabouts and mud on dark country roads on quite a few occasions.

Douglas

[...]

You need more power.

Yes, but using Big Power to monster queues of traffic is *much* more fun. :)

The secret is only to Vmax on the two lane SC bits and do 82 on the DC sections...

Hunt where plod does not.

Near three figure averages are not that difficult, allegedly.

A82 is even more fun tho' :)

A

Big power. Thats probably whats missing from my endeavours. (c:

Note to self: get me an Alpina.

Sound advice I'm sure.

I did Glasgow - Golspie once in my Clarton, but I didn't enjoy it much untill after Inverness.

Agreed, although probably for similar reasons as I'm not a fan of most of the A9, the A82 between Fort William and Inverness makes me unhappy. I got a 60mph average between Cumbernauld and Lochailort in my Carlton though, which included a pee stop and a combined petrol/pee stop. (c:

I didn't used to drive the Carlton above three figures.

Actually the A830 is pretty tremendous. Used to only be good as far as Lochailort but almost all of it is spectacularly upgraded now as far as Mallaig.

Douglas

[...]

Big Power is *always* a Good Thing.

[...A9...]

Not had the B10 along the A9, yet.

...done several relaxed 10+ car overtakes with the ol' 740i though. :)

You still want an ALPINA tho', even a leetle one:

They tend not to trap short straights...

Hehehe, the wider the better.

You need a lot of grunt to have fun, even off season. Coming from the East you avoid the Lomondside jams, which is nice.

Spring and Autumn are the best times...

Pretty good going. :)

Must check that out.

A

You're not wrong.

I drive *much* more illegally on single-carriageway roads, than I do on the much-safer dual carriagways and motorways.

Which is the exact opposite of how it should be ! Kinda makes a mockery of our traffic enforcement really.

Natch. ;)

Absolutely, I wouldn't dream of doing 150+mph on a DC or M-way even when clear and safe...

Basing traffic management around arbitrary speed limits is just stupid.

A