Prace bets now.....

There was a Sillyspeed 147 for £1k more, but I figured that tempting the gods of a good laugh.

Slower than my 156.... even though I have a Sillyspeed box ;-)

Ah but if it was an endurance race... ;-) The 156 would probably be better on fuel mind you... Seriously though, I bet there'd be no real difference in performance on the road anyway heh. Although if it's torque you want, well, the only option is clearly a Fiat Doblo 1.9 JTD 105, with weight saving removal of 2 of the rear seats... :-p You also have the advantage that people would be so busy looking at you saying "Woah, look how ugly that car is!" whilst pissing themselves laughing - bound to distract enough to slow them down!

You got the lexus for free?

I can't stand it any more! I'd much rather be daily-driving an E63AMG even though it needs 7000 rpm on the clock to feel fast, or an M5, or an M3. We drive diesels because we're all too skint / tight to pay for big fuel bills. They are in no way any better to drive.

They're not better to drive in any way, shape or form. That's not what I meant. They are easier to put up with on a busy motorway so you don't have to keep dropping down gears for overtaking, just ride the torque wave instead. That said, given the choice, I'd rather have the E63AMG too ;-)

Mike P

I'm so with you on that one :-)

My Clio F1 and my mates Corsa VXR were the same speed in a straight line - but I much preferred the n/a 2.0 16v to the 1.6 16v Turbo in the Corsa. The Clio just begged to be revved, and the more you did the more fun it got! Also, like a Civic Type-R it was no worse low down than any other 2.0 16v n/a engine, it just had extra power at the top so it felt worse lower down. Also, the gearing was awesomely short so it was easy to keep it on the boil and keep the shift light flashing :-p

It's an age thing. It's well know that your acceptable rev limit for a car is inversely proportionate to your age.

I look forward to the day that 2,000rpm becomes unnacceptably high. Look forward just as much to 11,000rpm out of the engine in the Sylva as well right enough...

Remember, a week ago I turned 40. Maybe being sensible turned into a mid life crisis.

i feel like an old man everytime someone asks me about the mini and i say 'yeah it's nice, saved me loads of money'

I forgot about that, happy belated birthday dude :-)

Is your opinion.

Not fact.

HTH

Yeah, kwik fit jacked straight through mine...

LOL... I did that once to an Austin Maxi I owned for all of about three weeks, at which point it did me a favour and threw a rod.

Jesus... I've never got anything down that low.

Think the worst I've had was an XR4x4 2.9i, which I got down to 15mpg by caning it mercilessly round some twisties.

Hmm, speed is relative, I'd take a longitudinal I6 over a transverse I4 any day and my thoughts are not with the Alfa in terms of avoiding things that cost eleventy-million pounds to fix.

This Carl fixation you have looks unhealthy, man.

I'm off to start a new thread: 'Cars that SteveH chooses are shit'

-- Douglas

Heh.

The whole saga went on almost as long as my company car saga....

With lots of sensible ideas put forward.

Then one of the least sensible choices possible was made.

I think that's one thing most of us agree on.

We even have the unlikely alignment of me, Jack H and seemingly Pete M all agreeing on this one ;-)

Not even trying. I got the XJR down to 3mpg.

:-O

That's horrendous, even if you're loaded and can afford to wipe your arse with £50 notes.

Humm, what's the damage when you're driving relatively sedately???

Normally I have to say that.