Jason Plato

"Beaten by a mincing dancer"

almost as bad as being beaten by an it

Reply to
Tim S Kemp
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"Beaten by a mincing dancer"

almost as bad as being beaten by an Italian in a Vauxhall...

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

Eh?

Reply to
JackH

fifth gear tonight....

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

Oh... right.

Don't watch that - seemed to a piss poor copy of Top Gear not worth watching, the one time I did.

Reply to
JackH

As Tim says, 5th Gear. You didn't miss much. They had a supercharged VXR8, so they kept in on a really tight handling course marked with cones, there was a couple of small slides, but nothing like you'd wanna see/do with a

500bhp, low tech RWD beast.

Tiff was cool as always. The other presenters are ALL irritating, scruffy, Top Gear wannabe brainless organ sacks.. Some people like Vikki Butler Henderson, personally I think she's a weird, frog faced slag - there is no shortage of stories about her slaggy ways out there.

There was a particular shining moment though, when they did the 'shoot-out' which was the new RenaultSport Twingo 133 vs a really mint looking Renault 5 GT Turbo Raider :-p I was creaming when it came on hehe, they all said how they'd lusted for one (as have I since I was about 10) in their younger days. As I say, it looked totally mint, in the original dark blue of the Raider and the 'acquired taste required' alloys that were also painted dark blue, the only mod I saw was a small Nurburgring badge on the back - so it may have lived the correct life hehe. The Twingo won by 2 seconds plus round the short track, 50 seconds and the GTT took high 52s but it was so obvious that was gonna happen as it was very wet and the Twingo had so much more grip.

Plato drove both laps, he said the Twingo was really good in a competent, revvy modern fun way with loads of grip. He clearly had more fun in the GTT though hehe, all the windows were totally steamed up and the rear end was pretty much all over, whilst when it came on boost leaving the bend, it started with a nice load of power-understeer and even some spinning up. Afterwards one of the presenters that obviously lives in a bin, said that Plato reckoned that the sliding and grip issues the big fat profile tyres on it's 13" alloys wouldn't be helping in any way, and with some modern, decent tyres on it would make a huge difference. Also during his lap, he mentioned that the engine, despite the fact that it's getting on a bit, with it's

8valves, carb and pushrods the little turbo'd 1.4 was still pulling really strongly through the revs but I guess we don't know if it was standard, or still only running (iirc) 8psi of boost given the reputation they have for being 'easy' to tune... The standard looking minters are always the ones getting uprated head gaskets, copper core rads, big FMICs etc etc combined with a small tweak of the boost and some other hidden tweakery. Then there's the Carisma body-kitted ones, sprayed with flip paint and riding on 18s with 30 profile tyres and the in car boost controller being cranked up and over safe at every set of lights...

GT Turbo's are awesome :-)

Reply to
DanB

Wet = good methinks.

In the dry, the 5 would have got too hot and blown up. ;-)

They blow up every five minutes... plus AliG drives one - what's not to like? ;-)

Having said that, yes, the Raider in standard form is one of those cars that just looks spot on... same as the 309 GTi Goodwood, 106 GTi in 'Jewish Gold' or a 205 1.9 GTi in Miami Blue.

I miss 80s hot hatches. :-)

Reply to
JackH

I could also accept a Sorrento Green 205 1.9 GTi.

A-men brother.

Reply to
DanB

Aye, they look alright in that too... my last Astra GTE 16v showed one of those who was boss.

In a straight line, mind. ;-)

That car was appalling traction wise off the mark... partly because of the

177bhp it allegedly had, partly because it was a Mk2 Astra, and partly because it, looking at the varying panel shuts, had obviously not been repaired properly after the last big smack it had apparently had...

Incidentally, I've been over the workshop where the Passat is today, changing all the damaged pulleys / fan before they bolt the front end on.

They've done a great job of yanking the damage out on the jig, the door shuts are now spot on and I should have it back ready for things like the airbags to be changed by the end of the week.

I don't give a shit that SteveH branded it 'horrible' when he drove it, the one I miss the most really is that Nova GTE I had about five years ago.

Cost f*ck all and turned out to have a pukka Courtenay big valve head conversion, and the best brakes I've had yet in any car really.

Yes, it scrabbled like a good un out of roundabouts, but then that was part of the attraction for me - it felt bloody quick and powerful... possibly because having driven it back to back with a standard GTE, it was.

The other one I miss is that 106 Rallye with the VTS lump... the fact it was comfy and practical, yet stupidly rapid on a twistie bit of road, crackling and spitting flames on the over-run, and with the five spoke white Compomotive rims it had, it actually looked like a real little rally car. :-)

Reply to
JackH

You know a car is awesome when you can say "after the last big smack it had apparantly had" implying it's had several big smacks hehe! My mates brother, few years older than us, bought a brand new, yellow, 1.1 Saxo. He crashed it, in fairly major ways like literally 7 times. It was jigged 4 times, and had at least 3 full resprays. We were utterly baffled as to why the insurance company kept paying out, although it crashed more times than it was claimed on, as he figured he'd crash again so he figured he'd just claim all the damage happened at once. I'm not making this up heh. Anyway, when it started peeling, had comedy panel gaps and door shuts and the bonnet was wonky, he traded it in for a 1.2 Corsa, again new but with 2 years free insurance (his insurance record being a bit 'exciting') which saved him about £3k. The dealer didn't look it over at all really, just sort've glanced and then took it.

Awesome :-) What was the payout in the end, and the cost to buy it back/get it fixed?

Heh, pretty sure not many people in here/in the world would care if SteveH didn't like how their car drove, infact, many people might take it as a positive ;-)

Lad I know (well, I'd say hi to him in the street) used to have an AX GTi with a VTS engine, no interior from the front seats back and a load of engine bits like fancy inlet/exhaust manifolds, cams, full straight through etc. It just had normal front seats and everything and he used it as like, a small van for work - no idea what he did - but when he booted it, it was seriously ballistic hehe! 'Cos it was a GTi it had the 4 stud hubs so finding alloys was easy, and it had some black compomotives on of some form, and it had bigger front brakes as well that needed 15s to clear them, dunno what they were from though.

As I say though, he reckoned a guess of like 150-160bhp or something and it was just such insane acceleration, probably felt quicker than it was, but then, it didn't weigh anything. The way the rev counter just sorrt've flicked round to the top and the speedo just didn't seem to slow as it flew round and after not very long, hit the limiter in 5th at a slightly guessed top speed of about 130 'indicated', as it the speedo stopped been able to move before the rev counter. I assume it was the standard gearbox as I reckon a VTS 'box would allow a bit more than that top end.

I only ever went in it once, in exchange for me taking him out in the Vee, which I did, and then coming off the seafront roundabout with a very wet road, which was covered with sand, I did one hell of an accidental holy shit type powerslide that I pretended I was fully in control of at all times and did on purpose - he was pretty impressed, and I thought I had actually pooped, good job it was dark so he couldn't see the fear in my eyes...

Reply to
DanB

I've never driven anything as bad at putting power down as that.

It made a 147 GTA look controlled.

Reply to
SteveH

At least you still have control of the steering wheel.

Reply to
SteveH

Try a 500+ bhp RWD Cosworth in the wet. Wheelspin can become tiring...

Reply to
Pete M

yay someone that agrees with me on that vikki bitch

Reply to
Vamp

You would, though ;-)

Reply to
SteveH
[snip]

No, me too. She smokes cigars, drinks neat scotch. AFAICS that makes her the slag version of Anne Widdecombe.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Not even if she paid me. She's utterley repulsive, just looking at her makes my skin crawl. Then she claims to be a racing driver and the laughter stops me from actually getting the point of throwing up.

Reply to
DanB

Or a 147 GTA apparently...

...see.

Reply to
DanB

I am the male version of Anne Widdocombe.

Reply to
Douglas Payne

It wasn't that bad.

You should have driven that Astra actually, for proper values of 'Well quick cos it's shredding its front tyres, innit bruv'.

Reply to
JackH

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