Mini Road Test :- Pug 207 1.4 HDi

Before I picked this one up, one of the lads said, "do you know these pool cars are restricted to 62mph" ?

There and then, my challenge there and then was of course to make it go faster than that, somehow.

Until I sat down in it and switched on the ignition.

There in the middle of the dash, the in car readout goaded me with the following declaration.

----51.1mpg average fuel consumption-----

Going faster than 62mph was no longer my quest.

In a journey that Dervy would have been proud of, which involved drafting everything larger than a bicycle, lifting off early, avoiding the brakes, driving on a whiff of throttle, never calling on the boost and changing up at slightly above tickeover, I managed to raise this somewhat.

70.5 mpg.

Now, some of this journey was downhill, but I had to come back uphill to return to the starting point, so that evens out, I would suggest. At the end of the out leg, it was actually 95.5mpg. The overall journey also included a mix of traffic, dual carriageway and a modicum of manouvering as well, so I'm claiming this as fair too.

Other than that and in spite of what the motoring press say about it, I actually really liked it. Small cars can be good fun, even driving like a nun.

I would have one. I may even do so.

(You will notice that in keeping with the charter of this group, this post has no modification content in it whatsoever.)

Reply to
Bob Sherunckle
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Heh, makes you wonder, doesn't it? The disks are held on by the wheel nuts and studs so it makes me wonder why the starlocks. The rear disks do have the handbrake drum built into them but that still doesn't excuse the starlocks to me because it's hardly as if the disk will fall off and the handbrake pads disintegrate if they are not there. Sharp little devils and the only way to get them off is to unscrew them off the studs.

I didn't have any problems with them on the Ford, they just didn't seem to do much, but I did get very dirty alloys when using them.

Worth a pop, and worth a mention if they do anything useful. Fitting slotted and drilled disks had the greatest and most useful effect on the Ford. It stops really well even on Alpine roads now. In the past repeated braking could get a little brown-trouser when trying to stop from 90 mph [1] on downhill sections from Switzerland towards Italy.

[1] Yeah, but no cameras, no cops.
Reply to
Steve Firth

That's unusual, I've used *stuff pads without issue for years.

Well, you don't want Greenstuffs on something as big and heavy as the Exploder - I don't even use them on the 75, which is currently wearing Yellowstuff pads.

Reply to
SteveH

They make a range specifically for 4x4s.

Reply to
Steve Firth

That's fantastic! :)

Reply to
DervMan

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