My Ideal car...

I wouldn't touch a Ford with yours...
My folks had 2 Kas, both of which had a dodgy steering column - it appears there's a design fault which results in excessive play - both failed their first MOTs!
Andf even Clarkson had to send his GT back due to it's unreliability...

 

I am sure plenty of people have had plenty of trouble with mercs and the like. My dads car has been pretty reliable considering its age and 90,000 city miles on the clock.

My dads Punto failed its first MOT, but past the second one, as you don't need an MOT for 3 years I would have thought it was very common for cars not to pass their first MOTs.

 

Personally I'd like something that's fun, lightweight, sounds great (preferably a six or v8), relatively affordable and rear wheel drive.
At the moment, this looks a bit good:

 

So much more fun to drive, but requires more skill to keep on the road as they just arent as forgiving of errors as FWD or 4WD. In experienced drivers in a powerful RWD car is a ditch waiting to happen.

If you hit a bend a bit quick in a FWD its not too much drama to lift off the accelerator but doing that in a RWD will unballance the car and produce lift-off-oversteer which depending how much can see you very sideways even backwards! Also booting a FWD into a corner can lower the centre of gravity and help you round but in RWD will produce more sideways action.

I guess that makes people wonder why bother? The drive is awsome and you are so much more connected its worth the effort to learn how to drive it, its why sports cars like ferrari and porsche are RWD or 4WD (personally I think 4WD takes some of the fun out making them a bit too planted).

Steering is sharper as the front wheels are only doing one job ie no torque steer.

We are talking fun cars here (which hot hatches are supposed to be) not cruisers! I think the majority of their target market couldnt handle RWD and accidents would be bad publicity - I say compulsary training for performance/semi p cars!

I got a free track session with my car learning where the edge was, cornering and using over and understeer and general characteristics in complete safety using someone elses car/tyres

 

My dads RWD Lada ended up in a ditch once, but I think that had more to with the leaf spring rather than a power engine

 

:lol:

Jeremy Clarkson bumped into Kate Moss in a celeb hangout recently and invited her to be a Star in a Reasonably Priced Car.
Not having a clue who he was, she said " I'm sorry, I dont know you, what do you do? "
"I do Top Gear" replied Clarkson.
" F@cking great , I'll have 10 grammes of smack and a bag of skank please" said Kate. :MILD:

 

'Crack'ing

 

Why? 6 cylinders are better then again 8, 10,or 12 have been known.

At a 144 degree power cycle is obviously more desirable than 180 degree, just one word of caution the balance of 5 cylinder engines can cause wear on the crankshaft, Audi over engineered there lower end, cannot see Ford doing the same.

 

Reputedly FWD cars get lift off oversteer too. The 205 GTI is a good example, never driven one, but apparntly it is rather prone.

Certainly in my focus i have got some oversteer when i lifted mid bend. To be honest though it mostly occurs when I am trying to provoke it.

I would leave the focus in a heartbeat for that M coupe Mr_Sukebe. The looks are an aquired taste but I actually rather like them. And add to that proabaly the best straight six ever produced it must be formidable, lighter than an M3 too. I loved my dad's e46 M3, I have driven his RS6 which is an amazing car, but I bet I would have enjoyed the M3 more.

 

You can get lift-off os in a FWD,but its much harder to control than RWD

RWD= oversteer,thats what all the fuss is about

 

a mate had an m coupe and backed it over a roundabout at 80+ mph soing all sorts of grief to the suspension, alloys and body panels. damn quick car, looks better then bangles efforts tho'

my current car is very close to my ideal economical, roomy enough for kids / mates / kit / other crap and pretty nippy- if i could get a diesel mpv which did 0-60 in under 7 seconds 50+ mpg and be a convertible then it'd be perfect but somehow convertible / mpv seem to be mutually exclusive .

 

Even had a triumph Acclaim that had lift off oversteer, Mind you we had put a turbo on it.

 

You will be looking a long time julian2002, what car have you got at the moment sounds like a Picasso

 

I could get the tail out in my old AE82 Corolla GT (205 competitor), but that was only around roundabouts and in the wet. For real tail out happiness, the right solution is poor tyres, rear wheel drive and plenty of power. My S13 was awesome with the manky tyes I bought it with, donut city!

 

That just seems to scream penis extention to me

 

followed by an S13,great cars!

 

gazz, currently have a seat alhambra tdi - does most of what i want although it'd be nice to have a few more toys and a magic dissapearing roof (along with zero weight penalty stiffening) would be nice for sunny days...

best tail out vehicle i've ever driven was a big old chevy van - lazy american v8 with rear wheel drive and more torque biased than power meant you could kick the back end out at very low speeds and get the thing to do the most outrageous things and still be sort of in control of it. worst was an old nissan 200sx crazy engine, rear wheel drive, bald tyres and torrential texan downpour equals dizzyness. the lexus wasn;t too bad for oversteer either but the handling was a bit too wooly to really feel secure getting the back end out. my 406 coupe would get lift off oversteer but that was only at insanse cornering speeds and i nearly shat myself when it happened so i tried to avoid it from then on.

 

Its based on a reworking of the volvo units, and volvo have been making 5 cylinders for a while now. I just like the character of them really, they sound lovely and are smoother than a four. Smooth but sligtly rough. Think of the works Audi quattro S1 rally car sound! Why is it that 5's are actually smoother than fours, my conventional wisdom would suggest it was unbalanced due to two cylinders then three cylinders firing as apposed to two two's.

Also, what about the VW V5, that seems even more peculiar, i mean two on one side of the v and three on the other?? Is that right.

The bugatti in my sig has a straight eight, i suppose they went out of fassion for packaging reasons.

I learnt a lot about oversteer when i had an old 2ltr granada that i raced around the farm. Great fun untill it died! I fancy getting a mk2 RS2000, and maybe eventually dropping a zetec under the bonnet. That should be fairly hairy.

200sx's are pretty mean, isn't that what professional drifters use?

 

If you buy one of these please do not do anything apart from restore it to its former glory, To many of these have been ruined and they are a great fun car to drive.

 

Strangely, I hardly know anyone who likes the look of the M Coupe but me. Most people think of it as an ugly bread van version of hairdressers car using a rear suspension from an E30.

Me, I see it as a reliable TVR.