Colin McRae Rally 2005 objecively gets my pulse higher than any real car I’ve even driven in a straight line and produces micrograms of CO2 (the computer is solar powered). Your 4.8 seconds of tyre-smoking, look-at-me-I’m-macho, anti-social “thrill” belongs to a more superficial age when Yanks had 400bhp big blocks and a 55mph speed limit.

If you really want thrills then having found an appropriate place something like a basic Seven on skinny tyres won’t do your 4.8 seconds but will provide hours of entertainment. Choosing from the cars I’ve driven this one rewarded skills with thrills.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ahKPnq4emU&playnext=1&list=PL035E35A2F6CB2051[/video]

Colin McRae Rally 2005 objecively gets my pulse higher than any real car I’ve even driven in a straight line

😯

I get the skill/thrill ratio thing. I’ve had an immense amount of fun ragging an old Sierra round Knockhill. But there’s a lot to be said for sheer brute force acceleration.

EDIT: and what’s antisocial about it, anyway? Antisocial is pissing through someone’s letterbox, not giving it beans off the lights.

Antisocial is driving too fast (which may well be within the speed limit), or “giving it beans off the lights”, in a built up area increasing the danger to pedestrians, cyclists and other road users, and damaging people’s quality of life with increased noise and pollution.

If you want to be a racing driver, please go to a race track.

271bhp from 3 litres with 2 turbo’s. Peak power at 4k. That’s good?

Yes. You already said it’s twice as efficient! And who cares about the redline? I honestly don’t care what the max rpm of the engine is. If it bothers you that much why not cross out the numbers 1-5 on your dial and replace them with 1-8 instead? Cos that’s all the difference it makes.

Likewise specific power. Utterly pointless to compare two different engine technologies. Utterly. What matters is driveability, torque distribution, and power. And efficieny, too. A big V8 petrol might be lovely to drive, and have slightly better characteristics than that V6 diesel, but in the real world where we have to drive to the supermarket and pay for our own fuel, that diesel would win hands down for me.

Progress? Absolutely.

Im running it with miller diesel plus stuff in as apparently it reduces the unburnt fuel and black smoke emmisions you can get.

That stuff should increase mpg on its own, so if you are going to contrast and compare make sure the fuel is the same each time.

Re antisocial driving – a lot of people really don’t like it when other drivers f*ck about on the roads that we all have to share. that’s why it’s antisocial.

Imagine me riding my bike around Tescos at full pelt. That would be antisocial for the same reasons.

Well that’s me told.
🙄

F1 cars spin to 20k revs, they don’t need a high torque figure. My car has way more torque than a f1 car too. Hot hatches do these days. Meaningless stat that.

For comparison, the average cyclist…….

~1000N @ 0.175m = 175Nm

The downside is you wont do that much past 85rpm, or for very long.

Righty ho, the results are in.

604 miles from 50litre tank so its a load of shite and its out.

Average worked out at 54mpg however it was saying that each journey was averaging over 70mpg so it clearly kids something.

However on a more serious note when removing the said resistor(which the clip broke on and was a t$%t to remove) i noticed a bung sat in the engine bay……………then saw gear box teeth!! uh oh

put some oil in and it came straight out the bottom.

Now the last time i noticed a change was about 18 months ago when i thought the clutch may have been getting rough so it could have happened then, there is no oil anywhere on the engine bay and its been running fine with no drones or whines etc.

So in short the 20p resistor has saved me breaking down somewhere random, how long i have had a dry gear box for i havent a clue but fair play to VW.

Next question, how much for a new gearbox, or recon one, any ideas

I was lucky to get 300 miles from a tank on the Puma, I estimated approx 25-30/gallon

Count-zero I thought it was just me. 270 and its running on the limit of the tank. Mind you that engine seems to go up the rev range waaaay too easily 😀

I recently bought a vw box from a breakers for 450. recon was looking over 1000. the box came with warranty and had done only 40k, have a look on ebay. another tip is if you find out what the box code is it will likely be fitted to lots of other vag group cars so i found its cheaper to buy the same box from a skoda or seat than it is for an audi, even though the box is utterly identical.

However on a more serious note when removing the said resistor(which the clip broke on and was a t$%t to remove) i noticed a bung sat in the engine bay……………then saw gear box teeth!! uh oh

Missed this earlier – good spot though!

Used gearbox.. £2-300 I suppose if it’s an old car.

You don’t need a new gearbox…not yet anyway! Replace bung, give it a few oil changes with cheap oil over the next couple of weeks to flush out any metal particles, refill with decent oil and cross fingers would be my approach!

I was just looking at the vantuner link and this sentence caught my attention…have I miss-understood it or has someone done a cheeky edit (due to the repeated use of ‘or’ at the end?!)

The Eco tune map is a mild tune that focuses on torque and attempts to maximise mpg, so is ideal for towing, motor homes or very high mileage vehicles or Jews.

bland – Member
i noticed a bung sat in the engine bay……………then saw gear box teeth!! uh oh

put some oil in and it came straight out the bottom.

Now the last time i noticed a change was about 18 months ago when i thought the clutch may have been getting rough so it could have happened then, there is no oil anywhere on the engine bay and its been running fine with no drones or whines etc.

So in short the 20p resistor has saved me breaking down somewhere random, how long i have had a dry gear box for i havent a clue but fair play to VW.

Next question, how much for a new gearbox, or recon one, any ideas

Hang on “bung” “gearbox teeth” are you saying you could see gearbox teeth through the hole where the bung fitted?
And when you poured oil in it came straight out the bottom?
If so are you sure thats not the ring gear on the outside of the flywheel, as I don’t know many gearboxes that just have a “bung” breather plug maybe but most flywheel/clutch housings have an inspection bung?

If it is the ring gear I wonder where he poured the oil in?!

Careful. In my VW the plastic bung covered a hole used for timing (so you can see the timing marks on the flywheel). Pouring oil in there is not a good idea.

D’oh! Yes.. tis the timing inspection hole – little plastic thing with a tab on the end? You see one large ‘cog’ about 1/2″ thick? That’s the flywheel, and the teeth are for the starter motor.

Gearbox gears are a few inches across, and a few inches thick afaik, and have diagonally cut teeth…

I took it to be checked out and i was told that its casing was cracked and a gasket had gone so who knows. Its gone now anyway which it needed to anyway as it was starting to feel a bit of a dog to drive and was going to start costing too much to keep going