Practical performance cars

Anything Rover could do, Ford could do worse.

RS200? Not sure it’s practical, but its performance is unquestionable. 0-60 in 3s or so?

My old Calibra – deeply unfashionable but such a pretty shape

The Manta had a bit of a following in these parts back in the day.

My Westfield,not practical but full of performance! 😀

Golf g60, rallye g60 or the ultimate, golf g60 limited

MR2 Turbo.
0-60 in 5.2 seconds.
30+ mpg.
Enough boot space for 2 people’s luggage for 2 weeks on holiday.
Easy to tune.
Cheap to fix.
Cheap to buy.
Cheap to insure.
Can get 1 bike in passenger seat and 2 on a bike rack on the back.

Perfect car if you don’t have kids.

22b
0-60 4.5s
enough boot space for 2 bikes
no need to tune
group 20
insane short wheel base handling 😀

The Flying Ox – genuine question, was the handling any better on the turbo than the standard?

beej – only drove a non-turbo once, so not much to go on. The turbo and n/a weigh virtually the same with the same weight distribution, so at normal road speeds there’s nothing in it. Turbos are all Jap imports though, and they were generally specced with all the extras like LSD, ABS etc. that cheapo UK buyers never bothered with, so on paper are probably better. What I’d say is that the Turbo has the potential to get you into a world of trouble a hell of a lot faster than the n/a would.

Handling compared to anything else? My MR2 turbo was the best car I’ve ever driven. Granted, that’s not much company, but there is a Mazda RX8, E36 3-series, E24 6-series and my current Legnum VR4 in there.

No pics, but for when the French actually knew how to build decent cars, I had:

Peugeot 309GTI – pretty much the best handling hot-hatch of its day
Citroen BX 16v – quick and revved higher than most (pre-vtec)
Peugeot 405 Mi16 – superb handling, rapid and spacey

Here’s another under-rated 80s classic (a couple of these at the classic car show today which reminded me)

…and the performance version

surprised that no one has posted one of these yet: … Lotus Carlton

Legend, you beat me to it.

always wanted my grandads series 2a v8 landy 88 maybe a bit older than you were looking for 😀 sold it for ALOT more than he bought(new)it was in good condition for a working vehicle – he was a landscape gardnener – i was too young to drive so couldnt buy it 🙁

not his one – but same colour – he had no winch and he had a rag top though. propper practical performance ;d

uncle had a chevette – what a piece of crap. he also had a 2.8i capri laser – liked that but it liked to rust …. and a mk1 golf GTI.

gti definantly the best of the road cars i had experiance of from the 80s for sure !

not the most practicle but still awsome

Renault Clio Williams / 16V….

I had a 16V, it was a great chuck-about hot hatch, but I don’t have time to list all the faults it had in the 7 years I hammered it (may be the reason why)

I was over the moon to get a grand when I part exchanged it and it then became someone elses problem.

Now going through the same senario with my antique Mk3 Golf GTI 16V, that will be replaced next year.

Proper cars 🙂

Don’t really get modern ones, especially the weird cult of the VAG clone turbo diesel estate on here. They stopped being good in 1995…

Edit: Mk3 GTis, just say NO.

I would love a Golf rallye, the only car i regret never owning.

The Rallye’s kind of ugly though – the rectangular headlights just look proper wrong and those skirts… I always fancied a Mk2 GTi with a 2.8 VR6 jammed in it there.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3012/is_2_181/ai_70935206/

The Rallye’s kind of ugly though – the rectangular headlights just look proper wrong

Im a jetta fan so that probably explains it. Had a Corrado vr6 and loved every second of owning it. (Apart from the mpg)

To be fair, the Rallye has a sort of discrete charm of its own, a bit like a bull-dog or Jimmy Nail or something on those lines… I always thought a Jetta VR6 would make a pretty good Q car fwiw. You’ve got to love the VR6, best noise. Corrados are ace, but quirky and expensive to run with all those blinking Karmann body parts and yes, the fuel economy isn’t great though you can manage mid-30s mpg if you drive like a nun on valium. And they’re still stealth quick as well.

Always wanted a Corrado, never had a chance to drive one though, in reality I think I’d probably hate anything but the V6. Stick a 1.9TDI in one maybe

Course, what you should do here is buy the magazine Practical Performance Cars, they’ll have loads of good advice about what’s practical. Rover SD1 with a 27-litre tank engine? Range Rover chassis with a Reliant Scimitar bolted to it? Ancient transit van with a small block V8? Ideal.

G60 Corrado? Or did the supercharger bring all sorts of obscure problems with it?

I have always wanted a Lancia Delta Intrega

Blistering performance , and handling ( probably) and Practical.

Audi Rs2 or even the B5 RS4 is a very usable day to day car. B7 RS4 is fantastic, sounds great, swallows gear, goes like stink.

There are some “creative” interpretations of the word ‘practical’ going on here!

For all the Lancia geeks, this is mine. It can take 2 bikes, 2 people and kit and for a weekend so it does class as practical so long as you don’t consider fuel economy! Being honest though it’s still a toy first and foremost, trying to pretend it’s an ordinary car is just not going to work.

G60 Corrado? Or did the supercharger bring all sorts of obscure problems with it?

not really, as long as you got the charger overhauled every 40K they were fine. and a decent airfilter to make sure no grit got into it too! I had a G40 (supercharged Polo coupe) and it was one of the most fun cars I’ve owned, proper Q car 🙂

Honda Integra Type-R. Big boot, big power, big rev limit, and Evo magazine’s best handling front wheel drive car ever. And being a Honda, doesn’t know the meaning of unreliable. Which is more than can be said for the Clio 172 Cup I owned later …

The MkII CRX VTEC was good too, OK it’s titchy but the back seat folds down to give a pretty decent sized boot. And plenty of that VTEC power

Hmm… the Mk2 Golf GiT is ubiquitous in this thread and with good reason. I owned a 16v and it was pretty bloody quick when it was filled with the correct (98 octane) fuel. Mine went wrong a lot though, but it could lug a bike and crack 40mpg on a good day too.

There’s also my much missed Alfa 156 V6. I’m going to get a lot of flaming for that choice, mainly by people who’ve never driven or owned an Alfa. Mine was brilliant, the only issue to report is ruinous fuel consumption but that was a moot point when driving through the Dartford tunnel at 50mph in second with the windows down. 🙂

I’ve also spent a lot of time in Corrado VR6s and of all the cars I’ve driven it’s the one that’s made me feel like a driving god, instead of the hamfisted oaf that I am. Utterly, utterly sublime if you can find one that doesn’t go wrong a lot.

Right now, I’d settle for another Mk2 Golf GiT 16v. In Helios Blue please with three doors and a Momo steering wheel.

I could get a bike in the back of this

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Scotland 2010 2010-08-22 155[/url] by 5lab[/url], on Flickr

I’m not sure if Elfin is on the windup or just an utter tool…..

Anyway, if it were my money (which it’s not) I’d be going down the VW route. Theres a lovely MK2 GTI on speed hunters at the moment, failing that a Mk1 would also do the trick. Or how about a low light Ghia, bit older but a proper lovely car.

Any pre 80’s 911 without the wing, 308’s are now decent money or an E30 M3 as already mentioned.

+1 on the NSX too, I’ve ALWAYS wanted one….

just seen one of these parked up. not sure how practical it is, but it looks quite ‘performancy’

Do modified cars count?

My mate’s 5.7l chevy V8 powered Mk2 Mini for instance?

Saab 900 T16S

I had three of these. They all did around 200k.

Huge boot. Super comfy aero heated seats. Quick enough in its day. Handled OK, if you were brave. Felt as if hewn from solid granite.

Wish I’d kept the last one. 🙁

Get yourself a nice MG ZS and make rude signs at the BMW drivers as you leave them standing! 🙂

I saw an Integrale in Edinburgh yesterday…it had a WTF plate.

Extremely cool.

Our Megane 225 cup with the seats down can take a couple of front wheels out bikes and enough kit for a holiday for me and Zoe. Plenty quick enough too (6.1/155) – best front wheel drive car I have driven in terms of performance and handling. This one’s not ours but pretty close visually (ours has the optional and slightly obvious red Brembo calipers on the front with the dodgy looking red painted Renault calipers on the rear).

Despite Renault reputation has been totally reliable so far (as was our 2l turbo Laguna that we had before – obviously more roomy than the Megane and great in a straight line but cornered like a deflated hovercraft). Did however have a new engine fitted just before we bought it (suspect it might event be the newer 250 unit, which is nice).

slainte 8) rob