ITT - Brag About Your Car

I'm currently driving a P-reg Citroen Saxo, that'd make it a 96/97 model. The older model of one of these:



It's my girlfriend's mum's old car (We got that, her twin sister got a 3 year olf Ford Focus, cheers mum) and they live next to a cow shed and all the amonia from the cow shit had rotted through the brakes and exhaust. I had to get all new brakes (Not just pads, the whole unit was fucked on three of them), got the exhaust welded up, new oil filter, re-aligned the headlights which were angled off funny for some reason and gave it a proper clean out. Cost me £500 to get the fucking thing road-legal.

It's got a key-pad code immobilizer thingy, the stereo is a semi-decent Sony head unit with ragged to fuck shitty stock speakers. The sealant round the windscreen is going so when it rains you get pretty wet inside the car. The monstrous 1.1 engine propells the car to a strained 85mph with only me in it and I think the clutch will be gone by next year. It's a pretty horrible brown colour (Bronze I think technically) and pretty dirty. Oh yeah, the left wing mirror is a bit loose from where some daft woman cycled into it earlier this morning when I was stopped at the lights. She properly face-planted into the pavement afterwards, it was hilarious.

My previous car was my girlfriend's sister's old Fiesta. She never put any oil or water in it so one day I was pushing it a little hard and one of the pistons smashed through the engine block...

Prior to that I had my Impreza which was basically the best car ever. 0-60 in a shade over 5 seconds, top speed of about 155 and unlike those ridiculous contraptions you Americans call fast cars, it went round corners with barely a thought for the brakes. Nicola pointed out the other day that now I'm getting paid a shit load for my job, I could actually afford another one but I think I'll wait until I've cleared some debts first. When the Saxo dies (Sometime in the next year I imagine) I'd quite like something like a Vauxhall Tigra or a Mitsubishi FTO, essentially a small hatchback with the back seat reduced to a shelf and a decent suspension package. Having driven a car at over 150mph on public roads, I no longer feel the need for something that stupidly fast and given most of the driving I do is round country lanes, something that corners well is far more of a priority for me.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Animechanic

I just saw this and figured you fellow gearhead types would be interested:

This guy beats everyone for bragging rights.

Surely over the course of ten years, if he'd worked a paying job for all the time he spent building that thing he could have bought a proper Lambo and wouldn't suffer from the fact it had a substandard engine and potentially lethally sub-standard build quality?

He only would have needed to save £6,000 a year to buy this one for example.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Animechanic

I'd imagine it would make quite the track car. Even if the engine is smaller, it's pretty souped up, and considering the thing is 100% aluminum body panels and space frame, the power to weight has to at least be comparable to the real thing.

It might be alright in a straight drag race but I wouldn't fancy trying to take any high speed corners in it. Setting up the suspension and weight balance on a car like that so it doesn't kill you the first time you try to drive round a corner is a tricky business and it's that aspect that makes these cars so expensive in the first place. Any idiot can stick a fuck off great engine in a car and make it go fast in a straight line (Sup the American auto industry?) but making a a car that'll go round a track fast takes some brains. On this week's Top Gear the new Zonda R beat the Vayron round their track by a good half a second, despite being 300bhp less powerful.

I mean, I'm sure his Shambourghini wasn't slow and I know you guys don't actually have many corners over there but personally, I'd have saved up and bought a proper one.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.