Ian Geary wrote:My old uni flat mate has a Clio Sport 182.
We've not
"raced"
(don't like the thought of 2 powerful cars driving within inches of each other seeing who can do the stupidest overtake) but we have driven each others cars around a bit to see what they're up to.
He was quite taken back by the punch delivered by a decent high pressure turbo from fairly low in the rev range.
It's far more than the build up you get from taking a clio right up to the red line, although you shouldn't mistake the clio for being slow in absolute terms.
It does get rapidly to illegal speeds.
Just not as rapidly as the tubby, so in a straight line situation I'd have it beat every single time until my clutch foot fell off.
However, in terms of handling, this clio was planted.
It was far more confident negotiating bends than my 2.
When I say it was confident
- I don't mean the car of course
- they don't have feelings apparently.
I mean as I driver I was more confident about pushing it, and so was he.
My MR2 has koni shocks, oe springs, standard 15s with T1Rs
(boo hiss) with a fair amount of tread left, but there's no way i'd go into a fairly tight bend at more than 50 in the dry
- far less in the wet.
The clio is extremely chuckable, and just eats these corners up.
This could well have lead to the situation we're hearing about.
Also,
don't forget we don't have any details of this race whatsoever.
It was hardly a measured 1/4 mile sprint.
I'm imagining this chap has a fairly stress free job in a warehouse somewhere
(apologies any warehouse operatives), so the lunchtime sprint was probably around the industrial estate
- perhaps to the burger van and back?
Given these will only have roads of a few hundred yards, there would be very little opportunity to regain ground should a mistake be made, notwithstanding the driving skills of the clio owner at recovering from his inevitable wheelspin.
In addition, a speck in the mirror probably means about 3 foot behind
- we've all done the odd bit of exaggerating in our time.
On the flip side, to blame a broken tubby does sound somewhat lame.
The guy has witnessed this himself first hand
(unless he's just wasting our time
- a risk I'm willing to take), and no amount of disgruntled noises are going to make someone disregrd it.
I've snuck in front of a 350z and a Caymen S before now
- do you think I'm ever going to let an owner forget this if I meet them? No chance, despite them being one off, even freak occurances.
Would I then log on to their forums and say
"I'm not buying a Caymen S because my MR2 made it look like a tractor"?
- er, no.
Bottom line, this chap has made his own mind up.
If he doesn't want to join the MR2 commuity, I'm not going to loose too much sleep.
have a nice evening
Ian
