Automotive

Since EVO magazine declered the Golf GTI Clubsport the best car of 2016 , well actually the 911R came on top but since prices have gone up to around one million Euro i can easily count it out .

for what? Always a bit strange these lists. However sure it is a good car.

The guys at EVO get to drive all cars they want to. At the end of the year they have to pick 12 of them ( brought out in that same year) and test them properly.

By the way how did you like the 1m?

for now i have to be happy with my rental Toyota Yaris ... or whatever car they will give me tomorrow .....

Let me know when we can meet up in Gent. Time to catch up...

i am back in a couple of weeks, celebrating Hannukah this evening ;-)

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.... but you know i have acces to many keys .... . Oh ... Stay tuned, as 2017 could get REALLY interesting ;-)

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...Lot's of promises made .... promises promises .... you know ;-)

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Cool car, but wait, that's not right.  It's a "Hot Hatch!" 

Looking good!  I wonder if the BMW 120d or this one will become your favorite... 

I've always liked the look of GTIs, but I've never driven any extensively.  Looking forward to reading your impressions! 

Happy Holidays Bim! 

So this 1M will be far more interesting.

That BMW 120d seems to be really great at fuel economy and performance, but is it noticeably smaller than your Renault Clio?  Does the rear wheel drive in the BMW 120d give it a tremendous advantage? 

I think the VW GTI is a good size, seems bigger than the 120d. 

The Renault Clio is in the same class as a VW Polo, but the RS is a few cm wider so it looks the size of a Golf almost. The 120d should be in the same class as the Golf but i think it is a tiny bit bigger, at least a lot heavier. The Clio and the 120d are extremely different cars to be honest, they couldnt have been more opposite to each other and that's also because i wanted to keep the Clio i needed the extra car to be completely different. A comparison: Clio RS vs 120d 1. Petrol vs Diesel 2. Non turbo vs turbo 3. FWD vs RWD 4. Manual vs Automatic 5. French vs German 6. 201 hp vs 190 hp ... Which is actually very close but the first at 7100 rpm and the other at 4000 rpm, zero to 62 in 6.9 and 7.0 seconds 7. 215 Nm at 5300 rpm vs 400 Nm at 1750 rpm 8. Instant throttle response vs a total lack of throttle response due to the big single turbo spooling up to a point were it suddenly explodes and runs out of power because of the small rev range . Soooo, what's not to like about all this



And then there's my 1988 Peugeot 205

Looks like the French flag there too! 

I just wished the BMW was a Renault Alpine

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Almost bought one back in 2005, the Golf V with the first two litre turbocharged tfsi engine sporting 200 hp.

is a timeless choice for having a great deal of relatively inexpensive fun. I recently drove the previous genration for a brief time and it indelibly reminded me of just how much fun can be had in VWs small, decently powered cars. Even my first ever car - the Polo was plenty fun to drive with a mere ~70hp, the GTI is that same venerable package on steroids of course . Now, what I am truly left salivating for is that monsterous F12. Best Fezza ever made imo . Cheers, Filip

... the Mk2 16V with the 1.8 16 valve engine. 139 hp and that engine made such a nice sound revving to 7000 rpm
Everything about that car was special.
F

I had a MK GTI 16V from 1987 in champagne metallic. With factory Fitted recaro seats, sunroof and tighter suspension. It was a former VW Werksauto that I brought in from Germany

Hammering it on the German autobahn at night, doing 250km/h according to the speedometer- Priceless

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Hans

i remember getting 220 out of one, the real topspeed was 208.

And it drove quite fast!

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A chip and pulley .... Power from 160 to 190 and up .... 300 if you wished .... Or more

And I was told they did a few modifications on the engine too..
I never had it measured, but it drove pretty fast

Best
Hans

... guys that changed stuff like the pistons and camshafts, getting easily over 180 hp out of that engine so 250 on the clock sounds very real, especially when you have enough runway