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Classic hot hatches

Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 7:57 pm
by Playtent
Guys,

I've had for many years a Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 which I used for road rallies. When I were a lad, it was one of the cars to have. I never had one back then, but did have a Renault 5 GT turbo and a fiesta XR2 1.6. I can't believe how quickly they have moved on in terms of power. The XR2 had 90bhp and the Renault a dizzy 120 albeit only weighed a 1000kg.

My dream car at the time was a Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 4x4. Greater Manchester Police had them and there are some great videos on YouTube called X-Cars from the GMP special vehicle squad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu3Qd-pfv7o

That was like a dream come true to the officers on the program (me included) plain Cosworth, Cavalier 2.0 Turbo, Astra 2.0 Turbo with the Gaffa driving around in a Rover 827! I have the whole series on VHS! :twisted:

Take a look at their driving around some of the side streets... :shock:

What were your dream cars?

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 8:08 pm
by jont-
205 GTi was up there for me in terms of hot hatches. Never managed to have one, but did own 205 XS (which was my road rally car - surprised a lot of people how quick it was as it was very short geared!), followed by a 309 GTi - again used for road rallies. Then had a 405 Mi-16 for a bit. More recently ran a 306 GTI as a daily for about 18 months, which IMHO was the last decent car peugeot made. At 140k it was getting a bit tired, so I broke ranks to RenaultSport with a Clio 197 as RS seem to have taken up where pug left off.

Mid 90s, my dream car was probably the Esprit. My uncle managed to blag a V8 as a company car while consulting at Lotus, and I remember a brief, but very rapid passenger ride in it :lol:

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:08 am
by Rick448
Mine used to be a Cosworth Saphire. When I got to the point that I could afford one they were easily outgunned by pretty much any hot hatch. I then wanted an Evo but having a works car I just couldn't justify the expense. Finally I wanted an E90 M3 and just as I could afford one they stopped making them and replaced them with the F80 variant. As I feared I would probably die before I got my dream car I thought I ought to just buy it, so I did.

Image

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 9:58 am
by StressedDave
I had a 106 Rallye (the original 1.3 version with the power of a 1.0 at engine RPM below 5000 rpm and the power of a 2.0 above it) and a 106 GTi in fairly quick succession. I then got distracted (rightly so) by RWD and had a MX-5 (One of three!) and then a 911 at 24 years old. Since then my engine power levels have dropped considerably.

I do regret selling the Rallye and 911, because selling them now would probably pay off a large chunk of mortgage and both were the ultimate expression of their time. Actually, I'd probably (money no object) keep both because they were so, so good and difficult to drive.

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:27 pm
by Faboka
Always wanted a Japanese saloon car that no one heard off and wanted cossies instead. Then some scotish guy went sideways round some forests and a few years later everyone had one. :(

Always wanted an imported 405 t16 too.

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:42 pm
by StressedDave
Did they do a road-going version of the 405 T16? I know they did a version of the 205 - 200 built with everything bar a hopped up engine to satisfy Group B regulations. IIRC the whole thing had a good sprinkling of Lotus kit (in particular an epicyclic double differential to control torque split front to rear) in it.

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:58 pm
by jont-
StressedDave wrote:Did they do a road-going version of the 405 T16?

Not that I'm aware of - but if you mean the Pikes Peak version wasn't it just a 205-T16 with a 405 silhouette stuck to it?

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 2:04 pm
by Mr Cholmondeley-Warner
I've never owned a hot hatch unless you count my Octavia VRs which was a company-funded car bought at age 48. I remember being very jealous of my brother-in-law's XR3i and Golf GTi (Mk1) but couldn't afford such things with a young family in those days. Wife did have a 205 later on (a 1.3 IIRC) which was a hoot to drive if falling apart. I can imagine the GTi / Rallye versions must have been a lot of fun.

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:46 am
by Playtent
I always wanted a 106 Rallye but I was sort of growing out of them by the time they were old enough for me to afford one second hand. My first fast car was a Mini 1275 GT with a bored out 1400cc which I built over a year following exactly the engine spec in 'tuning the A series engine by David Vizard. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tuning-A-Series ... 1859606202
He managed 118bhp but mine only had 100bhp on the rolling road. :cry: I went in with 62bhp because of wrong jetting and drove back out with 100bhp. It was amazing and probably the best car I'd ever owned. To look at it you would never know but line me up against an RS Turbo, 309 1.9gti or Capri 2.8 and it stuck to them like glue. The fact I was trying twice as hard in the old girl with no servo assisted brakes from a Metro Turbo just made it all the more fun.

It's been downhill ever since.

Re: Classic hot hatches

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:54 am
by jont-
now that Mr C-W has fixed resizing images, I can post this:


Navved for a chap in a proper 106 Rallye, but don't seem to have any digital pics.