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Souped Up Saxo's - Why?!
So I live on a relatively busy road...completely my choice and something I am now quite happy with. I have almost always lived on a main road and can completely ignore traffic noises now.
HOWEVER
Later on in the evening, I will hear a load thundering roar heading towards the house. Being a noisy parker, I sometimes take a peek out of the window and it is nearly always a rubbish Citroen Saxo souped up the heavens with holes in the exhaust as big as those in the footwell. They always struggle to get up the (slight) hill and the car doesn't seem to go any faster than average, just alerts anybody within a mile radius that the owner has a sh*t car.
The boys driving it think they are literally God's gift (or they do from what I can see, as their seats are so lowered they're practically sitting on the road) and seem to expect everybody around them to collapse in awe.
Can somebody who dabbles in this kind of thing please explain to me what the appeal is? I doubt the owners give a toss what I think anyway but I always like to try and understand why people do things so I can perhaps be more tolerant to it. They're not doing any harm at the end of the day, it's just so noisy and it must be expensive to do such work to a car...why not use that money to buy a better car?
I should explain that I'm very partial to the roar of a fast car and adore driving myself. It's not that I don't understand the wish for a powerful, beefy engine! I just don't think a Saxo, Corsa or 106's should ever make those type of noises.
HOWEVER
Later on in the evening, I will hear a load thundering roar heading towards the house. Being a noisy parker, I sometimes take a peek out of the window and it is nearly always a rubbish Citroen Saxo souped up the heavens with holes in the exhaust as big as those in the footwell. They always struggle to get up the (slight) hill and the car doesn't seem to go any faster than average, just alerts anybody within a mile radius that the owner has a sh*t car.
The boys driving it think they are literally God's gift (or they do from what I can see, as their seats are so lowered they're practically sitting on the road) and seem to expect everybody around them to collapse in awe.
Can somebody who dabbles in this kind of thing please explain to me what the appeal is? I doubt the owners give a toss what I think anyway but I always like to try and understand why people do things so I can perhaps be more tolerant to it. They're not doing any harm at the end of the day, it's just so noisy and it must be expensive to do such work to a car...why not use that money to buy a better car?
I should explain that I'm very partial to the roar of a fast car and adore driving myself. It's not that I don't understand the wish for a powerful, beefy engine! I just don't think a Saxo, Corsa or 106's should ever make those type of noises.
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Comments
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Some people have cats, some people have loud exhausts. Never had the exhaust in my youth but I did have an Escort 1.1 with an XR3I interior and small after market racing wheel, 6x9's and an Alpine head unit. Kept my happy.
I do laugh at some of the cars that have been driven through Halfords! I grew up! Love your post- makes me smile with fond memories!0 -
Simple, they're cheap, both to buy and insure and relatively easy to customise. Certainly not my cup of tea but each to his own.0
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worried_jim wrote: »Some people have cats, some people have loud exhausts. Never had the exhaust in my youth but I did have an Escort 1.1 with an XR3I interior and small after market racing wheel, 6x9's and an Alpine head unit. Kept my happy.
I do laugh at some of the cars that have been driven through Halfords! I grew up! Love your post- makes me smile with fond memories!
Thank you, I'm glad it made you smile. I don't mean to offend anybody, I just wanted to try and find out a bit more about why people enjoy it
Simple, they're cheap, both to buy and insure and relatively easy to customise. Certainly not my cup of tea but each to his own.
Surely they're not that cheap to insure if you declare all of your customisations and add-ons?0 -
They are probably not that cheap to insure, but they tell their mates how good the car is and how it will do 200mph so they all want one.
Similar way to parents buying kids Blackberry phones because they were cheaper than iPhones and Android phones. Clearly rubbish they have to pick its only best bit and rave about that.
Declare mods to the insurance? unlikely.Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...0 -
Cause Novas are pretty hard to find now0
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They don't.Surely they're not that cheap to insure if you declare all of your customisations and add-ons?Simple, they're cheap, both to buy and insure and relatively easy to customise. Certainly not my cup of tea but each to his own.
The thing is, they're not that cheap to insure anymore because of young lads crashing so many of them. They just don't seem to have realised yet...0 -
Snaked?
I think the point was why does anyone bother tarting up a !!!!!! little car in the 1st place.
The answer of course is because they can.
Each to their own as long as they aren't harming anyone else, if anything they provide a few laughs for the rest of us like the time a Peugeot 106 actually though he could race me along the motorway the 1st night I had my Audi TT, needless to say as soon as I had stopped laughing I put the 'loud' pedal down a smidgen and left him biting his steering wheel.
My recent favourite was the car in New Milton Tescos CP that looked like it had run over a patio heater as it's exhaust end pipe was a full 8 inches in diameter, pathetic but hilarious all the same.Unless specifically stated all posts by me are my own considered opinion.
If you don't like my opinion feel free to respond with your own.0 -
The thing is, they're not that cheap to insure anymore because of young lads crashing so many of them. They just don't seem to have realised yet...
They havent been for well over a decade, ever since Citroen and Direct Line did 2 years free insurance on all Saxos with the VTR and below only requiring you had a full license and the VTS (equiv of the 106 GTI) being a minimum of 21 age
I'm well aware as got mine with the same deal, though Direct Line got very heavily burnt by the deal as whoever negotiated it assumed that Citroen would continue to only appeal to the over 50s
As to why people mod them? They are cheap as chips, very basic cars thus easy to modify, low insurance group so people assume will be cheap to insurer. The kits to make them look and sound like the VTS (or "better") are equally cheap and easy to fit.
Personally I always wanted the opposite, the car that looked regular but had great performance. Mine was the entry level Saxo X where as my friend has a special edition of the 106 SX that had the GTI bodykit. He always said that his looked better but mine sounded better :rotfl:0 -
I used to have one years ago. It was just a basic model. sounded like a hairdryer !0
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Boy racers, I laugh at them and I feel slightly sorry for them.
BUT It's these busybody attitudes that have resulted in car enthusiasts being banned from arranging meets.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30300916
Because the definition set by president means that any car enthusiast cannot arrange to meet up as a group, this will now affect classic car owners and make/model specific owners clubs as well as the many perfectly responsible owners/drivers of modified cars.
I'm so sick of the way folk punish those who refuse to conform, those who go their own way, those who express individuality. We must all drive ugly euro-boxes, silently at 40mph and never overtake other cars (because this is inconsiderate).
It's not about boy racers, it's just discrimination as a result of unwarranted fear.“I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an a** of yourself.”
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