Souped Up Saxo's - Why?!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

janninew wrote: »

I don't race anybody, never said I did. I don't wish to have a boy racer on my bumper so floor it to get away. If you know anything about cars you'll now my car BMW M135i) can reach 60 mph in 4.8 seconds and the roads I often travel on are national speed limit roads so certainly no crime being committed. I do see them as a dot in my rear view as the try to keep up. When they eventuality catch up they can overtake and break the speed limit if they want.

This is what sets me apart from you. if your on a NSL road, and they want to pass then i let them pass and continue my pace as I have nothing to prove to them, Your proving your car is quicker to the "speed limit" than theirs so they will accept the "challenge" because of ego, I have no ego I have nothing to prove.


Every time you accept the challenge of their fart tin, they will challenge another person, and another, if no once accepted the challenge then they wouldn't challenge no one.


if they ride your bumper then follow highway code slow down and increase speed again or pull in and let them go. theres no need to fuel their adrenalin rushes by accelerating hard to stay ahead!.

BeenThroughItAll

Retrogamer wrote: »

Someone who's in their 40's with an M3, who drives it fast everywhere with an aftermarket loud exhaust and loves cars.

Or someone who's in their late teens, with a Saxo VTS who drives it fast everywhere with an aftermarket exhaust and loves cars.

Why can't someone love cars, buy an M3, and then just leave it alone? I'm an enthusiast, and I like to drive fast sometimes although rarely these days, but I wouldn't feel the need to stick some aftermarket tat onto an M3 just to prove how much of an enthusiast I am and draw attention to myself.


Both of your examples are as bad as each other, the only difference is that the guy in the VTS is on a hiding to nothing trying to make his euro-shopper-shed 'fast'. It isn't. It won't be.

Strider590

I find a quick "show of force" is often enough to deter them. Drop to 2nd, boot it for half a second, ease of again.

Weird though, because in my kit car, the boy racers never bother me (I think they know how stupid I could make them look), it's usually BMW/Audi or 4x4 drivers, who even when they've had said "show of force", will 9 times in 10, decide that they can't possible beat me unless they pull some stupid move and then, with their ego on the line, they'll proceed to overtake on solid white lines, over the brow of a hill on a blind bend, even on the wrong side of a pedestrian refuge.
You know it's about ego because they then turn off down a side road 150 yards later.

I mean basically, the "problem" drivers come in many shapes and sizes, usually dependant upon what you happen to be driving yourself.
Whilst they may be noisy, the boy racers never bother me in either of my cars, i'm sure if I had a small hatchback then that might be different.

OddballJamie

Half a second? Seriously?

Retrogamer

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Why can't someone love cars, buy an M3, and then just leave it alone?

They can if they want
In fact many do.

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

I'm an enthusiast, and I like to drive fast sometimes although rarely these days, but I wouldn't feel the need to stick some aftermarket tat onto an M3 just to prove how much of an enthusiast I am and draw attention to myself.

No one is suggesting you do or should.
It's a bit like when you buy a house. You like the house / garden but often you'll make changes to these things so you like them more or they're more tailored to suit your needs.
People modify cars for both fun and for practical reasons or sometimes just one or the other.
Lots of mods enhance the car and are superior in many ways to OEM parts so calling them all "tat" and generalizing is a bit inaccurate

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Both of your examples are as bad as each other, the only difference is that the guy in the VTS is on a hiding to nothing trying to make his euro-shopper-shed 'fast'. It isn't. It won't be.

That's the thing. A standard VTS is pretty quick standard considering how cheap they are.
Get a clean one for around £1200. Spend another £500 or so on it and you have a car that'll do 0-60 in the 6 second range and top out close to 140mph.

This is a Citroen AX with the VTS engine and some modifications embarrassing a heavily modified Evo on the track. Very quick, very fun car for not much money compared to the Evo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe_q4uAcYqY

(skip to around 2 minutes 50 seconds)

BeenThroughItAll

Retrogamer wrote: »

This is a Citroen AX with the VTS engine and some modifications embarrassing a heavily modified Evo on the track. Very quick, very fun car for not much money compared to the Evo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe_q4uAcYqY

(skip to around 2 minutes 50 seconds)

I don't see anyone being embarrassed there. I see a crappy old AX, which whilst quick in a straight line looks pretty unstable under braking and turn-in, and which carries significantly less speed through corners.


Then add in driver skill/experience/bravery (which there is no yardstick of comparison for).


On my last bike trackday, I was 'embarassing' litre-class sportsbikes on sticky rubber with my VFR800 sports-tourer on standard touring tyres. Why? Not because I'm some kind of riding God, or because my bike was 'well quick innit blud', but because on track I don't have any sense of fear, and therefore get closer to the edge than others might.

Nasqueron

I'm a bit confused by that clip Retrogamer - where is the Citroen "embarrassing" the Evo? There doesn't seem to be any straight line drag race or trying to race on the track, just a couple of cars that moved over on a track to let another car go through. The car in front of the filming car passed them too. That hiss every few seconds must get annoying too!

janninew

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

This is what sets me apart from you. if your on a NSL road, and they want to pass then i let them pass and continue my pace as I have nothing to prove to them, Your proving your car is quicker to the "speed limit" than theirs so they will accept the "challenge" because of ego, I have no ego I have nothing to prove.


Every time you accept the challenge of their fart tin, they will challenge another person, and another, if no once accepted the challenge then they wouldn't challenge no one.


if they ride your bumper then follow highway code slow down and increase speed again or pull in and let them go. theres no need to fuel their adrenalin rushes by accelerating hard to stay ahead!.

That all sounds very sensible, but incredibly boring!

I have a quick car and like the speed and the roar of the engine. Pulling in to let a Saxo overtake me might be something I do when I reach my 60's but until then I'll continue to have my (legal) fun thanks and drive my car like it's supposed to be driven!

BeenThroughItAll

janninew wrote: »

I have a quick car and like the speed and the roar of the engine.

Are you married? If not, Darkmatter would like you.

Retrogamer

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

I don't see anyone being embarrassed there. I see a crappy old AX, which whilst quick in a straight line looks pretty unstable under braking and turn-in, and which carries significantly less speed through corners.

Nasqueron wrote: »

I'm a bit confused by that clip Retrogamer - where is the Citroen "embarrassing" the Evo? There doesn't seem to be any straight line drag race or trying to race on the track, just a couple of cars that moved over on a track to let another car go through. The car in front of the filming car passed them too. That hiss every few seconds must get annoying too!

They're all racing around the track. It's just the Evo and AX are regulars and both heavily modified so it makes all the other drivers look slow.
AX comes into the video around half way

Look at it this way

Evo was designed and marketed as a high performance car.
AX was marketed and designed as a cheap town / city car

Evo is AWD and running a 2 liter turbo engine with a lot of modifications.
AX is FWD and running a 1.6 liter engine, no turbo and a lot of modifications

Evo costs a lot of money to buy and a lot to modify
AX costs next to nothing to buy and significantly less to modify.

AX is the underdog on all counts, but still leaves the Evo behind on the straights. That's embarrassing enough, regardless if the Evo is catching it on corners.