clowo16v
15-04-2006, 14:42
I borrowed our hire Xsara and went to the Los Gigantes car club meeting yesterday. There I met a guy called Chris who had his Saxo VTS there. It was basically in WRC spec, making about 245bhp out of the 1600. It also had an ex works 6 speed sequential box in.
After chatting for 25 minutes he asked if I wanted to have a go. Of course I said "oh go on then if I must :lol: " and jumped in. Bearing in mind driving the Xsara to the meet was the first time i'd driven a LHD car on the righthand side of the road I was absolute bricking it.
I started it up, and we sat there for 10 minutes warming it up, then I pushed it into first and pulled away. I booted it but changed gear at 7500rpm for about the first 3km, thinking the limiter would be around 9000rpm. We got to a straightish road and he told me to open it up, and not to change till I saw the shift light. I dropped it into 2nd at about 30km/h and booted it, leaving my hand on the gearstick ready to change. I watched the rev counter rising, 8000, 9000, 10000 (surely it was gonna come on), 10500, 11000 *FLASH* into 3rd gear. It was silly fast. Flat out it does 195kph, but gets there in the region of 10 seconds.
We get to a twisty part of the road (not uncommon lol) and he tells me to keep it in 4th and 5th but stay on the gas all the way round. I'm absolutely shitting myself at this point as most of the corners are U bends or 90s. I did as I was told and it just went round. Its by far the best handling car i've ever been in, the more you pushed the more it gripped.
Anyway after about 20km we got back to the carpark and a German in a Scooby WR1 had turned up. It had a huge FMIC and apparantly was running well over 450bhp. We parked the car up and jumped out and he came over and said he'd have a wager of 250 euros that we couldn't beat him on the road to Garachico from Los Gigantes. The attatchment is a scan of the map with the road we went on marked in red.
By the time we'd got to Erjos we couldn't see him in the rear view mirror. By the time we got to Garachico we had to wait nearly 5 minutes for him to appear. It was the scariest drive i've ever been on, as most of the way I was looking over the side of a huge cliff with no crash barriers to stop us falling off. The German guy couldn't believe how fast the Saxo was, and duly paid up his 250 euros.
Chris is sending me some pics of the car soon as I forgot to take my camera charger with me. Its an astounding bit of kit.
Sorry for the long story but its one of the best drives i've been on ever. I'm back home in the cold now, should be going to York Monday though.
Matt
After chatting for 25 minutes he asked if I wanted to have a go. Of course I said "oh go on then if I must :lol: " and jumped in. Bearing in mind driving the Xsara to the meet was the first time i'd driven a LHD car on the righthand side of the road I was absolute bricking it.
I started it up, and we sat there for 10 minutes warming it up, then I pushed it into first and pulled away. I booted it but changed gear at 7500rpm for about the first 3km, thinking the limiter would be around 9000rpm. We got to a straightish road and he told me to open it up, and not to change till I saw the shift light. I dropped it into 2nd at about 30km/h and booted it, leaving my hand on the gearstick ready to change. I watched the rev counter rising, 8000, 9000, 10000 (surely it was gonna come on), 10500, 11000 *FLASH* into 3rd gear. It was silly fast. Flat out it does 195kph, but gets there in the region of 10 seconds.
We get to a twisty part of the road (not uncommon lol) and he tells me to keep it in 4th and 5th but stay on the gas all the way round. I'm absolutely shitting myself at this point as most of the corners are U bends or 90s. I did as I was told and it just went round. Its by far the best handling car i've ever been in, the more you pushed the more it gripped.
Anyway after about 20km we got back to the carpark and a German in a Scooby WR1 had turned up. It had a huge FMIC and apparantly was running well over 450bhp. We parked the car up and jumped out and he came over and said he'd have a wager of 250 euros that we couldn't beat him on the road to Garachico from Los Gigantes. The attatchment is a scan of the map with the road we went on marked in red.
By the time we'd got to Erjos we couldn't see him in the rear view mirror. By the time we got to Garachico we had to wait nearly 5 minutes for him to appear. It was the scariest drive i've ever been on, as most of the way I was looking over the side of a huge cliff with no crash barriers to stop us falling off. The German guy couldn't believe how fast the Saxo was, and duly paid up his 250 euros.
Chris is sending me some pics of the car soon as I forgot to take my camera charger with me. Its an astounding bit of kit.
Sorry for the long story but its one of the best drives i've been on ever. I'm back home in the cold now, should be going to York Monday though.
Matt