What's in a name.

[Max Headroom]

tut - I dunno! You boys...


 

[Norfolk Jim]

Yeah - I too was eagerly awaiting something on the lines of the old ones. One of the "hot" new DS3 tried it on against my lad's Evo a few weeks ago - wish I had been with him. Must have been entertaining - it was sniffing as my son went up the slip road on to the A34 at Milton on the way home and after a ton-plus squirt up the slip the DS was gone.....

My son does that with Scoobies in his Glanza. They roar up behind him on slip roads and gesture him - you don't do that to him - he's like Ben Ainsley - whoosh in comes huge turbo and Scooby in rear view mirror gone. Little car but you don't mess with him..... 

[Petemate]

It's great isn't it. Naughty I know but there you go. Obviously not to be done when plod is around......
Personally I don't get into 'racing' these days - more or less gave that up when I finished 'biking in '93. But I do have fun on the roundabouts on the Oxford ring road, leaving many for dead - they give funny looks when they eventually go past not expecting what I think they consider a 'pipe & slippers' car driven by a grey-haired driver to have trounced them.

[Norfolk Jim]

My lad doesn't do it very often but you should see the look on faces when this little roller skate goes past these hyped up cars - Scoobies, RS4's and even M3 from start off......... It weighs about 890kg and on dyno produced 185hp. 0-60 in a cough! Amazingly though it puts it down on road and sticks like that brown stuff. Clutch is a race model costing somewhere around £1300 ut this shows in incredibly quick hi rev changes - yep great fun and real eye opener. Wouldn't want to take it to its 140mph..........................

[sgould]

I think I disappointed a lad in a Focus ST recently.  He was right on my bumper in the queue of traffic, but when it cleared at the bottom of the long steep hill he was surprised that he couldn't improve his position.  I suppose I could have gone a bit faster if I'd gone into manual and dropped a gear, but he was alone and I was pretty loaded with wife and luggage.

[Norfolk Jim]

Will - you need to re- phrase that in that your luggage was heavy!

[BOF]

"My son does that with Scoobies in his Glanza." Sounds an absolute hoot, but oh, puh-lease...

Touch of the rose-tinted specs there?  Maybe the Subaru wasn't trying too hard, or maybe it was a  less powerful version with aftermarket kn**head bodykit, as driven by people who don't know which way round to wear a baseball cap.

Even if the Glanza (never heard of it before, but I have now) has 4WD, which model of M3, exactly, does it beat off the line? That much power from so small an engine suggests a big turbo, which implies lots of turbo lag.... which is not good for getting off the line fast.

There's one on Pistonheads at the moment (yes, I've been digging a little) claiming 214 bhp and a TD04. On a 1.3 engine. You'd have time to make a cup of tea between full pedal and the turbo coming in...

[Norfolk Jim]

I thought that BOF but the thing is it revs round to just over 8k which keeps it well on song and the change is sooo quick with this race twin plate clutch and short shift gearbox. Yes turbo is huge and has HKS adjustable actuator running at 0.75 bar and hugely expensive JAM ecu which is self adapting to your driving! The M3 was a silver 03 reg and yes after about 60 it went into a league of its own. It has been timed on a trackday on Anglesey as doing 0 - 60 in 4.7 secs and still in 2nd gear. it was serviced and dyno'd recently by our local Jap tuner Clive Athowe and he was astounded and said it would give his mates Skyline a scare.

Not many people have heard of the Glanza as never made for Europe but its predecessor the Starlet turbo was but this is slightly nicer looking and much lighter in the V version and that's why so quick. It corners like my 68 Cooper did. I must admit I didn't believe my sons hype about the car until I drove it. It has a launch control starts like somone has pulled you back on huge piece of elastic and just let go and then rev limiter is beeping to get you to change gear and then huge thump in back.....gone now

The car is 1996 but has no rust on it at all as it came from South Japan when imported and apparently they don't use salt on their roads etc. It is phenomenal really BOF and has to be driven to be believed. Boy do I feel like captain slow now

[CitTone]

Meanwhile, back in real life and on topic - any idea how the name "Glanza" came about? "Starlet" at least meant something - even if it seemed a bit "My Little Pony" for a performance version!

[chris aka zaphod]

The Toyota MR2 did badly in France. If you are a French speaker, you'll know why.
There are pitfalls.

[Geoff1951]

IIRC Citroen had a similar problem with the diesel BX, one version was badged "TRD" in the UK, took some flak in the press.

[Audax]

IIRC Citroen had a similar problem with the diesel BX, one version was badged "TRD" in the UK, took some flak in the press.

From what I recall they badged it as DTR in the UK as compared to the rest of Europe where it was a TRD, unless perhaps the first ones were there TRD models in the UK and they quickly changed it?

[Geoff1951]

That's it, Audax. I ran a Visa GT then a GTi in th eearly 80s, and was on first name terms with the dealer. They badged the first ones TRD then changed it. They'd be collectors items now. Or maybe not. On the subject of the BX, google "Reliant FW 11" and "Volvo Tundra" pictures.  Seems Bertone hawked the design around several manufacturers.

[Audax]

They badged the first ones TRD then changed it. They'd be collectors items now. Or maybe not.

I actually chased a BX the other day as I saw it in the distance and they are so unusual now I had to check out what it was, even better it was actually a TRD model! Although, left hooker and was on French plates, driver was going like the clappers in it too! 

A couple of my mates had BX GTi's, I had a 405 SRi, both very good cars for their time. I ran a couple of Xantias too, including a Xantia Activa, wish I'd got it sorted now and kept it

[ScarbSaab]

Ah yes the BX GTi 16v. Pretty quick car (or so I thought at the time) but with horrible body roll when taking the moor road back home and steering so heavily assisted that it felt like the front wheels weren't connected. (This is in comparison to the Audi 80 I normally drove.) Also they had three different switch styles for the electric windows.

Anybody remember the Renault Alpine? (I'm too young to remember the A110 new but I do remember the GTA.) Quite different from the Talbot Alpine...or the Sunbeam Alpine...