UKC

Evening all,
chatting to a chap earlier on the school run because he had an absolutely mint Renault 5 GT Turbo on the driveway that he had just finished restoring and was giving it a polish.

Turns out he has a 205 gti, XR2i and and MG Metro Turbo in a lock up, all restored over the past 10 years or so and all pristine and he takes them to all sorts of shows and events. Really jealous!!

So then the conundrum, those 4 and others, which was/is your favourite? Always had a soft spot for my 205, loved driving it.

In reply to Denni:

Clio Williams.

In reply to Denni: Hi

Never owned 1 but my mate had an xr2i. I can remember breaking down in it on the m1 when the rotor flew through the top of the distributor cap!

Cheers Davey

In reply to Denni:

i had an F reg 8v golf a G reg 16v golf and a E reg 1900 gti.

my fav was the 16v. sold it for 800. got to be worth double that now. was a big bumper model.

In reply to Denni: theres a guy near me with a pristine Delta integrale. There can't be many of them left

In reply to Denni:

I had a VW Scirocco Mk2 for about 12 years, loved it even if it is just a fwd shopping car with a nifty body.

Favourite would have to be the Lancia Integrale or, if 80s hot hatches are allowed, The Sunbeam Lotus.

In reply to Denni:

Another cool mid 90s hatch was the fiat Punto GT turbo.

In reply to Denni:

1.1 nova 'swing' with body kit and bonnet scoop

In reply to Denni:

Incidentally, 'for the love of cars' featured a golf gti restoration last week, it might be on 4OD

In reply to wbo:




Most of the decent ones have come over from Japan as grey imports.

In reply to Denni:

Had 2 205s, wonderful to drive but let down by electrics - surely a car of the 80s though?

In reply to Denni: my favorite was the rally version of Talbot Horizon. My mates mum had an horizon, and she was sooooo fit! I think she was my first crush.......

In reply to Denni:

Although not quite in the same league as some of the cars mentioned on this thread, I believe the one to have was the Saxo if you were serious about it - geared to get passed 60 in 2nd, the others would need a change to 3rd.

In reply to Denni:

Honda CRX Vtech

Loved mine. Wish I still had it.

In reply to Denni:

I was too young and poor to have a hot hatch but a few friends had various hot hatches and fake hot hatches.

Things like the nova Sri, xr2 xr2i , xr3i, R5 gt turbo. Of all these the r 5 was the worst because it kept blowing up turbos.
The most reliable was the nova and the xr3 was the most respected.

I'm surprised I made it to 18 considering the things we got up to in various supermarket car parks and the lanes.

In reply to Denni:

Had a 'luke warm' hatch -- 205 XS
http://www.automobile-sportive.com/guide/peugeot/205xs/205xs-ouverture.jpg

It was those fog lights and the advert featuring 'Them'..."Baby please don't go"

Motor was still going strong at 190,000. Sadly the body gave out.

In reply to Denni:

Loved my 205GTi, a 1.9 of course, had it from new as a company car and did over 100,000 miles in two years, never broke down but did need some bodywork attention on a couple of occasions.

Had other hot hatches, Astra GTE etc but the Pug was the one I would have back in a heartbeat.

In reply to Denni:

Not a hot hatch but 90's all the same. Toyota MR2 turbo, wish I never got rid of it.

Almost 25 years old when I scrapped it and still did 0-60 in 5 seconds (tuned up). Friggin beast!

In reply to Oogachooga:

I had a Corolla GT twin cam, pre power steering, very much loved, and it gave the Peugeot 205 a run for it's money in the late 80s.

In reply to Denni:

Golf GTI Mk II 8-valve bored out to 2 litre by Brian Ricketts Motorsport aka. GTI Engineering.
http://www.gti-engineering.com/
Nothing so crude as a turbo .. ..
Faster than a Porsche. Amazing!
Plus anti-roll bars, exhaust etc etc .. ..
But it really needed 4-wheel drive.

In reply to Denni:

My mum had a Renault 5 GT turbo in electric blue, but sold it to get a car that "I could learn to drive in" a basic clio which I ragged the nuts off, amazingly it's still going (93 model) see it around the area from time to time.

The first car I bought was a Clio RSI good, but not as nice as the R5

In reply to Denni:

Had an XR2 and a Mk 3 Golf GTi - much as I loved my Golf, I think the XR2 was more fun to drive (my 1500 MG Midget was a hoot, but a major pain in the arse).

In reply to Denni:

metro turbo for me!

In reply to Denni:

There were some oddities of that generation.....

Polo G40
http://www.autoblog.pt/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/volkswagen-polo-g40.jpg

Corrado G60
http://wordpress.carthrottle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/vw-corrado-g60....

and wasn't there a 4.2 litre......Vauxhall Chevette !! Hot? more like explosive.

In reply to Denni:

XR2 for me. Used to get from Leicestershire to Manchester in about 75 minutes when we were fishing up there a lot. Fantastic car to drive as long as you had good tyres on it. Came with Pirelli's P6s, which were good in the dry, crap in the wet and very soft, so you got through them quite quickly. I put Goodyear Eagle NCT2 on the car, much better overall.

Escort RS Turbo was also a very nice driving car. I've never been faster in another car than I did in my RS. Didn't handle as good as the XR though.

In reply to Mr Trebus:


How can a secondhand car be a grey import?

In reply to Denni:

I had a mk2 Golf GTI. I then got a new job which came with a company car, so I passed the Golf onto my Dad. He absolutely loved it, possibly more than the TR4 he had when I was a kid. He finally scrapped the golf with 250,000 miles on it. My company car was, tragically, a Rover 200.

In reply to Mike Highbury:


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_import_vehicle

In reply to Denni:

Pug 205 GTI and it was the only time I heard my mother use the "F" word when she was with me on its last drive for a trade in. "STOP THIS F###ING CAR"

In reply to Denni:

Couple of 80s warm hatches.... 3 door Astra SRi, Burberry check interior, heavy steering when parking and heavy clutch, good dose of torque steer when you floored it, bombproof and in white with headlamps on, stuff got out of your way for some reason.... Followed by an Orion Ghia, yuck. Puffed in by reviews and nonsense about it being 'better than an XR3i' etc... hateful vehicle that was.

Moved onto Alfas after that - not everybody's taste but loved a couple of early 90s 33s... first a standard 1.7 ie, then a 16v Cloverleaf. What's not to like? Sharp looks (well dated now!), boxer engine, bonnet hinged at the front, a bit different.... not as unreliable as I'd feared although a bit fragile, great engine sound, fast (enough), weird switches scattered around and a petrol gauge with no damper in it so needle swung wildly as you cornered (on a 90s car!). Somehow I always felt special in the Alfas, despite them being as cheap as any other mildly hot run around.

In reply to sbc_10:

and wasn't there a 4.2 litre......Vauxhall Chevette !! Hot? more like explosive.

The HSR was 2.3 and I believe that was the biggest.
Think Blydenstein was working on a 2.7 version, but all work on that was pretty much scuppered by Audi...

In reply to Kipper:

Not an 80s car though, piece of shite as well!

In reply to Denni:

The 205 GTI seemed to be the one we all rated. Much better than my Renault 5 turbo which was a bit rubbish. But my favourite car of that era, though a bit grown up really, was my golf GTI 16v. So quick in a straight line it was like going into warp drive.

In reply to Denni:

The 205 is in a different league to the others. So good.
jk

In reply to Run_Ross_Run:


Faced with that and a mint 205 sat side by side, the keys to one of them are mine, I just have to choose... I have no idea how I'd do it. Add a MK1 MR2 into the mix and I'd probably just curl up unable to cope

jk

In reply to Skyfall:

I had a Cavalier SRi after the 205 as I was doing a lot of working away - that was good to drive - utterly dependable and just kept accelerating without drama - quite frightening what it could do so smoothly you didn't know it - perhaps why the police had them.

In reply to wercat:

Ha - yes. At the time I was driving my D reg 1.8 Astra SRi my old boy had an F plate (pre the new model of about that vintage) Cavalier 2.0 CD (carb model) - there wasn't much between them on paper but the Astra was balls out, noisy, hard, rattly you knew you were travelling... The Cav just cruised with little fuss and got there quicker, in total comfort.

In reply to arch:


Yes, the XR2 was like a go-kart. I remember it having the best braking to body weight ratio I'd ever experienced, massive fun.

I had an Astra GTE (the new jelly mould shaped one with the space age digital dashboard). What I mostly remember about that was the handling. You could spot a turning late and just turn the wheel - it was like it was on rails.

After many years of being sensible I now have an A3 quattro, which is the middle-aged equivalent...

In reply to Denni:

Friend of mine had a Nova GSi - kept getting stopped by the police in it, on excuse of checking it wasn't stolen. He wasn't doing anything wrong. Had some fun in that car - I remember him driving it from Swanage to Reading without a back-box when it fell off one bank holiday weekend and nowhere was open to fix it!

Another mate had a lookalike XR3i - had the body kit, just not the engine.

I always wanted a particular model of Escort that (I thought) looked fantastic, until I discovered for insurance reasons it only had a 1.4l engine.

Best I could manage was a Fiesta - standard, apart from the twin-tone air horns Even taxis got out of the way.

In reply to Denni:

Oh deary me, '90s hot hatches. For me hot hatchdom started in the '80s and carried on in the '90s. Many came and went, each hemorrhaging money and without them I guess I'd be quite rich by now - RS2000, Renault 5 Gordini, Fiat 127 GT, XR3, Golf GTis (two of those), Corsa GSi. The R5 Gordini was bought after a climbing trip to Cham, when I couldn't fail but to be impressed by them as they tore around the streets, squealing like demented little pigs.

However, family constraints meant that sensible estate cars had to be purchased after the Corsa, although a Saab 900S 16v and a V6 Mondeo somehow wrangled their way in for a time. But a looming mid-life crisis got me hankering for a retro hot hatch and an all-too-brief acquisition of a 1990 205 1.9 Gti got me thinking ...

The result of all that thought is that, for many years now, I've had an extremely rare '90s hot hatch in my garage. It's a Fiat Tipo 2.0 Sedicivalvole. In it's day it trounced all the opposition in car mag tests, but is an extremely rare thing these days, apparently with less than 10 left on the road in the UK. http://petrolblog.com/2014/02/reverting-to-type-fiat-tipo-16v/ Now over 21 years old, mine still gets driven enthusiastically. The wailing banshee sound of the twin-cam Lancia engine as it closes on the red line is totally and utterly addictive - and far more exciting than any climbing.

In reply to Denni:

I had an XR3i, but lusted after a R5 Turbo. How I'm still alive I have no idea. These cars typically had one of two ends - wrapped around a tree or nicked. Mine got nicked.

I occasionally look up the old hot hatches on Autotrader, but the best ones go for a bit too much money for me

In reply to Yanis Nayu:


Just what I've been doing this morning prompted by this thread
jk

In reply to Denni:

My household's vehicles oddly consist of a T5 transporter camper conversion, a Mk II Golf GTi and a VW Corrado Storm. Sometimes I think I'm living someone else's dream. The Mk II never seems to be out of the repairs place.

In reply to Denni:

I had a 306 rallye, wish I'd never sold it!

Nearly went for a grown ups hot hatch and got a alfa 147 gta, but went for the 156 gta instead.

In reply to Denni:

I went from a 1.0L Polo C (not a hot hatch) to a Lotus Carlton (also not a hot hatch) in 1993. Quite a difference.

Glad to see the 205 getting some love!

In reply to Denni:

I thought the thread title said '90's Hot Aches', so I wondered why everybody was talking about cars. I'll get me coat!

XR2i for me by the way!

In reply to Toccata:


Nice! That's a machine I'd love to have a spin in if the chance ever comes my way. Bonkers by the standards of the day and still impressive 20 odd years on.

jk

In reply to The New NickB:


Sorry misread the thread, it's 90s, seemed to be mainly about 80s cars though.

In reply to Denni:

a friend had a mazda 323 turbo 4x4 that was ok
another had a sunny gti-r now that was a little animal,prob the fastest hot hatch ever made

In reply to jkarran:



recently had to cut a lad out of a 205 gti, car was demolished,if he had a passenger id had been picking up bits. a modern car ,he would have got him self out

In reply to Denni:

Diamond black Nova Gsi . Loved that car and have dreams that I still have it.

Then matured into a black Astra Gsi . Didn't think that much of it.

Of today's hot hatches ,wouldn't mind a Citroen DS3. I like the look of them.

In reply to Denni:

Seems to be a thread dominated by blokes for some reason.............

In reply to Shapeshifter:


That was the only reasonably common car that regularly used to beat me away from the lights when I was riding motorbikes. Probably because the drivers were trying whereas I wasn't really bothered, but still

In reply to Denni:

Have you seen the price of a 205gti 1.9 minter? Yikes!

Not a hot hatch but of the same vintage and was my teenage dreamcar. I give you the Lotus Carlton.

In reply to Removed User:



Yep. I had a Mk IV 16V; the understeer was quite exciting if it caught you unawares. When I'd just got it I gassed it hard to pass a lorry going up a hill near Buxton and nearly went into the back of the lorry instead of round it.

In reply to Denni:

1990's hot hatch? Had R5 GT Turbo. Put over 100k miles on it. Then big accident when my new girlfriend (now my wife) put us backwards into a tree. Ouch!! Then another Renault....Alpine GTA. BRILLIANT CAR!! Again, another 100k miles, several track days, then written off while stationary and hit by farmer in his landrover.

In reply to The New NickB:


You're right, on both counts, and I even checked the date before posting

Back in the day my climbing partner had a new Mk1 Golf GTI, very impressive it was too, and I had a Chevette with a Ford Pinto engine in it. It was around that time I was climbing on the Cromlech one evening and heard Johnny Dawes left footing his 205 GTI down the Pass. I then bought one and promptly swapped it for a Manta GTE.
Motorbikes have kept me poor ever since!

In reply to Denni:

I've still got a couple of mk2 golf gti both non runners right now, I should have at least one back on the road this year, about 500 hours gone into restoration so far too much to list on here, I'm doing the 20v turbo conversion on it. Will leave the other in factory trim. They're both 80s cars though, and they're all going to go the way of the early rs fords and the like. If you're thinking of buying they're only going to start getting more expensive.

In reply to mark s:


Yeah... they are a lot more reassuring with an extra 50 or 60kilos of steel cage in them.

Still, better protection than a Seven
jk