thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659 
|
|
Oct 15, 2022 12:21:00 GMT
|
|
|
| |
Last Edit: Oct 15, 2022 12:45:38 GMT by thebaron
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oct 15, 2022 21:51:12 GMT
|
great pics  |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 16, 2022 11:42:07 GMT
|
No driving today. Just had a hike and now a couple of lunchtime beers. Nice place.     800kms planned tomorrow. Decided to visit Chamonix as I've never been so booked a hotel there tomorrow night. Also going to take a different route back out of France. South to the sea!! |
| |
Last Edit: Oct 16, 2022 11:43:01 GMT by thebaron
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
|
|
After a well deserved rest we had the final leg to go. This is the view dropping in to Martigny which is just over the Swiss border  I took the longest possible route via the Grimsel and Sustenpasses. In order to get there, we headed up past Brig and Visp. A short pause to let some cows cross gave me 5 mins to stretch the legs.   Then it was up to the passes. It's close to the end of open season as Furkapass was already closed and the people in charge of the road maintenance up the passes were starting to remove some of the roadside barriers in order not to lose then when the snow comes. I took no photos except this one as I had been waiting 2000kms to really test the car up here.  I'm delighted with the car. It does what I wanted it to do exceptionally well and is good enough at the other things not to be a compromise (for me in any case). So here's the total  Big trips over for this year. Today it's got to function as a taxi to take both kids to forest camp. Nice day for it.   |
| |
Last Edit: Oct 19, 2022 6:44:22 GMT by thebaron
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
great to hear that you are very happy with your new car  thanks for sharing the trip with us and some amazing pics |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
|
|
great to hear that you are very happy with your new car thanks for sharing the trip with us and some amazing pics Thanks very much. It was a concern that all the hype would not be fulfilled, especially as it's the first time I bought a new car. I'll do a post later with my full review of the car as I've used it in all conditions outside of the extremes of on-track at one end and snow at the other. I'll get both of those done in the coming months as well. Happy to share the photos. I'm not a prolific snapper by any means but nice to document a little of what goes on. Here is the overview of the route:  |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 19, 2022 11:40:08 GMT
|
|
Ok - Review and Rating time. Caveat, I have not tested at the two extremes of track work and snow driving so this can be amended later. Other caveat is this is based on my expectations and experiences so limited to me of course.
I've broken the car into 10 areas and each area has a maximum of 10 points.
1. Styling
This is subjective of course and beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I absolutely love how it looks. When you are driving as well you get to see the humps over the fronts wings which are great and even better is the sheet metal shape above the rear wheel that you pick up in the wing mirrors. One negative here is the rear edge of the bonnet starts to vibrate heavily when you get above an alleged 145kph.
9/10
2. Interior
The materials, the design and the quality are up to my expectations for a car at this price point. The Alcantara adds a feeling of specialness and I like the nod to the flocked dash above the instrument binnacle. However, the spacing of the wheel / gearknob / handbrake ratio is a little off ideal.
9/10
3. Lighting
Full beams are fine. The throw on the dims is not great in my opinion
9/10
4. Steering
Really impressed me for an EPAS system. It's light but I'm used to that with the Speedster. Goes exactly where you point it. Winds off really easily. The turn feel is a little lacking but the road surface feedback is really quite good. Better than I expected here.
9.5/10
5. Pedals
The spacing is great. Heel and toe and left foot braking are easy to execute cleanly. The feedback from the brake pedal is spot on. I'll take a point off for now as the clutch is a little grabby and there is a bit of slack in there. It could be gearbox mounts but until I'm sure I'll keep it open in both areas.
9/10
6. Gearbox
The ratios are excellent. Nice and short, you can work the box which I thoroughly enjoy. 1-5 are pretty short and 6 is ok for cruising - 3200rpm at 130kph. The gate is a little wide for my liking and there is a little bit of slack in the feel.
8.5/10
7. Engine and Exhaust
I had the sound generator disconnected. The car is very quiet at low revs and does have a diesel clatter to it which is not very appealing (but expected). I think it sounds laboured between 2000-4000 rpm although it does perform well so it's aural feedback rather than a physical outcome. Power is very linear and as expected. The engine is a peach above 5000. It zings up there and feels super strong right up to the redline where it cuts power hard.
8.5/10
8. Differential
Just wonderful. It's tight, progressive, predictable, feels strong.
10/10
9. Chassis
Superb!. So rigid and obviously so. I drove all the passes and the back roads in France with all systems off. It's a wonderful thing. Move it around however you like.
10/10
10. Suspension
Needs better dampers. The control on the vertical plane is lacking. I really noticed this on the country roads of France where the roads are heavily rutted. As the chassis is so rigid it highlights the weak point of the dampers. If you live in a country or an area with less than perfect pavement you need to invest in some dampers. It was never an issue for me when I was driving it on the passes so it's definitely environmentally dependent.
8/10
Total Score
90.5/100
... but am I happy .... HELL YES!!
|
| |
Last Edit: Oct 19, 2022 11:42:30 GMT by thebaron
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 20, 2022 15:18:26 GMT
|
|
Fired up the Speedster today and took it for a little spin. I almost wavered over the weekend and took a sensible 1st gen Forrester turbo as a px against it but thankfully I could not do it.
Cleaned up one of the garages so it can rest in there over the Winter. I don't have as much parking at our new house which is definitely going to create a problem. We have two covered car ports and one outside visitor spot. The 528iX and the 86 will have the covered spots so I will definitely have to find another parking place for it from March/April onwards.
I can leave it at my office or alternatively at my friend's apartment as he has a free underground place, but these are both 1 hour away. I need to start looking for local solutions if I'm holding on to it.
|
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 22, 2022 16:00:45 GMT
|
|
Managed to snag a loose curb stone with the front right wheel on the 86 reversing out of a parking spot yesterday.
I have never curbed a wheel before and of course I do it on this. Ah well - Immediate repair ordered. Can't look at this.
|
| |
Last Edit: Oct 22, 2022 16:01:16 GMT by thebaron
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Awesome photo's of an awesome country and an awesome car. We rented a house a few years ago at the Vierwaldstättersee/ Lutzern. We did a few of the passes. Loved it. We were there mid summer and had snow on (I think) the Sustenpass.
Our rented Polo GTI went very very well ;-)
|
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
|
|
Awesome photo's of an awesome country and an awesome car. We rented a house a few years ago at the Vierwaldstättersee/ Lutzern. We did a few of the passes. Loved it. We were there mid summer and had snow on (I think) the Sustenpass. Our rented Polo GTI went very very well ;-) Thanks very much. I feel very lucky at the moment for sure. I'm still in awe of the scenery here, even after 11 years living here. That Vierwaldstättersee region is actually my favourite part of the whole country. I took my son camping for the first time up there 12 months ago. This was the dawn view.  Polo GTI was a good choice. I'm going to meet a couple of friends for a drive on Wednesday afternoon. One with a MX-5 and one with a 4 cyl Cayman. The guy with the Cayman also has an UP GTI and he is raving about the UP being so much fun in the passes. |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
|
|
I started work early yesterday so I could skip out at 15:00 to meet up with some mates and get out driving. 5.5 hours of almost continuous driving later I arrived home. Days have been worse!   |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 27, 2022 12:29:17 GMT
|
Making new friends   |
| |
|
|
mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,057
Club RR Member Number: 77
|
|
Oct 27, 2022 12:51:56 GMT
|
Is that tyre smoke or fog in the background?  |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 27, 2022 13:05:50 GMT
|
Is that tyre smoke or fog in the background? In this instance it is but a fog  |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
|
|
The 86 had to act as a recovery vehicle yesterday evening. The Speedster seems unhappy to be left in the garage. Weird how inanimate objects can appear to take on human characteristics.  Wheel is off to be refurbed after my dozy car park incident last week. Anywho, excrement occurs and all that. I'll get it back next week. In the meantime, any of you that want any more detailed shots of the front suspension set up just let me know.   |
| |
|
|
thomfr
Part of things
Trying to assemble the Duett again..
Posts: 688
|
|
Oct 28, 2022 10:30:16 GMT
|
|
I would strongly recommend to conserve those bolts etc with some oil or clear wax if you would like to have them to stay as shiny as they are now as they look like not conserved against rust at all.
Thom
|
| |
73' Alfa Giulia Super
64' Volvo Duett
65' Volvo Duett
67' Volvo Amazon 123GT
09' Ford Focus 1.8
20' VW ID4
71' Benelli Motorella
65' Cyrus Speciaal
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 28, 2022 10:37:01 GMT
|
I would strongly recommend to conserve those bolts etc with some oil or clear wax if you would like to have them to stay as shiny as they are now as they look like not conserved against rust at all. Thom Well spotted. I was just discussing this elsewhere. Some treatment is definitely needed. |
| |
|
|
thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,659
|
|
Oct 30, 2022 17:46:56 GMT
|
No exciting road trip this time as it was kids' swimming all morning yesterday and kids' soccer all afternoon today. The weather is still glorious though, so we enjoyed roof off motoring in the Speedster to our various activities.   Some excellent vehicles on the roads. Most interesting were a 296 Ferrari, 911 GT2, KTM X- Bow and a cool 70's Corvette. My favourite of the day was an immaculate black X308 XJR. |
| |
|
|
|
|
