Couple of pics..

[H2XBY-397]

On the way back from the caravan (lake district) today i dediced to go back via hartside pass instead of the boring A66! Its the first time i've really had chance to use te car as it should be! can't believe how great it handled the twists, turns and hair pins! It was a much better experience than in my old vx220 which i thought would be impossible to beat!

Anyway we stopped to take a couple of scenic pic's just outside of alston







only took a couple because the car was displaying 2 degrees

 

[DaveTrophy]

Looks very clean mate

 

[oxygen]

very beautiful UK landscape!! much better with the red one

 

[clarki]

very 8)

car looks very well looked after, nice one (tup)

 

[H2XBY-397]

Thanks for the comments

 

[DaveTrophy]

Interesting to hear you thought it better than the vx220, I've been thinking a lot recently about moving to a vx220 turbo

Did you have the 2.2 or the turbo? What were your thoughts about it?

 

[trophy176]

I was considering vx220 but lack of space and cost put me off in end.

 

[H2XBY-397]

I had the 2.2 n/a, it was a great car over the summer and i used it as a daily drive so it would'nt really be practical over the winter, with the dodgy leaky roof, crap heaters, and the fact i'd be scared of someone crashing into it in when the bad weather comes.

I did a couple of trackdays in mine and i could'nt have asked for more from the car! The standard brake setup is pretty poor but i bought a decent ally belled set with good pads and even after 25mins of very hard/fast driving around croft i could'nt get them to fade/boil...but i did'nt do trackdays everyday and when on b roads i felt as though the car was too firm and bounced over the bumps which can be pretty dangerous when you're coming into a tight corner at speed and trying to brake. The abs is very poor aswell, it used to cut in fast too easy making the pedal sink right down and cut 90% of your braking power, but there is a mod you can do to switch the abs on/off which is very worth while doing.

I've heard the 2.2 is a better handling car than the turbo because of its light alloy engine but obviously the turbo will be quicker and much more tunable!

 

[DaveTrophy]

Cheers for your thoughts mate, interesting to hear an unbiased opinion.

Think a test drive may be in order to see for myself - would prefer the turbo for a bit more raw power

 

[trophy176]

I fancy 2.2 na, Redline racing have a nice 03 model in and I don't think that is too far from you Dave.

Want a test drive one but aint seen any at stealers in the Nort East for a while.