Wow - a week on the German Autobahns.

[Cue]

Well even after nearly 6 years of ownership this little pocket rocket still surprises me.

I know how quick it is on a B road, but in a straight line i always thought it slightly underpowered to take on the great and good of Germany's finest but boy was I wrong.

100 octane racing fuel on board and after 1200km of driving, only 4 cars and two bikes were able to leave us (only one of those embarrassed the little clio).

The cars: GT2 911, 911 turbo s, Bentley continental (the one that left us standing at 150mph) and a AC Schnitzer 5 series.

Now don't get me wrong - i know the speedo on the car is out when at max velocity. 160 on the speedo is actually 152mph I can now report... two separate gps tracking devices had us standing at 149mph on numerous occasions. Porsche Cayennes, 911's and Boxsters, numerous VW's (although i have a new respect for the R32 golf), mercs, bm's and other exotica tried and failed.

Every time we got to play with the big boys we'd tussle for a few km then slow to be thanked and congratulated by our respectful german hosts...

I've never had call, other than on track, to slam the car into 5th doing 120mph before but the urgency of the acceleration at that speed was staggering, it would pull and pull to around 145mph until eecking out mph after mph...

Suffice to say I now love germany, their country, drivers and petrol stations (who also probably like the sight of me now), why doesn't Shell sell this 100 octane fuel over here???

Just like something out of a Rocky film, the underdog fights like it's it fighting for it's life, knocking out some killer punches and although ending up very battered and bruised (I don't think the bodywork likes being buffeted by 150 mph wind, as the designer tape holding the windscreen in now shows) it comes out with it's honour intact and with a lot of respect.. My doubting passenger is now a convert.. he was begging me to take the 540 but I'm sure even that would would have felt slow after spanking a few of them over there...

The northerly Nuremburg and more southerly Stuggart and Munich areas were the best hunting ground for duels although I must point out that this was no UK boy racer scene, the driving was impeccable, lane discipline and safety always foremost in everyone's minds... We need to learn a lesson in this country as to how to drive.

1200km on German roads = not one car blocked our path, even on congested stretches.
300 miles back in Britain and I was embarrassed at the low standards we have in this country. Lane hogging and not using the inside lane is common place.

You can actually spot the few good drivers on British roads. In Germany and Austria the minority are the poor drivers.

My last word is to complain about the roads in Belgium... We hit a pot hole the size of something you'd find after a meteor has hit on a main autoroute doing 130kph... How can one country get it so right and it's neighbours so wrong?

 

[Sam_K]

Are you saying that your T beat 911's and boxters top speed when running on 100 octane!?! :shock:

how much is it a litre? Did you go nurburgring while you were out there?

 

[T5PHY]

i've never taken the T for a hack on the Autobahn - however i did drive to Austria last year. i can't really comment on the speed of the T as mine was loaded to the roof with Snowboard gear and some wrc spec snow tyres for the back roads but i have to say the driving in Germany is immpecible, people move in goos time, speed up and slow down as they should.

You feel so safe when you actually trust others around you!

 

[felix]

Interesting & well written.

 

[Cue]

Didn't do the nurbergring as i was en route to Mayrhoffen for a boarding week and didn't have the time to spare but i'm going back to scratch that itch.

Having now gone toe to toe with a fair amount of porkies (there was 8 911's, about 3 or 4 boxsters and a similar number of cayennes that played with us) I'd report that up to us hitting our max speed only the top end 911's would leave us and only the spanking GT3, GT2 and turbo S noticeably so.

The cayenne would struggle to keep up or leave us up to 150mph then it would pull away slowly. The boxsters seemed slow.

I didn't think there was that much difference between say a low end 911 and a high end boxster but up to 140/150 they just couldn't keep up and when trying to leave us I was having to lift at 130/140 because the urgency of the reno was catching them too quickly.

The one car that really impressed me and like wise gave us huge respect was a bentley conti. We travelled with it all the way from stuggart to just outside innsbruck. He tested the water at first and blew us away from around 135mph, that thing is bloody quick all the way to 170/180 i'd say judging by the way it left us when nothing else would. but then he slowed and would do rolling road acceleration tests against us for a good 300km, finally clapping and nodding as we left the autobahn.

Didn't get to judge the GT2 for as long, we flew passed it when it was only doing 100mph, you could tell he wasn't happy though being left by the clio because he then came tear arsing up to us when we hit our wall at 150mph he was still accelerating and passed us doing around 180/190... then he slowed and we tag teamed for a short while before again him waving us goodbye before leaving the 'bahn.

The AC schitzer 5 series was the only BM to leave us and that was a gradual pulling away once we hit 140/145, even M3 which played with us couldn't stay on our tail... having had one I was really surprised by that, to the point I'd slow thinking they were'nt playing then the guy would drive past smilling and clapping then gun it again and we'd chase him and have to lift off...

As I say I've been really surprised by the top end acceleration of the Trophy, up to press I used to think up to 120mph it was a match for most but now i'd say all the way to its v max it will compete with anything this side of £80k.

 

[Sam_K]

That really is impressive! i personally have never driven at them speeds before and never taken my trophy over 130mph so it must be nice to have the other drivers clapping at you, especially in such exotica!

 

[ed55j]

Great write up cue, a really interesting read for a dull Monday morning. Once again the Trophy living up to its giant killing credentials.

 

[Sir_Dave]

M3 which played with us couldn't stay on our tail... having had one I was really surprised by that, to the point I'd slow thinking they were'nt playing then the guy would drive past smilling and clapping then gun it again and we'd chase him and have to lift off...

Im assuming your Trophy is either supercharged, or turbo'd lol .. Having taken my 172 cup, & 182 Trophy to the ring via the good old autobahns, i can safely say that i had my pants pulled down by every other car in the group over 100mph. So an e46 M3, 2 x Z3M's, R32, LCR (mapped), Evo, 911, Audi S3, Audi S4.

An M3 WILL rip a Trophy a new ar5ehole at ANY speed. I know this as i've owned both :wink:

If you havent driven something properly quick, you need to, you'll then realise that the Trophy is slow. Up to 60, 90, 120, etc etc etc. I did 144mph GPS'd in my Trophy, but it took about 3 days to get there. In comparison my Z3M got to 170 considerably quicker ...

 

[T5PHY]

Willy waver <3

 

[ravydavygravy]

I didn't think there was that much difference between say a low end 911 and a high end boxster but up to 140/150 they just couldn't keep up and when trying to leave us I was having to lift at 130/140 because the urgency of the reno was catching them too quickly.

They weren't trying. If they had dropped a cog (or 2) then it would have been bye bye clio.

 

[rubens172]

Wow, i'm impressed by that.

I took my 172 to the ring last summer. 3 people up, on a blistering hot day, with a boot full of luggage (and quite alot of beer), as well as the wrong fuel (95) it struggled to reach 124mph (on the gps) - speedo showed over 130.

I was a totally gutted as i was on the ring the next day, with a car that felt so slow. Still it was awesome!

In contrast to you I changed into 5th and had nothing under my right foot!

 

[eljeffo64]

Cue, a good read, you had a great time clearly

I love my T as much as anyone could - but honestly, my 911 is in a different league - especially at big speeds ;-)

Great way to spend your time though, well done!

 

[Cue]

M3 which played with us couldn't stay on our tail... having had one I was really surprised by that, to the point I'd slow thinking they were'nt playing then the guy would drive past smilling and clapping then gun it again and we'd chase him and have to lift off...

Im assuming your Trophy is either supercharged, or turbo'd lol .. Having taken my 172 cup, & 182 Trophy to the ring via the good old autobahns, i can safely say that i had my pants pulled down by every other car in the group over 100mph. So an e46 M3, 2 x Z3M's, R32, LCR (mapped), Evo, 911, Audi S3, Audi S4.

An M3 WILL rip a Trophy a new ar5ehole at ANY speed. I know this as i've owned both :wink:

If you havent driven something properly quick, you need to, you'll then realise that the Trophy is slow. Up to 60, 90, 120, etc etc etc. I did 144mph GPS'd in my Trophy, but it took about 3 days to get there. In comparison my Z3M got to 170 considerably quicker ...

seriously, upto this time last week i'd have agreed but i'm astounded that in reality it didn't happen. hence my post - i've owned both the E36 and E43 M3 varieties and they both felt quicker, so does my 540 ci but now i have to rethink which is the quicker car because we went toe to toe with so many quick cars. the S3 and R32 drivers (we were against two superbikes as well) both were handed lessons while the bikes were on a different plane.

 

[hoolio]

Whilst I was quite suprised to read the first post I really have no reason to disbelieve Fraser as he had had some of those cars himself and has always maintained the T isAlmost all about handling. I have to admit I have been pissed on by an M3 and I think I would struggle to keep up with my friends edition 30 the T handles better and I think I'm a better driver

 

[Sir_Dave]

seriously, upto this time last week i'd have agreed but i'm astounded that in reality it didn't happen. hence my post - i've owned both the E36 and E43 M3 varieties and they both felt quicker, so does my 540 ci but now i have to rethink which is the quicker car because we went toe to toe with so many quick cars. the S3 and R32 drivers (we were against two superbikes as well) both were handed lessons while the bikes were on a different plane.

Yes, but you dont know whether they were 'trying' or not lol !!!

An M3 left in 6th may well get beaten by a Trophy being thrashed from 3rd to 5th, but seriously a 182 isnt faster than any of th quicker cars you mention.

My Edition 30 was quicker than all my friends 1*2's, and i though the Golf was slow lol ...

 

[Jonc]

The Trophy is a fast car, but very much doubt they were trying or you have bigger balls than they did. Official top speeds of Boxters and Caymans from the lowest to the highest range between 159mph to 171mph, the bog standard 911 C2 does 177mph! But the new Audi S3 and Golf R32 are limited to 155mph so no supprises there if you were at 149mph. Could 100ron fuel really get the Clio to 149mph bearing in mind the official top speed is 138mhp, surely you'd have to map the car to get that sort of increase, plus most if not all standard Clio's rarely make the official quoted HP. Could the gearing even go up to that speed? I find the Clio pretty quick up to 100 or so mph but after that the more powerful cars will pull away.

 

[Cue]

to be fair my trophy is anything but standard - i've spent over £5k on engine, suspension and mechanical modifications since I bought it. Combined with being serviced every 6 months since new and with slight weight reduction I'd have thought it's power to weight ratio to be better than the officially quoted one.

The S3 and golf were definitely trying - they were racing two superbikes before i crept up on them and then there was a 5 way play.

Incidentally there was a 306 gti-6 trying to keep up (part of a road trip which we ended up meeting up with) who was absolutely left for dead. He said asked afterwards if we'd turbo'd it, he ran out of puff at about 130mph.

 

[Luke335]

You've gotta love Germany for the autobahns! I took my trophy out to Munich with a few hundred miles on the clock and was there for another year. I hate driving back here now unless it's early in the morning or late in the evening. UK drivers are awful. I have to say that the trophy is not ideal over there. It needs another gear for a start and its just not good for cruising hundreds of miles. They don't get it over there either. When I went to get winter tyres they looked at the v5 and started laughing at the power output. You don't see fast clios over there. I think the other drivers don't expect to have to drop it down a gear or two to beat a Clio. I used to love leaving other drivers behind as they would always pull out ready to overtake when you would get an extra lane on the motorway. My brother was out there too and I drove his boxster S. It would cruise at 150 with the roof down and you wouldn't know if you were in the passenger seat. It's much faster. At the time my car was standard and low mileage but it wouldn't get past around 136. It would be slow from 100 and then get a second wind at about 120 but after 130 it was painfully slow to gain any more. I know my car would be faster now (a real 182 bhp) but it's still comfortably slower than my brothers in a straight line.
The Nurburgring is definitely worth a visit. I absolutely love it there and the trophy is a good car to learn the circuit. It's the only reason I had the Mark Fish suspension fitted .

 

[Sir_Dave]

to be fair my trophy is anything but standard - i've spent over £5k on engine, suspension and mechanical modifications since I bought it. Combined with being serviced every 6 months since new and with slight weight reduction I'd have thought it's power to weight ratio to be better than the officially quoted one.

Has yours ever been on a rolling road? Thought you only had matched inlets & an ITG lol, what else you got lurking in there for your £5k, cams & remap as well?

Without wanting to sound like a ballbag, i think i'm going to leave this discussion now, its just ridiculous.

 

[hoolio]

In the words of Harry Hill only one way to sort this............