Anything with 200bhp+ is enjoyable to drive...
But where? Only on a track.
At its peak my Caterham had 208 bhp. At the time it was stripped of what trim you get with glass fibre shell seats, weighed 530 kg thus it was 392 bhp/tonne.When I stopped using it at the track I simply reinstated the trim but it was simply impossible to use all the power any of the time and keep your license. Then I had an issue with the oil pressure relief valve which resulted in a damaged crank, that's what you get using non oem oil pumps.
So I put in my old standard engine just to get me through the summer whilst I sourced parts for the tuned motor. The standard engine was as taken from a burned out Mondeo but it had external parts fitted to enable it to work in its new home. It put out about 160 bhp, not bad considering it had probably been to the moon.
With that engine in the car was brilliant, way better on the road than the tuned engine, so brilliant I went out and bought a brand new crate Focus 2 litre engine and sold the damaged engine in bits together with the bits off the crate engine I did not need. Engine cost £750, total sales £550 thus the Focus engine cost me £200, not bad for after what seemed like a bit of a disaster at the time.
11 years later the Focus engine is still in the car in standard spec (other than the bits needed to fit and get it working). Puts out about 175 bhp and drives like a normal road car. Way more pleasure than the peaky engine and in the real world just as fast and more usable (and it does about 35 mpg instead of the 25 mpg the tuned engine did on the road).
Twice a year we go to Scotland, 430 miles door to door, been doing it since about 1994. Route is exactly the same but parts have been improved, however traffic is far busier now.
Back in 1994 we had a 1800 Bluebird with about 80 bhp, used to take us about 8 hours with 3 stops and a refuel.
Then it was Golf TDi 90. Bit quicker in that, 3 stops, no refuel, took us just under 8 hours normally.
In May in the Superb with 150 bhp we had a really good run with no hold up and with a 14 gallon tank no refuel but still 3 stops. Took 7 hours 30 minutes, about 7 hours driving time, average speed 61 mph.
Could we have done it any quicker in a car with 200 + bhp, of course we could but we could have done it considerably quicker in the Superb if we had driven at illegal speeds instead of setting cruise at the true speed limits.
I am fortunate enough to have the ability to buy pretty much the car I want but the Superb suits me just fine. Enough power for the real world (actually its the mid range grunt of the 1.4 TSi that impresses) and great economy.
Why pay a fortune more to get form A to B in the same time.
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