Some of the most enjoyable drives I’ve ever had on the road have come at the helm of a low powered, light weight car with thin tyres. The pleasure comes from wringing everything from that car, reaching its limits without needing licence losing speed. I have particular fond memories of a Friday night run up a very quiet A82 in a 1991 Fiat Uno 45 Fire in the late 90’s. A good Fiat motor should love to be driven at 100% all the time.
Me too SLO, there is something very liberating about being able to use all, or most of what a car can offer knowing you won't get in too much trouble!. To use a quote from a learned motoring journalist now long since past (LJK Setright):
"Circumventing the impossibility of going quickly by simply never going slowly"
But even just a long journey, such as borrowing the Fiat Cinquecento (from my work) to go from Wigan to Aberdeenshire. You'd expect the Cinq to be well outside its comfort zone on 70mph roads, but not a bit of it!. An added factor here was that the trip started on Boxing Day, and there was a lot of snow about. Once I got to Aberdeenshire, the Cinq on its little narrow tyres (145's if memory serves) had absolutely no problem scampering about snowy and icy rural roads, running rings around most other cars. Someone suggested adding a little methylated spirits (or cheap Vodka!) to the washer bottle to prevent it freezing up (which was the only problem heading North).
One other 'vehicle' I've owned, with even less power than the Cinq was a Suzuki ST90 panel van (like a Bedford Rascal). Its 800cc engine made 38bhp, but I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday/road trip driving from Aberdeen up to Scrabster, then across to the Orkney Islands to see family friends. This involved sleeping in the back of the van on a few layers of thick cardboard (and in a sleeping bag), and while the speedometer didn't work, I'd guess its natural gait to be around 50mph, where it was quite happy. Coming home, going across the Kessock bridge to Inverness in strong winds was not quite so much fun with the van behaving more like a windsurfer!.
My second favourite car was our C1 which I used for my mostly motorway commute to work. It could keep up with the flow on the flat, but I needed to drop a gear on the long incline if speed fell much below 70. A fun drive, but not always relaxing.
For 3 years (2008-2011) we had a Daihatsu Sirion 1.0 as our family car. This is the same engine used in your C1 along with the 107/108 and Aygo. During this time, we went from North Aberdeenshire to Wigan a couple of times, and on to Solihull once. As far as I recall, only once did I have to change down from 5th to maintain the legal limit or higher. That one time was heading North up Beattock on the steepest part of the climb, where we dropped to just under 65mph so I put it in 4th gear and we were back up just over 70mph before getting over the top. I honestly found that car very relaxing at main road speeds, it didn't seem to have any issues cruising up to and just over 80mph!. Can't remember what rpm it was pulling at that speed, but the engine certainly wasn't intrusive. Very comfy seats too, which is not always the case in a small car.
|
