Distasteful Cars
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Y |
ou
don’t have to travel far to encounter distasteful cars. Most are the usual boy
racer tat: Vauxhall Novas, Renault 5s, Ford Escorts and similar.
The
Ubiquitous “Bodged” Vauxhall Nova
Having
driven one or two Novas, I can confirm that they do have some appeal, which you
can read about here. Vauxhall engines are generally
tough, durable donks 
with
decent power outputs. Unfortunately, compared to modern cars, the Nova simply
lacks any sort of handling or ride finesse, and has a loud and unrefined
engine. This in itself isn’t too bad -
the Nova is a superior supermini to many of its rivals, when it was
launched. But what ranks is that far
too many are abused and bodged by hard up boy racers, or (worse) by people who
ought to know better!
This
example is a Nova I often see around York. It’s reasonably subtle, as far as
Novas go, but it badly needs a wash. What’s worse is that this Nova is
suffering from engine problems because it cannot maintain an idle at traffic
lights. The engine revs seem to alternate between 1,500 and 3,000 rpm. The
clutch has obviously been changed for a racing style one, because the car
cannot move forward at less than bout 20 mph, which of course can cause rather
jerky progress in traffic.
Clearly,
the best place to be relative to this Nova is behind it. Preferably about an
hour behind it!
The
Renault 5
The
Renault 5 GT Turbo has a reputation for being fast but delicate. I don’t know
if this example is fast, but it is delicate, and it is loud. Very loud. Ten o’clock on a week night
loud.
The
owner takes delight in waking up children and scaring them with his big, noisy
exhaust. When the car works.
Many
Renault 5 GT Turbos are rather tatty and rusty these days. The drivers are not as young as you might
expect, because they can now afford the hot hatch they always wanted. Great.
Unfortunately, too many are butchered by the boy racers, with claims of
ludicrous power outputs backed up by silly seat belt pads and big bore exhausts
. . . and not by rolling road data sheets.