A thread in praise of the private car!

[mauvais]

Good plan sir. Please can some mung bean-scoffing librarian invite me to their yoghurt weaving party so I can do a sweet drift/sick burnout/call the RAC to extract me from a hedge? (delete where applicable)

 

[Spymaster]

Good plan sir. Please can some mung bean-scoffing librarian invite me to their yoghurt weaving party so I can do a sweet drift/sick burnout/call the RAC to extract me from a hedge? (delete where applicable)

The beauty of the scheme is that you don't necessarily need the treehugger's cooperation.

I hereby pair you with gentlegreen .

Job done.

 

[DownwardDog]

DownwardDog and editor

Both my Lambo and my DeTomaso currently have no engines so they are zero emissions vehicles.

I am thinking of getting another BMW M5 though.

 

[mauvais]

The beauty of the scheme is that you don't necessarily need the treehugger's cooperation. I hereby pair you with gentlegreen .

Job done.

!

 

[Spymaster]

Both my Lambo and my DeTomaso currently have no engines so they are zero emissions vehicles.

I am thinking of getting another BMW M5 though.

Once you get those three sorted you'll probably need a triumvirate to effectively offset your emissions, so we'll add bi0boy to your group.

 

[Plumdaff]

79% of British people lived in cities in 1950. That's predicted to be 92% in 2030.

The vast majority actually live in places with decent public transport.

source

I live in a major city and the public transport is utterly shit and getting worse. I'm fortunate to live fairly centrally so I can walk a lot at the weekends but I need a car for work and I'd hate to be without one with children in this city's suburbs as the buses are so infrequent and unreliable.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Loving the plan Spymaster

2hats, Frau Bahn has her eye on a 3.7 TDI in the next couple of months, hope that's OK with you? If you could just see your way round to not going anywhere and reducing your breathing to just above a coma I might be able to push for the RS6 that I really want need.

Ta.

 

[weltweit]

Take longer journeys .. and other internal combustion engine machines.

A long time ago I (allegedly) rode a 750 Suzuki from Land's End to John O'Groats in 14.5 hours on A roads.

Google Maps tells me that using a car and motorways, it is possible to do in 16hr 27 minutes, a journey of 837 miles.

But using the rail network one might expect such a journey to be faster, after all no traffic bottlenecks, however according to Google maps such a journey using public transport takes : 26 hours !

 

[snadge]

ATM I am looking for one of these.

Audi RS 2 Avant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trouble is they are extremely rare and the 2 I have been to see were converted S2s, damn timewasters.

 

[weltweit]

Cardiff to Barcelona, about 1,000m

By aircraft, flying time 2 hours average speed 500mph

By Motorbike or Car, 20 hours average speed 50mph

By Train ?

 

[Dan U]

My last home was an urban area but not a city and bus provision was woeful, I used my car pretty much every day.

My car is in the garage being fixed, had to take my lad to nursery this morning in the next town (I live in a village)

There is a bus at 8am, next one at 9.40am. Bonkers at that time of the morning with school kids, train connections at Dorking to London etc.

Cost me a tenner back in a cab as well as next bus back was nearly an hour away.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

ATM I am looking for one of these.

Audi RS 2 Avant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trouble is they are extremely rare and the 2 I have been to see were converted S2s, damn timewasters.

Was always the ram-raiders car of choice

 

[Spymaster]

ATM I am looking for one of these.

Audi RS 2 Avant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trouble is they are extremely rare and the 2 I have been to see were converted S2s, damn timewasters.

There was a half decent looking one on AT last week.

 

[moon]

I'll go back to using a horse and cart then.

I would love this.. but think about the deathly clatter of thousands of horses hooves on the roads and who will clean up the mess
But still, if the police still find them useful I don't see why the rest of us shouldn't..

 

[snadge]

There was a half decent looking one on AT last week.

It's not there now, shame I missed that but it has the possibility of being another converted S2 of which there are a lot.

 

[Spymaster]

It's not there now, shame I missed that but it has the possibility of being another converted S2 of which there are a lot.

I just looked again too. It's an S3.

 

[snadge]

I just looked again too. It's an S3.

Yeah, there are loads of the S3s, S4s etc, when there were only 180 RHD RS2s made ever for the worldwide RH drive market finding one is pretty hard.

 

[Sirena]

I would love this.. but think about the deathly clatter of thousands of horses hooves on the roads and who will clean up the mess

When milkmen (and the occasional rag-and-bone man) still had horses, there was no shortage of gardeners in our street rushing out with shovels to collect the steaming gold!

My dad used to send us out to collect it. When I was a kid I thought it was the most awful job there could be. I thought it showed how poor we were!

These days I marvel at the whole composty nature of the world.

 

[Fez909]

according to Google maps such a journey using public transport takes : 26 hours !

It's slightly quicker than that:

The current fastest route on land public transport takes a timetabled 22 hours 45 minutes, departing Land's End car park at 14:35 on day 1 and arriving at John o' Groats ferry terminal car park at 13:20 on day 2. This involves a bus to Penzance, trains to Crewe to meet the London–Inverness sleeper train, then the following morning buses via Wick to John o' Groats. As of January 2011, an ordinary one-way railway fare for the rail section of the journey cost £216.

And that's a lot quicker than golfing your way there

In 2005 Surrey-based golfer and member of the Kent Golf Society David Sullivan walked from John o' Groats to Lands End hitting golf balls all the way. He travelled the 1,100 miles (1,800 km) in seven weeks to be eligible for the Guinness Book of Records as the longest golf hole. He raised money for the Variety Club, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami Appeal, and the Orpheus Centre, a residential arts and learning facility for the young and disabled in Surrey.

This is the only time I can ever envisage using this smiley for golf:

 

[not-bono-ever]

I had an s2 non avant. Probably the most soulless car I have ever had. Fast though.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I'm considering a Volvo V50 T5. Boring looking small estate that's effectively a Focus ST under the skin.

They do an Awd version as well, but they seem pretty rare.

Never owned anything even vaguely quick.

 

[snadge]

I had an s2 non avant. Probably the most soulless car I have ever had. Fast though.

What do you class as 'soulless', genuinly interested, I also had a S2 coupe a long time ago, also a RS4 B5 Biturbo, the S2 didn't handle anywhere as well as the RS4 but that is to be expected, older car, no sports suspension etc but I really enjoyed driving it.

 

[weltweit]

.. Never owned anything even vaguely quick.

I am over fast things now, my motorbikes were fast, now I am happy with economy and cheap running costs.

 

[Sirena]

I had an s2 non avant. Probably the most soulless car I have ever had. Fast though.

I have a 15 year old MGF and I bought it when it was in competition with the MX5. In every comparison the MX5 comes out better in every category and, if I am honest, my MGF is just tin and plastic.

But a friend gave me a ride in her MX5 the other day and it just has no soul at all. You can't hear the engine doing anything, it's cramped and it's just, well, boring.

I love my MGF engine. I know it's only made by Nissan (or someone) but it has a real warm purr that grows almost into a low growl. It's never shouty like a TVR, it's much more understated: like a big cat dozing in the sunshine...

 

[not-bono-ever]

.

 

[not-bono-ever]

What do you class as 'soulless', genuinly interested, I also had a S2 coupe a long time ago, also a RS4 B5 Biturbo, the S2 didn't handle anywhere as well as the RS4 but that is to be expected, older car, no sports suspension etc but I really enjoyed driving it.

Never connected with it. Took it to Berlin for a full run but blisteringly quick,it just never impressed me as a car I could fall for. I was running a 3.2 carrera at the same time, so it would be pretty hard to beat that in terms of fanciability

 

[not-bono-ever]

Also had an s3. Ditto. Find them fast but meh.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Audi. Fast but dull.

 

[ice-is-forming]

I love driving! I walk to and from work but probably drive around 1000 k a week in a work car. A ford territory- 3 litre V6.

I have one of these.. Straight 6, 3 litre diesel.

And sometimes I get to drive Eleanor one of my sons cars.

 

[Spymaster]

I've never had an Audi. I toyed with buying a 3.2TT a couple of years ago but was put off by a poster on here, so got a 3.2 Brera instead. Loved it and will probably get another some day, but I got a great offer for it and the petrol consumption was painful, so I let it go.