pablo
RMS Moderator
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So with moving house and the addition of a detatched garage that CANNOT become a half laundy room, I was on the lookout for a bit of a toy. I had a few criteria in mind:
- it had to be "reasonably" practical - in that I can take my kid in it without him dodging death
- had to be special enough that it wasnt just another car (i.e. my E36 M3 felt like a car, not a toy)
- had to be a project of course, no fun without getting the spanners out
- had to be fairly cheap but still look cool
Having owned an Elise in the past I knew they were a halfway house between a kitcar and a real car. Elises are now stupid money and really need a K20 to make them "go". A VX220 Turbo is a viable alternative. 200+ bhp in effectively the same chassis but like the Elise they are heavy money (12k +).
So, me being me looks for the cheapest possible elise/vx type car I can find. The unloved 2.2 NA VX220. 150bhp of finest custard skin pulling. 150bhp is lame these days with my daily (the Cupra) having twice that.
But hold on!
VX220 Turbo: 0-60 in 4.7s
VX220 2.2 NA: 0-60 in 5.6s
Leon Cupra 290: 0-60 in 5.5s
Its not awful. And hold on again, because unlike the boosty turbo that some people have issues with the NA can be supercharged for fairly humble money (£2k ish if you scrape the bits up). Then youre into reliable 220-250bhp territory with some bolt on mods and an ECU flash.
Off on saturday to pick it up from its garaged nest and hoon cross country over Scotland to the boat in the usual timed to the minute dash.
- it had to be "reasonably" practical - in that I can take my kid in it without him dodging death
- had to be special enough that it wasnt just another car (i.e. my E36 M3 felt like a car, not a toy)
- had to be a project of course, no fun without getting the spanners out
- had to be fairly cheap but still look cool
Having owned an Elise in the past I knew they were a halfway house between a kitcar and a real car. Elises are now stupid money and really need a K20 to make them "go". A VX220 Turbo is a viable alternative. 200+ bhp in effectively the same chassis but like the Elise they are heavy money (12k +).
So, me being me looks for the cheapest possible elise/vx type car I can find. The unloved 2.2 NA VX220. 150bhp of finest custard skin pulling. 150bhp is lame these days with my daily (the Cupra) having twice that.
But hold on!
VX220 Turbo: 0-60 in 4.7s
VX220 2.2 NA: 0-60 in 5.6s
Leon Cupra 290: 0-60 in 5.5s
Its not awful. And hold on again, because unlike the boosty turbo that some people have issues with the NA can be supercharged for fairly humble money (£2k ish if you scrape the bits up). Then youre into reliable 220-250bhp territory with some bolt on mods and an ECU flash.
Off on saturday to pick it up from its garaged nest and hoon cross country over Scotland to the boat in the usual timed to the minute dash.
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