Iv been a huge car fan most of my life and having recently felt like something was missing from my driving experience turning fifty last year I have loads of great memories back in the eighties owning a XR2 XR3i RS2000 with stage 2 rally engine Capri 2.8 golf gti you could thrash these machines and often raced against my mates. ( no speed cameras then ) or go for a cruise through the local high street lol.
More recently owning a Audi A3 BMW 330i Audi TT mk 1 ( still own ) and BMW Z4 but as mentioned before felt something was missing so turning to autotrader scouring the adds I fancied a hothatch again. Straight away three cars came to the top of the list Vauxhall vxr Golf gti and the Renaultsport clio, the vxr for me was to 'chav' quite a few round these parts owned by young lads and I wasn't keen on the styling either, i test drove a golf gti and although felt solid built well it still felt heavy reminded me of my TT. At this stage I was feeling maybe it was just one of those things that comes with age and what I wanted was not out there anymore. Then one day Traveling back from a job I passed a garage with a renaultsport clio 197 in black on the forcourt pulled in had a look round and was going to walk away as thought it was a waste of time when a salesman asked if I wanted to look inside doing so he inserted the keys and fired it up! Take it for a test dive just leave your van keys with me and you can take it for a drive, 15 minutes later I stepped out of the clio with the biggest grin on my face what a drive that was! I wasn't interested in buying that particular car as it was pretty ruff but still it gave me desire to own one of these little cars.
Ploughing through the Internet reading all the reviews what stood out for me was the 200 was an improvement over the 197 you guys know the changes they made so went out and test drove four of them just to familiar myself with these cars. First was a 197 F1 in black lovely car high miles though and again bit tatty next up was my first 200 in cup version bloody hell it was like stepping into a 'race car' lol fell into the Recaros and the ride was a tad hard for me perfect I imagine for track day cars but for me I was slower in the car as pushed hard on a corner it would stick like sh*t to a blanket BUT hit drain or crack in the road the car would skip a bit and this made me back off, if all roads were smooth as silk these would be fine but not on our roads near me. 3rd was a white 200 with cup pack loved this car still felt solid but not as jerky as the full cup plus it had proper seats! Sorry guys I know you love your Recaros. 4th clio well I bought it! A 200 in Alibi blue with cup pack 55k miles and has plenty of extras one being the anthracite pack, car was one previous owner who must have really looked after it bodywork in prestine condition and a folder with every receipt plus full service history.
If your still reading this apologies it's so long anyway I bloody love this car! It's simply amazing love the way it handles and goes need to get the revs up to make it go but boy does it go. Agree it's not the fastest thing out there by a long shot but when it comes the fun factor it gets top marks. Iv now owned this 200 for 4 days so far but I'm finding any exscuse to take it for a drive the house has never had so much milk and bread in it! Lol
Sorry no pics I had promised I would post some today but after a day planned cleaning up the engine bay The weather decided to rain all day :-( hopefully tomorrow
Paul.
More recently owning a Audi A3 BMW 330i Audi TT mk 1 ( still own ) and BMW Z4 but as mentioned before felt something was missing so turning to autotrader scouring the adds I fancied a hothatch again. Straight away three cars came to the top of the list Vauxhall vxr Golf gti and the Renaultsport clio, the vxr for me was to 'chav' quite a few round these parts owned by young lads and I wasn't keen on the styling either, i test drove a golf gti and although felt solid built well it still felt heavy reminded me of my TT. At this stage I was feeling maybe it was just one of those things that comes with age and what I wanted was not out there anymore. Then one day Traveling back from a job I passed a garage with a renaultsport clio 197 in black on the forcourt pulled in had a look round and was going to walk away as thought it was a waste of time when a salesman asked if I wanted to look inside doing so he inserted the keys and fired it up! Take it for a test dive just leave your van keys with me and you can take it for a drive, 15 minutes later I stepped out of the clio with the biggest grin on my face what a drive that was! I wasn't interested in buying that particular car as it was pretty ruff but still it gave me desire to own one of these little cars.
Ploughing through the Internet reading all the reviews what stood out for me was the 200 was an improvement over the 197 you guys know the changes they made so went out and test drove four of them just to familiar myself with these cars. First was a 197 F1 in black lovely car high miles though and again bit tatty next up was my first 200 in cup version bloody hell it was like stepping into a 'race car' lol fell into the Recaros and the ride was a tad hard for me perfect I imagine for track day cars but for me I was slower in the car as pushed hard on a corner it would stick like sh*t to a blanket BUT hit drain or crack in the road the car would skip a bit and this made me back off, if all roads were smooth as silk these would be fine but not on our roads near me. 3rd was a white 200 with cup pack loved this car still felt solid but not as jerky as the full cup plus it had proper seats! Sorry guys I know you love your Recaros. 4th clio well I bought it! A 200 in Alibi blue with cup pack 55k miles and has plenty of extras one being the anthracite pack, car was one previous owner who must have really looked after it bodywork in prestine condition and a folder with every receipt plus full service history.
If your still reading this apologies it's so long anyway I bloody love this car! It's simply amazing love the way it handles and goes need to get the revs up to make it go but boy does it go. Agree it's not the fastest thing out there by a long shot but when it comes the fun factor it gets top marks. Iv now owned this 200 for 4 days so far but I'm finding any exscuse to take it for a drive the house has never had so much milk and bread in it! Lol
Sorry no pics I had promised I would post some today but after a day planned cleaning up the engine bay The weather decided to rain all day :-( hopefully tomorrow
Paul.
