Thread: small fun car with manual gearbox

seeing this thread has been shot to pieces I will add a little to one of my all time favourite fun cars.

it was a Fiat 850 Sports Coupe , stuck to the road like **** to a blanket , the little 850cc engine just revved its guts out with wonderful noises and the thing would do near as dammit to 100mph.

used to hurl it.....that's how you drove it....up and down the Adelaide hills roads in the mid 70's , those of you who knew those roads then know how much I enjoyed myself.

Hi Shane, the British and European car show is on at Yarra Glen on 20th Feb.

The suggestions here are now getting weird, but in the spirit of weirdness here are a couple more.
Dolomite Sprint. ( I am sure that there are owners who would gladly sell)
Escort 2.0 litre.
I had one which I built as a company car in Ford for a short time. 2door red, 2000 manual, sports suspension, rally pack.
Handled well and went OK with all emission gear on it. With the emission gear off they were fast. ( have discounted Twin cams and RS 1600s and even RS2000 as they are now worth stratosphere money.
Regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

seeing this thread has been shot to pieces I will add a little to one of my all time favourite fun cars.

it was a Fiat 850 Sports Coupe , stuck to the road like **** to a blanket , the little 850cc engine just revved its guts out with wonderful noises and the thing would do near as dammit to 100mph.

used to hurl it.....that's how you drove it....up and down the Adelaide hills roads in the mid 70's , those of you who knew those roads then know how much I enjoyed myself.

It can't be helped. Asking people to suggest "fun" modern cars is an exercise in futility ... Either the thread would die on the first message.... Or we'd talk about fun cars ... that aren't modern

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

seeing this thread has been shot to pieces I will add a little to one of my all time favourite fun cars.

it was a Fiat 850 Sports Coupe , stuck to the road like **** to a blanket , the little 850cc engine just revved its guts out with wonderful noises and the thing would do near as dammit to 100mph.

used to hurl it.....that's how you drove it....up and down the Adelaide hills roads in the mid 70's , those of you who knew those roads then know how much I enjoyed myself.

There was one advertised last week on facebook for $5k it was a very solid easy project, sold within hours !!

Originally Posted by Woolly

Hi Shane, the British and European car show is on at Yarra Glen on 20th Feb. If you had the time and inclination you could go along and suss out a lot of cars that people think are fun and interesting, and check out pros and cons talking to the owners. Just an idea.
Cheers,
Woolly.

We'll see, things are just crazy around my place at the moment. I've got two kids with jobs ... so I'm a taxi service when I'm not at work myself. I enjoy the mixed car displays though. Going to "just" french cars or "just" pommy cars events gets old really quickly. you see the same cars and same people all the time. I really enjoy those cars and coffee events ... the staggering variety of cars that turns up defies belief. Where on earth do they all come from

Hired. Kia Picanto in a manual last year in Cairns.

was very impressed with the litter jigger. The standard offering was very impressive for a base model and the little jigger handled like it was on rails. Ride quality was pretty good.

im a real Aussie bloke (>120 keg) and I fitted quite comfortably behind the wheel. Easily fitted two people and holiday gear for two weeks ( two suitcases plus all the wife’s extra bags). Should be no issues as a shopping trolley for the wifey. Managed three adults and all our gear heading to the airport.

fun factor rowing the gearbox up the coastal highway to Port Douglas brought out the boy racer factor again and a big smile . Went very well. Can only imagine what the turbo version would be like. The term rocket 🚀 come to mind.

most impressive was fuel usage. Trip from cairns to port Douglas and back and Two days running around Cairns. Filled up for return it took $3. Could not believe it considering I gave it some curry heading up to Port Douglas on the twisty hilly bits of the highway. I’d be more than happy to have one of these in my driveway as a runaround .

The Citroen CX2500 GTi Prestige Turbo 2 is a beast in lamb's clothing .

I had the chance to drive a relative's CX, the comfort it offers is equal to none till these days. Yet when you need the cavalry it is available with that specific turbo punch in the back when it delivers its power.

I must admit that on twisty mountain roads some occupants feel seasickness because of the body movements induced by the hydro-pneumatic suspension.

Would love to own one.

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

Well I'm a bit dumbfounded ..... Today the boss women walked into my office and asked me why don't I drive the CX anymore..... "the tyres are ancient and heavily perished .... and it needs 1001 small jobs, I haven't finished fitting both new tierods, the heater box is still out" ...... You know, its an average DoubleChevron car .... it runs and drives, but its been dismantled to "someday" fix everything for years now

Well she was just hanging out the washing and was looking at one of the parts CX's .... and could see the turbos tail end through the door of the shed that's over beside the cloths line..... And she thought "Well that's a lot nicer and more fun than the cars we are looking at" .....

Have I gone to some weird alternate world She thinks I should just spend some time and money on the CX and we can start driving that.

you know, if she wants a fun, fast'ish car to drive .... I really can't fault her reasoning. That tired old rat infested CX ... is one hell of a car to drive (as anyone that's driven one will know). If she's serious, I might just throw it back onto full registration and we'll worry about finding a modern 407 replacement in a couple of years time when the used car market cools down a bit. because realistically into the future the CX is going to become a "weekend" type car, its too old and rare to be used as a daily driver.

I was thinking the CX wouldn't really be driven to any extent untiil the ****box range rovers serious drinking habits become to expensive to upkeep.

Oh you guys probably don't know what "CX" is. The old rat infested ****box is a 1985 Citroen CX2500 GTi Turbo. My father imported it from the UK back in 1995.



it looks like this ... but has 10years more battle scars around its body.

Originally Posted by lebanon

The Citroen CX2500 GTi Prestige Turbo 2 is a beast in lamb's clothing .

I had the chance to drive a relative's CX, the comfort it offers is equal to none till these days. Yet when you need the cavalry it is available with that specific turbo punch in the back when it delivers its power.

I must admit that on twisty mountain roads some occupants feel seasickness because of the body movements induced by the hydro-pneumatic suspension.

Would love to own one.

Wow .... somoene knows what a Prestige is. They only made I think eight right hand drive prestige turbos. There is several prestiges (non petrol turbo) in australia. IMO the wagons drive and track better than the sedans. And the prestige is on the station wagon floorpan. All the extra length goes into the back door length are rear leg space.



Mines a standard non-prestige cars. Easily picked by the shorter back doors.