Reply to: Toyota GT86 review

[IR35FanClub]

Fair points, but as the Top Gear guys pointed out in an episode some years ago, and demonstrated with one of their experiments, powerful cars have more efficient robust brakes, because they need to. Conversely, wimpy underpowered cars have correspondingly poor and shaky brakes.

So that's another reason to favour a powerful car - for its greater deceleration.

Nah - say you have a wimpy car. To upgrade the engine to more power will cost you thousands. To stick some better brakes on it will cost you hundreds. the best thing - is pick a model of car with good handling but get the crappy engine. Say a 318 instead of the 330. He says. LOL.

As much as I love Topgear it irks me that they take the piss out of IAM becuase of one comment about bad driving a few years back. The guys who do the teaching actually enjoy driving, and don't like students who dither, you'll fail your test.

[VectraMan]

Underpowered cars are only fun if they have bad handling. My Mum had a Rover Metro 1.1 which was great fun to drive, for example, as every slight bend was an adventure.

[d000hg]

A bit like putting a massive body-kit on your Nissan Micra then... it's really cool but most idiots are too dumb to see it.

[sasguru]

It is a nice car - but if you want it in any other colour apart from red it is going to cost an extra £450...

so according to the Toyota website that brings it in at just over £25k ...

you can get a lot of other car for that..

why not just get

3 year old boxter s?

Toyota GT86 is like the bmw 323 or 325 , yes it is nice but we have all been there and done that.

If you don't get it, you don't get it.
HTH

[sasguru]

Yes, I am sure all those years spent sitting in traffic jams around Wandsworth in your Prius qualify you as a right Ayrton fooking Senna.

Compared to you the granny who lives down the road is like Ayrton Senna, you incompetent middle-lane toodler. HTH.

[cailin maith]

it was white, and had red bits on the seats.

Everything else was just guff to me then.

[stevejohnson]

Toyota GT86 is like the bmw 323 or 325 , yes it is nice but we have all been there and done that.

[original PM]

It is a nice car - but if you want it in any other colour apart from red it is going to cost an extra £450...

so according to the Toyota website that brings it in at just over £25k ...

you can get a lot of other car for that..

why not just get

3 year old boxter s?

[OwlHoot]

IF he start to change lane, more horsepower won't help, you need brakes. ...

Fair points, but as the Top Gear guys pointed out in an episode some years ago, and demonstrated with one of their experiments, powerful cars have more efficient robust brakes, because they need to. Conversely, wimpy underpowered cars have correspondingly poor and shaky brakes.

So that's another reason to favour a powerful car - for its greater deceleration.

[shaunbhoy]

It's a driver's car not a poser's.

Yes, I am sure all those years spent sitting in traffic jams around Wandsworth in your Prius qualify you as a right Ayrton fooking Senna.

[IR35FanClub]

But surely even at legal speeds more umph is useful to get out of potential scrapes, or as an extra safety margin when joining a motorway or pulling onto a roundabout, especially when the car is overloaded (with your family for example).

Also, it's rather frustrating driving up a steep hill, and finding that flooring it has next to no effect!

As others have said - yes to an extent, but I think most cars over way overpowered. I once did a run in northern france in a Cmax - 140bhp diesel and average 80mph over 2 hours, which included some urban driving. The torque gets you up the hills just fine. that was with a boot full with a fridge freezer, generator, 5 tents, 2 gazebos, 4 folding bikes, 3 bikes on a bike rack, food for 8 blokes for 6 days and probably a lot more. It was up to the roof. Despite my mates having an M3, Focus RS and a Merc SLV8, we all arrived at the port at the same time. I used about half as much fuel. And had nearly as much fun the whole week. Actually more but that's anotther story.

I think more horsepower for most people is just an accident waiting to happen. I've done my IAM and even though I enjoy driving rapidly, it makes you realise why you can't go too fast most of the time. You can spot so much stuff developing before it even happens. E.g a car looking a bit slow - you assign a mental tag - "Lost and about to change lane without indicating". IF he start to change lane, more horsepower won't help, you need brakes. Likewise if someone pulls out of a side road accelerating into them won't reduce the impact velocity. Telegrpah poles - as well as being able to bend what appear to be solid metal boxes, also tell you which way the road is going - most of the time!

I think it's a myth you need horsepower to overtake, you need planning and observation. I can't recommend the IAM course higly enough, for years I had been overtaking by taking a run up. They reverse the process, you start right behind the car in front, at the same speed, sacrificing road position as you come out of a corner so you are ready to overtake. If the road is clear you flash your lights *embarrasing* and then accelerate. If not you back off and and wait. When I was doing my test the examiner commented that I wasn't getting ready to overtake along a particular section of road - to which I explained I'd driven that stretch for 3 years whilst studying - and there were only 2 places to overtake.

[sasguru]

Go Toyota all the way .. more food for my megane rs.

When it's not in t'garage or broken down at t'side of t'road.
French crap.

[stevejohnson]

Go Toyota all the way .. more food for my megane rs.

[ZARDOZ]

But surely even at legal speeds more umph is useful to get out of potential scrapes, or as an extra safety margin when joining a motorway or pulling onto a roundabout, especially when the car is overloaded (with your family for example).

Also, it's rather frustrating driving up a steep hill, and finding that flooring it has next to no effect!

The faster cars get the more you think you need. But 150 bhp is more than enough to accelerate while carrying a family and if it's a Diesel you have oodles of Torque. Don't forget that early hot hatches had little over 100bhp, I know cars are heaver now but still you really can't use that much power on UK roads. Not for very long anyway. Cars were getting too fast and powerful IMHO at least now the focus is moving away from 0-60 to MPG.

[d000hg]

Having massive acceleration as a safety feature is only going to work for genuinely skilled drivers, i.e. people trained how to handle it, which rules the vast majority of us (whether we think we're good drivers or not) out.

Good acceleration with a 80mph limiter is still useful as you say for sliproads though.