I have to say, i am genuinely curious to learn what kind of trouble you are getting into that you need a 300bhp golf to get out of?!
The 2nd part of that statement regarding overtaking left me rolling my eyes at the apparent inability of the 'modern' driver (shall we say, the 'Clarkson generation') to overtake, or indeed, simply travel quickly in a low powered car. To suggest that you need a 300bhp golf in order to overtake?, seriously?. My transit connect van has 88bhp and probably about 155lb/ft of torque at 2000rpm. When i leave the house in the morning the half ton of water in the back means it weighs pretty close to the 2.3 tons GVW. Yet i have little difficulty overtaking slower moving traffic, so i have no idea whatsoever why you cant manage in your 'warm' hatch.
You dont need a powerful car to travel quickly, just the skills to read the road properly, and know how to exploit the car you are driving. Back when i first got into cars it seemed that most of my favourite motoring journalists had owned a citroen 2cv, it seemed like a right of passage. Entirely understandable though, because driving a low powered car makes you a better driver by learning about reading the road, looking ahead, preserving momentum by carrying as much speed as possible through the corners and only using the brakes when absolutely necessary. The 2cv was the perfect car for this as its soft loping suspension and ability to keep on gripping long after you expected the 125 section tyres (yes really, like your space saver!) to give up, meant that it could be driven flat out more or less everywhere, getting round the impossibility of going 'fast' (70mph top speed), by simply never going slowly!.
Once, back in about 1993, i drove from Wigan to my home in Aberdeen in exactly 5 hours. Taking into account the 15 minute stop for fuel and toilet, that worked out as an average speed of 70.6 mph!. The car?, a 1986 mk2 fiesta diesel with over 80% less power than a golf r (54bhp). Despite having driven some very powerful (for the day) cars, my most memorable journeys are all ones done in very low powered vehicles, such as the above.
I dont really have much interest in modern 'performance' cars, it seems to have desended into a contest of who has most power and who can get round the'ring fastest. I'll take a 1.5 mazda mx5 thanks
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