Recently, a thread on the road.cc forum about possible correlations between high performance cars and dangerous driving ignited quite a debate. It also led to some readers sharing their passion, or previous passion, for cars too. Step forward AJ, otherwise known as kil0ran on the forum and a self-confessed “reformed petrolhead”, who shares his story about switching from car obsessive, to a cyclist with a modest Volvo estate…
“I spent most of my 20s/30s buying, modifying, and thrashing all sorts of Japanese/German motors. If you think cycling is expensive wait till you spend £250 on a set of brake pads that last one track day.
Why did I do it? A mix of tribalism, showing off, and as a way to satisfy my mechanicking/tinkering urge (that’s now well and truly satisfied by bikes). I enjoyed driving fast, I did really stupid things on public roads (140mph on the M3 at three in the morning was probably the worst) and lobbed a huge amount of money at my hobby.
Fortunately I survived to my mid-30s without killing or injuring anyone, and only picked up six points in 15 years of driving. Eventually I realised that all cars are basically the same; just a massive source of worry, and equally a massive drain on funds. Weekends were spent tinkering on the car and then watching motorsport. That’s all I did. No going out except for car meets, no holidays (except track days), no dating, and not much focus on my career.
All changed when I met my partner and she asked a simple question: ‘What’s the point?’… and I couldn’t really answer. Now I drive a Volvo estate (slowly) and rant at drivers like my former self.
I guess the point is that we all like nice things, and we’re all encouraged by marketing and other forces to want things we don’t actually need. If it’s not cars, it’s bikes or camera gear, or watercraft or whatever.
Stuff like BMW’s “Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan mean that they end up making these absurd cars like the M140i (355bhp in a hatchback FFS) to pick up all the petrolheads who must go one louder than everyone else. I loved Hondas back in the day and had a Mk1 Integra Type R which I reckon at most, even on a track, I could drive at 75% of its capabilities.
It was that car that made me doubt the point of it all. I did some proper instruction in it where I improved massively during the day, thought I was at the limit, and then the instructor took me for a hot lap where he was something like 30% faster. I guess it’s a bit like the MTB world where people are spanking about on full downhill world tour bikes, and simply don’t have the skill/bravery to exploit the capabilities of the bike to the full.
This might be false equivalence but owning performance cars doesn’t mean you drive like an idiot, in the same way that owning £10k’s worth of World Tour superbike doesn’t mean you jump off the side of alpine passes sat on the top tube in an aero tuck. Very few cyclists need a £10k superbike, yet there are plenty about in the hands of people who would blow up in the first hour of a stage race.”
‘Car culture’
Are there parallels to be drawn between car enthusiasts and cyclists? When it comes to spending vast amounts of cash, racing and incessant tinkering, the two definitely appear to cross over with a certain type of hobbyist. AJ takes us through his various stages of petrolhead…
1. Wanting to be Colin McRae
Rally fans tend to focus on function over form – hence the popularity of the Impreza. Not a looker, terrible interior, but cheap and incredibly capable off road…. oh, and highly tunable with simple modifications. The bike equivalent is buying a low-end Giant with Claris on it and upgrading the group and wheels to something more exotic.
2. Showing off to the neighbours
Stupid LCD lights, loads of bling, blacked out windows, massive in-car entertainment system, changing the car as often as the contract allows. Not much brand loyalty, buy what’s currently seen to be cool (see Nissan Qashqai from a few years back). The bike equivalent is currently a gravel bike – probably that Canyon with the hoverbar. It will likely never see much mud other than runoff from fields.
3. Brand zealots
All other cars except my brand are rubbish. Constantly dreaming about earning enough to own that brand’s halo car even if they don’t have a means to exploit its abilities. They’ll have their brand’s superbike in the shed but hardly ever ride it.
4. Tinkerers
Guilty m’lud. I did things like half engine swaps on VWs, ran motorcycle carbs on Yamaha-head Toyota engines, had different width wheels front and rear, obscure Japanese suspension, that sort of thing. The bike equivalent is Shimergo drivetrains, or mixing MTB with road to get wider gears. You know pull ratios for SRAM/Shimano/Campy and know what works together, and intimately understand and advocate for new BB standards, or things like boost spacing.
The Honda Type R hot hatch AJ razzed about in during his petrolhead days
5. Weight weenies
Guilty m’lud. Strip everything out of the car to lighten it to get the power-to-weight ratio up. Get obsessed by unsprung weight, rotating mass, and rolling resistance (yes, I’m still talking about cars here). Usually you’ll end up with a car that has no interior, race seat (driver only) and 6-point harness, which is a right pain in the drive-thru for MaccyD’s.
6. Style is everything
Basically, you end up driving an Alfa. It’s getting harder these days because everything looks so similar. When I started driving in the 80s there was still a huge variety of design language; think Saab, VW, Alfa, BMW, Volvo, Renault and Peugeot. There’s a reason those cars are now silly money on the classics market. Bike equivalent is probably a Colnago. Definitely Italian. Ideally with a chromovelato finish.
7. Classic beards
Where I am now (why, hello, Volvo 940). Spend most of their time under the bonnet or under the car, fixing things with hammers and getting oily. No matter what you do, the car is still massively slow and thirsty compared to modern vehicles. Car equivalent of Eroica types.
8. Campers
Stupidly expensive driveway jewellery that’s bitch to park, and gets used for its intended purpose maybe once or twice a year. Why, hello bikepackers with your Bombtracks, Salsas, and Opens.
“As with cycling, there’s always a subset of drivers who are twats. Of course, the difference is that a cyclist rarely kills anyone except themselves with their twattishness.”
The switch from four wheels to two
In addition to his epiphany after being asked what the point of it all was, AJ cites a particularly close shave as another defining point that made him quit cars, and started him on his cycling journey…
“In my 20s I thought I was (A) invincible, (B) Ayrton Senna and (C), I didn’t care if I died. I can remember saying to my mum something along the lines of: ‘I don’t have any passengers, if I do crash it will just be me who suffers.’
I once took some of my friend’s kids out in one of my hot hatches to basically show it off and give them a laugh. The back end stepped out on a corner and I just managed to control it, slotting it back in line between some trees and an oncoming tractor.
With them in the back chances are it would have been them who would have been killed rather than me, I had airbags and a racing seat. That was the end of driving like a dick for me, it was so close and I just could not have lived with the consequences. Sadly families lose teenagers in similar circumstances every few days, and have done for as long as I can remember.
I returned to cycling in around 2013, mainly to get fit and lose weight. I was 22 stone then with a 44″ waist. These days I’m around four stone lighter, which is all down to cycling. I got well and truly bitten by the bug, and ended up commuting by bike for five years.
I’ve been through many cycling tribes: the ‘hybrid wobbler’ with no idea what a groupset is; the ‘overbiked beginner’, when I quickly sold my first hybrid and realised it was rubbish for commuting; the ‘wannabe audaxer’, with long drop calipers, steel frame and space for 28mm tyres under skinny mudguards… and everything in between. I’ve now settled on a tourer/gravel bike – a Fairlight Faran – and a steel ‘best bike’, a Bowman Layhams. Most of my bikes have had to do more than one duty, which the Faran is just brilliant at. Only now that I’ve started doing some darkside MTB riding has it been relegated to the attic and replaced with a Calibre Two Cubed. Most of my riding is off road these days, following a road rage incident back in July.
AJ’s ultimate ‘frankenbike’, a budget B’twin Triban complete with Di2 shifting
My cycling does kind of match my journey with cars. I think the main habit that’s crossed over is the frankenbike tinkering. I love making things work that shouldn’t, and spend more time than is healthy poring over Shimano compatibility charts. None of my bikes have a full groupset; I run a mix of Tiagra and 105 on the road bikes, and I’ve managed to mix Deore, Deore XT, and SLX on my MTB.
Over the years I’ve always been a bit of an obsessive hobbyist but there’s nothing to compare with cycling. The health benefits have literally changed my life. I live in cycling nirvana on the edge of the New Forest meaning I have gravel tracks, singletrack, chalk downland, and stiff climbs all around me.
Being out in nature has brought me sanity during lockdown, and cycling has always given me the time and space to think. As exercise it’s great because there’s little option to bail out and give up; if you’ve ridden 20 miles out, you’ve got 20 miles to get home. I’m expecting to be riding until I’m no longer able, but that’s a long way off now we have e-bikes available.”
Are you a reformed petrolhead? Do share your own stories in the comments, or on the road.cc forum of course.
46 thoughts on “Confessions of a former petrolhead: switching from car fanatic to cyclist”
Fantastic story and write up
Fantastic story and write up – kudos kil0ran!!
Personally I switched from retro scooters (and a brief foray into motorbikes) to cycling…yeah there are definite parallels…including the clubs and club politics, but also finding a new bunch of mates to talk crap with and have a beer with. We always choose expensive hobbies us obsessives though 😉
Thanks – I must add that I
Thanks – I must add that I loved my time in that world, and did meet a lot of people who are friends 20 years on. So many of them have turned to bikes too, strangely enough. I got to see the country, and do long road trips abroad. Much like Glastonbury or indeed the cafe stop, the track day was second to the socialising. If cyclists have their Ventoux’s, petrolheads have their Eau Rouge and parking up in the F1 pits at Spa and driving that will stay with me – even if it was in an MR2 held together with gaffa tape and belief.
Nice article, much better
Nice article, much better than the “10 best handlebar plugs” stuff that’s recycled from three years ago
ive known a few people that have come to cycling from other sports with a heavy tech/upgrade element (motorsport, golf etc) I think the biggest shock for them is that spending £6k on a stealth venge won’t make you a top rider from day 1…..
Along similar lines for me.
Along similar lines for me. Was just fed up in the end of constant three and four figure bills, but the main problem I found is just how unbelievablely crowded the roads are.
I now get my speed thrills from a time trial bike – the sensation of speed is incredible and I’m not even very fast. That said, I still melt a bit every time I hear and see a Ferrari/Lamborghini
how fast can you average on a
how fast can you average on a tt bike? i managed 18mph covering 30 miles the other day on my road bike, hills included.
The bike calculator is pretty
The bike calculator is pretty good on stuff like this.
http://bikecalculator.com/
Are you on the hoods or the drops? Holding power constant, if you go from drops to aerobars, 18 MPH becomes 19.4 MPH. If you were going 18 MPH on the hoods, you’d go 21 MPH on aerobars. The bike frame and wheels do make some difference at these speeds, but the biggest players are position, then clothing.
andystow wrote:
+1. But anything more than an hour is too uncomfortable to bother with aerobars. Othewrwise, just getting on the drops in the right position is helpful, tuck your elbows in and avoid flappy clothing.
I’ll just leave this here.
I’ll just leave this here. New Cupra Formentor…
https://www.cupraofficial.co.uk/cars/cupra-range/formentor.html
I live 4 miles outside the
I live 4 miles outside the new forest so i’ve probably raced you without even knowing it. I’m most often in downton or red lynch way. Im 30 and looking back just a few years im embarrased by what i did aged 17 to 19.
I had a 1.1 litre fiesta mark two. Four speed box. I hammered it. Understeered massively around roundabouts then ripping up the handbrake trying to ”drift” it. Ended up letting a ”mate” crash it into a post in LIDL and wrecking it. Used to drive at over double the 30 mph limit thinking i would be fine as nobody would step out. Jesus that was stupid. I also had quite a few police chases, with my car being impounded and crushed as it had no brakes on the front, just a handbrake and the gears to slow down. No exhaust either. I thought I was uber cool, the best driver in the area back then. Now I look back with shame. I can’t get cars in my head as being cool any more. I just see the sheer volume of them increasing even now and more and more trafic jams and when i see kids driving about like i used to, i can’t feel excited about it. It must be so boring having your first car but not being able to drive quickly any more. You just end up going even slower than a bicycle round this way. Plus the insurance cost, the fuel cost, nah, i dont want a car any more. I still ride motorbikes, hell yes, motorbikes excite me way more than any car does and you dont get stuck in traffic either. Now i can afford several bikes that will out perform most supercars. But im an advocate for safe cycle lanes/ infastructure too. When you’ve gone past 1300 cars in an hour on a bicycle you tend to think there might just be a better way of moving people around an area? So i use my camera and cycling skills for good. We should get as many people into cycling and racing bikes as possible, motorbikes too. Cars should remain on the road but not be idolised any more, not like our dads and we did. We shouldnt let kids dream about driving like the fast and the furious any more with speakers blaring. Theres no point in this country, you cant drive quickly anywhere unless its night time. The bicycle is fun, good for fitness, simple mechanically, cheap, easy to park, doesnt get stuck in traffic, can take you places youd never be able to reach in a day on foot, and all without costing anything to run. The fact so many car drivers hate us i think is purely because they are slowly realising the car isnt viable now, not in this country, too many people and too many cars makes it not very fun any more. Bicycles and motorbikes are infinitley fun.
My son has no interest in
My son has no interest in learning to drive, and no interest in motorsport or cars in general. He likes cycling though – even watching it on telly. It might have been a great show for petrolheads but Top Gear in its prime did a lot to build the car culture we have today.
I think once the fossil fuel ban comes in there will be a change in that culture. You can’t really mod an electric car and they’ll all have an insane amount of performance that will be reined in by range anxiety and various levels of autonomous driving. I certainly have no interest in owning one – I’d be much more interested in “car-as-a-service” whereby I can book say a family estate for the weekend and a supermini for the school run during the week and have it delivered to the drive when I need it. Maybe we’ll end up with autonomous ride sharing or the full chauffeur experience for personal transport.
i grew up watching top gear.
i grew up watching top gear. Probably watching clarkson shout POWER all the time. It was funny, and I liked him.
Until the last year or so, when his opinion on bicycles came through. Can’t agree with anyone who doesnt like bicycles.
James May on the other hand, he’s a car lover, but also cycles and rides motorbikes with mechanical understanding. He’s a much more reasonable guy to watch on TV.
I can relate to your story
I can relate to your story kil0ran, but not to such an extreme. As a youngster I was always interested in cars – inherited from my Dad who was always under various cars in the garage.
My first classic car was a 2CV(!) and later moved on to a Porsche Boxster. I loved how well that car drove but realised it was too quick to drive safely on the road and so used it on track days. The novelty of this soon wore off and I realised that it I was wasting a lot of money driving round and round in circles. So I sold the car and bought …. a kitchen!
A friend of mine has 2 911s, a Ferrari an X5 and a Golf GTI, and I really wonder ‘why?’
I now drive a 10-year old van with room for a number of bikes safely tucked up inside. Still got the 2CV though – happy!
TAKE the low road!
TAKE the low road!
Not THAT low.
My biggest problem with
My biggest problem with modern cars is that they’re all basically the same and sold on comfort/toys/connectivity rather than anything else. I’ve hired a few for long journeys (lucky to get 25mpg out of the Volvo) and they’re just deadly dull with a dreadful view of the road. It’s a bit like F1 where we’ve gone from seeing the head and shoulders of the driver to barely seeing anything of them with the “halo”. The high belt lines, high bonnets, and shallow rake windscreens just isolate you as a driver from your surroundings. And, if anything goes wrong, it’s mainly an expensive main dealer job to fix it because everything needs diagnostics running. I carry fan belts, bulbs, fuses and a full toolkit in my 940 because if it ever does go wrong I’ve got a good chance of being able to fix it at the roadside.
kil0ran wrote:
One of my bugbears is car reviewers moaning about cars having their seats set high; in a competition car on either track or stage you want a low centre of gravity. However, for everyday road driving you want to be able to see around you – yet they don’t seem to realise this.
Anyway, I’m conflicted as I love cars/motorsports – but I’m becoming almost ‘anti-car’. There are far too many on the road, far too many parked on the road, and far too many poor drivers. And don’t start me on the amount of SUVs…..
I want more to be done to encourage people to cycle, walk, use public transport – and motor cycle. And discourage non essential car use.
cars parked in the road all
cars parked in the road all the time angers me- especially resedential- if youre just stopping for work or to visit a house then fine- but not if you do it all the time. It just narrows thye road width so one car driver has to give way to another, creating conflict- then a cyclist has to ride down the middle to avoid the door zone yet gets beeps from behind for being in the way. Shouldn’t be allowed unless you have room or a dedicted space- no car.
are you any of the riders in
are you any of the riders in this?
i got dropped at 5:20 by a TT bike
No, although that’s my neck
No, although that’s my neck of the woods. Personally I’d do a right at the garage and then a left and head up Stuckton Hill. Nicer climb and much quieter with a better view
Thanks kil0ran for sharing
Thanks kil0ran for sharing all this. Almost like testimony in a Pentecostal hall. I guess many of us have a journey like this, ending in the right place.
I bought an MGF 3 1/2 years ago, not that I’m much of a petrol head but it was very cheap and I fancied a bit of open top cruising. But I was also overweight and probably carrying too much work stress. For a while it was fun, but since coming back to cycling I hardly ever use it.
There’s something zen about the speed and rhythm of cycling. The right speed to experience the sights within 30 miles of home, the roads you’d never use except on Sunday mornings with like-minded souls who get it too, and few motorists in their boxes. The rhythm of 60-90 rpm, of clicking down a gear or two for the hill that you don’t need to attack but just stride up. The feeling of warmth, coffee and cake at a cafe stop, coursing round your soul like an injection of elixir. The chat about bikes and non bikes, of Aston Villa and gigs and families and dodgy shoulders and roads we’ve ridden and want to ride, with good people we’d never have met in a car. The engineering art of all the variations on the theme of two wheels and a frame – you have something to look at, clean, maintain, fix, upgrade, swear at and cherish with no computer needed.
All that and the health upgrade, the weight lost or never gained, the muscles doing their work, the tan lines from being out there, not orange from a sun bed but the mark of honest work, the tired but somehow content feel post ride.
For me now a car is like a fridge. I don’t give a monkey’s about it except for capacity and reliability. Do the job, don’t drain my wallet. I think that’s the way it’ll be for almost everyone eventually. Hope so, anyway.
Fantastic article Kil0ran,
Fantastic article Kil0ran, thanks for taking the time to write it.
More content like this please Road.cc
Dude you swapped for the
Dude you swapped for the wrong 2 wheels. I went down the path of the modded mk2 Golf with utter VW alliegence but one day I my mate who had always ridden motorbikes rocked up on a ZXR400 and I got offered a pillion ride on a RG500…(if you know, you know). Blew my mind how much faster that cars these things were, I was spending stupid money trying to knock 0.5s of my 0-60 when I could just jump on a 400 and do 12.9s 1/4 mile. Get a 600 and be beating supercars. Bought myself a RG125f within a week, derestricted it and was outrunning 205 gtis from the lights.
Difference with me is I’ve never been without a bicycle of one sort or another since I had a Raleigh Strika as a child and never really been out of shape. Quite useful since I’ve been banned twice…….
These days I do my racing in VR on PC driving sims with expensive force feedback wheels and the like. Still like a bit of kneedown around a roundabout though.
P.S. You should have kept the Honda. They are worth a fortune now.
That particular one (Honda)
That particular one (Honda) has rusted to death and is currently SORNed. Did the MK2 GTI thing, now that is a car I should have kept. Passat block, 8v head, race cams. So well sorted for track use it would show up all sorts of exotica in the right hands (not mine I hasten to add). Sadly, I was on the cusp of switching to motorbikes and signed up to do my CBT the day a close friend was killed on a motorcycle. I was the last one to see him before he left work for the fateful ride home. Kind of put the dampeners on that idea
Yeah, sort of a thing with
Yeah, sort of a thing with bikes. I remember Peformance Bikes ran the ‘accident issue’ and it’s opening sentence was something along the lines of ‘if you ride a bike, you or someone one you know will have an accident’. It was not wrong! My FZR died in a head-on, luckily I was fired off and only got a twisted ankle. Luck of the draw sometimes.
Then again same shit can happen on bicycle, get a corner wrong tanking downhill and it can be over.
My Mum always said she’d
My Mum always said she’d disown me if I got a bike licence because she’d been through it with my Dad – he had both legs pinned and plated in the 50s (pioneering surgery back then at Odstock) and spent 18 months in plaster after a motorcycle accident, and he had a couple of big offs when I was a kid – on Yamaha 50s! (because, well, y’know, shit car driving). I’m 50+ and sadly have lost mates or known people who’ve died on pedal bikes, motorcycles, and in car crashes. Fortunately not too many but each is remembered as an unnecessary death.
Why does it have to be one or
Why does it have to be one or the other? That’s just perpetuating the rivalry/tribalism.
I love my cycling, have a completely unnecessary aero bike as well as 4 other unnecessarily expensive bikes, all much better than I am as a rider, but I also have a porsche cayman, and a westfield kit car. I love them too.
Funnily enough I’ve managed to drive for 40 years without killing anyone, either on a bike, or a pedestrian. As they say, its not the the gun that kills, it’s the person – same with cars.
You are not a number, you are
You are not a number, you are a free man!
Absolutely agree with you on
Absolutely agree with you on this. In one of the forum posts I made leading up to this article I shared that I’d once got a lift home from a trackday with a guy who raced Le Mans style prototypes in the 70s. Expected a white knuckle ride, couldn’t have been further from the truth
For me the parallel has
For me the parallel has always been escapism: in my early twenties driving fast along a country road, reacting in the moment rather than feeling weighed down by other peoples demands was a joyful experience. I’d often take the long route home.
These days I cycle for much the same reason. Obviously the cost and the risk (particularly to others) is less, and the physical exercise a handy by-product. But fundamentally I’m just spending some time without a care in the world.
Exactly this. It’s been a
Exactly this. It’s been a long time since I’ve “just been out for a drive”. That free time is taken by cycling these days. I remember when I lived in Reading I decided to drive to North Wales for the day because I wanted to drive the roads around Snowdon. Did the same to drive the Cat & Fiddle. I used to keep my passport in the car in case I just fancied popping over to France for the weekend.
I can relate, I started a
I can relate, I started a company in the aftermarket auto industry, left for a real job but now still work in the industry. I am still able to satisfy my creative car-building passion by helping others and this has the added benefit of actually making money!
I dare say I have probably crossed paths with kil0ran at a JapShow, Time Attack or TOTB or similar event at one time or another in the past 15 or so years. If you think building a boutique bike is expensive, try building a racing car or (properly) fast road car! Although I thought paying £650 per rim on some Rays CE28Ns for my track car was extravagant, but I’ve definitely paid more than that per wheel on my bike!
I remember when Yoko AO38s
I remember when Yoko AO38s were all the rage, particularly on Elises. The tyre obsession is definitely one that crosses the communities, and of course Conti, Pirelli, and now Goodyear are in both camps. I know people who used to ship their race rims/tyres to trackdays, or get a support car to bring them, and then spend an hour sticking them on and taking them off. I’ve done it, I’ve even seen people swap brake pads for a trackday and not get out on track till lunchtime.
I know tyre prices for cars have increased but I have to giggle when I see bike tyres retailing for £170 a pair!
Another thing that’s the same is that the biggest “mod” you can make is to you as the driver/rider. Performance driving course/bike fit/lose weight/eat right will deliver a bigger improvement than anything you can do to your car or bike.
A very powerful and honest
A very powerful and honest take on cycling that should be shared across all platforms. Especially to petrolhead forums whose members sometimes troll cycling related Facebook pages such as this and cycling UK.
I used to frequent
I used to frequent Pistonheads and the like, and also “read” Max Power. A few of my mates from that phase of my life are now into cycling in a big way – competing at veteran level, doing massive rides, owning superbikes. One has daughters riding at national junior level. I think if you have to scratch a need for going fast, owning something unique, and engineering/tinkering cycling is a great replacement for cars. I built my Layhams & Faran up from framesets and my MTB has been modded to the point that only the original brakes, frame, and saddle remain (who knew – cheap Calibre saddle is the comfiest I’ve ever ridden – 20+ miles in unpadded baggies no problem). In terms of buzz there’s not much between chucking a 911 around Brands Hatch and doing a technical road descent, or a spot of downhill MTB. The main difference? What you’re doing won’t be breaking the law or endangering others, or contributing much to climate change.
One thing I don’t get from car culture is the hatred of cyclists. I was a cyclist from 10-18, a driver from 18-40 something, and now I do both. Even when I was a full-on petrolhead I don’t remember ranting about cyclists not paying road tax or riding two abreast, and I certainly never intentionally close-passed or punishment passed a cyclist. And I was by no means a law-abiding driver.
I really find Pistonheads a
I really find Pistonheads a hard place to inhabit nowadays….Too many trying too hard to outdo each other – and how many cars in their garage.
And the garbage about ‘powerfully built directors’ when they mean fat, overweight line managers……
Lost me at Volvo 940….
Lost me at Volvo 940….
I have loved bicycles for over 25 years. Garage full of them ( all ridden regularly- which is winning at life!). Still got a fast car on the drive, which I like and yes, drive fast.
Live and let live. Peace out
Oh how this rings true. My
Oh how this rings true. My past history includes the very same model of Honda Integra Type-R (amazing car) plus a CRX V-TEC, a Porsche 944, a Renault Clio Cup, and so it goes on. Like the author, I did all sorts of crazy things in these pocket rockets have no idea how I did not end up banned, dead or behind bars. And now? a 12 year old diesel Skoda wagon getting on for 170k miles – and 5 bikes in the shed! Plus ca change … and none of the aforesaid 4wheel weapons would be any good at bikepacking or off the asphalt!
You’re basically me –
You’re basically me – although I had a non-VTEC CRX Mk1 and it was my younger brother with the Clio Cup (he still has an unhealthy obsession with performance Renaults – 19 16v, Clio Williams Mk1, Clio Cup, and was about to do the V6 Sport thing when marriage and responsibility arrived…)
Responsibility = investment
Responsibility = investment in the future?! ?
Have to say that bikes were
Have to say that bikes were my first and lasting love: I’ve owned a Klein, a C50, a Gios, a Litespeed Siena and a Vortex, a Factor 02, and a Pinarello Prince that’s being resprayed to look like Ulle’s 1999 Vuelta bike – all bikes I fell in love with in the 90s and early 2000s – apart from the Factor.
I’ve flirted with speed via fast estates (so I can take my bikes): an RS4 (loads of fun) and an RS6 (faster, but somehow less fun) but they’re stressful to drive as everyone wants to race you all the time. To go really fast you need a superbike – and a Ducati 1098s with geometry I’ve never experienced anywhere else filled this gap until the girlfriend turned into a wife and then a mother and suggested I lose it. Before I could, someone nicked it. That’s the thing about superbikes…
These days I’m a staid A8 diesel driver (boot bike enough for a bike or our camping gear) and look at cars in terms of depreciation knowing that I’m throwing away a set of Lightweights every six months for the cost of running an expensive car.
This is what I don’t get
This is what I don’t get about new car ownership. My first job was as an accounts clerk for a Ford dealership and we had customers coming in every August for a new car. Spending thousands a year to have the latest model with very few changes – cars didn’t change much in the ’80s. And it wasn’t just Orions and Escorts – I remember a bloke who bought RS models (when they were proper rally reps) each year. Always in cash too so probably money laundering
I’ve never owned a new car, or even a nearly new. Always bought used, never worried about service history, and bought on condition. Let someone else pay the depreciation and the repair bills. The 940 is as solid as the day it left Gothenburg and such low mileage it will probably take us all the way through until it’s legislated off the road. I hope so, as I have no desire to own a used modern/complex/computerised car that I can’t diagnose and potentially fix myself. I had a lovely (no, really) Highline Passat that was in brilliant mechanical condition but was killed off because of the stupid electronic climate control that would have cost well north of £1k to fix.
Flirted with speed as a
Flirted with speed as a stupid young man with access to powerful motorcycles until one day, at an indicated 165mph I passed a sign warning 1/2 mile to roundabout and realising “I really need to start braking, really quite hard and really very soon” and thinking about how I would ever stop should something unexpected happen let alone consequences for licence and liberty should I have been caught doing those kind of speeds on the public highway.
Still have motorcycles but the only time I go over 90, which though rarely and briefly I fully admit is bad enough, is on track days. In some mitigation, I’m usually the annoying old fart in front that sticks to the speed limit.
Cars have never really had any appeal as performance vehicles. I value practicality and the current main car is a generic French people carrier with a boot which always seems just big enough. It is top of the line and a nice place to be, but I buy outright, look after them and after 6 years it is still pretty much forecourt condition. A soft-top MX-5 is becoming my practical classic and used for open top days out with Mrs Mungecrundle now we are getting our lives back from the little Mungecrundles. It goes round corners most entertainingly (the Mazda, not Mrs M).
I had a Mk1 MX5 RS-Ltd for a
I had a Mk1 MX5 RS-Ltd for a while. Felt like the fastest thing on the road. Only 500 built, it originally came with Recaro bucket carbon fibre seats, bigger alloys, and limited slip diff. Brilliant car and reasonably practical – I even stuck a Saris Bones on it once (not recommended, the boot lid is made of very thin steel)
I’m sure I’ll have a Mk3 at some point when I’m old and grey, if I had the driveway space I’d probably have one now, or maybe a Mk3 MR2.
It was pretty so I bought it.
It was pretty so I bought it. Can’t really say I know anything about them but it seems to be reliable, cheap to run, fun to drive, scrubs up well and plenty of spares for the foreseable future. One day it might be a classic…
Great article btw. Thanks.
Yeah, they’re simple beasts.
Yeah, they’re simple beasts. Originally designed as a Japanese (i.e. reliable) take on an MGB – an everyman sportscar.
This is one of the best
This is one of the best things I have read on road.cc for some time. Well done.
This read true and I’ve been
This read true and I’ve been a petrolhead for years. Our family transport is a battered old Focus though and it does the job. I’ve done various track days and driven a few single seat racers, a Ferrari, an Aston Martin Vantage (hated it) and several Porsche 911s over the years, from 70s models to the turbo 930 and the current 992. A long time ago I realised that motorbikes offered performance levels of a supercar but on a budget and I’ve had a lot, including a couple of superbikes (my old Ducati and my current Suzuki).
Put simply, I prefer being on two wheels, with or without an engine. I’ve only two motorbikes but have four bicycles (my two racing BMXs and two MTBs). We’ve become a cycling family and I’ve done BMX racing all over the UK with my youngest in particular, who has three bikes (two BMXs and an MTB) to my four.