Avid Driver

At their stand at the Beijing Auto show Vauxhall revealed the newest addition to the already way too large for a supermini Corsa model range - the Limited Edition Limited Edition Vauxhall Corsa.





After the disappointing sales of the Limited Edition Corsa, Vauxhall have gone back to the kindergarten where their drawing board is in order to come up with a new strategy to make the youth of England buy even more of these dreadful cars.

For inspiration, the boffins at Vauxhall scoured the top Facebook pages that they thought young adults go to and came up with a brand new, and entirely not like the ordinary Corsa,  Limited Edition Limited Edition Vauxhall Corsa.
The press release states: "Ground-breaking technology has been used in the all-new Limited Edition Limited Edition Vauxhall Corsa. We are very proud of our FWD drifting kit that will be sold as optional equipment for the Corsa. The kit consists of two specially designed skid plates that reduce grip at the rear wheels and are totally not McDonalds food trays. The sensation felt when driving with the optional kit installed is very close to drifting a fwd car. At least that is what we think it feels like, because we haven't made a RWD car since the Manta and that was over 30 years ago. "

"We chose the Limited Edition model as a basis for the new Limited Edition because we have parking lots filled with them." - said Craig Johnson who was a random bloke we spoke to at the Vauxhall stand.

Here is a breakdown of the new limited edition features:







Everything in this article is made up and If you feel angry or offended after reading, please reconsider reading anything at all before you grasp the concept of sarcasm. 

Toyota Yaris T-sport - the car that nobody knew existed

Marketed as a "warm hatch" and overlooked by absolutely everybody the Toyota Yaris T-Sport was introduced to the European market in 2001. Nobody really noticed its potential and it was bought and driven only by middle-aged women that liked it for its looks. What was underneath, however is another story. Below the cute,lovable and entirely unintimidating shell hides a true old school hot hatch from the 90s.





The T-sport was my first car and it taught me a lot about driving. It taught me a lot about lift off oversteer - something that hardcore hot hatches normally do. The lack of ESP wasn't of any help either but without it holding my hand I quickly learned to feel every inch of the car as it is losing grip and introduce minor corrections. Corrections that were much smoother than those of an ESP. That meant I developed an ability to push the car to the limit and keep it there because I knew way better than any computer or sensor exactly where the limit was. An ability that easily translated to every vehicle I have driven ever since. Being a FWD car the T-sport tended to understeer  and that is not a big surprise but because of its short wheelbase as soon as you lift the throttle the back stands out and this can be corrected easily by applying power. And trust me a little throttle can make the difference while sliding sideways, in the mountains, in the snow, during the night.



The handling department was where the T-sport excelled at. It had a lower and stiffer suspension than the standard Yaris and beefier front and rear disc brakes. Brake fade occured way later than expected. The full weight of a  T-sport was only 960 kg. For a comparison a VW Golf III GTi weights 1250 kg. On tight twisty roads the T-sport was almost unbeatable - the low weight and short gear ratios meant that the small Yaris could keep up and sometimes overtake cars that are at least 100 horsepower more powerful.




On the motorway, however, things were not so good. The short gear ratios that were so helpful on the twistys become the worst problem of the car. At motorway speeds the Yaris sits at at least 4500 rpm and your head soon is about to explode from the noise. The light weight and fast steering ratio that make the T-sport so nimble and sharp on b-roads now make the car feel like you are driving a go-kart and every time you even look at the steering wheel and think about changing direction results in a big reaction from the car and soon you end up concentrating really hard just to keep the car straight.

The engine inside the T-sport is noteworthy as well - the 1.5 liter engine produces 109 horsepower and 145 nm of torque. Not a lot you might say but the fuel consumption was the real surprise - from 47mpg on the motorway to 28 mpg on the track. 28 mpg is a huge achievement because I know people who had a Citroen Saxo VTS and were bragging that it did 24 mpg. The small fuel consumption is due to the fact that the engine has a system called variable valve timing that is pretty much standard on modern cars but back in 2001 not many cars had it and especially the Yaris' main rivals. To simply explain this system - when the car is pushed, the cams are at a maximum aggressive profile to provide max power and when the car is driven slowly the cams adopt a less aggressive profile and thus fuel is saved at the cost of a small performance loss.

Inside the T-sport benefitted from a leather wrapped steering wheel and gear lever which were very comfortable to hold and provided excellent grip.  The seats were the biggest difference between the standard Yaris and the T-sport and they were superb. Having driven a standard Yaris I can confidently say that a seat can make a huge difference. The side supports hug you in place and hold you through even the tightest of corners. The fact that the seats were so good may partly be due to the fact that they were made by Recaro - one of the most famous and renowned seat makers in the world.  The only problem I had with the interior is that I'm 190 cm tall and the T-sport was clearly designed for the much shorter Japanese.  So my legs get stuck in an uncomfortable position under the steering wheel because the pedals are too close. This is something easily amendable on a normal car by moving the seat back and the wheel column towards you until you find a comfortable position. Not the case with the T-sport. Toyota didn't bother to include forward and backward movement to the steering column. At the end of the day I had two options to choose from: either my hands to get tired from reaching to the steering wheel or my feet to get tired from being stuck under it.

Despite the little niggles, the Yaris T-sport grew on me and has a special place in my heart as the car that taught me the basics of driving and I had great fun learning. It also never went wrong in 10 years of driving. Talk about Japanese reliability. I leave you with what a T-sport can do if it's properly modified.

Four wheel drive,DSG,launch control, 400 horsepower, 0-62 in 3.9 seconds and a governed top speed of 280km/h. This is what the new Volkswagen Golf R 400 Concept brings to the table of hot hatches.
Unveiled at Auto China 2014 this Golf shows just how much Volkswagen R Gmbh, the company in charge of the VW WRC team, has learned from their rally cars. The Golf R 400 is incredibly light - only 1,420kg. This may sound a lot for a hatchback but remember this Golf has a DSG gearbox and is four wheel drive and yet it weighs the same as a front wheel drive Ford Focus.

Outside

Inside

From the original Golf Rallye, through the W12 Golf Concept to the Golf R 400 Concept - VW are well known for bonkers hatchbacks. Let's just hope that the Golf will have the most important characteristic of a hot hatch - low price.

Rally cars in the 90s were required by FIA to be production vehicles which are slightly adapted for racing. 'Homologation Specials' are a limited run of vehicles made by the manufacturer to comply with these requirements. The Pulsar GTi-R is one of the most underrated homologation specials of the 90s. It's humble outside hides technology and ability far surpassing the majority of its competitors of the time. A true wolf in sheep's clothing the Pulsar is a prime example how a car that has been overlooked when it was released could actually turn out to be really good.

Technical specification

Born in 1990 and produced for only 4 years the GTi-R featured the now quite famous in the modification scene SR20DET engine that is normally found in the S14 200SX  and  produced 227 hp and 280 Nm of torque. This engine is extremely easy to modify and maintain.  Power figures in excess of 300 horsepower are easily achievable with a few simple mods like a free-flowing exhaust, a boost-up and a front mounted intercooler. The Pulsar GTi-R was also equipped with the ATTESA all-wheel drive system. The system was also used on the R32 GTR and provided the Pulsar with huge amounts of grip.

Handling

Here is a video of the then brand new Pulsar GTi-R against the fastest Nissan model at the time the R32 Skyline GTR- a masterpiece of a car on it's own. The Pulsar had stock 14 inch tires and a stock braking system - it was really under par compared to the R32 GTR.

Yes, the Nissan was ahead after the first turn, but the Pulsar was hot on it's tail during the remaining lap despite the power difference of 60 HP in favour of the R32.

Interior

Inside the GTi-R was a typical 90s Japanese hatchback - hard plastic that starts to rattle almost immediately after you buy the car. The oil temp, boost and oil pressure gauges were the standard issue for any performance car from the era.  The sport seats offered great support but judging by the condition of the seats of the GTi-Rs' currently on sale they are of quite low quality. However the most interesting optional extra was the umbrella slot in the rear quarter panel of the car. Why isn't this a standard extra in all modern two door hatchbacks? Why aren't we funding this?

Modification

How a modified Pulsar GTi-R should look like.Modification

As the Pulsar GTi-R was a homologation special you can guess what most, if not all, of its owners did after buying one. They modified it. Extensively. Nowadays it is impossible to find a Pulsar GTi-R that hasn't been upgraded in some way. This is bad news for someone who wants to buy this piece of Japanese automotive history without any aftermarket modifications as standard GTi-Rs have become nearly extinct. The good news for us petrol heads is that the modified GTi-Rs look better, sound better and, with some of them pushing over 350 horsepower, quite fast. 0-60 times of 4.5 seconds are easily achievable with a modified Pulsar,  meaning that this modest looking 24-year-old hatch is as fast as a brand new Audi RS3 with launch control and a DSG gearbox and faster than a BMW M135i.

Buying one today

Nowadays Pulsar GTi-Rs are becoming more and more scarce. This is due to the fact that they suffer from a disease that affects all old cars. Metal oxidation or put simply - rust. It is close to impossible to find a rust free Pulsar and all of the ones for sale are suffering from rusty wheel arches - the most common area where they rust.  Pulsar GTi-R are becoming rare because half of them are too rusty to salvage and the other half have already been crashed in such a way that the are unrepairable.  At the moment there is just one for sale at PistonHeads that has all the basic modifications covered and produces a healthy 333 bhp at the wheels. It also benefits from a recent full engine rebuild and has been properly undersealed.  However this Pulsar also suffers from very rusty wheel arches - a plague of all GTi-Rs.

I will finish with this video of what a GTi-R drives and sounds like if you shoehorn the legendary RB26 engine from the R34 Skyline GTR in it.