Nicebiscuit

The only quality tyres I've ever ditched previously were also Eco-biased Michelins fitted to a Skoda I once owned. Same issue.... Grip grip grip grip... No grip. Mighty alarming on a VAG car with practically no steering feel to help you... Swapped them for something that let go gradually and vastly improved the car. I suspect the Yokos would suit me. I think that's what's on the Citroen actually...

I'm starting to come to that conclusion. Tail happiness is one thing, but it is remarkable how early ABS kicks in when braking in a straight line on a damp road. I suspect stopping distances are not quite what they could be on performance oriented rubber. It's a bit weird that I have higher performance tyres on my 90bhp Citroen people carrier (Yokos) than I do on my 200bhp sportscar... :-D

Yeah, but it's even better when it's only 1 mile. [emoji41]

I've experimented... I like that the fag lighter cover fits. Surely that can't be an accident... I'm on the fence at the moment. I find the noise in the cabin to be mainly just noise if I'm honest, and psychologically I can't help feeling that there must be an awful racket going on outside - hence I back off a bit. So I may leave it blocked.

Are you by any chance quite tall? I'm not, so I get a decent view out of the side window (and a little bit of space for rear seat passengers feet [emoji1])

If mine is anything to go by, the shark fin barely picks up FM. [emoji1]. A case of style over function I reckon...

I'm a schizophrenic driver. I'm either out to play and bouncing off the rev limiter, or on a commute tootling along with the radio on. Easily see 40mpg in the latter state. No point pushing on on congested roads. It just frustrates me [emoji41]

Just occurred to me that my main fond memories of the AE86 was as a useful rally car in the Yorkshire forests back in the eighties. An Escort Mk2 successor in many ways in an era where affordable RWD cars had become harder to come by. I was wondering if anyone is using the GT86 for rallying. And is it any good?

Ooh.

Cracking pics... Just recovering from 3000miles plus myself, but in the Citroen! Calais, Angouleme, Bordeaux, Bilbao, Picos de Europa, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Costa Brava, Toulouse, Dordogne and home again with family in tow. Agree - it's the only way to travel - you actually see a country - and found some decent non-autoroute routes this year through France... As for the Piz Gloria - I've skied off that. f***ing terrifying!

So will it get through an Mot like that? (Lovely wheel that - we used to to snaffle the wood rim ones from Mx5s to put in our old Saabs...)

Older cars just look so delicate now in a way that a new car just cannot with the need for crash protection etc etc. the GT86 manages to get close though. I miss my old Saab 900 for the same reason. Was brilliant to tool around in...

Disloyal though it is, I prefer the old one. Toyota made some good looking cars in that era.

I rate Yokohamas. Had them on other cars. The other mid range brand I've tended to have luck with is Kumho. Had them on my Saab which was doing that Saab thing of trying to put 280bhp through the front wheels, not wholly successfully. The tyres coped well though. I wouldn't have any truly budget tyre on anything - but the midrange would seem a happy hunting ground for the GT86 - given that the stock tyres are hardly paragons of grippiness (and deliberately so...). For what it's worth mine will be getting Yokos when it needs some more...

Too late. Short back and sides please!

Quite - so they had to design something that they could sell sufficiently AND be competitive. The Group A years were the best for this due to the relatively low level of mods allowed and large volumes needed for homologation. Hence the Scooby WRX etc... But the few hundred road going Group B cars they had to build from the previous generation were pretty awesome machines. A road spec pug 205 t16 would be nice... ;-)

My hairdresser can barely afford a pushbike, poor sod...

Fair point. I guess as far as drivetrain is concerned you have a point. I suppose I'm thinking of some excellent drivers cars that have effectively been homologation spin-offs... Quattro, integrale, Impreza, Evo to name a few. Or closer to home the 4wd Celicas in the late eighties/early nineties...

Certainly the first car I've had with electric power steering that hasn't made me wish it didn't...

I see the suspension is entirely different, with Tarmac and gravel specific components. I wonder how the Tarmac set up differs from the road car...

Ooh yes. I see they do. That's gorgeous. I've tended to be of the opinion that rally cars have more relevance to road cars.

Really? Is a car a hairdressers car simply because it's optimised for road use? Apart from the vaguely homophobic connotations anyway, the general thrust is that the car is more about the looks than the road manners. So you could accuse various hatch based cabrios, Audi TT, various horrible little coupes (Vauxhall Tigra perhaps?), but not the MX5 which has ALWAYS been about driving first and foremost. I'll say it again, not everyone who enjoys driving wants to play at being a racing driver. The Mazda has always been a decently engineered little road car and doesn't deserve to be sneered at.

Nice. If the car is white the world is your oyster. Personally I'd go red, but darker than the stock shade. Or tan/brown. Basically anything but black! Too boring! :-)

It's been said elsewhere... But the standard rubber must limit the 0-60 as time must be lost with wheel spin...

How about this chap we saw today? Your moustache would undoubtedly never have been more luxuriant...