WRX STI. One reason. McRae
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WRX STI. One reason. McRae
Ford Fiesta R2. A proper built rally car, which is great fun to drive.
Well it depends. I think taxi is very expensive where I live. But car sharing allows you to check your expenses: when I have more money I use car sharing, when I want to save I use public transport. But it really depends on the situation. I work 20 mins walking from my home and sometimes I can work directly from home, which means that I can stay without car for days.
And I am a freelance: car sharing expenses will give me fiscal advantage along with public transport.
If I want to go out of the city for work or on a weekend I can afford to occasionally rent a car for half a day because I don't do that all the days.
At the end, having a more "flexible" day by day life I prefer not to have fixed expenses of a normal car.
87 mk1 sierra coupe. bought it in 93 and is to this day only car i have ever owned.
Life split between my native island in the Caribbean FWI and South of France.
Toy Land Cruiser for rough terrains, Audi 2.0Q cab, Clio RS for the Lady who's a fine and quick driver, former regional kart champ.
South of France : Audi A5 cab, 206 GTI (S16) bought new because of rallying, Autobianchi A112 Abarth 85 for historic events.
Been rallying for almost 20y. Official driver in the modest Fiat 500 Sporting Trofeo. GPN, GPA in Golf GTI, G60, Peug 205GTi, 306, Clio 16S, Citroën AX GTI, Honda CRX VTEC 160, Delta Integrale i rolled twice, Escort Cosworth, Astra GSI...
Now doing historic rallies with Fiat, Lancia, Abarth friends.
'94 Hiace Jumbo - Bought to convert to campervan, loads of space and 4WD. Had to be partially converted back to fit the kids in!
'11 Skoda Superb 2.0TDI (6 speed manual). Cheaper than a Passat and slightly more load space. Comfy and actually not that uneconomical cruising at speed (160+) for long periods. Only missing radar cruise control...
[in different countries, so different driving conditions]
Can't say rally has influenced either of them unfortunately :(.
After using the Bus :) , my parents cars and my sister’s Corsa 1.2 for a long time, the first car I managed to buy was a 106 Rallye, the closest thing to a rally car my low budget allowed; it was fabulous and had only one catch: it was impossible to drive it on daily roads in a sane way… after the 106, I’ve been mainly buying/using large sedans or big coupes (a CLK currently), besides some 4x4 off roaders at work. Btw, in the barn there’s also a classic Morris 1300 (the car my Grandad taugth me to drive) and I’m getting room for a new project: a rusty Golf II 16v to restore and maybe prepare into N3.
Subaru was just testing the low-price performance market in the US in the late 90s, selling an Impreza with a 2.5L engine when I was looking for my first new car. It got good reviews in magazines and they highlighted the car's rally and general performance potential in Japan and Europe which appealed to anyone that didn't want to soup-up a Honda Civic, which was the king of do it yourself cheap speed. When the turbo came along in 2001 for the price there wasn't anything better available and there was a real boom in Subaru sales among kids looking for good (relatively) priced performance.
Thanks to the magic of the internet in 1999 I got involved with a group in Chicago before I even bought the car while I was temporarily working in Ireland where my coworkers were more excited about the Clio V6 than anything else. When my original RS was wrecked I bought a WRX in 2004. Since then the old group's moved on for the most part but as I don't drive to work yet make a number of long winter trips I've kept the car. I started getting involved in local rallies where most of those cars are old Imprezas running out their last miles as either competitors or third hand cheap speed for a new generation of kids.
https://i.imgur.com/1IRGwM3.jpg
I've probably kept it out of laziness. It's not cheap to park in the city but it's paid for and hasn't broken other than needing some rust cut out. There's nothing you can get in the US these days that's anything like it, let alone under $30,000.