No photo because I\'ve lost me camera :(
I\'ve done about 300 miles in the yellow fellow so far, and I thought I\'d share my thoughts...
The handling is amazing - it\'s so neutral it does exactly what you tell it to with the throttle. You need SMALL steering inputs - took me a while to get the hang of motorway intersections. :3gears-rh The tyres are great in the wet - drove it home the day I picked it up through an actual flash flood and didn\'t have a problem at all.
It\'s still loosening up nicely and I\'ve started using the rev range a bit more now (but still on part throttle.) Anyone else find that somewhere round 250 miles they suddenly had a lot more torque?
I\'m getting low 20s mileage which isn\'t bad considering it\'s not run in. I wonder if the latest map (which presumably I have) has sorted that issue? Don\'t really seem to be using any oil either, but then I\'m still short-shifting.
Gearbox is amazingly smooth, nice action, good takeup on the clutch now it\'s bedded in. I\'m not convinced it would take a day at Santa Pod though. Maybe I\'m just used to heavy torque-proof clutches. I was permanently in the wrong gear for the first 50 miles - I knew academically it needed a different driving style but having owned a TDI and a Z, it took me a while to get my head out of torquey turbo mode. As I suspected I much prefer this driving style.
You do get a fair bit of gearbox whine, but I guess it\'s a straighter cut than average because it needs to take high revs a lot of the time...
It\'s really, really, really chuckable. You have to be a bit careful about lift-off oversteer and/or trail-braking... on a track I think sliding it past the apex is probably the way to get the best out of it (and I intend to find out :D ), but on public roads doing ALL your braking before turn-in is mandatory. I wonder if some of that is the LSD?
Some niggles:
6th is far too leggy to use anywhere except on quiet motorways. Am I right in thinking the top speed would actually arrive in 5th?
My sunglasses don\'t fit in the holder. :rolleyes: :cool
The satnav takes "shortest route" a bit literally and tends to send you through the middle of a housing estate even when there\'s a nice big A-road round the side of it. The joystick type thing is a bit fiddly too. Are there any tricks or updates I should know about?
The boot gets bloody hot - fair enough with a slippy diff under it I suppose but I\'ll have to remember not to put any food in there!
In rain / dusk the blue display is too bright and the brightest red is too dark.
Glad you are enjoying it !!!
Had mine since March 1st and have already clocked up nearly 9,000 miles (not through commuting either - I simply love driving it everywhere !!)
I can assure you, the novelty will not wear off........Everytime I get into mine it feels like that first drive from the dealership all over again !!!
Enjoy.......
You will just keep on enjoying it. Got mine in November and whilst I have only done 7800 miles so far it is still great fun.
You are correct max speed is to be found in 5th. Highest speed I had out of mine so far was in 4th on a circuit and unfortuneatly their were no straights long enough to get it up into 5th at hi revs.
Guess this must be one of the last Yellow ones.
Have fun
Dave
Na, it doesn\'t feel like the first drive... cos now I know the car a lot better.
I\'ve ostensibly passed the running-in mileage now, but it still feels tight in 1st and any gear past about 7000 - so I\'m not straying into that territory just yet. I haven\'t quite yet got 6th-to-5th downshifts sorted out because the ratios are dead close.
Just driven back across the A616 - tremendous! (Apart from idiots who queue nose to tail behind lorries and then won\'t open up any space when you overtake. On this occasion I just overtook all five of the barstewards once I had enough space. :D ) Took me a while to adjust to the lack of engine braking on the descent though.
Regarding running in do you follow the manual to the letter or is there any better advice you can give me. It quotes first 600 miles no constant revs for long periods, no race starts and no high revving. Did you follow this or nurse it for a bit longer ?
I think not stressing the engine is the most important thing.
Because the 8 is short gearing I didn\'t feel guilty about using the revs, and in fact driving below the torque peak all the time is a good way to coke everything up and not recommended in any sort of car. I was changing up at about 3500 for the first while - after about a hundred miles it felt a lot better and I started staying in gear in 1st 2nd 3rd.
Basically - don\'t use full throttle - if you need to put your foot down to make the car go, then change down instead so the gearbox is doing the work. I also made sure I used all the gears getting to 6th. (Not any more - block changed from 3rd to 6th quite a few times this morning. :) )
In fact all the above is true for good fuel consumption anyway, not just when running it in.
I didn\'t use any oil at all until I started driving it harder after 600 miles.
Remember also it\'s not just the engine - brakes, tyres, and the drivetrain have to bed in a bit too, so no mega lateral g\'s. Don\'t be TOO careful with the brakes though or you\'ll never wear them in and you\'ll glaze the pads...
I still haven\'t had my foot to the floor in higher gears, just 2nd, and even then not past 7000 revs or so. You can feel when things are still tight and back off a bit.
Thanks for the advice