Elstro1988

This is stirring up memories of my now-defunct hill climbing and sprinting career - 3 seasons of doing it in a 1.0 pushrod Nova and a 2003 Kia Rio. I wish I'd done a few of these in the godawful Rio before I got rid of it. Cheap motorsport like this is a great way of enjoying cars, especially if it's something that's not 'sporty'.

Please keep this on the road. Old Hyundais are rare as anything and like someone else said, far, far more interesting than the usual showfare. I don't recall the last time I saw a Pony of any age!

*SHUDDER* 3-pot Corsas are an abomination. On topic, my Nova is definitely a base. No clock (just a blanking plate), no tacho, mirrors are adjustable outside only, and it's also the 1.0 pushrod engine. But rare in black.

OK I will take you up on that....meeting a fellow AS'er and seeing the Grail in the metal? Sounds like a day out to me. I can drive up in my own 80s base model.

I remember seeing lots of Peugeots in the background of the Abfab episode 'Morocco'. Amazing to see 22 years later it is still the case. I'm sure it's the climate that keeps these cars going.

This thread was an epic read and reminds once again why I could never sell my own 80s pov-spec base model. Everything from the Sierra's Flickr fame, the heroic joint rescue mission, heartwarming friendship tales...just, wow. The road trips to locations that haven't changed since the Sierra's heyday......and yes people can lob hate but a car like this is much more likely to be part of people's memories than the halo models, and how many have come up to you and said 'my dad/uncle/mum had one' or spent hours in the back of a Sierra as a kid (my father ran 2 estates as company cars)? I know Cossies have their idiotic stans (yes that's pop culture lingo...it exists in car circles too, the We Love 1980s Cars group on Facebook can be a facepalm-fest sometimes 'mate nothings faster than a cossie' etc) but you can't deny the Sierra is a modern classic. A bit of street scenery that evokes 1990s sitcoms and dramas and something we took for granted. It's why I still drive a pushrod Nova! I noticed that one of you took it to a garage in Gamlingay which is my neck of the woods (Cambridge). This now means I have to go and visit the holy grail sometime.

Epic car, thread had me thinking you're a hero. I'd love an old barge like this but I'm way too incompetent to fiddle with all the nitty gritty internals the way you are.

I have been away for a while from here, so thought I'd better update this thread! The Rio is gone. And good bloody riddance to the nasty thing. I took it for its final outing at Blyton Park on July 9, and to be fair to it, it performed reasonably, scoring me a personal best there, but still wasn't potent enough to keep with fellow classmate Andrew Rollason in his rapid Ford Ka (yes, it was a 1.3 Kent engined one but he's an experienced pilot and it also had bigger wheels, a roll cage and tuned suspension). However, nothing by now after the humiliation at Shelsley was going to convince me to keep this horrible silver bag of nails, so on the 30th of July, it went (for £75!!!!! insult to injury) to We Buy Any Car for convenience - that was how badly I wanted it gone! Next season, I think, may be done in the Nova. While it's no sports car (still faster up Shelsley than the Rio despite being 300cc and 40bhp DOWN) it's just so much more fun to own, simpler to fix, still fits the Autoshite mentality and also has the misty-eyed 'car of my childhood' thing to its name. Plus there's actually go-faster bits out there for Novas without going the basic, overdone redtop route.

Pretty much all contemporary road tests i can find mention what a great sound the little 3-pot makes. I am definitely tempted....plus I think theyre really cute to look at as well. And theyre light which is important in hillclimbing. Keep it Kia, 1800 Shuma 2? Plenty for no money. 1800 would put me in the mix with Renaultsport Clios and tuned MX5s - and I am not a good enough driver to pull off any upsets - otherwise I would. I was actually originally planning to use a Shuma.

The Pride would be decent I imagine if that's all it weighs! The Rio is heavy and it has to compete in a road legal condition so the back seat has to stay in! Is the engine in the Rio a Mazda B3 as well? Shame its mated to a nasty gearbox as it feels like it's got some go in it. Shame the saloon wasn't sold here as they're actually neat-looking wee cars. Yeah I was gutted the Rio really did have no hidden depths but I guess journos knew best! It's got one more event lined up before I get it out my hair - my final event of the year will be contested in the Nova; next season who knows ? As to what chod I may have for 2017? I'm tempted by the the 03-08(?) Daihatsu Charades as they were said to be great fun to drive for a cheap city car and plus theyre light...watch this space.

Received these today - the Beast in action: 34 seconds to get to here is SLOW, FYI.

Thought I'd unearth this thread with some progress (I'm working on an article/blog for PetrolBlog detailing the experiences I've been having). Firstly, the dealer took 2 months fannying around with the V5C, assuring me tax was being paid whilst I waited for it to show up so I could finally start paying tax (it wasn't which meant he lied to me, and it had to come off the road immediately) so I had to cancel the Loton Park debut in April. Anyway, to cut long, boring story short, it finally made its debut in May at the Borough 19MC sprint at Snetterton: On hand I had some advice from Pistonheads regarding how to get the best out of an Astra GTE 16v on track (well, it;s an FWD hatch, sort of the same?) and a whole lot of thick skin. Was not expecting anything resembling handling obviously. A Rio hates the track. The gearchange is not suited to any sort of sporty driving, being too short and giving you no room to use the meagre 82bhp on hand. It was only just quicker than my 1.0 Nova which has 40bhp less around Snetterton. But I came away itching to do it again. Fast forward to the Saturday just gone (July 2) and I'm parking it, undeservedly so, in one of the famous little wooden huts in Shelsley Walsh's paddock. Alongside an array of much more suitable machinery including many BMW 3-series, MX5s, an RX7, Pug 106s and 205s, your usual hillclimb fare. Oh, and ERA R4D, the most iconic car associated with the venue: It's one of the most beautiful motorsport venues in the country and anyone who's not been, I suggest go. It doesn't belong here. What sensible hillclimbers use: What was once an 80s Mazda B-series engine. Attached to the worst 5-speed manual gearbox in history. If I needed any reminding that this whole scheme was stupid from the off, this day was it. The Rio was nothing short of an embarrassment up Shelsley. For those who don't know, this 1000yd hill is STEEP which means POWAH. I thought it would do OK. Turns out its 40bhp advantage over my wee Nova meant fuck all when it was 350-400kg HEAVIER. Had to change-up-then-down-then-up whilst making the climb, and the best it could manage at the speed trap was a paltry 39mph. Even the finishing straight couldn;'t claw back time as it could only hit 50mph by the finish. The gearbox is quite possibly the worst thing about it - notchy, ratios all over the place...does not deliver power adequately. Ugh. Even the Autoshite charm has worn off and the car is just shit. Even in these circles. It was slower overall than my Nova. Which basically rendered the whole point of buying it in the first place obsolete. Even justifying why I was competing in such a rubbish car was starting to sound less convincing everytime someone spoke to me about it in the paddock. Kia. WTF were you thinking? Couldn't you have engineered in SOME driving pleasure into your cheap Millennium-turn offerings? The engine was from 1980s Mazdas ffs. I'm awaiting some professional photos from Shelsley and next weekend (9 July) I will be caning this Korean chod aroun the technical Blyton Park circuit for its final event before the scrapman takes it (unless anyone here would like to take it on?!). Watch this space. Oh and I'm already looking in the AutoTrader for next seasons' £500 hillclimb chod, and finishing my season in September back to Shelsley..in the Nova.

More Shiters should do track days (or if you're as stupid as me - go into hillclimbing and sprinting). No matter what you drive, nothing beats the chance to legally cane the absolute bejesus out of a car in a motorsporty setting. The wee Starlet looked not half bad on the track either.

Pah. Wusses the lot of you. I've driven my 1.0 Nova tfrom Cambridge to Shelsley Walsh twice, Cambridge to Lichfield (Curborough), Cambridge to Scunthorpe (Blyton Park) and Cambridge to Nottingham (Thoresby), some of these with sports suspension. Really wasn't that bad and you'd think a poverty-spec 80s supermini with 4-speed gearbox, 40 horsepower and a stainless steel exhaust would be nothing short of pure misery and pain beyond measure. And this is excluding the extra travel to hotels before speed events and the hard-driving of hill-climb/sprint competition! In fact my Nova's munched miles all over the place, handled it all with aplomb and so far, no back problems. Either I'm tougher than some, got lucky, or should drive something even more basic........

Nova, 27+ Rio, 13 = 40 40/2 = 20. Not bad I suppose. Comfortably ensconced in the lower middle average shiter's score...