Well as sad and lonely as i may sound, Saturday nights between the hours of 18:00 and 22:00 hours are quite possibly one of my favourite periods for "me" time.
Mainly because all the numbskulls are home from shopping, and now watching drivel on the telly or out "gttin waisted" and other associated incomprehensible activities that people post on their Facebook status's'sss's
As a result... the backroads become happily desolate :001_wub:
So today for the first time of me owning my Clio, weve had the rain slinging down quite heavily most of the afternoon, doing a grand job of washing all the surface ****e away and has kindly eased off to a drizzle this evening... how could i resist?
So jumped in and set a steady course to get the engine to temp and some heat in the brakes...
Happy with that i moved onto the more fun stuff, alas keeping the traction control on while im still on the learning curve, however this turned out to not dissapoint me...
What happened next was several miles of mind-****-adrenaline-surge :scared: these things continue to be utterly sublime even with the degraded levels of grip, and seem to go up a huge notch in the fun factor!
Granted i was going nowhere near as quick as i would in the dry, but some of my fave corners i wouldnt dare attempt at 40mph in some of my old RWDs cars and not expect to come out of them "a little bit" sideways or some other FWDs and just merrily understeer all over the place, the Clio just seemed to look back at me and say... "Yes? What was the problem with that one?" :biggrin:
OK, so i kept the TRC (or whatever Renault bother to call it) switched on, mainly because im not an expert race driver, but i think with it off it would of course become a great deal more of a handful for obvious reasons.
But Renault have to be comended that with it on (traction control) its still great, its the first time ive really felt it doing a serious amount of work, but its not trying to ruin the moment. More or less, it feels like its helping you, most likely coupled with fancy suspension gizmo's. Not once did i have a scary front or rear slidey moment... just several nice ones that made me do this > :biggrin:
Other cars ive had in the past have been massively intrusive when anything as far as 2degrees of wheel slip have come along and literally cut all power from the engine, while the Clio just seems to limit itself enough to keep you inline, and then goes back into Banshee mode as soon as possible 8)
Must admit im superbly impressed with the Conti3's. Im always more interested in a tyres wet weather performance, as its not hard to buy a dry weather tyre that is excellent, but to have one that covers both bases is an acheivement to me. And the Conti's have prooven themselves so far, still with masses of grip and plenty of info being fed back through the car on what they are up to.
Also, still masses of braking grip with them! OK i had the ABS having a look in much more often (still finding my footing with that) but stopping impressively and accurately when required... which brings me on nicely to the brakes themselves!
Get them to temp, and keep them at temp and they do not dissapoint! Without doubt one of the... if not THE finest brakes (especially OEM) setup i have ever owned.
Clio <3
To say im impressed with this car is a total understatement... wish id bought one years ago
Mainly because all the numbskulls are home from shopping, and now watching drivel on the telly or out "gttin waisted" and other associated incomprehensible activities that people post on their Facebook status's'sss's
As a result... the backroads become happily desolate :001_wub:
So today for the first time of me owning my Clio, weve had the rain slinging down quite heavily most of the afternoon, doing a grand job of washing all the surface ****e away and has kindly eased off to a drizzle this evening... how could i resist?
So jumped in and set a steady course to get the engine to temp and some heat in the brakes...
Happy with that i moved onto the more fun stuff, alas keeping the traction control on while im still on the learning curve, however this turned out to not dissapoint me...
What happened next was several miles of mind-****-adrenaline-surge :scared: these things continue to be utterly sublime even with the degraded levels of grip, and seem to go up a huge notch in the fun factor!
Granted i was going nowhere near as quick as i would in the dry, but some of my fave corners i wouldnt dare attempt at 40mph in some of my old RWDs cars and not expect to come out of them "a little bit" sideways or some other FWDs and just merrily understeer all over the place, the Clio just seemed to look back at me and say... "Yes? What was the problem with that one?" :biggrin:
OK, so i kept the TRC (or whatever Renault bother to call it) switched on, mainly because im not an expert race driver, but i think with it off it would of course become a great deal more of a handful for obvious reasons.
But Renault have to be comended that with it on (traction control) its still great, its the first time ive really felt it doing a serious amount of work, but its not trying to ruin the moment. More or less, it feels like its helping you, most likely coupled with fancy suspension gizmo's. Not once did i have a scary front or rear slidey moment... just several nice ones that made me do this > :biggrin:
Other cars ive had in the past have been massively intrusive when anything as far as 2degrees of wheel slip have come along and literally cut all power from the engine, while the Clio just seems to limit itself enough to keep you inline, and then goes back into Banshee mode as soon as possible 8)
Must admit im superbly impressed with the Conti3's. Im always more interested in a tyres wet weather performance, as its not hard to buy a dry weather tyre that is excellent, but to have one that covers both bases is an acheivement to me. And the Conti's have prooven themselves so far, still with masses of grip and plenty of info being fed back through the car on what they are up to.
Also, still masses of braking grip with them! OK i had the ABS having a look in much more often (still finding my footing with that) but stopping impressively and accurately when required... which brings me on nicely to the brakes themselves!
Get them to temp, and keep them at temp and they do not dissapoint! Without doubt one of the... if not THE finest brakes (especially OEM) setup i have ever owned.
Clio <3
To say im impressed with this car is a total understatement... wish id bought one years ago
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