# My new ride!!!



## lazylathe (Jun 23, 2012)

Hi All,

Been a bit busy buying a new car...
Finally i have my one small car that goes like the clappers!!!

2012 VW Golf 2.5L!














Andrew


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## seagar (Jun 23, 2012)

Great choice.

Ian (seagar)


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## smfr (Jun 23, 2012)

Nice! I have a 2000 Golf 1.8T and love it (but it's starting to lose its paint!)

Simon


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## ttrikalin (Jun 23, 2012)

this is a fast car, andy!
Enjoy!

take care, 

tom


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## Ken I (Jun 24, 2012)

Nice wheels - watch out for the speed traps.

Andrew - just my 2c worth (for all I know you're Schumaker's better twin) - my advice to anyone buying a high performance (power / weight ratio) car is to take it down for a track day or advanced driving course.

Far better to find out its foibles in the relatively safe environment of a track than on a public road.
Check out your insurance and motorplan requirements before doing so however.

That car tends to understeer unless you chuck it into a corner etc. etc.

Then again maybe I'm preaching to the converted or you just use it to go to church on Sundays - whatever.

Have fun with your new ride.

Ken


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## Blogwitch (Jun 24, 2012)

Oh!! just another car.

I thought you had bought yourself a big ride on lathe or mill ;D

Nice wheels BTW.

Just two too many.


John


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## Darren English (Jun 24, 2012)

What layout is the engine is it a straight 5?


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## ksouers (Jun 24, 2012)

Andrew,
Nice car!
I had the Golf's predecessor many year ago, a 1976 VW Rabbit (called Golf in Europe at the time). 1600cc carburetter motor. 
Ran like a scalded cat! Handled well, too.
Like Ken said, understeers a bit till you get hard into a corner. Then the inside rear wheel comes off the ground and settles into a groove. Stay on the power and it just pulls right through.
Also the best car I ever had in the snow, it never got stuck.


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## rake60 (Jun 24, 2012)

New machines are always cool.

One that is capable of doing 0 to 60 MPH in 5.5 seconds is _*REALLY*_ cool! Thm:

Have fun but be safe out there Andrew.

Rick


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## johnmcc69 (Jun 24, 2012)

Wow. Nice ride. 
The thought of all the cool machines you could have bought..snicker. necessity..


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## Catminer (Jun 24, 2012)

Very nice Andrew, this will get you to those machinery deals a little bit quicker :big: ;D

 Peter


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## steamer (Jun 25, 2012)

I would listen to Ken here.... get to know her someplace where you can explore safely.

Dave


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## arnoldb (Jun 25, 2012)

Only the rims & engine differ... Mine's a 1.4TSi... - so not a rocket, but still good for 200+kph and a sub 10 second 0-100 ;D Had it for 3 months now, and it's an absolute pleasure to drive!

Enjoy the car Andrew; it's amazing all the refinements VW puts into these.











Kind regards, Arnold


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## lazylathe (Jun 25, 2012)

Thanks guys!!
It is a lot of fun to drive, although slowly for the first 1000k's...
Get everything run in and loosened up and then the real fun starts! ;D

Arnold: Very nice!!! Mine was the last fully loaded one available in Ontario.
I love the smell of leather in the morning!! :big:
I noticed they only go up to 1.7 before moving to the GTI in S.A.
And the prices for some of the add ons was crazy...
Way more than what i paid here...

To everyone else:
Thanks for the words of wisdom and warning!
I will heed them on a daily basis.
When i used to live in south Africa i took courses up the the Advanced BMW course offered at Kyalami,
a local racetrack.
Anyone remember Sarel Van DeMerwe? He was there the one day, quite a lot of fun!

You go through all the handling of a car, driving in dry, wet, flooded conditions.
Very exciting stuff spinning out at 120!!! ;D
Aquaplaning is also real fun!
Doing these advanced driver courses are fun and you learn a lot about driving a car.

Also did a few when i owned my Honda VFR400RR!!
Although they teach you a lot of different techniques for riding a bike.


Andrew


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## Ken I (Jun 25, 2012)

Yarwellnofine - like I said - preaching to the converted.

Supervan is still going strong in the masters series.

On a related topic to driving quick cars and based on a round table discussion over a few beers after a track day.....

The traction and anti-lock braking systems on most of the new cars seem to be having an unintended consequence.

It leads drivers to believe they are better than they really are. 

With most of these systems, once you have got the car into a corner (without throwing it away on entry) you can pretty much bury the throttle or the brake and all you have to do is point it in the right direction and the traction control etc. takes care of the rest.

Which is fine untill you hit an oil slick or any other change in the surface and then since you were already close to the ragged edge will lead to you rapid departure from contolled motion.

For this reason some of the systems are a bit "nannyish" reacting at maybe 60-70% of the cars actual capability (I drove a Jag XKR round the racetrack and it objected to the first corner and I was not even warmed up), others run very close - my BMW M3 for instance- I have done several aggressive laps before I noticed that I had forgotten to disable the traction control - so its probably near about 95% of the car's capability whereas my wife's 318 is probably only about 70% or so (my guestimates - not to be relied on).

I'm rambling.

My point is be aware of your cars limitations and don't rely on the safety systems to keep you out of trouble.

Like any safety system, once you start leaning on it, it becomes part of the process and is no longer a safety system as such.

Ken

P.S. Andrew - aquaplaning is definitely brown tousers stuff - for those who've never experienced it they should try it in a controlled environment.

1) You're on top of the water.

2) Therefore you are driving a boat.

3) Its a very badly designed boat.

4) You don't have a rudder.

5) You probably don't have a skipper's ticket.


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## steamer (Jun 25, 2012)

Hey Ken
The boat doesnt behave any better when the water on the road is frozen!
 :big:


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## Ken I (Jun 26, 2012)

True, true - I don't get to practice ice driving much in South Africa but I once slithered about 3 miles down a mountain road in France, I don't think I was ever truely in control the whole way down.

Ken


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## steamer (Jun 26, 2012)

Fun isn't it! :big:

As "snowbelters" Andrew and I have lived that nightmare! 

I hate ice!  Interestingly enough most traction control systems don't tolerate it well.....they basically lock the car up and you can't move.

Finding "black ice" on a highway overpass at night....it freezes on the bridges first....is down right sinister!...it just looks like a wet road....but it's not!  and the best bet is to not do much of anything that will upset the car....clutch in, stay off the brakes and just roll to the otherside.

Like anything else...if you do it for a while, you get better at it.....but no matter how long you've been behind the wheel, it will bite you!

Dave


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## lazylathe (Jun 26, 2012)

Driving in the snow can be a lot of fun at times.
As Dave says you never truly know what is going to happen because the conditions
that are present under the snow vary greatly.
Especially if it rains and then freezes and then snows on top! 

I much prefer dry/wet conditions to the snow!
It is a bit more predictable.

The one thing that i always find amusing living in Canada is that when the first bit of winter
arrives, everyone forgets how to drive!
The number of vehicles you see in the ditch on the side of the highway is crazy!!
Black ice is a big contributor for these events!
And the funny thing is they warn you on all the radio stations to slow down and be careful...

Andrew


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## Ken I (Jun 26, 2012)

Yes - hitting a patch of black ice is pretty much the same thing as aquaplaning.

Most ABS systems allow lockup below some speed (typically about 20kmh) this serves two purposes..

1) On loose surfaces like gravel and sand, lockup works better than the ABS over the last portion of the stop.

2) If you do throw it away, lockup is desirable as the car will carry on its trajectory and not suddenly shoot off in some arbitary direction (once a car is sideways the wheels are going to go below the ABS speed limit and lockup is possible).

Its standard practice to lockup on the racetrack if you lose it. I learned that the hard way when I knew I should have pounded the brake to the floor but my ego told me I could handle it - well I couldn't and the car suddenly shot me into the wall - damn - you don't really notice how fast those things are going by until it suddenly comes at you - AAARRGGGHHH.

As you say you pretty much shouldn't do anything other than coast and steer.
The problem is people panic and hit the brakes - it only takes a touch and your zero grip wheels stop more or less instantly - the problem is touchdown - invariably one wheel makes contact with the road - usually a front wheel - and its stopped - the inertia to get it turning again is sufficient to start the car into a spin (the other three wheels being frictionless at that instant) and away you go.

And as you know this happens in a very short space of time. 

Fun fun fun...

Ken

P.S. Andrew you used to live here - same thing in South Africa - the first heavy rains and the roads are littered with car wrecks.

I drove 240km in a heavy downpour the other day and in that time I saw 6 wrecks all of them single cars on their roof on in the wall / ditch / Armco - I would imagine there were more that had been cleared away by the time I drove past - can you imagine this lot on ice ?

Sorry I didn't mean to Hijack your thread - I'll shut up now.


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## steamer (Jun 26, 2012)

"......everyone forgets how to drive!
The number of vehicles you see in the ditch on the side of the highway is crazy!!
Black ice is a big contributor for these events!
And the funny thing is they warn you on all the radio stations to slow down and be careful..."

YUP!
 :big:


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## Rayanth (Jun 26, 2012)

I live in the Seattle region. it rains more than half the year. yet, if we have rain one day, then a nice sunny day, and the next day it rains - everyone forgot how to drive in the rain. It is standard practice in this area, apparently, that when you see the FIRST drop of rain hit your windshield, SLAM on the brakes, cut your speed at least in half, and turn the windshield wipers to full speed. Never-mind the ground isn't even wet yet, and it's barely even sprinkling...

Snow is worse, we get it a few days a year in my particular area, but when it does snow it sticks around for a week or two. People seem to think it's better to *speed up* in the snow, and make sudden moves.

Driving on snow is like walking on ice in sneakers. Make no sudden changes, and you'll be fine. Nobody seems to get this.

- Ryan


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## purpleknif (Jun 26, 2012)

Me & my co driver were the 1970 SCCA pro rally champions. One year Stig Boomqvist was at the P.O.R in Michigan. At that time he was a several time world champ. FWD was just coming in at that time except for Saab who already had it for years. We asked him which was better, front or rear drive. His answer, neither is better, they're just different. About 2 years later John Buffum showed up with his (at that time) $40,000 Audi Quattro. That's when the "pro series" died.


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## rake60 (Jun 26, 2012)

Living in the Pennsylvania mountains, I prefer Jeeps.

The 2011 Jeep Compass I own will hydroplane very easily with it's short wheelbase and
and fat foot print for it's weight. 
It does great in snow but when it comes to ice, you are better off to disable
the automatic traction control and just drive at a safe speed.

And then, there are the Invincible 4WD Owners who can go anywhere on ice because
THEY own a 4WD.

Four Wheel Drive is great for getting you going, but it doesn't a bit of good for getting
you STOPPED! 

Rick


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