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Old 29-05-2008   #27 (Post Link)
Gurney
Newbie
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Manchester
Posts: 36

Member car:

156 GTA Sele

Re: Q2 and GTA Selespeed

Well I now have my GTA 156 Sele – one of the ‘New’ Malaysian jobbies. After a tortuous 'pick up' with FlyBe (from Manchester) managing to take off 10 minutes after it should have arrived in Southampton and a soggy trip from Southampton to Alton in a brand new A4 TDi (instantly forgettable), I arrived to see my GTA poking it's snout out of the very modern workshops at Park Lane. The place was not what I expected, littered with Bentleys, Alfas, and Porsche - all imported it was not your common or garden dealer. Looked more like an IT companies premises to be honest.

Having done the biggest Switch payment of my life I was on my way in filthy weather. Park Lane had kindly given me a full tank of motion lotion and made sure I knew vaguely what I was doing. Have to say that this outfit have been quite easily the most pleasant and professional people I have ever dealt with whilst buying a car, as I am getting near 40 odd cars now that's saying something.

To say the car exceeds my expectations is a gross understatement. The ride is excellent, firm but compliant. How much the Koni FSD/Eibach combo has changed this I don't know but I was truly amazed at how good it is. Several roundabout forays showed the Q2 diff was doing it's stuff, but again it's difficult for me to judge without a standard car as a yardstick.

And the noise..........oh yes.....!

Managed to get to Manchester with a quarter tank remaining, trip comp said 26mpg, which if correct is more than acceptable. I was amazed at what the trip comp was telling regarding ‘actual’ consumption. You really can boost the economy by pootling around in 6th, suspect it fantasises a tad but even so I was impressed.

And the sillyspeed (Cambiocorsa hybrid in truth) is bloody wonderful. It works exactly the same as on my fortwo – except for the blip on down changes, so it was an easy transition from a transmission point of view if not performance – frankly eye popping at times and I was behaving myself in deference to the engines zero miles.

Tonight I go to Sheffield in it on my test track of the last 25 years (A628 Woodhead pass) should learn a bit more but I am still restricting the revs at the moment.

They had polished the car rather well but sadly it's now somewhat grimy. Once Meguired, I will post pics.

Oh, it has teledials not OZ Super T's (if that is indeed what the turbine style are?). Looks superb.

Did I mention the noise???
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