I'd say it handles ok but not amazing. It can still do corners fast though I've had some good fun on B and A roads.

It's the big old heavy diesel lump, just got to account for this and use the power to drag the car round, slow in fast out.  The suspension bushes have been superseded 3 times now and offer less wallow than the original ones which helps handling, the original bushes where awful.  Rear end grip is important in the furby so a good set of tryes on the back is more important than the front tyres in my opinion.

did that include the optional oven gloves and lockable oven glove-box?

And lolz.

It's a boat. It's never gonna handle good because it wasn't designed for it. But putting coilovers on, decent tyres and a rarb will at least give you a fighting chance.

Just need to drive in a way that gets the best from it, slow in fast out for serious

Mine is lowered on joms, has a strut brace and rarb and it doesn't handle that bad. It's not a patch on my old focus st170 that only had 30mm budget springs on but it's not what I'd call ****. I've had a lot performance cars usually with shocks and springs like a fiesta zs, corsa gsi, rs turbo etc and while I wouldn't say it stands out like the focus I wouldn't describe it as ****. I can make good time in mine and it feels planted. Maybe worth checking console bushes just to see if theres anything adding to your problems but my advice would be get some stiffer shocks and springs

Its a front heavy diesel skoda with front wheel drive and a short wheelbase

If you want a sports car then you should sell up and buy one

Its a front heavy diesel skoda with front wheel drive and a short wheelbase

If you want a sports car then you should sell up and buy one

You're missing the point of my original post, I'm not looking for a sports car, I already have a car I use for competition. For what I normally use the Fabia for, gentle driving in reasonable comfort and decent fuel economy, it suffices but I was genuinely shocked at how awful it is when pushed, it really was pants!

Hayden have you ever actually tried to handle having a w@*k in a bag?

Give it a go and see if it helps you reevaluate your thinking

Hayden have you ever actually tried to handle having a w@*k in a bag?

Give it a go and see if it helps you reevaluate your thinking

 

I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of

How tight was the autosolo out of interest? Any video's?

 

Nice open venue today. Just uploading a video to youtube now. Says it's got 20 mins to go so bare with me

...but I was genuinely shocked at how awful it is when pushed...

 

I'm not.

 

Standard suspension doesn't firm up enough in roll, suffers awful diagonal transitions and pitching. I got Eibachs and a RARB after having a weird "stuck-high, lurch, low" transition.

Video of the Course in question.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DO88aNZoiU

I think to compare, you need to give the same abuse to a PD130 powered Ibiza / Mk4 golf / Audi A3 to see if they are as bad / better / worse?  

We used to solo the bird's old Audi A3. Not diesel though, 1.8T and never had any handling problems with that. Even my old Octavia vrs got me some very good results when I used that, despite it being very big and not ideal for solo, plenty of class wins.

Video of the Course in question.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DO88aNZoiU

 

Yeah thats a proper autosolo :P

 

I dont think the wollowy (sp?!) suspension on any diesel 1.9TDi would be ideal for those quick higher speed moves you need.

 

My VX would have loved that track you ran, minus again I would have ended up sideways too often just for giggles.

 

The rover looked very quick. IIRC on the autosolo video of mine, a Ford KA and Escort ran the fastest times, both N/A petrol. Whilst even a old MGB managed a quicker time than me (minus the slightly more open full run shown) as it was just too bloody tight (not always a bad thing!)

The rover looked very quick. IIRC on the autosolo video of mine, a Ford KA and Escort ran the fastest times, both N/A petrol. Whilst even a old MGB managed a quicker time than me (minus the slightly more open full run shown) as it was just too bloody tight (not always a bad thing!)

 

I generally manage to pedal the thing quite well Bagged a class win and 9th O/A yesterday, had to work for it though, spent the whole event trading tenths of seconds with my mate in his Nova.

 

We've often discussed if there is a perfect car for Autosolo but with such a diverse range of vehicles we've concluded that there isn't, most of the time it's down to the driver and what they can get out of their car. Yesterday was the last round of the championship. I tied overall on points with a guy in an Impreza but as he had a couple more class wins under his belt the tie break went his way and I'll just have to settle for 2nd. Nevermind, still not bad for a 17 year old shed

Would you consider a Metro with the VVC engine in it? Or is the course you do limited to an engine size? I'll admit, I have absolutely no idea how these things work!

Would you consider a Metro with the VVC engine in it? Or is the course you do limited to an engine size? I'll admit, I have absolutely no idea how these things work!

Autosolo is open to any vehicle as long as it's taxed and insured so that it can be driven to the event. One of the rules is that you can't bring cars on trailers. This means that it keeps costs down and stops the competition being dominated by whoever has the most money to build bespoke vehicles. Cars are classed according to their engine size so I've been currently competing in the up to 1400cc class. As it happens though, I've got a vvc engine in the garage ready to drop in over the christmas break so next season I'll be moving up to the up to 2000cc class.

Sounds like fun! Did you go for the 160 or 143 vvc? I love the k-series engines so much, so light and powerful for what they are! And also return excellent mpg I found - Not that you'd be interested in that though haha. vvc's are quite torquey too low down? 

Got a 160. Should make the car quite exciting, especially when it's bolted to my close ratio, straight cut box

Nice I have a soft spot for them . Brother had a 218is and a friend had a brm.