What was that car?

[yorkie]

Running on from the Boxster thread, what seemingly innocuous cars have you been surprised by in terms of performance?

Modified or standard, they may not have actually out performed you but still made you think "sh*t that was faster than I thought it would be".

To open up the batting I once came across an Opel Zafira which (I hope) was severely modified and it was pretty bloody quick.

Cheers

[RIV]

My wife's s3 sport back, not that innocuous I know but that thing gives my rs a good run for it's money!! It's been chipped with full milly it's putting out 330 bhp, that thing would surprise a lot more expensive motors out there

[wrekka]

BMW 135i sport

[RSDave]

My Dad's old 2.5 V6 Mazda MX-6 was actually pretty quick for an oldish small car

[andy]

BMW 135i sport

Mate of mine has one of these that has had a few bob spent on it, 410bhp, LSD, some gearbox mods etc. goes like stink and would surprise a lot of big performance cars, including mine.

[Graeme4130]

BMW 135i sport

Mate of mine has one of these that has had a few bob spent on it, 410bhp, LSD, some gearbox mods etc. goes like stink and would surprise a lot of big performance cars, including mine.

I've a mate with a basic stage one chipped 135 and that gets pretty close to Rs4 performance

[bam_bam]

I had a scare with a new bodykitted VeeDub Beetle, turns out it was the VR6 AWD version. It's basically an R32 in a clown suit.

[MikeFish]

I had a basic looking 3 series behind me once. I was really shocked to find it glued to my bumper and I couldn't lose it on the straight. I was even more surprised to see it was a 335d. I know these are already torquey cars and you can get ridiculous figures with a chip but I was still shocked.

[pDkALO]

MikeFish - I was about to say the very same - I often find it's the innocuous looking oil burners that cause the biggest surprise, what with all that midrange torque and a rep who's late for his next appointment...

IIRC didn't top gear / 5th gear once do a 335i vs 335d track race and there was nothing in it?

[adsgreen]

My Dad's old 2.5 V6 Mazda MX-6 was actually pretty quick for an oldish small car

I had the ford probe version. Wasn't what I'd call... Fast but a cool first car
The engine was lurrrvly though - how they made it tick over at idle perfectly at 450 rpm was genius.
Was soon smooth it must have run on immac.

In terms of surprising cars - anything with a turbo has potential to shock very easily.
However my mates mk1 corsa with a tuned 2.0 turbo from a calibra was shocking.

[rs4blacked]

My old Mk2 golf used to scare a few performance cars even had a porsche driver follow me til i stopped driving to find out what i had under the bonnet

[KernowPete]

My '05 ST220 was pretty quick with the mongoose and pipercross induction kit (the dreamscience was pants though). It'd be a close thing on the roads around here.

[DSB]

I had some lunatic behind me on the north circular a few month back and he undertook me at full throttle ...... as he past it was a battered old A3 TDi I was in fourth admitedilty but I thought he couldnt bother me - bloody mid range chipped diesels !!

Also got blown away at the light by a lexus 4x4 hybrid thingy ..... I was in the corrado mind so I still looked cooler then him despite loosing !!

[RSKiwi]

Pretty much any big BMW diesel.

I am positive I will be humbled by one of these at some stage

God I hate what I just wrote

On another note

Peugeot 405 Ti16

I saw one of these (probably the only one in NZ) monster a well worked scooby back home. Nothing like a four door family car disappearing with the sound of antilag at gear change.

[bam_bam]

White van. Nothing is faster than a white van in the outside lane.