Irvin Gordon’s Volvo P1800S is set to cement its place in the record books when it passes the three million mile mark this autumn.
The cheapest ways to go fast
MG ZT 190 – 140mph, 0-60mph 7.5 secs from £1k
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Following in the footsteps of the impressive track stars at the Olympics, we wondered: what are the fastest real-world sprinters in the car world? It'd be easy to fill this gallery up with angry supercars with six-figure price tags, but what if we kept the budget at the more sensible and realistic end of the food chain? These are the results, ranked in speed order...
Based on the Rover 75, the now-defunct MG ZT was a decent performance saloon. It handled well and it looked the part too. There was even a V8! 190 models are the quickest but £1,000 or so is enough to bag a standard car from 2002/03 in good nick.
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36Comments
15/08/2012 00:38
14/08/2012 21:57
The last Celica, lots of looks, but minimal go unless you wanted to do a lot of work on it, if you were paying £1K for an Impreza, you deserve everything that happens!
Looking at all the examples and the quoted start prices, I have to ask whether the MSN herberts actually know anything about cars apart from what they read?
14/08/2012 20:27
14/08/2012 19:21
The forgotten bargains. Rover 820 Vitesse Sport models. 2 litre turbo, 16v, overhead cam, fuel injected engine punching out 200bhp in standard form. Half leather Recaros up front, sports suspension, 17" alloys, cruise at 80mph and return 30+mpg. 5 door hatch, 4 door saloon or the 2 door Coupe version which was hand built, features big leather seats, piped in contrasting colour, front ones electric. Air con standard. And all for less than a grand.
14/08/2012 18:04
i bought a 1999 V70 2.5T and chipped it , 233 BHP 270 torque 0 to 60 6.7 timed 150mph+ tested ( autobahn ) £2500 in total new tyres new brakes new ETM full service history 2 owners from new, 7 seats grandkids love waving out the back at the sports cars as we pull away lol, safe fast comfortable
16/08/2012 01:49
15/08/2012 14:43
Surprising that they don't show the big Lexus LS400 0-62 6.2seconds quarter mile 14.6 seconds and can pick up for less than £10k, problem is that it does drink the gogo juice!
They also missed the hyper tanks - Merc AMG jobs, Volvo T5, Honda Type-R's, Loads of Nissan's, Toyota Supra, Renault hot hatches, etc.
Not sure that I would go for a VW GTi as the newer versions tend to be lard wagons, but the R32's and VR6's certainly qualify as do the corados.
16/08/2012 08:52
the title says its all ...cheapest ways to go fast....
everyone is talking for 8k that ... for 5k this thats just the cost of the car
for 2k you can pick up a 180mph sports bike, 0-60 in 3 seconds, insure it, tax it, fill it full of peterol and take it to a track ..and when youre done there you can ride back and blow away anything you come across ....
14/08/2012 17:20
15/08/2012 20:46
i beg to differ on modern cars lasting longer than older cars modern cars have water based paint older cars were painted with oil and lead based paint not very kind to the environment but you could scrap of the scab and still find metal to treat with red lead, do you remember red lead i still have a couple of gallons oh and TIN TIN friend you can buy any car cheap if it has problems like blown motor or gearbox or needs a good welder, it depends if you can restore a car yourself or have good friends who like to play with cars at the weekend
15/08/2012 20:00
sierra cosworth ? family car proper boot 0 to 60 6.2 seconds top speed 150+ standard my mate had one tuned 400 BHP it would do 200 MPH easy total cost to buy and tune was about 7k GOOD BUY to most super cars for less than it would cost you to buy a modern piece of ROT AWAY FAST KIND TO PEDESTRIANS PLASTIC BUBLE SHAPED ASTHMATIC KIND TO THE ENVIRONMENT MODERN CRAP THAT ALL LOOK THE SAME AND YOU HAVE TO WHERE A BALACLAVA TO DRIVE to save looking like you hate cars and vote green party, just as a side note cars made before 2002 had there bhp tested at the wheels ( rolling road ) after 2002 most car manufactures started to rate the power at the flywheel instead, anybody who knows the difference will know this gives a fare higher power reading as it cuts out power loss from the flywheel to the road wheels so modern cars are not as powerful as they say they are read about it for yourself
15/08/2012 10:58
i did have a suzuki 1100 borred out to 1288 yoshi pistons high lift cams 40mm carbs and so on 185 BHP, but in the uk you get wet all the time even in so called summer and you carn't take the grandkids the dogs and a cool box full of picknick out on a bike, but i did love the 8 second quarter mile 13000 rpm scream that came from that suzi engine just not safe on wet busy uk roads to many close calls thats why i got a racing tank why do you think the police used the T5 ? ever seen one in a crash ? i have not much left of the car they hit take a look at the encap ratings in 1999 the v70 was safer than most new cars today if you have the people you love in your car but you like going fast there is only a few cars safe enough and most of them are in the tens of thousands of pounds ie range rover, bentley, merc, bmw,volvo, jaguar, and so on you get the safety you pay for, i would hat to be hit in a renault 5 turbo or the like, thats what that volvo hit i could not tell it was a renault or a smart car i could only tell from the badge 10 yards up the road no survivors in the renault the volvo driver walked away just shukup a bit oh and it was not his fault the renault driver was trying to overtake he hit the volvo headon nasty
15/08/2012 18:17
Hi Tin Tin and Adam Critchlow.
They DO show the Lex LS400 which can be picked up for £500 and up, or £200 less than Adam pays for a motor bike with rain, bugs, bored police men and half hour riding preparation times thrown in.
(I am a man who has had a string of good bikes and just sold my beloved Firestorm, but there is NO BIKE to touch one of these listed cars for sheer value.)
Incidentally, the big Lex can return about 35 MPG on a cruise, not much worse than my old Mondeo or Firestorm, while carrying me and 2 tons of luxury mobile Hi-Fi and other assorted tasty bits.
You could just about fit a sandwich in the Honda.
In the Lex you can do 155MPH (where legal), listen to your sounds AND eat the sandwich AT THE SAME TIME !.
Peace.
15/08/2012 17:07
14/08/2012 21:29
15/08/2012 10:38
16/08/2012 12:34
15/08/2012 17:50
15/08/2012 10:04
21/08/2012 20:35
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