Sorry, this has turned into a bit of an essay. My previous cars before the GR86 were (most recent at the top) :
FK8 Type R. Basically a touring car for the road. It's only since getting rid of it that I've truly realised how fast and capable this car was. An absolute rocketship, great neutral handling balance and the load capacity of a van with the seats down. my main reasons for getting rid of it were that i was concerned that the enjoyment came from driving it VERY fast. A driving ban or airplane crash would have been inevitable if i had kept it any longer. despite a really progressive and adjustable chassis, FWD still meant that ultimately, it wasn't exploitable at really low speeds on the lanes around where i live. the width of the car didn't help either. That said, the way this car turned in so positively, yet still had absolute stability, even at very high speed used to boggle my mind. I've no doubt it will remain as the most capable, practical ICE car I'll likely ever own. The worst thing about this car was that it would slam on the brakes if someone was braking a mile ahead of you or veering to the edge of their lane as you passed them on the motorway. When driving passengers I would have to apologies for the abrupt braking at least once every journey.
Megane 265 trophy in liquid yellow with a black roof and trophy decals
. A wild ride but it was getting very expensive to keep it on the road despite its relatively young age. My friend who buys and sells Renault sport cars says that there were only ever 3 liquid yellow 265 trophy cars in the UK - I've never seen another one. This thing was an absolute hooligan, but after test driving the type R, I never looked back. the Civic was better in every single way apart from the steering (marginally). by comparison the megane had a slightly worse turn in, but where the Honda was rock solid at V-max, the megane gave the impression that you were a blink away from swerving into a barrel roll at really high speed. Obviously I wouldn't drive them flat out all the time but I think its an interesting comparrison between the two. normally these 2 traits would be a bit of a trade off but the Civic was better at both. Maybe that massive rear wing and the claims of zero lift actually had an effect.
350Z - this was my first RWD car. I nearly traded this in for a GT86 when they first came out, but I decided instead to completely ruin it as a road car by setting it up for the track. sounded great with a big intake and invidea exhaust. It's like a GR86 that has been on the pies for 20 years
