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GTM Libra
matty h - 15/4/10 at 09:35 PM

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1641937.htm
Have one off these myself got to be the most practical kit car there is and westfield have now stopped them.This car should be like new looking at what has been do to it.Looks like a bargain to me.

tegwin - 15/4/10 at 09:46 PM

Buy that... or a VX220.... hmmm... not a difficult choice im afraid...

Bluemoon - 15/4/10 at 09:52 PM

quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Buy that... or a VX220.... hmmm... not a difficult choice im afraid...


but ~ at 2x the price the GTM looks more attractive.. Same price as a cheap 7 etc...

MikeRJ - 15/4/10 at 09:53 PM

quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Buy that... or a VX220.... hmmm... not a difficult choice im afraid...


You'd get a pretty rough VX220 for that, and they aren't exactly the prettiest looking things.

stuart_g - 15/4/10 at 09:58 PM

quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Buy that... or a VX220.... hmmm... not a difficult choice im afraid...


VX220 has a Vauxhall badge on it, there's good enough reason to buy the GTM.

Peteff - 15/4/10 at 11:01 PM

I was tempted till I read the bit about golf clubs

gottabedone - 16/4/10 at 09:01 AM

The Libra is an ace little car with a surprising amount of space! IMO the Vauuhall is a bit fugly.

Steve

scootz - 16/4/10 at 10:49 AM

I'm with Tegwin... I'd far rather buy a rough VX220 for £7k !

MikeRJ - 16/4/10 at 06:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scootz
I'm with Tegwin... I'd far rather buy a rough VX220 for £7k !


You'd sell it a few weeks later though

Ferg - 24/4/10 at 07:04 PM

I know which I'd have.
It wouldn't be the shitty Vauxhall.

scootz - 24/4/10 at 07:06 PM

Blown all your credibility by referring to it as 'shitty'!

Clearly you've never driven one, or are aware of it's DNA!

Ferg - 24/4/10 at 07:16 PM

I've driven both. Have you???

The Libra is far more practical, faster than an N/A and handles *almost* as well, certainly imperceptible in road driving. I've not had a VX on the track.
I'd have a decent S1 Elise over the Libra, but not an N/A VX. Come to that, I'm not sure I'd want a Turbo, but that's personal preference. I'm not a turbo engine person.

Gutted I've blown all my credibility.

[Edited on 24/4/10 by Ferg]

scootz - 24/4/10 at 07:29 PM

Not interested in how it compares to the Libra... what I'm saying is that it's by no stretch of the imagination a 'shitty' car! That's just absurd and smacks of an ulterior agenda...

FWIW... yes, I have driven a GTM... and no, I wasn't overly impressed!

I've also owned a VX, an Elise and an Exige... I'd say that the Lotus badged cars were slightly better, but not enough to justify the gap in second-hand values!

IMHO, the VX only suffers as a result of it's badging...

Ferg - 24/4/10 at 07:39 PM

As far as I'm concerned, the very fact that they got Lotus to build a car that sold so badly that they had to pep it up with the Turbo to shift it says a lot about what sort of car it was.

More critically, you thinking that my opinion of the VX should in some way be coloured by the 'DNA' of Lotus is pretty ludicrous. I have NO IDEA how different the Elise S1 and N/A VX220 are under the skin, but they drive VERY differently, don't they.
At least in my experience.
Sorry you drove a bad Libra. It was a Libra was it, you only said GTM. Maybe it was an early car. That's the thing with kits isn't it? All depends on how good the builder is.

scootz - 24/4/10 at 08:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ferg
As far as I'm concerned, the very fact that they got Lotus to build a car that sold so badly that they had to pep it up with the Turbo to shift it says a lot about what sort of car it was.


It was a slow seller because of 'badge-snobbery' and the fact that a new VX was priced so closely to an Elise... nothing else! Lotus aficionados were unlikely to buy a Vauxhall, and Vauxhall customers would be more likely to buy the Lotus if they wanted a little buzz-bomb toy and had the thick-end of £25k in their pocket! Let's be honest... Vauxhall is at the other end of the 'cool-wall' spectrum compared to a brand like Lotus!

Vauxhall knew they wouldn't fly off the shelf! It was basically a Lotus sponsorship arrangement whereby Vauxhall could get a little look at the Lotus tech-know-how and also raise the more mainstream 'VX' and 'VXR' branded model profiles.

As for the ability of the car... well, many motoring journalists enthused about the VX and some declared it the better road-going car (What Car magazines 'Roadster of the Year' for 3 years running!!!). It was just a little 'softer' than the Lotus equivalent and was deliberately engineered so by Lotus at Vauxhalls request.

Engine wise, the VX models stole a march on their Elise siblings... the NA VX cars were more powerful than the K-series Elise S2 and the turbo cars more powerful than the Toyota powered Elise S2!

quote:
Originally posted by Ferg
I have NO IDEA how different the Elise S1 and N/A VX220 are under the skin...


Then how can you say it's shitty if you don't know the mechanical differences between the cars... sure, the styling is obviously different and by all means fire away if you think it looks shitty, but a shitty car... ??? BS!

They share the same chassis and the majority of components! A change of wheels and dampers would have them handling almost identically!

quote:
Originally posted by Ferg
But they drive VERY differently, don't they...


Do they? Er... no - not really! The VX has slightly more understeer, but as before - it was an engineering choice to make it a little more 'forgiving' so as not to scare the pants off Vauxhalls 'usual' clientele (most being used to FWD tanks!) when the limit of grip is exceeded!!!