172 Cups... Common as Saxo’s

[sjd172]

Loads of Cups around the Guildford area, in fact saw three in 5 mins yesterday ! Dont see as many of those 172 things thou. They must be well sought after being that rare !

 

[Viv172]

Driving this morning I saw no cups, no 172s (apart from mine) and a whole lot of VTR/Ss.....there are lots of Clio Billabongs....most of them black, lowered, ss exhaust and tints....unless its the same one I keep seeing!

 

[SAX_MAN]

Quote: Originally posted by Ben H on 09 October 2003

Quote: Originally posted by Gav76 on 09 October 2003


Anyway, the Saxo VTS/VTR pretty much restarted the hot-hatch genre again after the manufacturers were scared off during the early 90s. Would Renault have invested in the 172/Cup without seeing that the market was there from the success of the Saxo?

Kind of agree, but Id respectfully suggest that the VTR actually re-opened the XR2/3i warm hatch, mass sales market. There is always a market for homologation specials and hard core hot hatches.

Remember that Renault were pretty much the only manufacturer importing a hard-core hot hatch with the Clio 16V in the early-to-mid 1990s. The 205 GTi was unreplaced, Citroen didnt make hot hatches anyway and the RS Fords were gone... so Renault released the Clio 16V and Williams! Just read some period reviews and youll see that they were considered as the beasts of the market in 1993. The Willy got a lot of attention: a 150bhp Group A/N homologation special back then was like a mega-hatch with 250bhp in todays market.

I see more Cups than I see 16Vs, but theyre hardly a common car!

You say Citroen didnt do hot hatches before the Saxo VTR/VTS, whats the AX GT/GTi then??!

 

[Rich-D]

Quote: Originally posted by Ralphy_VTS on 10 October 2003


You say Citroen didnt do hot hatches before the Saxo VTR/VTS, whats the AX GT/GTi then??!

Or stuff like the Visa GTi

 

[SAX_MAN]

Ha ha ha! What a car that was!! Then theres the Volcane or volcano or whatever it was called! You know that big arse family car!

 

[Gav76]

Quote: Originally posted by Ralphy_VTS on 10 October 2003


You say Citroen didnt do hot hatches before the Saxo VTR/VTS, whats the AX GT/GTi then??!



But if you go back to that time then there was also hot hatches from nearly every manufacturer (Xr2/Xr3/Pug 205/Ax/Nova SR etc). The Saxo kick started the available to the masses hot/warm hatch that was lost for a while in the 90s. Of course there were hot hatches available (clio 16v/Williams/Escort Cossie) but these were pretty hardcore cars that cost a lot to buy and even more to insure. A new VTS is under 12000, pretty attainable for most people and certainly affordbale if you get 1 thats a few years old.

 

[Ben H]

Hey Ralphy - Jeeez! If I wanted to list every warm/hot hatch that was on sale in the 1990s I would!

I wanted to get across the idea that practically no-one was importing mainstream hot hatches to the UK in 1994 apart from Renault. Yes, there were cars like the ZX Volcane (including the TD - much earlier diesel hot hatch than the Golf), 306 XSi and so on. But these were a far cry from the hot hatch heydays of the mid 1980s and I think wed all agree that Citroen werent really part of the scence back then (unless the BX GTi counts).

By 1994, there were no RS Fords, no Peugeot GTis and although there were some Citroen warmish models, the market wasnt there in the way it was for the XR2/3 and later the Saxo VTR/S. Renault made a brave move in bringing the Clio 16V to the UK as although it was modern, it was not guranteed to sell (even with Group 12 insurance). Then they took it a step higher with the Williams.

 

[Rich Clio16v]

Have to disagree.Think iv seen 2cups other than at pod and there are sssoooo many saxos in notts its painful!!
Vts are quite tho.Its just Vtrs that seem to be everywhere!Notice how they all think their vtr will outpace anything on the road aswell.Vts are quick but cant stand vtrs!

 

[Moby]

yup - vtrs-a-plenty up here in Lanarkshire too - prolly slightly more vtss here than cups.