so much fun!

[Jordi]

What can i add to that. Its like smile per hour driving a zuk.

I drive it hard it'll do 15mpg. Had the wife out at the weekend hanging on for dear life because we were going so fast. 30mph in 3rd. Probably the noise it makes.

As james may said a ferrari needs a track to be driven to its limit. Driving an sj to its limit needs bravery and slight bump in the road.

As so many said its the looks, dads and their little lads pointing. Folk stopping and asking what it.

Or my fabourite, pulling into and empty multi storey for the "acoustics" where all the boy racers are hiding kicking out a couple off kick ass donuts at 5mph and 150 decibel and driving off again. Or maybe its the winter days when every "normal" car is slipping and sliding off the drive way and it just trundles along regardless off the weather.

Pulling up on a flooded road with all the car drivers going "think we'll get thru" as we bimble past and just drive away into the watery distance.

So many things make it such a great motor.

Jordi

[andyrew]

i loved driving my pick up as my weekend toy just made me smile and everyone who comes into contact with it like it. i had a octavia VRS as my daily car at the time it was fast comfortable and just a great all rounder, then i bought my current sami from someones front garden for £200.it was nice and solid. few weeks later id sold the VRS

its brilliant to have a car that doesnt need specialists and computers to fix it.

my boss has had many flash expensive cars , but he said the sami his wife had years ago was one
of the most awful but brilliantly fun to drive

[Edweird]

I use the James May one a lot to explain quickly to most folks who ask. I can go round a on three wheels at 20 miles an hour in town. A car is at its most fun when it's near its limit. The best thing is if you want to drive economically it's actually good to sling your zook around the bends. If you don't slow down you're not burning extra fuel to speed back up again, hence I go everywhere at 45 miles an hour (save for 30 limits).

I'm guilty of the same thing with boy racers. SJs sound so much beefier than they are and the rear wheel drive is infinitely better than front for anything but cornering in snow, for which there are proper tyres, snow chains (which most people don't have) and four wheel drive (which most people don't know how to use effectively)


The thing is, I originally wanted an SJ for two reasons. I wanted a retro first car that would stand out and be easy to maintain. Obvious choice would be a Mini, but Minis don't actually stand out because they're SO popular. Same applies to Beetles. There were two other cars at college that stood out besides my SJ. One was an Allegro, the other a MK1 1300 Escort in bright yellow.

The other reason was, and this might sound daft, I wanted a car that reflected me. Now, in short, I'm an unfit 18 stone lad, jack-of-all-trades with a carefree take-each-day-as-it-comes attitude. Not one for physical sport besides a bit of casual kayaking and climbing/hiking, not trying to impress anyone and don't really care for fashion or trends.

The SJ was, in my eyes, the best match, alongside a Series Land Rover however, again, old Landies are classic but not rare (and famously unreliable, though the reputation isn't quite as bad as the real thing). SJs are not 'sporty', even when they try their hardest (A racer, professional or hoodie, would laugh at an SJ trying to race the same way children laugh at a fat kid on sports day).
As standard they're capable of doing everything reasonably well, though a specialised vehicle would do a better job, be it a trip to the shops, a ride to the dump with a trailer, fording a river/flooded road, driving in snow, driving through a woodland (or jungle), powering up tight twisty mountain roads (Top Gear Indian Special, LWB Maruti Gypsy. We also did this in the one we rented in Turkey prior to buying mine. The close ratio gearbox is made for doing this).
Basically just an all round get-shit-done kind of car. The busy little engine itself seems to want to get to it. I love the styling, or rather, lack of, with zooks too. Plain round headlights, rectangular tails, virtually all flat panels, spare on the tailgate etc. The look of the thing is just so jeans-and-t shirt, plain and simple compared to other cars.

The SCUK veterans will probably remember when I first joined the forum and was asking loads of daft questions. I started looking at what I'd like for a first car when I was 15. It wasn't long until I joined the forum shortly after I decided I wanted an SJ, which was roughly a year before we bought my truck, which sat in the garage for a year until I passed.


I have no regrets about getting an SJ. Sure it's thirsty, slow and bouncy but I've driven all sorts of cars before and since getting my SJ and it is by far and away the nicest, most interesting and most fun to drive. My friends 3 door hatches (Fiesta, KA, Corsa, Saxo, Golf and a 106) with tiny engines ride terribly (little wheels and not much travel) and are extremely boring to drive, the gear ratios are too high for the little engines too. My brother's Megane is extremely dull and the brakes are too twitchy. Mum's Vectra is like driving the living room. Fairly comfortable but there's no feedback from anything except maybe the wiper stalk. The Discoverys and Range Rovers we've had are all very similar. The straight line poke of the V8 is good fun and the ride is even more comfortable than the Vectra until you get to some corners, then they start wallowing about like bloated pigs. Again there is no feedback from the controls.

In my SJ it feels like I'm pressing my foot against the brake discs, the steering wheels tugs and jerks as you go over bumps and things. When I first put my new clutch in I didn't like it because it was SO light the weight of my foot alone could press the pedal to the floor. The stalks behind the steering wheel move with very definite snap-to positions and and audible chunk-chunk as they move. I can hear the indicators clicking on and off unlike in newer cars. Everything in an SJ is so tactile whereas newer cars has no feeling. I had more fun when I got to drive a Morris Minor 1000 than my friend's 09 plate Corsa SXi.

Petrol heads always seem stunned when I tell them I drive an SJ. From what I can tell, they all seem to think, regardless of if they're into, be it modified hatchbacks, classic sports cars or off roading, that you can't have fun in a car without a powerful engine. And when you try and explain, they start taking the piss. That really riles me up but if you say anything about their cars they just turn it around into another insult. When I first spoke to my Dad about getting an SJ he got so angry he damn near made himself ill. I wonder what makes most car enthusiasts such arseholes? I'm sure plenty of people hate my guts too.

Don't get me wrong, I like classic cars, 4x4s in particular but the SJ, to me, is the cream of the crop.

[Jordi]

Theres many valuable points raised there Ed. but lets face. SJ dont need to be in 4wd for snow. That just takes the fun out of it.

A car definately reflects the person. My mate loves working on knacked cars, so he keeps buying Alpha Romeos. Although as tidy as my vitara was it did shout out gay hair dresser.

image.jpg (574.88 KiB) Viewed 4139 times

And my volvo was a wolf in disguise

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I would love to think what boy racers thought when i dropped a cog at 90. Slipped it into 4th and dissapeared at 140.

But sadly she never got used enough and now has been restored by a chap from liverpool and has some thing stupid like 450 horses.

Jordi

[Edweird]

SJ dont need to be in 4wd for snow. That just takes the fun out of it.

I only use 4WD for playing in snow. It's easier to recover from/correct a powerslide when you've got drive at the front as well as the rear.

[ScottieJ]

SJ dont need to be in 4wd for snow. That just takes the fun out of it.

I only use 4WD for playing in snow. It's easier to recover from/correct a powerslide when you've got drive at the front as well as the rear.

See I spend so much time going sideways in 2wd in the snow that I actually find it easier to control in 2wd