Still raining

[Neil]

Rumour has it there will be sunshine at the weekend. Please...

[pittstop]

Opened my roof yesterday, after golf, to drive to enclosed multi storey car park at local shopping centre. Weather overcast but fine for topless motoring!

Closed roof; for security whilst I shopped; & on my return I opened it again for the drive home.

At this point a kindly person peered at me over the passenger window & suggested I should close it as it was now "raining a bit" outside.

Real understatement: it was P***ing down!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Neil]

Just stopped raining.

[Neil]

So, wasn't confident about the weather forecast, so cleared the garage and cleaned, polished and waxed the Wind under cover. Then, amazingly, the sun did come out in time for a quick drive. Ran really well, though have to confess I'm still not accustomed to the gearing. Great fun, though!

[knebby]

Yes, the gearing on the 1.6 is odd, revs always seem too high in 4th and 5th, to the detriment of fuel consumption. Could do with a 6th gear really for cruising. The 1.2 is better as it has the turbo to boost power rather than using revs.

[pittstop]

The close ratio gearbox on the 1.6 Wind is perfect for keeping the engine at it's optimal revs (4500 to 7000 rpm when extracting max performance on the move. Which is what the Twingo RS was all about especially when used for a track day.

The downside of this is:

A high 1st gear which means it's not optimum for rapid standing starts.

A low 5th gear which means on a French autoroute at 80mph one is using 4200rpm.

Despite the high revs at 80mph; which we don't find overly intrusive; I still get 36mpg whilst abroad

[Neil]

I'm becoming a little more accustomed to it, picking the days/routes to drive it. Corners far quicker than me and is looking good after another wash and wax this evening.

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