Since we've had the satellite TV installed I've been watching a lot of the motoring channels and lusting after some of the wagons on display there as its largely aimed at the US and UK market. Just seen Tiff Needell race a plane in an Evo IX, last week there was a muscle car special with some awesome Mustangs and Dodge Chargers, and generally you get a lot of good programs for motoring enthusiasts.
As an ex-employee of a rather large motor company and a bit of a gearhead in my younger days stomping around in various hot hatches it struck me as how disappointing the motoring market is in Thailand for new and used cars. You basically get the choice of:
1) Overpowered pickup trucks with crap brakes and suspension.
2) Underpowered family saloons with crap steering and no grunt.
3) "Sports" versions of the above with 200 extra cc that are all automatic.
4) Huge luxury cruisers with huge price tags.
Now in my book a sports car should have three pedals and a gear stick so why in Thailand are all the "sports" models autos? There are no small cars in the "hot hatch" bracket, absolutely zilch on the second hand market, and you need a mortgage to import anything here. Even in the showrooms all you get is a "mai dai" if you ask for anything non standard or a little faster than your average golf cart.
Back in the day you didn't need to be loaded to have a car that had a little umpff, you could have plenty of fun in a Mark I Golf GTi, even more in a 205 1.9 and then you get to your turbos, all of which could be had for 5 figures here.
Maybe the car market fits the nature of the population, which in this case we'd call lazy because 80% of them are automatic. But you'd think with so little law enforcement on traffic more and more would be tinkering under the hood and feeding the horses.
I guess its just as well reading some of the traffic threads on here - imagine the carnage if they could go faster!
Gearheads heaven isnt here!
Gearheads heaven isnt here!
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Hmmm...I think alot of young Thai's think pickups are 'Hot'
A few years ago when i used to hang around with some of the locals had a few hairy drives whilst visiting friends/ family inland from HH.
All in the mind, your pick-up can be a sports GT or rally car ...you just drive as fast as you can all the time.
Drinking alot and injesting other substances seems to help with the mental image.
Not recomending it...just an observation
SJ
A few years ago when i used to hang around with some of the locals had a few hairy drives whilst visiting friends/ family inland from HH.
All in the mind, your pick-up can be a sports GT or rally car ...you just drive as fast as you can all the time.
Drinking alot and injesting other substances seems to help with the mental image.
Not recomending it...just an observation
SJ
He he he,
I used to drive Renaults. The 5 turbo first but I burnt the turbo out pretty quickly. Then a 16v Clio.That was good fun. Instant power, no turbo lag.
Then a Renault Clio Williams. Oh my word, that car was fast. It had gears, pedals and a jukebox.
That was a really good car, but mind you I couldn't take 20 family members in the back of it and I havn't driven in Thailand since I got here - and that was a while ago.
I used to drive Renaults. The 5 turbo first but I burnt the turbo out pretty quickly. Then a 16v Clio.That was good fun. Instant power, no turbo lag.
Then a Renault Clio Williams. Oh my word, that car was fast. It had gears, pedals and a jukebox.
That was a really good car, but mind you I couldn't take 20 family members in the back of it and I havn't driven in Thailand since I got here - and that was a while ago.
Oh we are going back a bit now
My beauties were
Beetle with a porche engine
Triumph TDI Fuel injected
BM 328i with sports trim (raced at a drag meeting once)
Taylor Dow goldie in race trim
Manx Norton
Vincent Black Shadow (supped up)
Countless others
Waiting now for the lottery and my Bugatti Veryron
Dream on
My beauties were
Beetle with a porche engine
Triumph TDI Fuel injected
BM 328i with sports trim (raced at a drag meeting once)
Taylor Dow goldie in race trim
Manx Norton
Vincent Black Shadow (supped up)
Countless others
Waiting now for the lottery and my Bugatti Veryron
Dream on
RICHARD OF LOXLEY
It’s none of my business what people say and think of me. I am what I am and do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. It makes life so much easier.
It’s none of my business what people say and think of me. I am what I am and do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. It makes life so much easier.
-
The understudy
- Ace
- Posts: 1293
- Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2003 12:16 pm
- Location: Hua Hin, Bangkok, Berlin, L. A. rotating
Hello Buksoda
Thanks a lot for putting up this Topic. During my old University days In HUa Hin YEs in Hua Hin I have friennds @ Stamford with ssome fancy Tuned up Stuff.
One of the finest example is my Friends Car back than. He drives an 3 Series BMW E55 (Beamr) but under the Hood was the Engine of anf the BMW 540. He takes the Stretch from the Entrance of Palm Hills to Hua HIn in less than 10 Min. And when ever we have an event @ STF Campus and take the opportunity to go out'n PArty afterwards there was the absolute certainty that P'Job's Beamer was one of the first Cars to arrive @ the Scene.
In late 1999 we had a pair of very Hot and High Powered Mitsu EVO V's dirven by two of the most Popular Studs in that Era. Both Cars and Drives where given the Names of Far Faed EVO (The Evo Twins) Wehnever eone of them Twins is out the bother one is not really far behind. Both guys had a big entourage of followers/friends so most of the Time This Cars is only good for Show and take them friends around and not sometimes 4 Race Perfomance. One of the Dopest Scenes so far with them was when one of them comes into Campus and another goes out. half way through Palm Hills they met each other and stopped thier Cars in each direction to have a Chat! unimagenable nowadays.
More Young Students Hot Vehicles I tell Y'All Later!!!
Your's The understudy!!!
Thanks a lot for putting up this Topic. During my old University days In HUa Hin YEs in Hua Hin I have friennds @ Stamford with ssome fancy Tuned up Stuff.
One of the finest example is my Friends Car back than. He drives an 3 Series BMW E55 (Beamr) but under the Hood was the Engine of anf the BMW 540. He takes the Stretch from the Entrance of Palm Hills to Hua HIn in less than 10 Min. And when ever we have an event @ STF Campus and take the opportunity to go out'n PArty afterwards there was the absolute certainty that P'Job's Beamer was one of the first Cars to arrive @ the Scene.
In late 1999 we had a pair of very Hot and High Powered Mitsu EVO V's dirven by two of the most Popular Studs in that Era. Both Cars and Drives where given the Names of Far Faed EVO (The Evo Twins) Wehnever eone of them Twins is out the bother one is not really far behind. Both guys had a big entourage of followers/friends so most of the Time This Cars is only good for Show and take them friends around and not sometimes 4 Race Perfomance. One of the Dopest Scenes so far with them was when one of them comes into Campus and another goes out. half way through Palm Hills they met each other and stopped thier Cars in each direction to have a Chat! unimagenable nowadays.
More Young Students Hot Vehicles I tell Y'All Later!!!
Your's The understudy!!!
In Love with Hua Hin since 19naughty9 and it ain't fading!!!
(My fable for All Things Japanese knows no boundaries!) Proud Student of Stamford University Hua Hin Campus from 1999 to 2004 (5th Batch of Graduates.)
“Once you survive Stamford U Hua Hin Campus only you can survive anything!!!”
(My fable for All Things Japanese knows no boundaries!) Proud Student of Stamford University Hua Hin Campus from 1999 to 2004 (5th Batch of Graduates.)
“Once you survive Stamford U Hua Hin Campus only you can survive anything!!!”
Interesting, had a little look at this and found nothing on the Toyota website and only a few blogs, apparently only 600 were made, does look like a fun little beast though with 143 bhp and an 8 second 0-60.da wrote:I would say get a Vios Turbo, supposedly it will outrun the trucks, and generally only available in Thailand, you might need to put brake package on it though.
Understudy, your student buddies certainly have more money than me, the Evo VIII and Subaru WRX are both well over 2.5 million in Thailand and as for Beemers ....
This made me chuckle, so true, it seems the older and more battered the pickup is the faster they want to drive it - stopping doesn't even come into the equation.All in the mind, your pick-up can be a sports GT or rally car ...you just drive as fast as you can all the time.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Bucksi,
you can get performance without breaking the bank here, you just need to know where to look.
http://www.abbottthai.com/galleries/9000se.htm
This one belongs to the owner of the shop. The one I have isn't as radical.
you can get performance without breaking the bank here, you just need to know where to look.
http://www.abbottthai.com/galleries/9000se.htm
This one belongs to the owner of the shop. The one I have isn't as radical.
วินเชนท์
-
Terry
- Suspended
- Posts: 3047
- Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2006 5:53 pm
- Location: At Hua Hin Fishing Lodge, Hin Lek Fai most of the time.......
Some quotes from the ultimate gearhead - Mr. Clarkson
Love him or hate him, you cannot deny his analogous use of the English Language is superb. This comes with some apologies to French and American readers.
"This is the Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying "Ooh good I've got syphilis, the BEST of the sexually transmitted diseases."
Illustrating the lack of power of a Boxster - 'It couldn't pull a greased stick out of a pig's bottom'
"I'm sorry, but having a DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch. If you've got even half a scrotum it's not going to happen."
"We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It's the Ladybird Book of Motorcars from 1963, and as you would imagine it's full of rubbish really. Just endless boring grey shapes, until you get to page 40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this for me, when I was little, was like kind of Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together. With a Lightning jet fighter. And lots of jelly."
About the Porsche Cayman S: "There are many things I'd rather be doing than driving it, including waiting for Bernard Manning to come off stage in a sweaty nightclub, and then licking his back clean."
..."the last time someone was as wrong as you, was when a politician stepped off an aeroplane in 1939 waving a piece of paper in the air saying there will be no war with Germany"
"America: 250 million w****rs living in a country with no word for w****r"
On the Alfa Romeo Brera... "I only have to imagine this in black, with tan leather and I'm nursing a semi!"
Clarkson on the Vauxhall Vectra VXR: "there is a word to describe this car: it begins with "s" and ends with "t" and its not "soot".
Hammond: "So its fairly terrible then?"
Clarkson:"Oh no...losing your leg is fairly terrible: this is another league of badness!"
"some say, that he used to throw microwave ovens at homeless people - and that he long before anyone else realised that Jade Goody is a racist pig faced waste of blood and organs............all we know, is that he's called the Stig!"
"the Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite"
"Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you."
'The air conditioning in Lambos used to be an asthmatic sitting in the dashboard blowing at you through a straw'
"Koenigsegg are saying that the CCX is more comfortable. More comfortable than what... BEING STABBED?"
"The only person to ever look good in the back of a 4-seater convertible was Adolf Hitler"
(Fed up during the caravanning trip): "You aren't allowed to have a party, you aren't allowed to have music, you aren't allowed to play ball games, you aren't allowed to have a camp fire, you have to park within two feet of a post, you have to keep quiet, you have to be in bed by eleven. This is not a holiday, it's a concentration camp!"
(Mercedes CLs55): "Braking in this car is so brutal, it would be less painful to actually hit the tree you were trying to miss."
"I don't understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?"
Clarksons highway code on cyclists: 'trespassers in the motorcars domain, they do not pay road tax and therefore have no right to be on the road, some of them even believe they are going fast enough to not be an obstruction. Run them down to prove them wrong'
"I was reading The Mirror the other day and came across a letter from a reader who wrote, 'I was riding my bike to work when this red Ferrari pulled up next to me. Out of the window, Jeremy Clarkson shouted 'Get a car', and drove off.' What I actually said was, 'Get a car you hatchet faced, leaf-eating N**i."
"Britain's nuclear submarines have been deemed unsafe...probably because they don't have wheel-chair access"
"Now we get quite a lot of complaints that we don't feature enough affordable cars on the show......so we'll kick off tonight with the cheapest Ferrari of them all!"
On the Lotus Elise: "This car is more fun than the entire French Air Force crashing into a firework factory."
"Now as you can see I lost the battle to have two engines on the back because of three very important reasons. One: weight. This is 600 Lbs and that's the same as having a whole American sitting on the tailgate..."
In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled. Usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.
"the DB9 has rear seats but no mammal yet created, not even when God was on the LSD trip that gave us the pink flamingo, could fit into them."
Assessing Hammond's crash:
Clarkson: "you can see from the tape that the tyre is starting to come apart. Now why didn't you spot that?!"
Hammond: "I had a lot on: I was doing 288 mph."
Clarkson: "What do you mean you had a lot on? I can be in the office on the phone, doing the paperwork, kids are shouting at me, wife etc, but if a lion walks in, I'm going to notice it!"
"Sure it's quiet, for a diesel. But that's like being well-behaved...for a murderer."
"I don't often agree with the RSPCA as I believe it is an animals duty to be on my plate at supper time"
"There are footballers wives that would be happy with this quality of stitching... on their face"
"Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It's like making a hard core adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You'd just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke's sweaty face."
"Much more of a hoot to drive than you might imagine. Think of it, if you like, as a librarian with a G-string under the tweed. I do, and it helps."
"you can't have this car with a diesel, its like saying, I wont go to stringfellows tonight, I'll get my mum to give me a lapdance, she's a woman!"
Tonight, the new Viper, which is the American equivalent of a sports car... in the same way, I guess, that George Bush is the equivalent of a President.
Jeremy said this of the Porsche Cayenne! "Honestly, I have seen more attractive gangrenous wounds than this. It has the sex appeal of a camel with gingivitis
Love him or hate him, you cannot deny his analogous use of the English Language is superb. This comes with some apologies to French and American readers.
"This is the Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that's much to shout about. That's like saying "Ooh good I've got syphilis, the BEST of the sexually transmitted diseases."
Illustrating the lack of power of a Boxster - 'It couldn't pull a greased stick out of a pig's bottom'
"I'm sorry, but having a DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch. If you've got even half a scrotum it's not going to happen."
"We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It's the Ladybird Book of Motorcars from 1963, and as you would imagine it's full of rubbish really. Just endless boring grey shapes, until you get to page 40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this for me, when I was little, was like kind of Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together. With a Lightning jet fighter. And lots of jelly."
About the Porsche Cayman S: "There are many things I'd rather be doing than driving it, including waiting for Bernard Manning to come off stage in a sweaty nightclub, and then licking his back clean."
..."the last time someone was as wrong as you, was when a politician stepped off an aeroplane in 1939 waving a piece of paper in the air saying there will be no war with Germany"
"America: 250 million w****rs living in a country with no word for w****r"
On the Alfa Romeo Brera... "I only have to imagine this in black, with tan leather and I'm nursing a semi!"
Clarkson on the Vauxhall Vectra VXR: "there is a word to describe this car: it begins with "s" and ends with "t" and its not "soot".
Hammond: "So its fairly terrible then?"
Clarkson:"Oh no...losing your leg is fairly terrible: this is another league of badness!"
"some say, that he used to throw microwave ovens at homeless people - and that he long before anyone else realised that Jade Goody is a racist pig faced waste of blood and organs............all we know, is that he's called the Stig!"
"the Suzuki Wagon R should be avoided like unprotected sex with an Ethiopian transvestite"
"Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you."
'The air conditioning in Lambos used to be an asthmatic sitting in the dashboard blowing at you through a straw'
"Koenigsegg are saying that the CCX is more comfortable. More comfortable than what... BEING STABBED?"
"The only person to ever look good in the back of a 4-seater convertible was Adolf Hitler"
(Fed up during the caravanning trip): "You aren't allowed to have a party, you aren't allowed to have music, you aren't allowed to play ball games, you aren't allowed to have a camp fire, you have to park within two feet of a post, you have to keep quiet, you have to be in bed by eleven. This is not a holiday, it's a concentration camp!"
(Mercedes CLs55): "Braking in this car is so brutal, it would be less painful to actually hit the tree you were trying to miss."
"I don't understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?"
Clarksons highway code on cyclists: 'trespassers in the motorcars domain, they do not pay road tax and therefore have no right to be on the road, some of them even believe they are going fast enough to not be an obstruction. Run them down to prove them wrong'
"I was reading The Mirror the other day and came across a letter from a reader who wrote, 'I was riding my bike to work when this red Ferrari pulled up next to me. Out of the window, Jeremy Clarkson shouted 'Get a car', and drove off.' What I actually said was, 'Get a car you hatchet faced, leaf-eating N**i."
"Britain's nuclear submarines have been deemed unsafe...probably because they don't have wheel-chair access"
"Now we get quite a lot of complaints that we don't feature enough affordable cars on the show......so we'll kick off tonight with the cheapest Ferrari of them all!"
On the Lotus Elise: "This car is more fun than the entire French Air Force crashing into a firework factory."
"Now as you can see I lost the battle to have two engines on the back because of three very important reasons. One: weight. This is 600 Lbs and that's the same as having a whole American sitting on the tailgate..."
In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled. Usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.
"the DB9 has rear seats but no mammal yet created, not even when God was on the LSD trip that gave us the pink flamingo, could fit into them."
Assessing Hammond's crash:
Clarkson: "you can see from the tape that the tyre is starting to come apart. Now why didn't you spot that?!"
Hammond: "I had a lot on: I was doing 288 mph."
Clarkson: "What do you mean you had a lot on? I can be in the office on the phone, doing the paperwork, kids are shouting at me, wife etc, but if a lion walks in, I'm going to notice it!"
"Sure it's quiet, for a diesel. But that's like being well-behaved...for a murderer."
"I don't often agree with the RSPCA as I believe it is an animals duty to be on my plate at supper time"
"There are footballers wives that would be happy with this quality of stitching... on their face"
"Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It's like making a hard core adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You'd just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke's sweaty face."
"Much more of a hoot to drive than you might imagine. Think of it, if you like, as a librarian with a G-string under the tweed. I do, and it helps."
"you can't have this car with a diesel, its like saying, I wont go to stringfellows tonight, I'll get my mum to give me a lapdance, she's a woman!"
Tonight, the new Viper, which is the American equivalent of a sports car... in the same way, I guess, that George Bush is the equivalent of a President.
Jeremy said this of the Porsche Cayenne! "Honestly, I have seen more attractive gangrenous wounds than this. It has the sex appeal of a camel with gingivitis
I bought a E46 3 series, with a Supra 6 pot - its about 300bhp, skyline brakes and lsd diff. It has 3 pedals and a stick! Really good fun and likes going sideways. The engine will easily take 400bhp - the main trouble with the climate here is keeping the engine cool, i find mine doesnt get to hot at the level it is now.
I want to do a new Civic with a Vitec engine cost about 1.3 mil, so i would let the Bm go for what it owes me (400K).
Buksi and Lomu - Clio Williams and 205 Gti and Mk1 Golf - great motors and always will be!
I want to do a new Civic with a Vitec engine cost about 1.3 mil, so i would let the Bm go for what it owes me (400K).
Buksi and Lomu - Clio Williams and 205 Gti and Mk1 Golf - great motors and always will be!
JW - yeah those Civics look the bees knees too, have been waiting for one with a half decent lump - can you buy new or do you have to mod it yourself, who do you use for parts?
Considering tinkering with the 2005 Lancer that I have, there are more horses under there somewhere and its got three pedals and a stick which is a start!
Considering tinkering with the 2005 Lancer that I have, there are more horses under there somewhere and its got three pedals and a stick which is a start!
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Apart from Bike Racing Modern and Classic Stuff...
I do love cars too....
Love the 80s Hot hatches....Group B Rally Cars and 60/70s Muscle Cars
Skylines etc also Love Mk1 Golfs, 205 (1.6-1.9) ....Stuff out now is not the same...
Enjoyed my Cooper S .....Sadly im 6months into a new A6....
Its very nice but not very good at picking up its skirt and running....
Seen a cool Mercury Cougar in Korat couple years ago
mind it probably wasnt running a US motor mind....
Ill end up in a Pick up over there but i aint bothered nowadays
The A6 is a closure in the UK thing....When it goes back i go to LOS
I do love cars too....
Love the 80s Hot hatches....Group B Rally Cars and 60/70s Muscle Cars
Skylines etc also Love Mk1 Golfs, 205 (1.6-1.9) ....Stuff out now is not the same...
Enjoyed my Cooper S .....Sadly im 6months into a new A6....
Its very nice but not very good at picking up its skirt and running....
Seen a cool Mercury Cougar in Korat couple years ago
mind it probably wasnt running a US motor mind....
Ill end up in a Pick up over there but i aint bothered nowadays
The A6 is a closure in the UK thing....When it goes back i go to LOS
The only Geordie in sleepy Cha am since 2009 :cheers: