Aren't A610s fantastic

[quote="simonsays74
larger tyres????

The cat probably only made it look less powerful on paper. Different ECU I beleive with Coil packs although top end power reduced slightly due to CAT the coil packs deliver amuch better quality spark and will improve torque

The one that has just sold for £14K is a bargain considering the amount of time and money that has probably been spent on it.

Dont all old cars that are kept to a standard. I would not expect to spend as much on a later car than I would on car that has been on the road for 6 or 7 years longer at least

FAT BOY CUSTOM Mmmm I think the fact I have spent in excess of £15,000 bulding a replica with orginal Renault Alpine panels you may be talking to the wrong person, mind you you think those rims should be fitted to a drug dealers car



Si21 BLING RULES INNIT

The reason I started this topic was to share my feelings and joy of just how good A610s are. It must be said though that all the GTA derivatives in good condition offer a pretty impressive drive.

The £14K Le Mans had clearly had a lot of time and money spent on it in all the right places and whilst it is not to my taste, if you wanted a GTA, I think your money is better spent on that than some of the £4-£5K cars that will need tlc before you can enjoy them.

If anyone would like the coil spring compressor lowering kit and plastic shark tail that I took off mine, please PM me and you can have them for the price of postage.

The reason I started this topic was to share my feelings and joy of just how good A610s are. It must be said though that all the GTA derivatives in good condition offer a pretty impressive drive.

The £14K Le Mans had clearly had a lot of time and money spent on it in all the right places and whilst it is not to my taste, if you wanted a GTA, I think your money is better spent on that than some of the £4-£5K cars that will need tlc before you can enjoy them.

If anyone would like the coil spring compressor lowering kit and plastic shark tail that I took off mine, please PM me and you can have them for the price of postage.

Because somebody puts a sports suspension etc does not put them in a catatogory that I think your putting people into. Lots have people have fitted awsum BIG 4 pot brake kits to their cars fitted standalone ECU's bigger turbos etc. Those wheels that you thought looked like Drug Dealer Wheels LOL are expensive split rims, forged ones at that!! these are NOT 20 inch rims that are chromed with spinners

Yes the A610 is fantastic Value for money but this is a club for ALL Renaults & Alpines not just the A610 and many people Modify their cars, drive them in competition and change wheels suspension brakes etc but that does not mean we want to feature our car in MAX POWER OR SELL DRUGS!!

Personally the 610 is not to my taste, but, each to their own but please word things in slightly less dismissive way. I mean in my opinion the A610 looks like it was developed for the american market and the front end looks like a Nissan 200 , not too my taste at all. In fact the car was developed for the Amercan market as the front end is very similar to the front end of the earlier GTA modified for the american market to comply with their stringent bumper laws!

The engine and the power/torque is the best improvement, the handling from what I hear is good but not a drivers car compared to the GTA as its set up as more of a sports tourer It does not give the feed back and feel given like a GTA on the road, so your comments about the Lemans big wheel theory kinda go out the window really; especially when there is a great article about the Lemans clearly stating that the modifications are an improvement over the standard GTA . PS The wheels are just a fraction bigger than the ones fitted to the 610) maybe Renault leaned something when they built the Lemans Its only the offsets which are different

The interior is perhaps an improvement looks wise.... ish, but for practicality its crap, far less room in the back, last time I got a lift in one the front passenger slammed the door shut an nearly broke my knee cap, this does not happen in a GTA. There is no carrying capacity at all in the front of the car!

The standard phase two rims in my own opinion are disgusting, I would have kept those split rims any day far more quality looking and kept the standard ones in the garage to put back on the car if sold on, to put it back to original for those purists out there.

I have nothing against purists, nothing wrong with that at all .

I have spent a great deal of Money time( way over two years closer to 3 now) and stress earning the money to build a replica of something special built and designed by RENAULT ALPINE. I have used genuine body panels and it will be repainted the standard colour. It has almost been fully rebuilt mechanically. This is not just some BOY RACER CUSTOM BLING CONVERSION it my dream car, and its got modified suspension as I managed to get fully adjustable suspension for half the price Renault wanted for just the shock absorbers. It just depends on what you want from a car. it also has different rims from standard as the availablity of Lemans rims is 0 and even copies will cost a couple of grand on their own!

There are pluses and minuses to lots of cars, you set out to say how great the A610 is its just a shame you didnt stick to it. Just because something is not of your taste please dont make dismissive comments and generalisations.

Thank you

Si21

P.S. Has someone got a ladder I built this soap box a little higher than expected and I really just wanna get off now.

Wow, I think we could get into a great debate here over the relative benefits and disadvantages of our fantastic cars and at the end of it all, find that we are in agreement over 99% of the points discussed.

I'm only having fun when I talk about some of the mods that were made to my car and I really don't want to cause offense. The guy I got the car from is the nicest bloke you could ever meet and I think he was having fun doing the mods too. He never got around doing anything that couldn't easily be reversed.

Out of interest, had he kept the car, he intended to put white leather seats in and white carpet, spray the car black and tint the windows. Whilst not to my taste, it was his car, his money and up to him what he did with it.

If any of my comments appeared dismissive, I apologise profusely, with the exception of the plastic shark tail. I'll even apologise for this if anyone can persuade me of the benefit or improvement this made however only with reluctance as my finger nails are still hurting from scraping the silicone off the roof.

You are not wrong about the Nissan 200 looks however after thousands of miles of fretting over when I was going to have to replace the headlamp glasses in my GTA yet again, I will live with the Nissan 200 looks.

Both the GTA and A610 were years ahead of their time with regards to driver dynamics, let's just agree that they are all great. Getting into an A610 in 2008 just amazes me how well it compares to modern vehicles. I always felt that the GTA derivatives were GT cars, hence big fuel tanks, quality interior, long legged gearing etc.

Please be careful before using comments made by motoring journalists as irrefutable evidence. Very little is written as objective statement or assessment without agenda and many are poorly qualified to make comment at all. Motoring journalists are employed to entertain us, not necessarily inform us. That doesn't mean they're always wrong but just because it's written doesn't make it right.

I almost completely agree with you re the interior practicality. They start out with a GT car with a boot and by the time they get to the A610, the Alpine engineers have filled it. Your comment re the room in the back is similar to mine about big tyres on the Le Mans.

You have clearly spent a lot of time, effort and money on what sounds like a fantastic car. Please please please don't take offence from any of my comments as they are just the ramblings of someone who has spent a long time wanting an A610, getting one that was 99% perfect and enjoying it like it's meant to be.

One of the benefits of an open forum of enthusiasts like this is that we can all express our tastes and dislikes. I welcome and enjoy anyone making comment on my points of view - I might learn something. I just hope it isn't at the expense of someone else because that's not what I intended.


Can I borrow your ladder when you've finished with it

Custom bit LOL

You can borrow my ladder once I've finished with it, they're still looking for one long enough. and I've read Max Power from cover to cover twice now and cant do a third time Hurry up you lot

si21

PS. the car has to also be practicle....I'm going to use drape formed perspex for the head light glasses to start with. I'll see what it looks like if they dont look right, I will be growing longer arms to reach for my last few pennies to get the glass; I believe a similar modification is available for the 610 when the motors and assemblies pack up other than that I know where you can get motor assemblies for said vehicle at a good price, might be worth keeping spare on the shelf

[BIG_MVS]

Custom bit LOL

You can borrow my ladder once I've finished with it, they're still looking for one long enough. and I've read Max Power from cover to cover twice now and cant do a third time Hurry up you lot

si21

PS. the car has to also be practicle....I'm going to use drape formed perspex for the head light glasses to start with. I'll see what it looks like if they dont look right, I will be growing longer arms to reach for my last few pennies to get the glass; I believe a similar modification is available for the 610 when the motors and assemblies pack up other than that I know where you can get motor assemblies for said vehicle at a good price, might be worth keeping spare on the shelf

Come on then Si any pics of your beast? Surely you have some pics of it being done at the body shop like rupert?

Not sure what wheels would suit it though other than Le Mans rims, it's the (Tony) LAW!!!

What rims are you going for?

Custom bit LOL

I'm going to use drape formed perspex for the head light glasses to start with. I'll see what it looks like if they dont look right, I will be growing longer arms to reach for my last few pennies to get the glass:

They are so close to flat, you would imagine that it would be possible to get them moulded in laminated glass by a specialist windscreen manufacturer. I did look into this years ago and a firm in the NE quoted £2K for tooling and then £30 per unit. I think they were TTP with the tooling cost.

I'm OK for pop up headlight mechanisms thanks, I'll just get down the scrappy and rip out some Nissan 200 units.

[stephendell]

I know where you can get motor assemblies for said vehicle at a good price

I guess that would the five pairs in my garage

[BIG_MVS]

Hey panic ye not over low prices:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/590328.htm

Looks like he will be keeping it another 16 years at that price and mileage Could this be the only A610 that used to be a Taxi?

Sold

I stand corrected if it's genuine.

So who's bought the Starship Enterprise A610

My work colleague viewed it on Saturday but felt it was overpriced and the guy wasn't ready to move on price as he'd only just listed it earlier in the week and he could sell it for more on the continent.

The car was very good mechanically with everything working and lots of history. The mileage was racked up driving between London and Glasgow where the family have their business and to second home in France.

The body was good with osmosis just on the doors and it didn't look bad and didn't need a respray. The only repairs it had were replacement mirrors that had springs in them?

It sounds like a good genuine car but I would have said £12K max and even that's on the high side.

My colleague said that the service file included a huge ring binder but there had never been any major work done other than a clutch. Some of the services had been done at an Alpine specialist in France. One thing is for sure is that it hadn't been clocked or had a new speedo.

[stephendell]

If the car has osmosis, then it will probably need a re-spray shortly. With a possible engine re-build on the cards as well that would make that car a high risk purchase at any price in double figures.

If it has sold for anywhere near the asking price my osmosis free example with a third of the interstellar mileage will be on piston heads at warp speed

[stephendell]

I've put the split rim (drug dealer!) wheels on while the black ones get balanced.

Not sure but think I like it better. What do you think?

Photo quality not great. Taken on phone.

I much prefer the split rims to the black ones.

[BIG_MVS]

Loads better Seems to be a bit high though now, maybe lower it a bit and I think you will have cracked it

[stephendell]

Even though the wheels are 18" front and 17" rear they look quite small, presumably because the spokes don't run to the edge of the wheel. But at least the discs don't look silly now!

I hoping it's still a bit high as I've had it jacked up for a few days changing the exhaust again (the race system was just too noisy).

If it doesn't settle down then it's time for some coilovers!