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What's the slowest car you've ever driven?

I had a Bond 3 wheeler 'estate' in white in the late 60's. 250cc Villiers two stroke engine, 4 forward (and 4 reverse gears, when you started the engine up backwards so to speak). There was no heater, in the winter you had to de-ice the inside and outside of the windows...
It was r e a l l y good fun if you did not tip it over.

Where are you now DOC 25C? I wish I still had it today...
 
TheDecameron said:
A guy did it to me in light snow on the M90- I eventually slowed to re-enter lane 1 behind him. He slowed to match as we approached a stationary van in lane 2, half in the central reservation. He held me in lane 2 and...contact! Before he accelerated off from the scene. No injuries fortunately.
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Yeah that's uncool to say the least. If Karma or comeuppance is a real thing, hopefully he'll become acquainted with it in the near future.
 
I had a Peugeot 106 1.5d as a backup/cheap runaround for years, I didn't this it could get much slower than that but then my mate had a 1 litre polo and that was worryingly slow, especially when loaded up with five adults... had the (dis)pleasure of driving it back from Birmingham to Lichfield once with four drunk passengers. It really was ridiculously underpowered.
 
I had a 1983 Fiat Panda with the 903cc ohv engine. In good fettle it would have been a pretty slow car, but the engine was worn out - with virtually no compression. It was good for 50mph on the flat, but that was it - pushing the accelerator further down just generated more smoke and noise but with no increase in speed. I replaced it with a Skoda Rapid coupe, which wasn't rapid by any normal definition of the word, but compared to the Panda it was a rocket-ship!
 
Early eighties Renault 5

See-Saw suspension

Rubber gearbox

The body work didn't rust so much as evaporate before my eyes.

0-60 in.... no I don't think so.

It was fun to drive though in a precarious, be careful, sort of way.

Mark
 
snowman_al said:
I had a Bond 3 wheeler 'estate' in white in the late 60's. 250cc Villiers two stroke engine, 4 forward (and 4 reverse gears, when you started the engine up backwards so to speak). There was no heater, in the winter you had to de-ice the inside and outside of the windows...
It was r e a l l y good fun if you did not tip it over.

Where are you now DOC 25C? I wish I still had it today...
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The registration number would be worth a few bob.
 
I think we are also very spoiled now by the performance of very modest and small engine modern cars.

Over the past few years I've revisited a few of yesteryears hero's, TR4A, TR6, Mini Cooper. All in top notch mechanical nick but all feeling very pedestrian, especially the poor little Cooper (later Rover 1998 car) which felt bordering on painfull, which of course it isn't compared to a Triumph Herald 1200 estate :D

Only the TVR's bucked this feeling of disappointment :)
 
Newish (at the time) Ford Orion 1.6 diesel. Driving west along Deeside, I went to overtake a land rover doing about 50 mph which sped up a little on an incline so down a gear and floor it only to slow down as the governor kicked in. The once clear road ahead now had a rapidly approaching cattle float.
FACK! BRAKE! SWERVE!
 
Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 courtesy car in about 2003. Didn't so much accelerate as 'gathered speed'. Slowly.
My current Volvo V70 D5 when cold is so glacially slow it is actually painful, fine after a few minutes though.
 
Tony L said:
...bought a rusty Austin A35 for a tenner... Needed starting with a crank handle...
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My first car! I bought mine for fiver; had to use the starting handle virtually all the time. Got rid of it when the big-ends went.
 
That would be my first car. A 1959 Opel Olympia Rekord.
Left hand drive, three forward gears and column change.
The whole thing was apparently set up caravan towing, including the transmission. Couldn't get more than 60 mph out of it.
 
wylton said:
My first car! I bought mine for fiver; had to use the starting handle virtually all the time. Got rid of it when the big-ends went.
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Ours was green and didn't really have a floor, certainly not at the passenger side.
 
VW Beetle 1300 (J reg if I recall correctly).

We sold it to a chap buying it for his daughter, who had just passsed her test. His stated reason for the choice was that it was the slowest thing he could find for her!
 
kennyh said:
I think we are also very spoiled now by the performance of very modest and small engine modern cars.

Over the past few years I've revisited a few of yesteryears hero's, TR4A, TR6, Mini Cooper. All in top notch mechanical nick but all feeling very pedestrian, especially the poor little Cooper (later Rover 1998 car) which felt bordering on painfull, which of course it isn't compared to a Triumph Herald 1200 estate :D

Only the TVR's bucked this feeling of disappointment :)
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My first car was a Herald 13/60 convertible. I loved it. It didn't seem that slow at the time.

Shortly after selling it I managed to buy a TR5. That felt soooo quick, with 0-60mph of 8.5 seconds (never reliably measured by me, but I suspect about right). It was 150bhp though, so possibly quicker than the TR6 you drove if it was a later 125bhp model.

As you say though, most modern 1.8 litre mid-sized cars would match it.

I seem to remember Top Gear doing a comparison between an Aston DB(5 I think) and a modern rep car (Mondeo or the like). Quite enlightening.
 
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