john banks

Just got one of these as a run around for the wife whilst I build up the Scooby to a 2.5 litre. I stripped 3rd gear on the Scooby last night at 350 lbft and thought it would be good to have a reliable daily driver meantime so the Scooby isn't used everyday.

Thought of a banger, but had driven a Puma before and she always wanted one. Got an absolute bargain of a late Y plate 1.7 with 21000, all the toys for £7600 and although it clearly doesn't have impressive straight line speed, the handling and weight of all the controls is incredible.

Far more fun around a roundabout than the Scooby with 17s, Eibachs, bumpsteer etc.

Could actually be a license saver as you can have real fun at sensible speeds. Everything seems right, tyre size, weight and feel of steering and brakes and you can thrash it hard for 1/2 hour and the fuel gauge doesn't move!

Well impressed.


[Edited by john banks - 1/28/2003 7:56:28 PM]

Dark Blue Mark

Ive been in one and I was impressed. Looks a bit odd, and high up, but when the driver hit the pedal, the response was instant. It kept going faster too!

Very nippy. How much is a racing one?

MB

john banks

The bargain is the run of the mill 1.7, Racing is not good for the road I gather too firm.

catflap

Hay john, you wana get one of them westys for fun, they are suposed to be ace, some funny looking rear wheel drive car withought a roof or something

apparently there is a vid of some nutter around the ring infront of a R1.....NUTTER

SiDHEaD

My mom has the 1.7l version its pretty good, but if you are tall expect to smack your head when looking to turn out of junctions/reverse. The roof arcs in at a funny angle.

I also think they can look a bit high on their suspension.

The racing puma's are cool - wide and squat! Will outbrake a modern Porsche apparently. Prices, i'd expect around 12k for a decent one these days.

Andy

davy1

Agree with John.I had one before the scoob,"and no Im not a hairdresser"excellent handling,better than the scoob in some instances,especially after putting the 17s on.

juan

A mate had a racing puma for a short while.
Did look nice I admit but trim / seats etc. were falling to pieces pretty quickly.

They might stop well but not too much go to start with

Scotsman

iTrader: (3)

Really loved the Puma when I had a 1.7 for 12 months when they first came out.

Bit disappointed when my wife went for a 206 CC 2.0 instead of a second hand Puma which would only have cost half what the 206 did.

Handling is excellent, power just right for the car and it had the best steering feel. Lovely machine.

JonW

Ahh, happy memories... the ex and i test drove a 1.7 when she was looking at cars. I found it slow but reasonable fun, she hated it. funniest thing was 6ft 5in or so tubby salesman crammed in the back at an angle with stooped head procliaming in salesman banter 'its really quite roomy back...'. lol.

in the end she got an MX5 Jsaper Conran 1.8i...

smanning

how on earth did u find a Y plate 1.7 for 7600??????

CraigH

If you want Puma style handling with the lowest possible runnnig costs get a Ka.

You may look a little gay driving it tho

Midmotorsteve

aren't they just a tarts fiesta?

The Zohan

Just got rid of our 1.7 99 T reg with 60K for £ 6000.00 which is nice!

Great cars, one if the finest handling FWD cars i have ever driven and wil miss ours but just not big enough!

Sheepsplitter

Well, what do you expect from a car that had it's chassis fine tuned by Jackie Stewart?

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I drive one too and they are superb fun and cheap to run On the lanes they will keep up with most things Lift off oversteer is a joy in these

Paul

Tom D

nice cars, but a statement such as best handling fwd car cannot be used, this title belongs to the honda accord type r

and errr no...i aint got a type r...unfortunately!

M3_chaz

My sis has a 1.7 Puma, she's had it for the last 4 years, its a great little car. I had it for 2 weeks when I sold my old car. I liked it so much I bought a Racing Puma. They are a bit hard but they just eat smooth B/A roads.

Fuel consumption is out of this world. I get around 32MPG, I got 24mpg from my standard UK scoob, on the norm and that is not hanging around. The only thing that is wrong with it is the lack of room as they realy are only a 2+2 at best, even then the only thing that my back seat only gets used for throwing jackets/Bcase on. Anyone looking for a good fun car that will not brake the bank should realy have a look at either the standard 1.7 or the Racing which has just a little bit more go. The Racing is a very differant car though in many ways as I'm sure anyone who has driven both will agree.

Scotsman

iTrader: (3)

The space in the back was very limited - agree that it's more a 2*2. I'm 6'4" and found lots of space in the front and a good driving position. If someone else was in the front of the car (apart from my wife - who's slim and 5'4") it did seem very 'snug'!

Great sound system as well.

CataIunya

Yeah I had one of the 1.7 97 Pumas before I traded it in for £6k againts the Cat really fun cars to drive, handling on these cars is superb but the suspension is quite stiff on the normal 1.7s....Chose it over an FTO actually because it felt quicker cheaper to run and insure and looked pretty cool....Melina Blue was the best colour. Could have done with rear disk brakes tho but stopping was excellent to be fair.Got rave reports from everybody who drove one.

Steve vRS

Enjoyed mine!

Steve

Sparky1066

The Puma is a Fiesta with a different body, the chassis is the same.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

Yeah but the running gear, suspension, steering is different And there is nothing wrong with the fiestas handling either

Paul

rik1471

Surely the best handling FWD car is an Integra type R, not the Accord type R???

john banks

We used to have a 98S Fiesta 1.4 Zetec which did handle well, but the Puma is definitely a significant step forwards and also the engine is considerably better. Feels a lot quicker than it is though. Our Peugeot 406 gets from 0-100 in the time the Puma takes to go from 60-100, and the Scooby as modified can get to 100 in just over a third of the time the Puma takes! But the Puma is more fun on the right road. At the grand old age of 28 I am learning that there is more to life than raw power.... then I woke up

M3_chaz

funny that john I tell myself that their is more to life than power as well. I still dont believe it either.

Ru$$Rip

The 1.7s arre sh**e in first gear , they have a torque limiter that unless you are on a rolling start make it impossible to get away quick. I stuck a KN 57i kit on the wifes puma and this improved it no end. Nice fun cars but at 6ft 3 it was a struggle for me to fit in.