You need a passenger ride in mine... 0-100 in around 9 seconds and 150 eight seconds later (and 175 another eight seconds after that) is plenty of soul (although I hear your point, hence why mine goes round corners fairly well too....)

Has anyone offered the original poster a go in their turbo?!

Some borderline ludicrous posts pj - well done!

Owned a 16V N/A for several years. Can say the same of my 328bhp turbo plus which I still own now.
Off boost the turbo pulls like any other sedate car and is perfectly driveable in city traffic. The N/A always felt woefully underpowered. An observation made the first time I drove it, before I'd ever been in a turbo coupe.

Reliability at least in part comes down to care and maintenance. My plus has never left me stranded anywhere or even failed to start. It's very well looked after and yet most significant costs have been through choice rather than necessity.

I recall the 16V N/A had better steering feel but let's keep a sensible perspective on this, that's the only thing it did better and even then the difference is somewhere between mild and moderate, certainly not extreme. Driving my N/A hard gave the sense of total vehicular domination, great fun but easy to find *my* limit. Maybe takes a bit more time to get the same confidence pushing extremely hard in a 20VT but exactly as Nigel says that comes with high speed thrills aplenty. The 'point and squirt' mentioned here stems from the need to come back down from silly speeds the turbo piles on in seconds, but having that extra power doesn't preclude carrying speed round a bend or applying throttle in a controlled manner.

IMO the 20VT (especially when modified) is more likely to have talents that exceed those of its driver. On that basis I submit that it's more rewarding for a 'spirited' drive.

As a lot of you do Spa every year, are there any comparative lap times available?

Relax, Phil... it's only a car!

Life would be boring if we all liked the same things.

I like my 20V. I have had it from new and know that it still performs very much in the same ballpark as when it was new. It has only done 50k sympathetic miles and is still pretty tight. Performance-wise a good one should still be in modern warm-hatch territory, so I would not describe them as underpowered - just not really that fast.

Comparing it with the performance of the model with 50% more power is futile. A standard 20VT is in another league. the 20V takes about 10 seconds longer to get to 100 mph than the 20VT - huge difference. But that does not make the non-blown car a bad car. If it suits, just enjoy it. I like the feel of the car and enjoy driving it. That is why I still have it. Really fast cars are over the speed limit before you know what has happened and driving them quickly may be a bit too easy so we take more pleasure in being able to drive a slower car fast. It is more challenging. It does not make the slower car a better car. A fast car makes picking of slower moving traffic easy but 90% of the time, that is what you need, so having that performance in hand is no bad thing.

The other thing to put into perspective is that coupes don't have that much grip compared to modern machinery. Limits are lower and they need a more sensitive hand to drive fast, which adds to the fun when you are up for it but is a bit frustrating when you would rather the car would just do as it was told!

the na is a better all round car, its the original coupe, its the king, the rest are just pretenders. Hehehee I love a good debate especially when im right.

your just so wrong but you only hear your own voice !

watch out when it starts to tell you to start killing people

Point totaly missed sorry.
If this thread was about speed I would get it, its not.

oh dear

Well actually, the thread started exactly with an interest in speed. THe OP asked what he was missing on the acceleration front. It has morphed into a handling/character discussion, and to be perfectly honest, the Coupe is no benchmark in the handling discipline! And we are more than likely comparing cars far from their original condition that any comparison is very fuzzy.

You are trying to tell everybody that the 16V provides a better driving experience. This is very subjective. For you OK, for me, I don't know because I have never driven one and it is too long ago that I drove a 20VT. Acceleration is a part of the enjoyment of driving so the lack of it is hard to make up with refined handing, and on that front, the coupe is no Porsche or Lotus, etc.

No car has soul in straight lines.

the na is a better all round car, its the original coupe, its the king, the rest are just pretenders. Hehehee I love a good debate especially when I'm utterly wrong.

NA is a better driving experience for me in MY educated, experienced opinion for me as a driver.

I own a 20V and have done for the last 18 years, from new. I was one of those that paid good money for a FIAT Coupe. I like it. I have no problem with that.

I drove a 20VT 18 years ago. I would be stupid to say I can really remember the fine details and differences. The performance difference was huge though and I still remember the ease with which it could join an Autobahn and effortlessly slot into de-restricted traffic. I could have bought either but I did not want the extra complexity of the turbos. I have never driven a 16V or a 16VT. I don't see why you are insulted by my memory being only average.

I asked the question about differences out of interest. If I knew the difference for myself, I would have been a pointless question.

I know nothing about the Nissan Prius. I didn't even know they existed, so I doubt I can contribute much on that front, unless I make it up, which is not my style.

You are actually more likely to find me at the other end of the spectrum on the Jaguar XKR forum, if it is of any relevance to FIAT Coupes.

Enjoy your driving

Well I would say your wrong, im a professional driver, police trained, also track experienced and control trained at the Transport Research Laboratory in Crowthorne London.
If you had read this thread properly rather than just jumping in with an opinion you would have known.
Its ok I can forgive your ignorance.
You are forgiven.
There are 3 types of driver.
1 - trained
2 - untrained
3 - thinks there trained
Which are you

As far as I'm concerned, the only advantage of a 16v N/A is that when you drop a tool in the engine bay, it'll always reach the ground....

You would say that. LOL
I have read this thread properly thanks. I'm am not ignorant either but if that's your opinion you are entitled to it.
Seeing as you asked I am also a trained driver, though not by the police. Not that it makes any difference!
Just because you have been trained by the police doesn't mean you are a better driver than anybody else on here, so please stop banging on about it.

Well, that *used* to be the case, but then I restored the undertray...

Gentlemen, noting that humour is not always apparent in written words without facial context, might I request please that we try and keep the insults and the winding up down a little?

The McDonald's driving school doesn't count.

Well, that *used* to be the case, but then I restored the undertray...

Gentlemen, noting that humour is not always apparent in written words without facial context, might I request please that we try and keep the insults and the winding up down a little?

Topical aside, I dropped a cam cover bolt into the bowels of my 20vt engine bay once, then because my hands were so cold, dropped my telescopic magnet tool down there too...